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Advice and Trust [NGE]

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Duff Timmons said:
Yeah, even I feel creeped out when I talk about whose best girl on this show. In the end though, they're all S rank for me personally. Key word being personally, don't lynch me.
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As I have said, there is a reason all three girls are featured in Instrumentality. It's symbolic, but they are pretty much the entire range of Shinji's experience of women. And they're all important to him.

Back in the world of reality, of course, there is the complication that Misato's too old to consider a relationship with him anything but illegal, and Rei is a clone of his mother, so Asuka's pretty much the only one that doesn't open a can of worms. But NGE isn't really a romance. A&T IS, but that wasn't really the goal of the canon.

And Happy Birthday Stryp. I would say I'm older than you, but actually I felt I was old when I turned 40 too. Maybe I feel 45 is the "old" line, but you can sure feel it creeping up on you. :D

I haven't yet gotten to "ancient", but maybe sometime in my 60's...

BTW, "old" when you start realizing how many things "young people" weren't old enough to see when it first came out. Like NGE. Or Star Wars.
 
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AlanMidnight said:
As I have said, there is a reason all three girls are featured in Instrumentality. It's symbolic, but they are pretty much the entire range of Shinji's experience of women. And they're all important to him.
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Which says something about Shinji's life and the series when you take into account what you have said below and what i say in response to that.
Back in the world of reality, of course, there is the complication that Misato's too old to consider a relationship with him anything but illegal, and Rei is a clone of his mother, so Asuka's pretty much the only one that doesn't open a can of worms. But NGE isn't really a romance. A&T IS, but that wasn't really the goal of the canon.
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Actually Asuka has a can of worms in the form of her issues. Issues which are so sever that the only end to them is when they make her self-destruct. Heck, even A&T Asuka has this problem, as shown with when she got fired from being a pilot. While she is better then she was her issues still can leaver her paralyzed when they hit her.
That's not even going into the fact Rei is the origin of all life on the planet. Surely there's got to be something she can do to fix that.
BTW, "old" when you start realizing how many things "young people" weren't old enough to see when it first came out. Like NGE. Or Star Wars.
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Dude i had that feeling when i was in my 20. A friend of my sister once drew a picture and the three of us said it looked like Amy from Sailor Moon. My little sister, who is a few years younger then me, asked "what's Sailor Moon?". Everyone knew about Sailor Moon when it was playing on daytime television, it was on daytime television for crying out load.
 
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Fate/Online said:
Dude i had that feeling when i was in my 20. A friend of my sister once drew a picture and the three of us said it looked like Amy from Sailor Moon. My little sister, who is a few years younger then me, asked
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Brings to mind an old reddit comment. It was on the RWBY sub, a piece of fanart making the old "give me a hand" joke about Yang(with Yang actually handing over her prosthetic). One of the comments was "Toy Story called, they want their joke back". Someone else responded with a YT link to the scene in question from Toy Story, with the comment "For those too young to know about this."

That one hit me.
 
TheDarkFreak said:
One of the comments was "Toy Story called, they want their joke back". Someone else responded with a YT link to the scene in question from Toy Story, with the comment "For those too young to know about this."
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Toy Story isn't even that old though :confused: it came out the same year as Neon Genesis Evangelion, so...

Well that gave me an idea :V
~

"Kaworu, what the fuck happened to us now?!"

He looked down at himself, and furrowed his nonexistent brow. "It appears we are toys."

"And not just." Bemused Rei.

Indeed, all four of them were now action figure sized Evangelion toys. "Damn it, why am I a doll?!"

"Could be worse." Dully remarked Shinji, struggling to walk due to the lack of articulation in the Unit-01 figure he had become. "We aren't those fanservice figures like we saw in the markets."

"I still can't believe that's a market here." Asuka as Unit-02 muttered, trying to fold her arms. "But I guess that's a good thing; at least I can't be objectified like this."

"We are literally objects, Asuka." Unit-00 flatly remarked.

"Okay, sexual objectification." A clarification. "Can't imagine people getting turned on by an Evangelion, at least."

"In this country, we cannot know for sure." Mused Kaworu, also as Unit-02.

Which Shinji only just noticed. "...Well that's gonna confuse me."

"Oh why'd you guys get stuck as the cool toys?!"

Misato hopped in, lacking any sort of articulation due to being one of those fanservice figures derided earlier. "At least I look good in this swimsuit."

"Reset." The Israfel Special synchronised.

Kaworu as Unit-02, in lieu of snapping fingers, clapped his arms together. "I would have not complained if you were wearing something like that, Rei."

"You deliberately waited to say that, did y-
~

Another world, another Yen. "Okay, back to normal a-"

Rei promptly threw Kaworu into a nearby tree.
~

:V
 
After mulling it over, I have calculated the odds and victory conditions for the key players at this point in A&T. I did so using a top of the line computer to handle all the difficult number chrunching.

Here are the players and their odds.


Main player(s): Gendo Ikari

Victory Condition:Achieve Third impact by using Rei as a catalyst.

Odds: 0%

Notes: Out the gate, and he's already doomed for failure. Never mind the coup being formed under his nose or the fact that all the pilots were turned against him. The mere fact that he requires Rei to willingly become God AND willingly pass godhood to him means that he has no chance.

Main Player(s):SEELE and their flunkies

Victory Condition: Begin third impact, using Eva 01.

Odds: 55%

Notes: These dudes have great influence over the military and its connections. Making any sustained war difficult since you'd be literally facing the world. That said, they achieved this power through lies and deceit, thus were the lie to be revealed a lot of damage would happen.

Main Player(s): Shinji, Asuka, Rei, Kaworu, and NERV

Victory Condition: Destroy the last fragment of Adam.

Odds: 45%

Note: While they group intends to prevent Third impact, Neither Seele or Gendp would attempt while Kaworu still lives. Thus killing the Adam piece in Gendo's arm would buy NERV time to prepare for the Jap military and properly reveal SEELE. Despite the seemingly easy task, they have lower odds because of how much the deck was stacked against them.

Through the power of science I have determined the future with 0.001% accuracy.
 
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Comedy Omake #155 - Chronicles With Portals 3
  • Apocrypha
    • Notspecialdude said:
    The computer in question
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    Hey look, it's the computer I used to record the footage for this :V

    It's time for your weekly dose of SCIENCE! New Chronicles!

    Two souls have an unlikely discussion, Asuka inadvertently references a meme, and we finish off Portal 2!

    PLAYBACK FILE: REC003_MELCHIOR.2:3_060218

    A good bit of research was always great at distracting Misato. And boy, was there a lot she could look into.

    On her Powerbook, she brought up the file of one Randall Vogel. Relatively recent addition to NERV-Berlin, having joined after the shift from Gehirn to NERV.

    Though certainly with a... colourful history. Similar to Carmen, actually. "Christ, if I knew the guys at Berlin were this..."

    Rapidly shaking her head, as she realised they were probably not much better. "Guess that's just a NERV thing."

    At least Carmen had some physical history, having served in intelligence before her current tenure at NERV. Randall, meanwhile, was practically an unknown. University education from the 80s and his own tenure at NERV notwithstanding, there was practically no information the Magi could dig up on him.

    The one thing the Magi could get was that he was apparently a notorious womaniser. To which she just rolled her eyes.

    Though speaking of womanisers, Kaji popped into her office. "Was something going on with the Magi today? The meeting was really choppy for me."

    "...Ehhh maybe." She made a note to tell Ritsuko about that, next time they met.

    She was also hoping that note saved in her mind, as Kaji sauntered behind her, wrapping arms around. "Ah, research."

    "Just seeing who I left the kids with, Ryoji."

    A huff. "Preferably, that would've been done before you sent them away."

    "Yeah, well it was organised quickly and I just assumed NERV staff would've been sane."

    Kaji offered her a flat look.

    "Yeah, big mistake on my part, I know."

    "So are you going to tell your charges about that?"

    "I was planning on telling them tomorrow. After I looked into it more." A small huff. "Probably would've helped if that book just stuck around for a bit."

    He laughed. "I guess sometimes the Gods are funny like that, eh?"

    "Still, how could it even happen, anyway?" Querying. "If Randall is Ritsuko's father, that means either he went to Japan or Naoko went to Germany in the 80s. And they would've had to have hooked up in that time."

    "Which would have had to result in Ritsuko." He thought further. "The 80s were a wild time, from what I've heard."

    "Yeah, I'm sure if you were born a decade or so earlier, you would've had a lot of fun."

    A huff. "Still, you know how we were like in college. Who's to say Naoko wasn't like that, either?"

    "Might just be me, but I don't really find it pleasing to think of the mother of my close friend like that."

    "I think it's a rather interesting thought, no? You said Ritsuko never knew about her father; her mother never brought it up, and she never asked about it. We can't ask Naoko about it, obviously."

    "All a puzzle, ain't it. And we're missing most of the pieces."

    "Well... perhaps if you can find a few DNA samples, you can do a paternity test." Suggested the agent.

    "And where would we find the DNA of Naoko, who died eight years ago?"

    "The Magi would surely have a profile of her. Being the base of the cores of the Magi, after all."

    "Rits, then?"

    I imagine her profile is there as well, but if not it'll be easy enough to acquire some, I imagine."

    "What of Randall?"

    A small smirk. "You know when we were interrupted with news Fourier was caught?"

    "How's... wait, was she Carmen?"

    "She's in Ops for a reason, Misato."

    "...Man she really gets around, then."

    "Oh she did."

    A flat look, before she pulled on his tie. "Well if you're lucky..." As she navigated on her terminal. "Ah, they're currently in Terminal. You might be able to sneak your way into their lab and get some DNA, before they come back."

    "And I'm guessing before you geld me for suggesting such thing."

    "Eeyup."

    "Welp, that's all the incentive I need."

    And so he soon left.

    Much to her giggling, as she returned to her terminal. "Might as well see if I can find her mother, then."
    ~

    Speaking of mothers, the mothers of Shinji and Asuka had retired for the night, the both of them settled into their slumber. And holding one another, as they would. A good comfort for both of them.

    Of course, surface appearances can often be deceiving.

    A river flowed.

    It was always strange, when she ended up in this place. It only happened in her sleep, and yet this was not a     dream of hers. And she would always wake up tired, whenever it happened. She could only suspect it was a side effect of her close interaction with the Evangelion, and yet she did not know if her other was experiencing this same thing.

    The surroundings were one thing. But the     memories were another.

    Often, she found herself just sitting still, lest she triggered something within this strange realm that would only serve to make her upset.

    So... there she stayed. Until she woke up from this.

    "...Fancy seeing     y-you here."

    Turning sharply to this voice, she saw     another.

    Her burgundy hair stood out against the pale skin. Golden eyes looking upon the elder in sympathy, as she set herself down next to them. "I didn't t-think     you were a Neph... Nephilim as well."

    "I'm... not?"

    The burgundy Nephilim hummed a thought. "Your p-presence here is even     more of an... outlier, then."

    "How so?"

    "Even for a     Nephilim, it uses e-energy. My... host was generous e-enough to allow me to use their... resources to visit. Helps keep me o-occupied, at least."

    Yui continued her scan. "Do... we     know each other?"

    The Nephilim chuckled. "You would've     s-seen me, though I was in n-no state for interaction, back when we... first met." She soon offered a warm smile, though. "I can always show y-you, at least."

    Yui craned her head.

    Using her one arm, she got herself up, offering said arm to Yui to offer herself up.

    "B-but, if I     move from here..."

    "Are you s-seeing what happened?"

    Nodding.

    "Yeah. T-that's a thing, here." She softly tutored. "Be careful with your steps, and f-for God's sake don't     r-run."

    She kicked up the regolith.

    Yui and Kyoko squeezed in the back, Annette in between them. "So... are you sticking around for a bit, Aunt Yui?"

    A small nod. "Yeah. There's... still quite a bit to catch up on, isn't there. Especially with you." A warm smile.

    "Because t-that is how this realm works." She continued, as the look into the past ended. "They... are not memories."

    "...This is     time, isn't it?"

    Nodding. "My h-host calls it the astral plane. I liked rivers of t-time, myself. I... spent a l-lot of time here, if you didn't gather that."

    She offered her arm again. "Do you w-want to come with me? I... can guide you, if you wish."

    The elder thought for a short while.

    Before taking the arm.

    "Thatta g-girl." As she helped lift her up. "Would've been a bit easier if I s-still had my other arm."

    It was only now she noticed how the Nephilim's right arm was just     gone, her stumbling back onto her back.

    Softly giggling, as Yui's imagination went wild. "That does sound entertaining."

    "And they did it all for a grand prize of 100 Euro; 10000 or so Yen. 'The cost of a brand new Trabant', they called it." Another soft laugh. "And who says us Germans can't have fun."

    "Well, I'm certainly not saying it."

    "Oh it's not that b-bad." The Nephilim rolled her eyes, offering said arm again.

    Which Yui took, getting herself up a     second time. "It's just..."

    "Most people have t-two arms, yeah." She chuckled, taking all this in her stride. "You get u-used to it, believe it or not."

    Yui decided to take her word for it, and so they walked. The Nephilim making sure the mother watched her step.

    Soon enough, however, they were where they were going. "So... you want to know w-who I am."

    She kicked up the regolith.

    "Look, do you want to be rescued or not? I'm burning through a lot of energy doing this and I think Makinami's close to fading away."

    "She's Mari Makinami?!" An exclamation from Asuka and Shinji, as everyone else sans Rei looked perplexed at the significance.

    "...how the hell does everyone except me know what's supposedly my identity?"

    "A question for the philosophers. Maybe we should ask them when we get out."

    The reminiscence faded.

    "...Heh. Little d-did I know, that was one of my...     last memories."

    "...Mari."

    She nodded.

    "How are you... I thought you were     dead."

    "Still am, t-technically. That's... one of the t-things about the     soul. You... persist. As I have."

    Yui connected something in her mind. "I     know, I... hosted another soul."

    Mari sharply inhaled. "That did not... last."

    "...No, I was... too weak."

    The Nephilim's one hand held one of Yui's. "I... don't know     w-who this other soul was. But... you shouldn't b-blame yourself. Even for N-Nephilim, supporting other souls is... intensive. It says a lot about y-you, that you were able to give them safe harbour for even a day."

    The elder seemed to gather something from her outburst. "You... talk about a host. You're one of them, aren't you?"

    A small nod. "Gone and y-yet still here... heaven within s-someone else." She softly philosophised, sitting herself down and prompting Yui to do the same. "The fact you p-provided the same thing...     despite lacking the resources. That says a lot about y-yourself."

    There was a small silence.

    "...Thanks, Mari."

    She smiled. "Happy to h-help." As she stretched her arm. "I'm... not too busy m-most of the time, if you hadn't gathered, so... if you find yourself here again. I'll be s-sure to give you some company."

    Yui couldn't help but feel touched. "I... appreciate it."

    Another small silence.

    "Well, I introduced     m-myself." With a small huff of amusement. "I'm s-sure it's still common courtesy in... Japan to return the favour."

    A huff. "It is."

    And so these two souls, both of them     remarkably different in almost every way, talked through the night. Keeping one another company.
    ~

    The sun creeped through the window, and the eyes of Yui Ikari fluttered open.

    A... rested Yui, she noticed.

    Her other stirred with the sun. "Did... you sleep well? You were stirring again."

    "Yeah." A small chuckle, as she nuzzled herself closer to Kyoko. "Nothing like some... company to comfort the soul."

    The candle softly sighed. "That's... one of the reasons I'm here, Yui." Her hand drifting. "Can't say I can know what goes on in that head of yours, but... hopefully I can help outside there."

    Yui turned herself around, and pecked the lips of her other. "You do."

    Kyoko couldn't help but feel surprised at this sudden affection, a blush creeping up.

    Much to Yui's great amusement. "I like how that of all things got you flustered."
    ~


    Another day, another Rift Material to cover.

    Only this time around, Ritsuko had informed the facility that the Magi were to be 'maintained' in the time they were meant to play. Hopefully that means they could get a bit more breathing room, resource wise.

    The door opened. "And I said 'Oatmeal? Are you craz-'"

    Kyoko couldn't finish her story, the Subcommander and her Kohai softly chuckling at their small talk. "Hopefully you lot weren't waiting too long."

    "We haven't even gotten outta our uniform." Toji mentioned.

    "You barely wear uniform anyway, Toj." Lightly chastised Hikari.

    "Not that you mind, outside of Class Rep mode."

    Rolling her eyes with a smile.

    "So do you guys think we'll get through this in one sitting?"

    "I hope so, Zero Two." Muttered Misato. "I got a lot of angry emails about the Magi being out of commission."

    "You got a lot of emails?" Ritsuko incredulously remarked.

    "Wow, you're really putting out all the stops to play a video game, Subcommander." Prodded Kensuke.

    "Not that you should complain, Kensuke." Sayaka elbowed his side. "Being able to play video games on company time."

    "And maybe if he's lucky, " Started Zero Two, "There'll be a lot more."

    "I know I wouldn't complain." Smirked Hiro. "Has there been progress into co-op?"

    VIDEO START (00:00)

    "We want to optimise Portal 2 for our world, first of all." Mused Ritsuko, loading her terminal. "Since we can't run one instance of it without damn near maxing out the Magi."

    "Hopefully the small optimisations we have done would help." Maya hoped. "Though even with optimisations, we'll either need to emulate an appropriate network, or connect controllers to it."

    "Split screen is suffering." Muttered Kyoko. "It's a good thing Ken has plenty of spare computers, it's easy enough just to connect them all together and just play."

    "I would think just connecting a few more controllers to a console is easy enough." Toji thought.

    "I mean, they have a point." Admitted Maya. "You try playing four player splitscreen on a Nintendo 64, it'll chug almost as hard as the Magi do playing this game."

    Ritsuko rolled her eyes, as she started Portal 2 up once more. Though this time with a lot more of the Magi's resources available to them, on dint of them not being used. "Alright, give it a minute or so." As she swapped out with Kensuke, taking her seat next to Maya, diligently monitoring the Magi.

    And so, after even more concerning alerts, the game started.
    ~~~
    PLAYBACK FILE: REC003_MELCHIOR.2:3_060218

    Character Key:
    Misato (Mi) Ritsuko (R) Maya (Ma)
    Hikari (Hik) Toji (T)
    Kensuke (Ke) Kyoko (Ky) Sayaka (S)
    Zero Two (Z) Hiro (Hir)

    (01:00)

    "That still creeps me out." Sayaka thought aloud, as the valve man turned his head.

    Soon enough, the menu loaded. "Well, I guess that means it remembers where we were."

    "Good thing too, cause we didn't save." Thought Maya.

    "Even if it didn't save, it was right at the start of a new chapter." Kensuke pointed out. "Maybe we would've had to have seen Glados complaining about being a potato again."

    "Good job, by the way." Kyoko sarcastically jabbed.

    "Yeah, probably not the best decision to put that core in charge of everything."

    "Oh well." Kensuke shrugged, as he continued the game. "Live and learn."

    "Doesn't help that was the only option, eh?"

    "Either the core that'll certainly kill you, or a core that'll end up killing you through sheer incompetence."

    "Not great options, eh Hikari?"

    "I suppose the next chapters will be how we get the hell out of this mess."

    "Maybe if we stay deep enough, the nuclear explosion won't reach that far down."

    "That's probably our best option, Ken."
    ~

    Bottom of the Well (02:15)
    A crow took potato!Glados away, and Chell got up.
    Kensuke looked around. "Okay, taking stock. We're currently 4500 or so metres down."
    R: "That's pretty much as deep as Terminal is."
    Hik: "And I doubt we can stay down here, anyway. Unless we want Wheatley to destroy the facility."
    S: "Is that his name?"
    Hik: "I think it is; he said it during his breakdown."
    Ky: "Even his name sounds stupid!"
    Z: "Either way, I doubt we're going back up the way we came."
    Mi: "But at least you guys get to explore old Aperture now!"
    Hir: "And see if they were always completely insane."
    Ma: "They were the ones who designed Glados, after all."
    With nothing much to look at now, Kensuke walked onwards, continuing to take in the surroundings. "It is pretty eery now here, admittedly."
    T: "As one would expect, being that far down."
    Ritsuko furrowed her brow. "And yet there's still power, this far down."
    Ma: "How is the infrastructure still operating? Surely this would be decades abandoned at this point!"
    Ky: "Might convenient for Ken, at least."
    He used his portals on the illuminated walls, pushing his way further into the deep. "No wonder they have massive power requirements."
    Z: "Do they just have limitless energy or something?"
    Mi: "It's Aperture, it wouldn't surprise me."
    ... (03:50)
    He pushed further. "Alright, this is starting to look a bit promising." As he continued looking.
    Ma: "So what do you think we'll find here? Since it seems the core infrastructure is still intact."
    T: "It's Aperture. Only the Gods know that."
    S: "I don't even think they know."
    Hir: "...Tartaros 09?"
    R: "That's certainly a forbidding name."
    Z: "What even is Tartaros?"
    R: "Hell."
    Z: "Ah. Yeah I'd say that was an apt description for this place."
    Ky: "Especially if Aperture's involved."
    Not like Kensuke could go anywhere else, so he jumped down and walked the path.
    Passing several signs. "I wonder what they're trying to say." Deadpanned Misato.
    Hik: "They were testing this far back?"
    T: "What do the signs say?"
    Kensuke went up to read. "Condemned 15 June 1961."
    Mass exhales of disbelief. "Jesus Christ they've been around for a while."
    R: "And this was when it was condemned. In all likelihood, they were using it for decades before they did such thing."
    S: "I'm guessing we'll have to engage in conversation with the substances beyond this point."
    Ma: "Wouldn't be a game without it."
    He looked to another sign. "Spallation?"
    R: "When a nucleus breaks up into constituents, basically fission."
    Ke: "So they're basically saying we might interact with Gamma radiation."
    R: "Yep."
    A flat look on Kensuke's face. "Wouldn't be Aperture without deadly radiation."

    Vitrified (04:40)
    None of the signs giving too much else away, Kensuke began probing for a way to bypass the barrier.
    T: "Well that's convenient." As the camera panned towards an illuminated wall.
    S: "So we know to use that."
    Mi: "It's just where the other portal goes."
    Probing further. "There's a gap there, but I don't see any portal surfaces."
    Hik: "See if there's anything above you."
    Glancing up, he found another illuminated wall. "Ah, thanks Hikari."
    From there, it was easy enough to get beyond the wall.
    Ky: "You probably could've just jumped down from there, Ken."
    Ke: "Probably." He shrugged.
    Ma: "They even have floodlights down here."
    Z: "I wonder if Glados even knew there was this much energy being used."
    R: "She probably didn't care, which says a lot about Aperture's power infrastructure. This were us, we would've cut all power as soon as it was condemned."
    Hir: "Aperture has massive inefficiency, certainly wouldn't be the first time."
    Kensuke dropped further into the condemned facility, passing yet more keep out signs.
    T: "The signs ain't working well, are they?"
    Ma: "Why'd they even put up those signs if they were just gonna block it off?"
    Mi: "You might as well be sure."
    R: "If one sign wasn't enough to stop someone curious, extra signs won't."
    Ke: "Hell, it'd only encourage them. There's obviously something there."

    Vault (05:40)
    He walked through the darkness, towards the catwalk.
    And finding a breaker.
    T: "What the hell is that?"
    Ky: "Flip the breaker and find out!"
    On their and the game's behest, Kensuke flipped the switch.
    And the floodlights illuminated.
    Mi: "What the hell is that?"
    R: "It's a door. Probably a pressure sealed vault door."
    S: "That seems a bit extreme, doesn't it?"
    Ma: "Kinda worrying what is in there, if they go to this length."
    Ke: "Knowing Aperture, it's probably some mantis men or something."
    Hik: "Wouldn't even surprise me."
    Z: "So are we opening it?"
    Ke: "Of course we are!"
    So they walked to the control rooms, still in awe at the sheer size of the vault.
    Hir: "Well we can't use the catwalks."
    Ky: "A good thing they painted the walls in portal conductor."
    He took tome time to read more decals. "Same date it was condemned."
    R: "In all likelihood, it has never been opened since then."
    Mi: "That would've been around when our mothers were born, eh Rits?"
    S: "I can't wait to see what horrors await us." She flatly remarked, as Kensuke portalled to one of the control rooms.
    ... (06:45)
    Z: "So I assume you just hit that?"
    He clicked the button, and a timer counted down to zero.
    R: "It looks like a dual system. Two people need to hit both buttons within four seconds."
    Ma: "Actually kind of a reasonable security system, I'd think. Not one person can open it."
    Hik: "Unless they have a portal gun."
    He took the suggestion, setting up his portals.
    T: "Hold up, is that a new sign?"
    Kensuke moved the portal to see it.
    Ky: "Oh great, it could flood down here?"
    Mi: "It's kinda amazing water hasn't swamped the facility, honestly."
    Hir: "Considering how much time has passed."
    He reset his portal. "Alright, let's crack this baby open!"
    Chell hit both buttons, beginning the opening process as Kensuke repositioned themselves closer to the door.
    Ma: "They've really overdone the door, though."
    R: "I find it amazing that one hinge can hold such a massive door."
    Mi: "They probably made it out of fiberglass or something stupid."
    Ke: "Or asbestos."
    The lights illuminated the contents of the vault, as Kensuke was just about there.
    And they all burst into hysterics when they realised this massive vault door simply blocked another, more reasonably sized door. "Oh for God's sake, that really is over the top!"
    T: "I mean, it's kinda reasonable. Don't need a completely gaping hole, don't ya?"
    Ma: "What's even the point of that chair there, then?"
    R: "Security guard, maybe."
    Hik: "What, just in case someone opened this vault door without permission?"
    S: "It's not even a fancy door, that's like a fire exit!"
    Kensuke went through said fire door. "Well, let's see what was so worth the sealing."

    Old Aperture (08:25)
    Kensuke opened the door to old Aperture.
    Mi: "Ah so there is water."
    Ky: "Death water, at that."
    Z: "I wouldn't lean on the rails if I were you."
    As he walked the catwalks, he panned over several dilapidated symbols. "So we know it's at least half a century since the last time this place has been maintained."
    R: "We have no perspective on time. We just know a lot of it has passed."
    T: "Even the fact this hasn't completely caved in says something about how Aperture builds stuff."
    Hik: "And there's still power down here."
    Ma: "Maybe they figured out how to mass produce S2's."
    Ke: "That or they have more nuclear reactors than the world has."
    S: "I'm assuming you'll have to get to those platforms somehow."
    Ke: "Wouldn't surprise me, but for now I'm just trying to get somewhere." He mused, as he continued walking around.
    R: "We know this goes back to 1952, at least."
    Mi: "That's way before our folks were born, wasn't it?"
    T: "That broken door is where we need to go."
    Ky: "Pretty obvious, ain't it." As he placed his blue portal. "Lemme see what that light has to offer, at least."
    Z: "We're kinda like moths, aren't we?"
    S: "It helps that's what they used to show us where to go."
    Said light showed nothing but a locked door. "Well that went nowhere."
    Walking further into the darkness didn't reveal too much as well, so he just portalled to where he was meant to go.

    Cave (09:55)
    They found yet another breaker.
    T: "Wonder what this will bring."
    Kensuke read the sign. "Looks like just about everything."
    R: "I'm amazed they even have breakers for all that."
    Ky: "Looks like we'll still be testing." Flat.
    Mi: "Wouldn't be Portal without it."
    And so he flipped the switch.
    The suave voice of a man filled the room.
    S: "Damn, they actually had a pedigree?"
    Ma: "I wonder if they all changed their minds as soon as they realised Aperture was insane?"
    Alongside the voice of a woman.
    Z: "It's good to hear that guy had someone, at least."
    As the atom in the Aperture logo fell out, the man introduced himself and his secretary.
    Hik: "Oh wow he does have Johnson in his name."
    R: "Told you so."
    Hir: "I wouldn't think Cave was exactly common."
    Ma: "I think Caroline's a nice name, though. Has the same sorta ring Eliza does."
    Mi: "Sounds like they have a Sempai-Kohai relationship like you two do, eh?" She chuckled. "And you can bet since it was the 50s that they were probably doing it on his desk or something."
    R: "You're as bad as they are, Misato." She was flat. "Not like you're any better with your quote unquote secretary."
    Ky: "Ah, looks like the adults can be just as lewd as we can be!"
    Ritsuko simply sighed.
    ... (10:55)
    Ke: "So we're gonna have to get up there, I imagine." Aiming towards the raised catwalk.
    S: "I doubt they'll let you go up that elevator."
    T: "A good thing the walls are painted with portal paint."
    Looking around a bit more, portal high up on his left. "I doubt this'll get me somewhere, but I haven't seen anything else yet."
    Indeed, he didn't have enough velocity to reach the catwalk with his first attempt.
    R: "They would give you somewhere up high."
    Z: "Be like a moth or something."
    Kensuke glanced around more and found a light, high up. "Ah, should've seen that earlier."
    Z: "Oh wow we really do need to be a moth."
    He got himself up, and immediately fell back down.
    Ky: "Probably could've controlled that a bit more, Ken."
    Ke: "Yeah I know."
    This time around, he landed. "Alright, now to see whether I can reach that catwalk."
    He dropped down, missing it.
    Hik: "Well that was a bust."
    Mi: "Hey Kensuke? What're the chances you can fly through that Aperture logo?"
    Kensuke thought about it, as he got himself back up high, picturing what Misato suggested. "Y'know, that's probably what they wanted you to do."
    S: "As I said, it won't be that easy to get out of here."
    Portals down, he dropped. Flying through the air like an eagle piloting a blimp.
    R: "Good suggestion, Misato."
    Ke: "Well, I suppose it'd be more entertaining to go through the rest of the facility." As he looked towards the main shaft elevator, so far away.

    Lounge (12:30)
    So he entered the lounge.
    The recording of Cave Johnson played out, as Kensuke explored the offices. "Look at those old terminals!"
    Ma: "Are they terminals? They look like typewriters."
    R: "This was back in the 50s. Odds are, they are typewriters."
    T: "I kinda gathered those messages of his were prerecorded."
    Ky: "He'd probably be dead a hundred times over, at this point."
    Hik: "I'm kinda astonished all this furniture survived."
    Mi: "You can tell this was furnished in the 50s."
    They found a painting of this Cave Johnson.
    S: "He doesn't look too bad."
    Ke: "He's kinda dashing, as they'd probably say back then."
    Z: "And they didn't even bother to move the awards when they abandoned this place?"
    Cave kept talking about the tests coming up, as Kensuke looked over the awards. "47... 55..."
    Ma: "I suppose we know what state they're based in, now."
    Ky: "Why the hell is there a shower curtain award?"
    Kensuke would've looked at the shower curtain award, until Cave Johnson mentioned praying mantis DNA injections. "...Shit it might actually be mantis men."
    Kyoko barked a laugh at this unintended clairvoyance. "They really were fucking insane back then!"
    R: "More like Cave Johnson is the insane one. He's the one who started Aperture."
    The shock from mantis men now gone, Kensuke went back to looking at the various awards Aperture were awarded in days gone by.
    Ky: "They started in shower curtains!?"
    Mi: "How the hell do you get from shower curtains to mantis men!"
    Hir: "And whatever that repulsion gel is."
    And yet a few more awards. "Looks like they were better than Black Mesa, once upon a time."
    S: "That sure didn't last."
    At least until he looked as a certificate with a giant number 2.
    S: "...Or maybe they always played second fiddle."
    Now to the newspaper.
    Hik: "Oh no wonder Aperture goes so deep, it started in a damn mine!"
    R: "How much money did he have?"
    Ma: "And all from shower curtains."
    Mi: "I guarantee he was misappropriating money somehow."
    He gave one last look at Cave, before looking around the furnishings some more. "They even have ashtrays everywhere."
    R: "Some things don't change, at least."

    Elevator Shaft (14:00)
    They finally left the lounge. "Going up, I imagine."
    Ke: "Up is good; gets us closer to Weetabix or whatever his name was."
    Hik: "Wheatley."
    They got to the elevator. "I doubt we need an attendant to hit a damn button."
    T: "Glados certainly thought so." As Kensuke went up. "Though I guess that button was a bit different."
    R: "And it ended up putting that core in charge of the facility."
    Z: "Maybe we did need training to do such thing."
    It finally got up, Kensuke laying eyes on a sign.
    S: "I'm sure we'll keep that in mind."
    Hir: "You might have to end up falling down the elevator shaft."
    Mi: "And you think that's a clue of some sort?"
    Hiro shrugged. "Could be."
    Kensuke looked around, zooming on the prompt. "Okay, there were lights to my left, that... is a pipe of some sort."
    Following said pipe, he found a door leading to pump station Alpha. "Ah, that's where we need to go, I assume."
    Ky: "Which now I'm assuming you can use those lights to the left to fling yourself."
    Probing further. "Sure looks like it." As he went to look at the catwalks.
    ... (15:00)
    Kensuke noticed a few switches next to the vitrified doors. "...Hold on, can you click those buttons next to the doors?"
    R: "Might as well check."
    He clicked the first one, and the voice of Cave Johnson came to life.
    Ma: "They're pointing superconductors at you."
    Mi: "I gotta remember that line, throwing science at the wall and seeing what sticks."
    R: "Might as well be my life." She muttered.
    Ky: "Oh but at least they'll cut out our tumours!"
    S: "But now I'm really curious as to what the others say."
    T: "More how screwed up it'll be, I imagine."
    They listened to the second speaker.
    Hik: "Well that's a bit disgusting to think about." She shuddered.
    Z: "And it lasts a week as well?"
    Hir: "I don't even want to know how that happens."
    To the third.
    R: "How the fuck does that even work?!" Ritsuko shouted. "You can't just turn blood into petrol!"
    Ke: "Aperture sure as hell figured out a way."
    Mi: "I know petrol is a fossil fuel and it's finite and all that, but surely that's not the best way of making renewable fuel!"
    T: "Maybe that's why they said your piss may be cold. Could be antifreeze."
    Ky: "What, are they turning you into a car or something?"
    S: "I wouldn't even be surprised, in all honesty."
    R: "Kensuke, get back to testing so I can get that nonsense out of my head."
    Ke: "Aye aye." As he looked down.
    ... (16:00)
    Ke: "So we can't drop down there, unless we want to fall down into the water." He traced out the arc he was suppose to make.
    Z: "Is that light at the bottom of that elevator shaft?"
    Kensuke noticed it. "Well I be damned, looks like you were right, Hiro."
    Hir: "I mean, it was a bit of a suggestion, wasn't it."
    He made his way back to the shaft. "Can't get the elevator back down."
    Ma: "It probably has multiple spaces."
    They went down a flight.
    Revealling a gaping hole all the way down. "Thanks, Ibuki."
    T: "That will give you the momentum required."
    Blue portal on the angled surface, he jumped down, placing and passing through the orange portal and flying onto the catwalk leading to pump station Alpha. "Nice!"
    Mi: "That went rather well."
    S: "Now let's see what this station has to offer."

    Pump Station Alpha (16:55)
    They entered.
    Hir: "It looks like you need to go through there to go up, anyway."
    Hik: "A good thing we are going through there."
    Into the main room.
    Ky: "Oh they actually care about allergens?"
    Kensuke looked over the list.
    Ma: "I mean, I imagine just about everyone is allergic to anti-matter."
    R: "That's certainly a way to describe how anti-matter reacts to matter."
    Z: "Which is?"
    R: "Complete annihilation of both matter and anti-matter."
    Zero Two blinked. "Huh. I mean, you could call that an allergy."
    T: "I find it kinda concerning out of all the animals they could use to describe animal dander, they use a monkey."
    S: "You know America sent monkeys to space before they sent humans, right?"
    R: "Chimpanzees, actually."
    Sayaka shrugged.
    Ke: "I wonder how pollen gets down here anyway." As he moved to the next posters. "Both of these just seem like common sense, at least."
    R: "Other than the fact if you know they smell good, it's already too late."
    Mi: "The fact they even have to mention that."
    Finally, they got to the main control panel. "Welp, time to flip the breaker again."
    Which he did, a decades old pump spun to life.
    Ky: "And that still works, as well!"
    T: "I wonder what they're even pumping."
    Hir: "Probably that gel Cave mentioned earlier."
    Hik: "That's probably composed entirely of asbestos."
    Ke: "Wouldn't even surprise me." As he portalled upwards. "Sounds like we have another fun thing to deal with, at least." His eyes caught a safety poster.
    R: "Once again, the fact they even have to make posters like that!"
    Mi: "I know we don't exactly follow OHS, but at least our personal don't get injured to that extent!"
    R: "We haven't even had an injury outside of our Evangelion pilots since the Seele Incursion."
    T: "I like how you have to clarify they're exempt." Flat.
    Hik: "And you might get to join in, Toj!"
    A flat look to his girlfriend, as Kensuke began navigating to the elevator, over a pipe, Cave explaining Aperture's relative independence from everyone else. "Wow, they had Emancipation Grills back then, as well?"
    Ma: "They don't even look too different, eh?"
    And so the elevator went up.

    Enrichment Sphere 01 (18:50)
    The lights lit, and Cave's voice filled the room. "We got a long way up." Mused Kyoko.
    Hik: "It's good to hear we actually get the gel and not the blue paint."
    T: "Ya might get out of here with your legs intact."
    R: "Sounds like they didn't invent the long fall boots, back then."
    Mi: "But at least they got science out of it!"
    Kensuke took in the surroundings, as he walked up. "I'm assuming that blue stuff up there is the repulsion gel."
    Hir: "Blue pump, makes sense."
    Eyes laid on a sign. "Jeez, was that how big the portal gun was back then?"
    Z: "Can't deny they certainly reduced the size, eh?"
    Ma: "Even fitting all that into there would've been a miracle."
    Ma: "It's much more useful in the form you have, eh Ken?"
    Ke: "Got a lot more mobility, that's for sure."
    They entered the chamber, and they found another sign describing the repulsion gel.
    Which they all read, and all immediately furrowed their brows. "Oh my God you were meant to eat that?"
    Ma: "Slightly less non-toxic. So... toxic?"
    R: "It's basically fiberglass. They wanted you to eat fucking fiberglass."
    Hir: "And the food would just... bounce out?"
    Mi: "I wonder why it was recalled." She muttered.
    Ke: "But... it sounds like that's what they meant by repulsion gel. You can bounce on it."
    ... (20:00)
    And so he jumped into the repulsion gel covered pit. Bounding over.
    Kensuke giggled. "That's awesome!"
    He bounced back into the pit, bounding around like a pronking pink pony.
    Kyoko couldn't help but chuckle at Kensuke's amusement. "It's very easy to entertain you sometimes, Ken."
    S: "I mean, it is pretty cool." Like Kyoko, she couldn't help but smile.
    T: "So what, you can just paint surfaces with that stuff and use it as a springboard?"
    Z: "Sure looks like it."
    Ke: "Man I could just bounce on this all day!"
    R: "There is still testing to be done."
    Ma: "And I'm sure the following tests will use it extensively."
    Kensuke finally portalled himself up. "So that button opens the door."
    Hik: "Meaning you'll need a cube. Maybe that button on the other side."
    Ke: "...Ah, maybe your velocity is reflected, as well."
    He tested this empirically, bouncing over to the platform. "Now that's cool."
    Clicking the small button, the cube dropped down onto the gel. "Woa that bounces on the gel as well?!"
    Mi: "Heh, he's getting excited again."
    Kensuke immediately threw the cube back into the pit, laughing at how it bounced around like it was the most amusing thing he's seen.
    Which, in all honesty, it was.
    T: "Shit, I'm finding it kinda amusing as well, Commander."
    Ke: "Ah I'm sure I'll get bored of it eventually." As he threw it back into the pit, still giggling. "Maybe."
    R: "Kensuke."
    Ke: "Okay, okay." A small sigh, as he grabbed the cube and bought it through the portal.
    Before throwing it from the height. Much to Ritsuko's flat stare. "Sorry! Couldn't help myself."
    She sighed, as they were watching the cube bounce around. Ritsuko found it somewhat disconcerting that everyone was enraptured watching this cube bounce around.
    Mi: "It is pretty cool, admittedly."
    R: "Are video games really in such a horrid state nowadays?"
    Ke: "Yep."
    The cube eventually came to a stop. "Alright, I'll solve it."
    He bounced to the exit with the cube. "Button's on the other side, Ken."
    Ke: "I knew that."
    ... (22:00)
    He bounced back, placing the cube on the button, and bounding to the exit.
    R: "Yeah, I probably would've suggested that to Cave as well."
    Ma: "I imagine telling them that would've concerned them some."
    Ky: "Not Chell, of course."
    Z: "You've seen her tenacity, right?"
    Mi: "Sounds like Cave has this sort of tenacity as well."
    T: "He has another point as well. He's funded it."
    Ke: "Sounds like he didn't fire them, at least." As he got himself up to another platform. "Man it's kinda annoying when you don't know where to go."
    Hik: "And then you double think yourself."
    Which Kensuke did exactly, going to one end of the path before going the exact opposite.
    Only to find a small office. "And then you realise you were going the right way!"
    Much to the amusement of everyone, as he did the walk of shame back the right way. "Yep, that's the same with me as well."
    S: "Practically all of us, at this point."

    Bounce (22:55)
    Passing an Emancipation Grill, Cave spoke once more. Kensuke was able to tune it out as he looked around the chamber, not so much the others.
    Ky: "Can I say old Aperture was even more insane than new Aperture?"
    R: "You can."
    S: "How can you imbue a chair with radiation?"
    Ma: "Make it out of plutonium, perhaps."
    Z: "At least they're trying to heal those tumours of yours. At least I think they are."
    Ke: "That, or he's making Chell into a mantis girl." As he barely missed an unstationary scaffold. "Damn it!"
    It was easy enough to correct this mistake and acquire the cube, at least.
    T: "I can't believe Glados is the more conservative one."
    Hir: "She would've gotten it from somewhere."
    Ke: "And onto the button."
    A panel flipped.
    Mi: "So after all this, Chell is gonna be a tumour riddled mess with petrol for blood."
    Hik: "Maybe if she's lucky, all that stuff stopped working in the many years."
    Kensuke jumped from the high panel, onto an equally high platform. "Hang on, I can bounce on the walls?!" As he unintentionally stepped on the button, remembering it for future use.
    Ky: "Well, at least you're having fun, Ken."
    S: "Can't say the same for Chell, knowing all that stuff is going on."
    His first attempt fell flat. "Well I'm sure it would be fun if I got it."
    R: "You came really close to falling down that pit."
    Ke: "I would've bounced myself against the wall if that happened." Muttering, as he bounced up and around like he were a ball.
    Much to his and the other's amusement. "Sounds like there's a bit of a cue with that gel, as well." Noted Maya.
    Mi: "Maybe to make it appear more magical or something."
    Hik: "That's probably just the asbestos or something."
    Misato snorted, as Kensuke acquired the cube and bounced right on back. "Probably would've been faster if you walked."
    Ky: "That's less fun, though."
    Ke: "Yeah!"
    ... (24:50)
    Amazingly not flinging himself and the cube into the Emancipation Grill, cube was placed on button.
    Z: "Now just one more bounce, from the looks of it."
    Bounce down, and bounce up, and they reached the exit. "Man that gel's amazing!" Exclaimed Kensuke.
    Speaking of gel, Cave gave a small piece of advice about the gel.
    Ky: "Oh that's some fucking great advice right there!"
    Hik: "How do you not know what element it is?"
    Ma: "We found something which element we're still trying to identify."
    T: "You didn't find repulsion gel, didn't you?"
    R: "I hope not, if it's that reactive to the human skeleton."
    S: "Well, we'll know if you turn into a puddle, Subcommander."
    Ke: "So Chell will be riddled with tumours, her blood is entirely replaced with petrol, and her skeleton is gonna melt."
    Z: "That's a lot more than Glados was ever gonna do to her!"
    Hir: "And Aperture still attracted war heroes and astronauts."
    Mi: "A part of me honestly doubts that lasted. You'd have to be desperate or insane to participate in whatever hell Aperture had planned."
    Ky: "You could say Chell was both."
    Ke: "That, and she doesn't have a choice." As he made it to the elevator. "Which I suppose you could lump into desperate."
    R: "And if she is as mentally impaired as Wheatbox suggested."
    Hik: "Wheatley."

    Enrichment Sphere 02 (25:55)
    The second sphere was entered, Cave giving another fun fact.
    Ky: "I'm gonna say you guys jinxed that by mentioning asbestos a lot."
    R: "It's not even surprising, back in that day. Asbestos is pretty much a miracle insulator."
    Hik: "The only problem with asbestos is if you breath it in, you get mesothelioma."
    Ma: "That's a pretty big problem, admittedly."
    Mi: "I'm kinda surprised he even knew about the problems of asbestos back in the 50s."
    S: "Oh but it's all fine, Cave says we might be dead before then anyway!"
    Ke: "We probably are dead before then." As he dropped down, navigating over broken metal.
    Z: "What even is mesowhatever?"
    R: "Cancer of the tissue that covers organs."
    T: "Just the fact it's cancer is concern enough."
    Hir: "I'm assuming you'll have to go up, Kensuke."
    Ke: "And there's probably no stairs for it, eh." As he looked up, finding a stray light. "Is that..."
    The portal landed. "Yep."
    Orange portal down, moving up to the top, it was trivial to enter the next test. "Wow that was easy."
    Ky: "Ya even got Cave to complement you."
    Hik: "Obviously he expected people to do that. These are prerecorded, after all."
    R: "Can't say the same thing for that invalid, unfortunately."
    Mi: "...I mean, I can see how expensive it could be but you have to do it, don't you?"
    Ke: "A part of me doubts Aperture is friendly to any disability." As he started the test.
    ... (27:25)
    The small button was clicked, and a glob of repulsion gel fell down, flying through the portals that Kensuke had set down.
    His jaw dropped. "You can control it?!"
    R: "Oh boy."
    Ky: "Try not to melt your skeleton, Ken."
    He was immediately splattered.
    T: "Well it's been nice knowing you."
    Z: "He's not melting, at least."
    Mi: "That is pretty cool, admittedly."
    S: "So what's the deal with this chamber?"
    Ke: "Eh? Oh yeah." As he looked around. "Grills around there..."
    Probing his jumping.
    Hik: "You'd probably need to jump up those smaller platforms there, they seem about the right height for the gel."
    He portalled up there.
    Hik: "Or you could do that." She shrugged.
    Hir: "He's already covered in that stuff, can't get any worse for him."
    Ke: "So now I should be able to get up there..."
    Bounding across the gap.
    T: "Yeah, but how are you gonna get through that grill?"
    He bounded back, realising and probing a bit further. "Probably more of that stuff... Yeah I can't shoot past that Emancipation Grill."
    On the surface of the platform, he placed a portal. The gel flew up and flew back down, splattering on it on account of Kensuke moving the portal.
    The player couldn't help but chuckle. "That works."
    Once more he intended to bounce over, only to hit a stray glob of repulsion gel and completely whiff the jump. "OH COME ON!"
    Much to everyone's amusement.
    ... (28:45)
    Failing to jump back up, he put down some more gel.
    Which he still failed. "Man you really need to make sure you get some momentum before you hit the gel."
    R: "So the gel perfectly repels your momentum."
    Ma: "Pretty fascinating, isn't it?"
    Hik: "That sounds like a bit of a violation of momentum. Any action has an equal and opposite reaction or something?"
    T: "It's got the opposite."
    R: "Odds are, it has the equal, as well. Maybe the fiberglass is good at absorbing the force."
    Ky: "Is it usually decent at that?"
    R: "More so than most materials, it's glass fibre reinforced plastic after all."
    Z: "Oh that's why you found it concerning they ate it!"
    S: "It's a very good reaction, isn't it."
    He finally made his way through the first Emancipation Grill.
    Hir: "I imagine there's a way to fling that gel over."
    Kensuke probed the chamber some more. "That's probably what they want."
    Mi: "Can gel go through an Emancipation Grill intact?"
    R: "It is an authorised material, I imagine. At least through those Emancipation Grills."
    He tested this empirically.
    Hik: "So did that go through, or-"
    A glob of gel flew through the grill, impacting the floor close to a pair of orange arrows.
    Hik: "Guess that answers that question."
    Ky: "Should just be a matter of jumping over that gap now, Ken."
    S: "You think he can clear that gap?"
    Ky: "1000 Yen says he can."
    S: "You're just trying to get your Yen back, aren't you?"
    Kyoko poked her tongue.
    Meanwhile, Kensuke was thinking. "...I reckon I'll need momentum, though."
    He fell from the raised platform, flinging himself through the Emancipation Grill and rebounding off the repulsion gel.
    And like that, the chamber was done.
    S: "... Wow, I didn't even see that."
    Ky: "Almost worth money, ain't it?"
    Rolling her eyes and handing Kyoko her 1000 Yen note, as Cave went on about coffee. "If anything, I should be giving this to Kensuke."
    R: "They put what in the coffee?!"
    T: "It's a damn good thing we didn't drink any of the coffee there, eh?"
    Hik: "A good thing it's all nonexistent."
    Mi: "It probably vitrified or something."
    Once more shocked at the sheer violation of every single safety standard in existence, Kensuke made his way to the elevator. "Cave goes on about all this, my mind's gonna turn to stone anyway."

    Enrichment Sphere 03 (30:35)
    Hik: "So what violations of basic human rights will we get today?"
    Ky: "Well we got the gel, so that's already a violation of your skeleton."
    Cave spoke once more, his words aimed at control group Kepler-7.
    Mi: "They had microchips back then?"
    R: "The size of a fucking postcard. Though fair enough, that would have been considered micro back in the late 50s."
    Ma: "They weren't even really a thing until the early 60s, at least not in mass produced form."
    T: "I don't think my head's the size of a postcard."
    Z: "And why the hell would it run that hot if it's in your brain? That'd cook you!"
    Ke: "Remember, this is America. They use a different temperature system.
    R: "500 degrees Fahrenheit is 260 degrees Celsius."
    Ke: "Oh. Yeah you still have a point, Zero Two."
    Hir: "They probably should've gotten that out long before." He muttered.
    Ma: "You really don't want wetware to get hot. And hot in this case means anything above 37 degrees."
    S: "At least Chell doesn't have a damn postcard embedded in her brain. She already has to deal with the melting skeleton and the tumours and the genes latching themselves onto the tumours and petrol for blood."
    Mi: "And God help her if she drank any of the coffee."
    ... (31:00)
    Concerns out of the way, Kensuke finally made his way to the chamber. "What that gel?"
    Ky: "I think it's just water, Ken."
    R: "Knowing Aperture, it's just as dangerous as the gel is."
    Hik: "Yeah, it's probably loaded with lead or something."
    To test this, he bathed in it.
    T: "Y'know, that's probably the first shower Chell has had in ages."
    Mi: "That water's probably older than she is, though."
    Ma: "Is the gel soluble?"
    Ke: "I would assume; the water is there for a reason." Testing this, he tried launching the repulsion gel into the stream of water.
    S: "Is it really that easy to get rid of?"
    R: "I wouldn't call fiberglass soluble, myself."
    Hir: "I suppose the first thing would be to get that button, Kensuke."
    Ke: "Working on that now." As he painted the ground with the gel.
    Hik: "Might not need that much gel, Kensuke."
    His first bounce failed to hit the mark, but the second did. "Now what did that do..."
    The water stopped. "...Oh."
    His mind rushed as he knew what to do, perhaps rushing too hard as he placed the wrong portal down. "Nooooo don't start up again!"
    He managed to get the gel down, and to bounce up to the exit. With around two seconds to spare.
    Ky: "Ya did it again, Ken."
    Ke: "Yeah I know, sorry for giving anyone a heart attack." Scratching the back of his head, before going for the exit.
    ... (32:05)
    Cave started talking again, as Kensuke looked around.
    R: "Only trace amounts?"
    T: "What even counts as a trace amount of time travel? That seems like a pretty big deal no matter what!"
    Ke: "It's Aperture." He deadpanned.
    Ky: "It's even got an appropriately Aperture side effect."
    Mi: "Only the destruction of everything!"
    Z: "Well, I guess you should do what he says, eh?"
    Hir: "That's probably what that poster says, as well."
    The player noticed this, going to read.
    Ma: "I dunno, I think if something bad enough happened that a me from the future came back and said don't do that, I'd probably listen."
    S: "But then time goes down the drain."
    Ke: "Well, I'm just gonna paint the walls and hope I don't wipe out time, then." As he did just that. "Well, the ones on the top go nowhere."
    T: "What about that angled one?"
    Portal down. "Well, we got paint on the wall now."
    Hik: "...Hey, do you reckon you can rebound off that?"
    A hum of curiosity, before he jumped through the portal. "I'd need more momentum."
    Ky: "Well it's a good thing you got portal surfaces up high then, Ken."
    He looked up. "Oh yeah!"
    Portalling up, blue portal on the angled surface and placing the orange portal as he dropped, he rebounded off the gel and flew through an Emancipation Grill. "Nice one, guys!"
    ... (33:10)
    S: "Now where are we?"
    Ke: "The roof of the chamber, obviously." As he wandered over to the gel tube, and snickered. "You can still tell it's a video game."
    Ma: "Or maybe Aperture made it so the gel just pops into existence."
    Hik: "I'm guessing you're gonna have to make it to an elevator of some sort."
    T: "That's how the rest of the chambers work."
    Ever curious, Kensuke focused on a sign instead.
    R: "How delightfully macabre."
    Ky: "I like how they care more for the damn company as well!"
    Mi: "You'd think they were Japanese." She deprecated.
    Z: "I doubt companies here mention skirting police."
    Ma: "It'd depend on their ties."
    Hir: "At least they say it because they want to progress science."
    R: "It's a better motive than most criminal work, admittedly."
    Ke: "Speaking of, back to the testing." As he looked down onto white painted surfaces, probing a few possibilities.
    T: "Can you get that gel, maybe?"
    Ke: "I think that's what they want, though Gods know how I'll get it."
    Hik: "Wasn't there a hole into the chamber?"
    Now curious, he looked back. "Well I be damned, looks like you're right Hikari."
    She couldn't help but smirk.
    S: "Now it's just a matter of painting the walls blue until we figure out what to do."
    Kensuke chuckled, doing just that. "I don't think anything that low will work for me, if I need to get to that elevator up there."
    He finally placed a portal down on the more elevated surface, the gel dropping through it and painting an angled surface. "...Ohh I think I have an idea!"
    Getting said angled surface painted completely, he dropped down and through a portal he placed, acquiring sufficient velocity to rebound off the gel and onto a catwalk. "Yes!"
    Ky: "Nice one, Ken!"
    S: "Good one!"
    Kensuke couldn't help but smile, as he almost went the wrong way. "Ah that wasn't too much."

    Blue Cube (34:50)
    He got up to the upper catwalk, and into the next chamber. But not before listening to Cave almost chastising him for taking his time on the catwalks.
    Mi: "Maybe if they actually maintained this place."
    R: "To be fair on Cave, he's most likely been dead for decades now."
    Ma: "He's certainly got a... way of tacking this sort of mental stress."
    Hik: "It's a good thing you guys didn't deal with me like that."
    T: "Yeah, they just left you to me." He huffed.
    Mi: "Not that you should complain."
    Ky: "It worked for your pilots, didn't it."
    Kensuke probed the chamber as Cave continued going on about namby pamby mental problems. "Tells you a lot about the 50s, at least. So this controls an elevator."
    Z: "How're you gonna get that cube out of there, though?"
    S: "...Can you paint the cube with the blue gel? Since it looked like you could at least bathe it in it."
    Ke: "...Hmm."
    He allowed gel to flow in and hit the cube.
    Which immediately started bouncing around, shattering the glass and bouncing around the test chamber.
    Kensuke was giddy. "Ahahah! That's so cool!"
    Ky: "It even sounds like a damn basketball!"
    He caught it. "Oh man there's so much I wanna do with this!"
    Kensuke threw the bouncy cube onto a raised platform, which promptly bounced at an angle and bounced on Chell's head.
    Which everyone found entertaining. "Jeez that is pretty cool." Admitted Toji.
    R: "I suppose teens are just easy to amuse."
    Mi: "I find it amusing, Rits."
    R: "You practically have the mind of a teen anyway, Misato."
    Chasing it around for a lot longer, he finally caught it. "So I know you gotta throw it in the water in order to get it cleaned and that, but I wanna see if I can bounce it in the water."
    His attempt failed, breaking more glass as it rebounded off elsewhere. "Come back!"
    He caught it, and tried again. Which also failed, even getting stuck between the vent and a wall. "Damn it!"
    Third try, which did hit the vent but failed to clean the cube. "Oh come on that hit it!" As he vainly hit the E key several times, it bouncing completely opposite him.
    Ma: "I think you need to hold it, Kensuke."
    Because Kensuke was stubborn as a mule, he still tried throwing it in there.
    R: "Kensuke."
    Ke: "Alright, alright." Holding the cube, it was finally cleaned. "That's still cool, though."
    ... (32:35)
    The cleaned cube finally hit the button, bringing the elevator down. "Now to get up there."
    Hir: "A simple application of the gel, I believe."
    Kensuke placed his orange portal down. "Uhh..."
    Blue portal went down, which only served to cycle the blue gel between them. "Ah damn it all!"
    Z: "My darling said a simple application of the gel."
    He managed to get up on the platform, at least."
    Ky: "Still worked."
    T: "Though now, it's getting that cube off the button."
    Ma: "The gel managed to get the cube moving before. Could just apply the same principle."
    Getting his portals down, it only took two attempts and accidentally placing the wrong portal to get the cube off.
    S: "It can even trigger the button while bouncing!"
    Hik: "Course, if you stick around and watch that cube for longer, the Subcommander might tear your head off."
    R: "Oh I'm not that excessive."
    Cave talked about the why's and why nots.
    Mi: "What was it we said about him not firing people?"
    Ma: "I probably wouldn't mind marrying safe science."
    S: "Is that meant to be a euphemism for the Subcommander or something?"
    A small pause before Maya illuminated red. "...Not exactly, not that I'd mind that either."
    Only adding to her embarrassment, Ritsuko took this moment to peck her on the cheek. "...Aaaaaa-"
    R: "You're adorable sometimes, Maya."
    Ky: "Wow, never thought I'd see you two affectionate in front of us."
    The Subcommander smirked. "We are usually a lot more private about it."
    Z: "Having someone to call your own is really nice, eh?"
    T: "Sounds like we all have experience in that department."
    Warm smiles all around, as the elevator went up.

    Pump Station Beta (38:20)
    Cave congratulated them on a job well done. "Well thanks, I guess." Misato mused.
    Ky: "The simple fact we're there means we survived."
    T: "It's Aperture, that's well worth the congratulations."
    Kensuke panned the camera over to a distant installation. "Oh great, we're going into the seventies next."
    R: "Still before us."
    Ma: "Before your folks, even. At least as adults." As Kensuke looked down.
    S: "Man that goes down a lot, doesn't it?"
    Z: "You probably went up a good kilometre, I imagine."
    Hik: "Least it gets the petrol pumping."
    Ke: "I might as well check where this goes, first of all."
    Hir: "Probably nowhere, even though there should be an elevator."
    Mi: "That probably snapped off its cables long ago."
    Ma: "Caroline's just precious, isn't she?"
    Ky: "The Kohai to Cave's Sempai."
    Mi: "You probably see a bit of yourself in her, eh Maya?"
    Ma: "Ehh a bit, admittedly." Scratching the back of her head. "Sempai's not insane, though."
    R: "At least to that extent."
    Mi: "We know of a Ritsuko that was that insane, at least."
    Hik: "Not the Laserdiscs, I'm assuming."
    Mi: "Oh God no, it was another material that we lost."
    T: "You lost one of these materials."
    Mi: "Oi it wasn't our fault! If you looked at the security footage, it literally disappeared."
    Toji blinked. "Right, not gonna question that."
    Ke: "Yeah that was obvious." Kensuke muttered, looking over the empty elevator shaft.
    Z: "Oh it wasn't even a kilometre."
    Ky: "Well, let's have a look what the next pump station has to offer then!"
    ... (39:00)
    And after one last look at Cave Johnson, Kensuke began making his way to the next pump station. "So what Gods forsaken thing do you guys think this gel was used for, at least I'll assume it's another gel."
    S: "Probably started off as another dietary thing."
    Mi: "What, their first attempt wasn't enough for them?"
    R: "It wouldn't surprise me if it was recalled almost immediately."
    Chell portalled to the future of 1971.
    Z: "Still, I'm kinda curious as to what this gel would be. If the blue gel was bouncy."
    Ma: "And considering how much fun Kensuke had with that gel."
    Zooming in on the name of the station. "What kind of property would you associate with orange?"
    Hik: "I would say speed, but I wouldn't have associate blue with bouncy."
    Mi: "Maybe that is why. It's alliterative, in English."
    Either way, he entered. "Ah good! We still get to use the bouncy stuff!"
    T: "I'm sure you love that, Kensuke."
    Hir: "I imagine the switch for those are up."
    Ke: "In all likelihood." As he portalled up to the catwalks. "Oh Gods it's already starting to look like the seventies."
    S: "Gotta get higher, though."
    Ke: "Mhm." He tried placing another portal on a visible white panel, only to get blocked by the glass.
    A good thing he looked down. "...Ah!"
    Both portals down on the ground, he acquired momentum and started bobbing through the portals.
    Mi: "Good to see that's still the same."
    R: "Still gives you some vertigo?"
    Mi: "Yep."
    He flung himself to the control room. "Oh my God was that what the seventies looked like?"
    Ma: "Gaudy tiles, excessive wood trim? That's so seventies it's probably going to start playing disco music."
    Ke: "Even the computers look seventies! Paper terminals and tape drives!"
    R: "And regular terminals, as well."
    After a minor geekout, Kensuke hit both pump switches, starting said pumps.
    Which also had the side effect of opening the door to the disco era.
    Ky: "I hope no one here actually plays disco." She muttered.

    Swinging Seventies (40:35)
    The player looked around. "The seventies weren't this decrepit, I imagine."
    T: "Where the hell are we even meant to go?"
    Exploring a bit more, he noticed an elevator into another enrichment sphere. "Probably there, I assume."
    Z: "Which might mean that catwalk, if it's on a crane."
    S: "Even the logo looks like it was from the seventies!"
    Cave reintroduced himself.
    Ky: "Well he sounds a lot more caustic than usual." She muttered.
    Mi: "Sounds like they went through a few too many astronauts for the government's liking." Chuckling.
    Ma: "The fact it looks like they have to give monetary incentive to test nowadays."
    Ke: "And 60 dollars, at that. What's that, 60000 Yen or something?"
    Hik: "You'd get a good meal out of that, at least."
    R: "Recall this was the seventies. 60 dollars had a lot more buying power back then. Probably around 36000 modern Yen, throwing it at the wall."
    T: "That's not too bad, actually. It's more money than I'm earning right now."
    Ke: "Do you even have a job, Toji?"
    T: "I was gonna go for an apprenticeship at a mechanics, but if I'm gonna end up piloting Evangelion, might put that on hold."
    Ky: "Ya'd probably get more money as a pilot anyway."
    Hik: "I already earn enough money to be the breadwinner in our relationship anyway." A small smirk.
    Hir: "Sounds to me like this Black Mesa was not exactly honest."
    Ke: "I'm more surprised Black Mesa existed this far back."
    Ma: "And we know the heights they got too."
    Ke: "Ehhhh I wouldn't call it heights."
    R: "A good thing Caroline was able to keep him in line."
    Mi: "Even she sounded a bit more serious."
    T: "So even in the seventies, Aperture fell so far out of favour they have to pay people a significant amount to take these tests."
    Ky: "And bums, at that."
    S: "At least they got paid." She scoffed. "And twenty minutes in the waiting room!"
    Ke: "How the mighty have fallen." Muttering, as he looked around at the signs. "Yeah that platform's not moving without a switch of some sort."

    Lower Office (42:00)
    They entered the lower offices, catching sight of Cave Johnson as he was in the early 70s.
    T: "Jeez, he's looking a bit worse for wear."
    Mi: "I imagine all the shit Aperture had to deal with wouldn't be great for the health."
    Ma: "Good thing we don't have to go through all that."
    Misato snorted. "You got that right."
    Kensuke continued looking around this lower office. "Maybe he's starting to get affected by the stuff Aperture has done."
    Hik: "Can't imagine having petrol for blood is too healthy for the body."
    Z: "The skeleton is also a pretty important aspect."
    Ky: "All the science in the world and he still can't stop male pattern baldness."
    Another sign. "So basically, alert Aperture if you see anyone that could imprison anyone."
    Hir: "How would they even get that far to warrant signs?"
    R: "Obviously, they've had problems with this before. We remember that sign from the 60s; 'Investigations impede progress'."
    S: "I can get some of them, even the mine inspector I can understand, but what's a GAO?"
    R: "I believe it's America's Government Accountability Office, if I'm remembering correctly they basically audit what federal funds are used for. Basically our Board of Audit."
    Ma: "The fact they're even trying to skirt the government in the first place."
    After the prerequisite roasting of Aperture's policies, they entered the test subject waiting area. "This is looking a lot more bare, as well."
    Ke: "Looks like a lot of people went through here, judging by the tickets."
    Ky: "And look at what sixty dollars can get you!"
    Mi: "I mean, to someone homeless, that much money would be worth it."
    S: "Of course, saying you can buy a yacht with sixty dollars is kinda overstating it."
    Hik: "Even accounting for inflation."
    To the next poster, "Oh God that chest hair!"
    R: "It is the 70s, Kyoko."
    Guessing she didn't want to look at that much longer, Kensuke soon left the lower office.
    Z: "Looks like all those people were waiting."

    Upper Office (42:55)
    Now outside, it was time to determine just what to do.
    S: "The catwalks up there look like a good starting point."
    Ma: "Helps there's a light, there. They really do think we're moths."
    R: "What we're doing doesn't help their case."
    As the player got up. "We're gonna have to fly through the Aperture logo again, aren't we?"
    Ky: "Would they do that again, Ken?"
    Mi: "It does look like that's where we need to go."
    He quickly glanced around. "Don't see an appropriate slope here, at least." Before waltzing to the upper office.
    T: "Doesn't look like anything of note here."
    Hik: "Just computers and cabinets and that."
    Just as soon as he arrived, he was about to leave. At least until he saw a poster.
    Ky: "Jeez they even got prisoners to do the tests?"
    Mi: "At least then you wouldn't have to pay them, or at least as much."
    R: "If I was the government, I'd commute a lot of their sentence for participating in this."
    T: "Maybe they used condemned prisoners or something."
    Ke: "That's just outsourcing the state's job, at this point."
    Back to the upper catwalk. "So that was a bust, though..." He trailed off, his camera focusing on the middle office.
    His eyes were drawn to a softer light, zooming in. "...We haven't been there, have we?"
    Hir: "Wasn't the bottom or the top. Might be that."
    S: "Now it's just getting there."
    Hik: "Angled surface on your right."
    Ke: "Thank you."
    Portals down, he flung himself. "Well I almost missed that, but lets not talk about it."

    Staying Alive (43:55)
    He stepped in, and a familiar voice said hi.
    Mi: "Oh wow we found her?"
    The potato asked for something.
    To which they chuckled. "Ah now you need me, Glados?" Prodded Kensuke. "Should I?"
    Ky: "Nah."
    Kensuke went to leave.
    Glados started begging, which only made the crowd laugh harder.
    T: "D'ya reckon she'll keep up that end of the deal?"
    Hik: "I certainly don't think so."
    They would've left, but conveniently enough the door locked behind them.
    Despite Kensuke bashing himself against it.
    Maya huffed at this vain gesture. "I guess you have to rescue her."
    S: "What a shame."
    Ke: "Fine, I'll rescue the computer that tried to kill us."
    Z: "Looks like that's where the controls are, anyway."
    Ke: "How convenient for her."
    The crow flapped away.
    Hir: "Well she's certainly worried about what Wholegrain is doing."
    Hik: "Oh come on that isn't even wheat related!"
    Ky: "I think I'd honestly prefer sawing my head off to putting her back in charge."
    R: "It's either her or Wheatley. At least she can keep the lights on without blowing things up I can't believe I'm defending her."
    T: "It is also a pretty big solid, ain't it."
    Mi: "Because we all know Glados is the element of honesty."
    Ke: "Sounds like the potato actually helps her be honest, then."
    S: "That's the absolute minimum a core can run on, isn't it?"
    Mi: "Though she also has a point. Either way, we're dead. At least this way we might have a chance above zero of surviving."
    Ke: "Works for me."

    Reunion (45:25)
    The potato was stabbed onto the portal gun. "I guess that's a way of doing it."
    S: "Not like they have tape."
    Z: "Activated that thing, as well."
    Hik: "So the portal gun outputs energy as well?"
    R: "Probably as a function of what it does. A half volt is not much potential, though."
    Ma: "To someone like Glados, who was operating on the absolute minimum of 1.1 volts."
    Ky: "Now they're up to 1.6 volts, what an increase!"
    Ke: "She'd have breathing room, at least."
    Glados shut down.
    Hir: "Course, that still doesn't sound like a lot for operations."
    R: "Well, we see what happens when a core overloads their energy source."
    Ky: "I want to hope it stays that way, but she's probably our best way out of this mess in all honesty."
    As the crane finished lifting the platform up, Glados respringed.
    Ma: "Sounds like you were right, Sempai."
    R: "It makes sense. Glados still needs to be careful, even with half a volt more."
    Ke: "Considering you wouldn't even be able to run a lightbulb on 1.6 volts, it's a miracle she even functions."
    T: "It's a testament to Aperture's electrics, at least."
    Glados thought too hard about what Wheatley might do, and halted once more.
    T: "...At least when they ain't stressing."
    All the while, Kensuke had been setting up his next plan. "I reckon I can leap over to that platform now."
    Ky: "Well let's see if it works!"
    Readjusting his blue portal for more height, he dropped through and flung himself.
    Right into the door of the platform, stopping instantly.
    R: "Even with those boots, this weren't a video game that would've splattered you."
    Ke: "Good thing this is a game then, eh?"
    And so Chell and Glados entered the elevator. "It's a good thing she wasn't Emancipated, eh?"
    Ma: "She is an Aperture device. Makes sense she's allowed."
    ~~~
    Enrichment Sphere 04 (46:45)
    To Glados' question, Kensuke merely shook his head.
    By jiggling the mouse back and forth a bit. The gesture amused most people in the room, at least.
    Cave asked Kensuke to hurry up. "Oi I'm doing it!"
    What intrigued everyone, however, was Glados' reaction to Cave, and Caroline.
    Hir: "That is certainly interesting."
    Hik: "I'm calling it now. She is Caroline."
    T: "How would that even be possible?"
    R: "Our Magi are biocomputers, based off the personality of my mother. You could argue they are my mother."
    Ma: "And since we've already established Glados as being similar to the Magi, perhaps they use similar mechanisms, as well."
    Z: "So Glados never realised it, until now?"
    Ke: "But that would mean she was merely based off Caroline, like the Magi are based off your mother, Subcommander."
    R: "As I said, you could argue they were all my mother, if they are based off her."
    Ky: "Well, what I do know is this is all confusing me."
    Mi: "Kensuke better get to the testing before you fry your brain like Glados did."
    Rolling his eyes, Kensuke looked around, probing a button. "It's a... ramp?"
    S: "Do they expect you to speed across it, or something?"
    Ke: "...Hang on a minute."
    Clicking the button to dispense the orange gel, he ran over the surface it clung to.
    Several times. "It is speed gel! Oh this is sick!"
    Hik: "I was right?"
    Ky: "I bet you can make paths with that."
    Portals down, the button was pressed again. Conveniently painting said ramp. "Do you guys think that'll be enough?"
    Ma: "You can always put down another path, and use your portals."
    R: "There'll probably be a max speed you can reach on that gel, keep in mind."
    Laying another path. "Always good to be safe, Subcommander. Otherwise I'm falling into a bottomless pit."
    So he dropped down, readying himself.
    And he ran, jumping over the pit and landing in a corridor. "Nice one Ken!"
    ... (48:15)
    T: "Though now where are we?"
    Probing some more, finding a portal surface. "I bet I have to lay that paint down here." As he set down his portals and pathing what he was planning. "That way, I'll have enough speed to clear that gap."
    Ky: "After which I'm assuming there's a cube for that big button?"
    Hik: "You might wanna think about repositioning your portals, Kensuke."
    Ke: "Eh?" Before he caught sight of the gel vent. "Oh yeah, can't exactly get to the button like that." He quickly corrected himself. "Thanks for that."
    Now near the small button, he reset the orange portal above the gel vent and painted the hallway.
    S: "And now you should just be able to run."
    Mi: "I'd suggest jumping at the end of it, as well."
    He did both. "Alright, step 2 done. There's the cube."
    Ky: "Knew it."
    Cube acquired, he made his way back to the main chamber.
    Z: "That gel has a music cue as well, doesn't it?"
    Ma: "Bit more of an energetic one, isn't it?"
    Hir: "A contrast to the more bouncy cue of the blue gel."
    R: "That was deliberate, wasn't it."
    ... (49:25)
    Cube met button for the nth time, raising the ramp. "Almost there..."
    T: "I don't think ya need that other path, Kensuke."
    R: "As I said, there's a max speed you can acquire."
    Kensuke elected to use it anyway. "Over-preparation is better than under-preparation."
    He ran, and flew.
    And missed, Kyoko barking a laugh.
    Ke: "...Well that didn't go to plan."
    It was easy enough to find the path again, where his second attempt also failed. "Gah! What am I doing?"
    R: "Are you jumping, Kensuke?"
    Ke: "It's what I did before and it worked."
    R: "Try not. Perhaps jumping cancels some of your velocity."
    A hum of curiosity, before he attempted her idea.
    And of course, he got it first try.
    His face impacted the keyboard before getting back up. "Thanks."
    Ky: "And it's still not the end of it!"
    Z: "What's that sign say?"
    He read.
    S: "Man they really don't want you to touch the glass."
    Ma: "Do they have to clarify you need to wear a shirt and shoes at all times?"
    Mi: "Ah so no pants are fair game?"
    Hik: "It's a good thing Chell has shoes in this game."
    Ke: "She won't get kicked out, then." Wry, as he looked up at the button to the exit. "Ideas?"
    Hir: "They're expecting you to bound upward, aren't they?"
    T: "Now he just needs speed."
    Ky: "Good thing he's got plenty of speed gel then, eh?"
    Taking the hint, he decided to use this speed gel.
    Flying up, hitting the button, and flying right back through the portal. "Feh, of course."
    It took his third attempt to finally get through the portal.
    S: "Got it in the end, Kensuke."
    Ke: "At least." A huff. "It's pretty cool, that propulsion gel. Though I think I like the repulsion gel better."
    R: "You didn't play with this gel nearly as much." She noted.

    Outburst (50:50)
    Glados decided to keep her emotions in check, after her reboot.
    S: "I bet there's something behind that gate there."
    Ke: "Good to hear you're curious as well, Kyo." Portalling to there, and finding an office. "...Is that Caroline?"
    Glados certainly thought they looked familiar.
    Mi: "I dunno about you guys, but I'd put money on Hikari's suggestion."
    Hik: "That or something like the Magi, from the sounds of it."
    Ma: "We do know of a design that uses an actual person's mind as a computer, don't we?"
    R: "You think Glados could be like the Herod design?"
    Ma: "If anything, it'd explain her... emotion, let's go with that."
    Ky: "Ah, so Caroline was a yandere."
    T: "We're not meant to know what this Herod is, right?"
    R: "Yes."
    T: "Alright, I won't ask then."
    Other than the painting of Cave and Caroline, there was nothing much else of note within this office.
    And soon enough, Kensuke made it to the next test. "Righty, orange gel, portal surface on that pillar there..."
    Impulsively clicking a button, he was pleased to find out it there was blue gel as well.
    Z: "Ah we're combining the foodstuffs now!"
    Hir: "I imagine that is what you'll use to bounce over."
    Ke: "Probably. Though I'm not sure how..."
    A small pause for thought later, he placed a portal on the pillar. His other portal where the blue gel is dispensed, he clicked the button.
    Painting a stretch blue.
    Ky: "Reckon you need the other colour for that, Ken."
    Hik: "I think they want a combination of both."
    Portal now below the orange gel, he clicked the button.
    Painting the same stretch orange.
    It was only now he noticed another portal surface, directly above the edge of the platform. "Oh."
    The others couldn't help but snicker. "That's where the blue stuff comes out."
    Ke: "Shame I didn't realise it earlier." Muttering.
    ... (52:15)
    The edge of the orange was painted blue. "Now we should bounce to the other side."
    He tried it, and succeeded.
    Before grumbling as he realised that was not where the elevator was.
    Z: "So how are you gonna get there then?"
    Hik: "He hits that portal surface dead on, don't you?"
    Another thought, before he looked up, finding a portal surface before finding himself up.
    He immediately got distracted by a light, which ended up to be nothing.
    Mi: "I guess we are moths."
    Ky: "So there's no barrier there; you can fling yourself through that portal."
    R: "And as Hikari said previously."
    The player probed around, checking in his head whether this solution could work. "...Yeah, I reckon that'll work."
    Back to the orange and blue path, his portals now in place, he ran and jumped and flew all the way to the exit elevator. "Nice! Thanks guys!"
    Cave certainly thought so, as well.
    Ma: "Bit generous to call them that."
    T: "Probably an old recording."
    It ground to a halt, a 'live' Cave taking over the microphone.
    Hir: "The fact he had to mention that."
    S: "I don't think I've even seen a bathroom since when Glados captured us."
    Mi: "It's a good thing you don't have to focus on bodily functions in a video game." As the elevator made its way up.

    Enrichment Sphere 05 (53:55)
    Ky: "Even the loading screen is out of the seventies now!"
    They were soon loaded in, Kensuke looking around as Cave went on about another opportunity for $60.
    Mi: "Y'know, it is 120 seventies dollars, so it's certainly tempting."
    T: "I'd say it depends what they put in ya. Maybe they give you a titanium skeleton or something."
    Ma: "Or they just fill you with tumours."
    S: "You might as well flip a coin."
    Z: "There's... quite a few things to this chamber, actually."
    Ke: "Can't deny it'd be interesting to solve, at least."
    R: "Do you know where to start, at least?"
    He was now close to the gels. "Probably that section there." Said section consisting of a long stretch of path and two portal surfaces. "Orange gel down there, I might be able to fling myself."
    Hik: "Depending how far that upper surface goes, you might want to paint that other angled surface with the blue gel."
    Ke: "I'll see where this takes me, first of all."
    Now on the orange painted path, he set his portals down, and used his velocity to fly through the portals, slide on the angled surface, and get set down in a small room. "Well, I know where the cube for that button is, at least."
    Hikari couldn't help but give a smug smirk.
    ... (55:00)
    Back to the main chamber. "So you'll do what Hikari suggested, I'm assuming?"
    Ke: "It's how I'd get to the cube, at least I'm assuming."
    It was trivial enough to get said angled surface painted blue, and it was trivial enough to end up back to the orange painted path.
    Once more, he used his velocity to fly through the portals, only this time he bounced off the angled surface, arcing over to the platform where the cube was located with a concerning crash.
    T: "Ya probably don't wanna be on that platform longer than ya need to."
    Ke: "Yeah you're probably right." He took the opportunity to place a portal next to the big button, dropping back down to the room of shame and finding his way to the button soon enough. "Now the question on my mind is, what does this button do?"
    R: "Normally, I wouldn't say you should click unknown red buttons."
    S: "This is Aperture, though."
    R: "Exactly."
    Kensuke traced the path of the switch, finding it connected to a rotating surface. "...Hmm."
    Cube off. "So it's not a portal surface."
    Ky: "It'd be easy enough to paint with that surface below, though."
    Z: "I'd say the blue paint was the thing you needed."
    With the hint, he went back to the gels, zooming in from a distance in order to paint said surface blue.
    Now the cube could be placed onto the button.
    Hir: "That would mean there was a ramp somewhere close, that would probably require the orange."
    Zooming in onto said ramp. "You'd be completely correct, Hiro."
    Back to the gels again, he painted that ramp orange. "Now, as long as I can get the velocity, that should bounce me to the elevator."
    Ma: "A good thing you have a perfectly good path."
    It didn't take too long to set this up. "Alright, moment of truth."
    Running and flying and bouncing, he flew straight into the elevator, Cave speaking some more. "Yes! Thanks guys!"
    Mi: "Are they sure they know how to do that?"
    T: "They would've had to get that 'micro' chip in ya head somehow."
    Hik: "The way he made it sound like, it doesn't even sound too bad."
    R: "Yeah, but remember, this is Cave Johnson saying it."

    Pump Station Gamma (57:50)
    Cave (reluctantly) thanked the group for participating. "Might need to go there, but for now I'm just following the path."
    Which he did.
    Ky: "So where's our sixty bucks?"
    R: "I think the people who would give us the sixty dollars are long dead, Kyoko."
    Ky: "So what the hell did we do this for?"
    T: "The chance to potentially get out of this alive, maybe?"
    Ma: "I reckon that's worth more than $60."
    Z: "Shame there's no elevator. I'd spend my $60 getting that working."
    Kensuke shrugged, realising he could get up on the ventilation. "As I suggested."
    It was soon traversed, the door locking behind him.
    Hik: "Great, another pump station."
    Mi: "I wonder what cancer that will bring."
    Hir: "We can't be too far from the surface now, surely."
    R: "We aren't too far away from the quote unquote modern day. Remember, some relaxation vaults expired in the 90s, and that was in the main facility."
    Ke: "Almost there, then!" As he portalled his way up to the station, before his curiosity started eating at him. "Hey, do you guys think there's anything there?"
    Ky: "Wouldn't think so, though you can always go back I imagine."
    Ke: "Works for me." Entering the pump station itself, as Glados thought. "...Welp, you're wrong about that, Kyo."
    Ky: "Whoops."
    It was in this moment that Glados realised something.
    T: "...Well, at least she'll be quiet for a bit."
    Ma: "I think you are right, Hikari. If Glados reacted like that to Caroline."
    Scratching the back of her head. "With how she reacts, it's not too surprising."
    ... (59:20)
    Kensuke found and activated the pumps. "This is looking a bit like regular Aperture, at least."
    Z: "If Gamma is white, would that mean it's portal gel?"
    Hik: "A gel you could put portals on?"
    R: "That's what I'd assume by the name."
    White gel immediately started flowing out, painting a roof surface white. Curious, Kensuke put a portal down. "Well look at that, it does conduct portals."
    Mi: "I'm kinda curious how they did that."
    Ma: "Surely you could just use what you painted the walls with and... actually, you could just use that."
    T: "Beats having to paint the walls."
    Kensuke once more looked at the shut exit door. "...Damn this curiosity of mine."
    He loaded the last save.
    Ky: "With your luck, it probably autosaved over that, Ken."
    Loading back in- "Damn it!" Shaking the mouse in anger.
    And everybody laughed. "Well, looks like you aren't finding out what could be back there."
    Hir: "Though thing is, there does seem to be a lot of hidden things within this game."
    S: "We've found a lot of them so far."
    Now locked out of these potential secrets, Kensuke elected to begrudgingly solve this room.
    R: "Looks like there's a bit of convenient gel, at least."
    Ke: "Got that going for me." As he bounced off the leaking blue gel. "What's even the point of these pistons again?"
    Ky: "Obstacle."
    T: "It does say 'keep out'."
    Mi: "Wow they gave adequate signage for once."
    He raced through. "Speaking of signage..."
    Z: "Did a robot write this sign?"
    Hik: "It'd explain the discrimination. Of course, Glados wouldn't mind."
    Ke: "Or Wheatley."
    Hik: "You got it right!"
    ... (1:00:30)
    After looking over the discriminatory sign, Kensuke made his way to the exit door.
    Glados immediately getting scared by a bird. "Oh we're back out here?"
    Snickering from the redhead. "Looks like ya didn't need to reload, Ken."
    Ke: "So I did that for nothing." Muttering, looking around.
    T: "Betcha need to fling yourself with that angled wall, Kensuke."
    Ke: "Lemme sate this curiosity first."
    He almost fell into a bottomless pit doing so.
    S: "Good thing that barrier was there."
    Mi: "It's a good thing you have a lot of portal surfaces."
    Ke: "Means I can get out of this mess, at least." With a sigh, jumping down to a lower catwalk. "Nah, nothing here."
    R: "We shouldn't fault this curiosity." She remarked. "Odds are, we have missed a few things."
    Ma: "Maybe someone can go over this with a fine tooth comb, later."
    R: "Once we get resource usage down, perhaps."
    Hik: "So if you're going to fling yourself, where would you get the velocity?"
    Ke: "Well there's nothing but death down, so that's out." As he walked back into the pump station.
    Before doing a double take. "Hang on."
    On the other side of the orange path, was a portal surface.
    Z: "That might work."
    Hir: "Going the other way of the pistons, though."
    It wasn't much issue for Kensuke, flinging himself. "Okay, that's done at least."

    Mandatory Testing (1:01:45)
    Cave greeted them again.
    A deathly ill Cave. "Geez he doesn't sound healthy."
    R: "All that Aperture experimentation is catching up to him."
    Ma: "So is this voluntary or is it required?"
    T: "He says mandatory, but the posters suggest it's voluntary."
    Misato huffed. "Volunteering is mandatory."
    Hik: "That defeats the purpose."
    Ky: "Aperture doesn't give two shits."
    S: "At least they were going to use robots instead."
    Speaking of, Kensuke found a sign.
    R: "Yes let Glados read the sign of paradoxes."
    Ke: "I thought that was a movie thing."
    Ma: "It makes sense; gets a computer in an infinite loop."
    R: "All our AI and computer constructs have paradox mitigation programmed in. So no, you can't get Eliza into an infinite loop by saying any of those lines."
    Ky: "Damn it!"
    The voice explained what the white gel was made of.
    Hir: "Oh fiberglass wasn't enough for him, he had to make it out of the moon?!"
    Z: "And look where that got him, darling." Flat.
    Ma: "He's looking on the bright side, at least."
    Mi: "Fault him all you want, he's dedicated to science."
    R: "Too dedicated, I'd say. And that's coming from me."
    ... (1:02:30)
    They saw his painting. "...Man he really looks sick."
    S: "Coming from a painting, as well."
    R: "Stress from Aperture alongside moon mesothelioma and Gods know whatever else they've riddled themselves with."
    T: "Maybe that petrol for blood thing would prevent getting poisoned by moon rocks."
    Hik: "...I guess he does make lemonade." Thinking back to what the turret said, as Cave mentioned it, and as Kensuke looked over another poster. "And still abusing humans."
    Ke: "They did say they were phasing out human testing, after all." Hitting a button to open a door. "And this was back in the 80s, as well. Personal computing was barely getting off the ground at this point and they were already making robots."
    Other than a poster encouraging human on robot relations, there was nothing else of note in this waiting room.
    Ky: "Though I guess that's one advantage of a robot not needing rest." She mused, as Kensuke found another sign. "Stamina."
    S: "I'm sure we can strap you to a machine, once we're old enough and living together." A smirk, as Kensuke read over a sign. "How would you know you're allergic to moon rocks?"
    R: "I'd be more concerned myself if they were allergic to starch. Being one of the core carbohydrates humans consume. At least if you're allergic to lunar material, avoiding the moon is easy enough."
    Ma: "At least they don't test them to death." She shrugged. "And if you're good enough, you can not do it."
    Mi: "Of course, what the sign says might not be what actually happened."
    Z: "So it isn't voluntary."
    Ke: "As Misato said, volunteering is mandatory." Walking to the elevator. "No wonder they lost a lot of employees."
    Hir: "Can't imagine Black Mesa doing the same, with how it sounds."
    Ke: "Ehhh you're right about that in some aspects."

    Enrichment Sphere 06 (1:03:35)
    Ke: "...Huh. I was expecting a loading zone."
    Walking into the chamber, they immediately noticed the lack of portal surfaces.
    Ky: "Good thing you have a lot of that moon juice."
    T: "So what, just coat everything in that stuff until you solve the test?"
    R: "Or until you see a solution."
    The camera focused on twin pillars. "I have a feeling those are important."
    Z: "Now it's just getting that paint from there to there."
    Ke: "Can't be too difficult." As he panned around some more. "Exit there."
    Hik: "Man that place really fell apart, didn't it?"
    S: "And this is the latest sphere, as well."
    Ma: "Maybe they couldn't afford decent materials at this point."
    Mi: "They did just spend 70 million dollars on moon rocks. And this was back in the 80s."
    R: "We haven't even been back to the surface of the moon since the 70s."
    Ke: "It's obviously different in that world, then." A small chuckle, readjusting glasses. "Time to paint, then."
    Blue portal in front of the gel vent, he began the process of utterly drenching the Enrichment Sphere with white stuff.
    Ky: "Y'know, I just had a thought. This could be very suggestive, could it?"
    R: "I was wondering when you were going to jump to that conclusion." She muttered, having conceded the fact this group were just as perverted as the usual tumbleweed.
    Mi: "As long as he doesn't start getting covered in that stuff."
    T: "Ya know he's gonna."
    Mi: "Yeah, but I wanted to rile Rits up a bit."
    A flat look was offered, especially as Kensuke stood in the stream, trying to get out of the small pen he was in. "I'll at least focus at the task at hand, Subcommander."
    R: "At least someone is." With a sigh.
    ... (1:04:45)
    It took 3 attempts and getting stuck for a bit, but he finally got out.
    Ky: "Now ya just spray it all over the walls."
    R: "You're enjoying this, aren't you."
    Ky: "Waaa~ay too much." She grinned, Kensuke doing just that.
    T: "I mean, it does look like the right thing to do."
    Hik: "Still pretty messy though, ain't it."
    R: "And now everyone's getting involved." Muttering.
    Mi: "Ah let them have their fun, Rits!"
    Kensuke finally got up the tower, getting drenched in the process. "Jeez I really got it everywhere, didn't I."
    Ritsuko grumbled.
    S: "Where to from there?"
    Z: "That broken catwalk might be a good idea."
    Kensuke went to look. "Those are stairs on that platform over there, so perhaps that's where we ned to go."
    R: "And please make it quick, I've had enough of this innuendo."
    Ky: "But I like when they last longer!"
    Ritsuko audibly facepalmed, as Kensuke started spraying it everywhere once more. "Though thing is, I'm not sure if we can get up there." Jumping down to look. "All those pillars are blocked."
    Hir: "You literally had your camera pointed to an angled surface, Kensuke."
    Finally noticing this angled surface, he immediately painted it. "Should've noticed that."
    Mi: "Maybe all this innuendo has your mind in the gutter."
    Ke: "Most likely." Getting back up the tower. "This should solve it, at least."
    He flew through the air, and landed in the endzone.
    Ma: "Good aim, Kensuke."
    The Subcommander sighed. "You too, Maya?"
    She gave an innocent grin.

    Don't Make Lemonade (1:06:35)
    Cave expressed his... thoughts. Rather bombastically.
    Glados' encouragement didn't help.
    Mi: "Jeez he's really going off."
    R: "He's dying of moon sickness and has had to deal with the stress of Aperture for his entire life. No wonder it's coming to a head."
    Hikari furrowed her brow at the familiar words. "That's what the turret said! 'Get mad' and 'Don't make lemonade'!"
    Ky: "Maybe we found an oracle." Jesting.
    Z: "Glados is certainly liking this outburst."
    Ma: "...Can you burn down a house with lemons?"
    S: "Gods know Cave would be the guy to figure it out."
    Ke: "Hopefully we don't have to deal with that."
    As he was making his way to the exit, Cave expressed yet more of his thoughts, now more collected than he once was.
    T: "I guess that was the start of Glados, then?"
    R: "A logical thought. Though even in our world, we don't store the intelligences on something like a compact disc. We use wetware, brains."
    Ma: "It still doesn't sound exactly like what we were doing. We focused on computing, they wanted full on artificial intelligence."
    Kensuke opened another door. "We only went up one and a half kilometres?"
    The Director of Aperture Laboratories put it on the record, as Kensuke began to traverse the shaft.
    Mi: "...Well, I suppose that confirms it, then."
    Hik: "So Glados is Caroline? Not based off her, she is her?"
    Ky: "There's so many things wrong with stuffing someone unwilling into a computer."
    Hir: "I wouldn't even put it past Aperture. A version of NERV did it anyway."
    R: "Said person also destroyed the mind of their most prominent scientist with her action that resulted in her getting stuffed into a computer. I doubt Caroline did the same."
    Despite whatever animosity she might've had towards Cave, Glados still wished him goodbye.
    Z: "...Even so, doesn't change what she felt for him."
    Ke: "It does explain why Glados flooded the facility with neurotoxin, I think. Getting revenge on the people who put her there."
    S: "It's almost like putting someone that hates your guts in charge of that sorta system is a bad idea! Whoda thunk it!"

    Onward and Upward (1:08:00)
    Now with a lot more for the group to think about, Kensuke begun the journey up.
    Ky: "At least this is a lot less dangerous."
    R: "I would say you could fall to your death, but she does have those boots."
    Ke: "I'd say it was a nice break. After all that testing and trying to navigate Old Aperture."
    S: "Still kinda slow work moving up, though."
    Ma: "It's not like he's gonna traverse three kilometres instantly. Even here in our elevators, it takes a good while to go up and down."
    Hir: "Would've been a lot more slower without a portal gun."
    Kensuke finally made the way to the elevator. "I bet this isn't even working."
    Mi: "It'd be convenient, of course it's not gonna work!"
    If the flying sparks weren't any indication, the lack of a button was.
    Z: "At least you get a portal surface! Maybe you can be your own elevator!"
    Looking up, and glancing around trying to find a portal surface, and subsequently failing in finding a portal surface. "Y'know, that's probably what's intended."
    Portal down on the floor of the elevator, he dropped a few stories into a freshly placed portal, flinging himself upward.
    Placing another portal on the ground, "Wrong portal!"
    He saved it, at least, this time finding an angled surface and placing a portal down again. "Damn it not again!"
    He saved it that time as well, astonishing the group. "God damn it, Ken."
    Ke: "Yeah I know, I need to remember what portals I've placed down." As he entered the loading zone.

    All Your Colours Combined (1:09:40)
    And so they entered the spanning room.
    T: "I don't even want to think what you need to do here."
    R: "Well, we have to." She dryly noted.
    Glados did her best to assure Chell, as Kensuke began making his way upward once more.
    S: "Well she's certainly hopeful."
    Hik: "She kinda has a point. If you're gonna die, might as well die on your two feet."
    Ke: "At least then you could say you tried."
    Ky: "So how are we gonna shove these lemon's up Wheatley's robotic ass?"
    Mi: "He's stupid enough to do it himself, I imagine."
    Z: "That angled surface is probably what you need, Kensuke."
    Ke: "I know that, but it's just getting off this small platform here."
    Ma: "There's portal surfaces on those pillars, right?"
    He noticed that. "...Right."
    From there it was trivial enough for him to fling himself up.
    Z: "Hey look, another angled surface!"
    Hir: "So how are we-"
    His question was answered when Kensuke panned over dripping repulsion gel.
    With a smirk, "That, I imagine."
    Portal underneath the gel, the second angled surface was soon painted blue.
    S: "Now it's just a matter of jumping."
    Which he did, dropping down and through the portals, flying through the air and rebounding off the blue painted panel, ending up on a higher floor. "Nice one!"
    Mi: "Though now where do you go?"
    T: "There's a white spot over there. Betcha you can put a portal on that."
    Ky: "I'm sure that orange paint is also hint enough."
    He took the hint, placing a portal on said white spot and dropping down again.
    Soon ending up in a small room. "Thanks guys."
    ... (1:11:30)
    They walked through a small Emancipation Grill and into another room.
    With all three of the gels dripping down. "Well, this is gonna be fun to figure out." The player mused.
    R: "I'd say start with the white gel. Get some portal surfaces down; you can always overwrite it with the gel later."
    Ke: "...Yeah, I'd call that a good start."
    Though a single white panel, the portal gel flowed, painting a small surface.
    Now with more portal surface to portal on, he began painting.
    Ky: "Well that angle went nowhere."
    Hik: "Maybe you'll have to fling yourself through that, once you get it all setup."
    Mi: "Like most angled surfaces."
    That a bust, he painted other surfaces.
    T: "I doubt you'll be able to keep that bit painted for too long."
    Ke: "If I'll have to fling myself..."
    To the orange paint, now overwriting the white.
    The cogs were spinning in his mind, trying to figure out the solution.
    Ma: "You automatically bounce on blue gel, don't you?"
    Ke: "I can certainly try that."
    Blue gel now on the angled surface, he lined himself up on the orange runway.
    He ran, and jump, and flew through his two portals back to the entrance. "Oh come on!"
    And everybody laughed, as he attempted to correct this.
    With his 'correction' in place, he ran and jumped and flew right back the way he came.
    His stubborn nature forced him to do it a few more times with a few more vain corrections to confirm, yes, this solution wasn't a solution. "Alright, I think that's a bust."
    S: "You don't have enough height to just simply jump to that blue stuff."
    And so he still looked around for a solution.
    T: "Thing is, Hikari even said a solution."
    Ke: "Hmm?"
    Hik: "Flinging yourself? Do what you had before, with the white paint on that surface. And we know you get high enough to reach a portal."
    Kensuke blinked, before attempting to do just that.
    Of course, it worked first try. "...Well that's embarrassing."
    R: "She is an Evangelion pilot, Kensuke. She notices these things."
    ... (1:15:30)
    Ky: "So I'm guessing that blue paint will be needed."
    S: "We already know it bounces us."
    T: "D'ya think you can get that blue paint to there?"
    Hik: "It's where he hit, after all."
    Portals down, blue paint hit the ceiling.
    Z: "Well that's not too useful."
    Ke: "I might check what's over there, first." As he went to sate his curiosity.
    Ma: "That's the entrance." Flat.
    As he laid eyes on it. "Oh. Yeah I knew that."
    Ky: "And you still walked over towards it, Ken."
    R: "That's what we call autopilot."
    Ke: "Maybe I have petrol for blood or something." He self deprecated, as he trudged back through the portal.
    Hir: "Though thing is, you could paint the ceiling with a useful gel, can't you?"
    Taking the hint, he painted it with the conversion gel. "...Ahh, and now I should be able to use the blue stuff!"
    Said blue stuff was now painted on the floor. "There we go!"
    Mi: "Now it's just doing what you did before."
    He went to do that, reapplying paint where it needed to be. "I don't know how I'd do this stuff without you guys."
    Ky: "Ah you'd probably figure it out eventually, Ken. We just help push you."
    T: "Many hands and all that. Or, many heads in this case."
    Ke: "I do appreciate it." With a small smile, as he lined up.
    He ran and bounced and flung himself, bouncing and bouncing and ending up where he needed to go. "Thanks guys."

    Shaft (1:17:20)
    With some helpful white gel, it was easy enough to get in a shaft chock full of pipes. "Oh wow, we finally get working ventilation!"
    S: "I wonder if you could use this ventilation."
    Kensuke laid eyes on an angled surface. "...Y'know, I think I can."
    Portal on the angled surface, the conversion gel flew into the ventilation, drenching the small room in portal conductor.
    T: "Now that'll be useful."
    Now with plenty of surfaces to place portals on, he got himself up.
    Mi: "That really doesn't help the vertigo."
    Hir: "Suppose we just follow the arrows, then."
    Ky: "Up is the right way, after all."
    He got himself up to the top of the shaft, placing his portal, before going all the way down again.
    Z: "Are you sure there wasn't anything you could use up there, Kensuke?"
    Ke: "Might've been, but I know this bit works."
    R: "And if you fell down that pit?"
    Ke: "I would've eaten my glasses." Muttering, as he went through.

    Pump Station Omega (1:18:20)
    Hir: "...That's a lot of pipes."
    Hik: "Maybe it's another pump station."
    Looking around, as he walked up the catwalks. "It sure says that."
    Ma: "Just gotta get up there now, then."
    He reached an upper catwalk, trying to open a door.
    T: "That would've been too easy."
    Ke: "I know."
    Both doors a bust, he tried to figure out a way to get to this station. "Can I..."
    Portals were placed in the void.
    Hik: "While the angle's right, I don't think you'll have enough velocity."
    Kensuke tried it anyway. Predictably, he failed. "Feh!" As he bumbled his way up again.
    R: "Think laterally, Kensuke."
    Ke: "Lateral?" Looking around again, finding a lateral portal surface. "Oh! Why didn't I see that earlier!"
    Z: "Why didn't we notice that vault door earlier?"
    S: "Wait, are we almost there?!"
    Ky: "Sure looks like it, as soon as Ken opens that door!"
    Kensuke flung himself laterally, landing right in the control room.
    Where Glados had an idea.
    T: "I'm kinda surprised she can read that without frying herself."
    Ma: "She even says no AI can resist!"
    R: "Unless they have mitigations in place."
    Mi: "Which Aperture probably neglected."
    Ke: "Good thing Glados isn't exactly an AI then?"

    Return (1:20:35)
    And without much further ado, Kensuke hit the big red button.
    Slowly, the hatch opened, the light shining down.
    Hir: "I'm a bit confused as to why the hatch override would be in what's being locked.
    Ky: "Obviously it's there just in case someone gets locked out."
    R: "I can't believe Aperture even thought of that, for once."
    Pipes came down from the now open vault door, connecting the gels to the main facility.
    S: "Oh and we still get to use that paint!"
    Ke: "I'm certainly not complaining about that, especially the repulsion gel."
    Ma: "Still like that stuff, eh Kensuke?"
    Ke: "Yep. It'd probably be impossible for you guys to actually make, though."
    Mi: "I'm wondering just what you would need all those gels for, anyway. Especially if they're that dangerous."
    And from the heavens above, came a catwalk. "Looks like that's our ride."
    Ky: "Conveniently not going near us."
    Hik: "A bit of exercise is never that bad."
    Ke: "I'm sure Chell has had enough exercise to well and truly make up for her sleep in."
    Kensuke made his way to the mobile catwalk, which promptly started moving up, as Glados said her plan.
    Z: "While I think that idea's sound, I don't think it'll be that easy. Even for an idiot like Wheatley."
    Ma: "If even Glados is concerned at what a paradox could do to her."
    And after so long, they finally made their way to regular Aperture. "Geez look at those springs!"
    R: "And all the facility is on that."
    Mi: "It's really amazing how Aperture hasn't utterly collapsed in on itself."
    Reaching a regular elevator, they began going up.
    ~~~
    Frankenturret (1:22:50)
    Ma: "What the hell did he do to those poor things?!"
    Ky: "Maybe he wanted test subjects."
    They finally loaded in.
    T: "Y'know, it's kinda strange that the screens ain't running."
    Ke: "I don't think he knows how to."
    They walked into a backroom, as Wheatley expressed his distain towards his 'test subjects'. It didn't take long before they found why he was expressing his distain.
    Ma: "That's horrible!" She cried.
    R: "He didn't even think about that, did he?"
    Hir: "He literally just combined turrets and a box."
    Z: "And he expects them to have intelligence."
    S: "The turrets never even walked normally. You can't even expect that."
    Mi: "Of course, Wheatley's an idiot."
    Hik: "A cruel idiot, at that."
    Ke: "I can't even hate those things, that's just sad." As he was looking over.
    Maya was still upset at this scene. "Some of them are on their backs!"
    Ky: "He's been doing this for twelve fucking hours?!"
    T: "It hasn't been twelve hours, surely?"
    R: "It's a video game, time works differently."
    Ke: "That or his own clock isn't working."
    Wheatley finally left the group to their own devices, Kensuke portalling through a vent and eventually reaching a small lift. "At least the actual turrets could talk and had some sort of intelligence."
    Z: "I'm kinda amazed he even made something like that."
    R: "As we said, he didn't think about it. I doubt he even made them intentionally."
    ... (1:24:20)
    They entered the chamber, Kensuke going to solve the puzzle. "Hopefully they still function like regular cubes." As he picked one up.
    Ma: "Aww it's scared of you!"
    Before trying to throw it in the screen.
    Mi: "Expressing your anger for making Maya upset, Kensuke?"
    Ky: "The Subcommander should be the one doing that, eh?"
    R: "I wonder if you can smash those screens."
    Ke: "I'll keep trying when I can." He decided, placing the 'cube' on the button.
    Wheatley immediately returning.
    Z: "Now for this to not work."
    Glados said her paradox.
    R: "...Really? Is he really that idiotic that he doesn't even understand what a paradox is meant to do to him?"
    Hir: "Maybe he accidentally coded a mitigation for it."
    S: "I mean, that is a mitigation. Can't get stuck in a paradox loop if you don't even know what a paradox is."
    Failing this, Glados tried pleading to reason.
    T: "Well that didn't work as well."
    Hik: "If a paradox didn't work, reason sure as hell won't."
    On the automated system's behest, he 'fixed' the reactors.
    Ke: "Nice fix, idiot." As he angrily shot his portal at the screen.
    Ma: "...Well, looks like we're back to testing."
    Ky: "Can he even make test chambers?"
    S: "That or just steal what Glados made before."
    Z: "Hold up, are those cubes broken now?"
    Kensuke paused and looked at one of these cubes. "I guess the paradox did work."
    Maya whimpered, especially as Kensuke threw one through an Emancipation Grill. "You didn't need to do that!"
    Ky: "That's just mercy at this point, Ibuki."

    TEST (1:25:40)
    As they walked to the next chamber, Wheatley expressed how it was like to be in charge of Aperture.
    T: "I suppose that's the itch mentioned."
    Hik: "So testing's like a drug to them?"
    Z: "Would've been like that to Glados, as well."
    R: "No wonder she likes to test. That system makes the digital equivalent of dopamine whenever science is done."
    Ma: "Would computers begin to develop a resistance to this, like people can?"
    Ky: "Either way, that adds a lot more voyeurism to Aperture."
    Mi: "Good to see you can see it from other angles, Kyoko."
    Hir: "At least it's science, and not anything else."
    And so, Kensuke entered the first test chamber, as Wheatley told the automated voice to shut up.
    S: "Yeah, I'd say you were right, Glados."
    Kensuke twitched. "Did he seriously write TEST in the test chamber?"
    R: "He didn't even complete the T."
    T: "I guess he did build this."
    Hik: "Pretty obvious, isn't it?"
    Ma: "I doubt it's just one chamber he wants from us, as well."
    Z: "So what're the odds the solution is completely stupid?"
    Ke: "Certain." He muttered.
    Mi: "He's really playing this chamber up, isn't he?"
    Ky: "...Hold on a minute, is that cube dispenser over the button?"
    After furrowing his brow, he clicked the small button, a cube dispensing and immediately solving the test, much to Wheatley's... pleasure.
    And much to the group's rapture. "How the hell is that pleasing?" Complained Misato. "Even with that itch, surely something that simple can't bring that much pleasure!"
    Hir: "Wheatley is a simple construct, isn't he?"
    Ma: "I'm more concerned by the fact it sounded like he orgasmed."
    R: "That's that itch getting satisfied." Muttering. "Just go to the exit before this lot gets too sexual again, Kensuke."
    Ke: "I don't even want to think about Wheatley getting pleasured."
    Z: "...How would that even work? They don't have-
    R: "Exit."
    Ke: "I'm doing it!"

    Do While Satisfied (1:26:50)
    Wheatley, in his grand wisdom, suggested doing the test again.
    Hir: "I don't think it works like that."
    Ky: "Most of the pleasure would be in how it's solved, eh? If you've already seen it solved, that's the pleasure in it gone."
    R: "Either he doesn't know that, or he's about to find out."
    Ke: "I'd rather not have to do this same chamber again." Rolling his eyes, as Wheatley opened a secret panel.
    T: "Well I'm sure Wheatley could grind your mind into dust with his babbling."
    Not wanting to spend too much longer in this chamber, Kensuke hit the button again.
    Predictably, it did nothing for Wheatley.
    Hik: "So this next chapter will just be us trying to pleasure Wheatley until he ends up killing us or something." Furrowing her brow in disgust.
    S: "Or they figure out a way to get to him."
    Z: "They have to get Glados back there somehow, don't they?"
    Mi: "Until then, though."
    Ma: "If his chambers are anything like that one, they're gonna be easy enough."
    Ky: "You don't think Glados stockpiled chambers before she got torn out of her socket?"
    Ma: "If she did, I'm hoping Wheatley doesn't realise it."
    Kensuke finally made his way to the elevator, screens now active and showing emergency notifications.
    T: "To be fair on Glados, she tried."
    R: "Maybe she should've known Wheatley was idiotic enough to not understand what a paradox is."
    Mi: "As she and Maya said, though. If his tests are like that, all the easier for them."
    S: "Unless what Kyo said comes true."
    Ke: "I'm kinda hoping that happens, actually. At least we could use more than one percent of our minds solving it."

    Test Chamber 01 (1:27:50)
    T: "Man he didn't even do the loading screen right."
    They loaded in, the screens giving a helpful reminder of the evacuation training.
    S: "I'm sure we'll remember that."
    And so they entered the chamber. "What is that?!" Exclaimed Kensuke.
    Ky: "Dunno, but the chambers are still looking pretty slick, at least."
    Flat looks were offered to Kyoko. "This is one of her tests!"
    Ky: "He added something to it, at least."
    Hik: "Well, at least they'll be thought provoking."
    Hir: "Speaking of, what does that light do?"
    Kensuke stepped in, and began floating.
    Mi: "Well, that's pretty cool."
    Ma: "I hope that doesn't use the same light the hard light bridges use."
    Ky: "Actually I take that back." Muttering, as they reached the second floor. "So you can float in those tube things, can objects float?"
    R: "There's a vertical button. I would assume so."
    Z: "We gotta figure out how to get to that cube, first of all."
    S: "I'm assuming you could use portals to route them."
    Kensuke found an appropriate portal surface, and ended up floating right towards the cube. "What are these things even called?"
    Mi: "Knowing Aperture, probably something stupidly verbose, like excursion tube or something."
    Acquiring the frankencube was easy enough, Kensuke having the mind to portal the funnel back to the lower level.
    Perhaps having too much mind, as he realised he was right above the button. "Well that was lucky."
    The solution pleased Wheatley, much to the chagrin of everyone, as Kensuke made his way to the exit.
    Hik: "So while they can probably kill you now, at least it should keep him... occupied."
    T: "At least you're able to see a bright side to that. Can't say the same of Glados."

    Test Chamber 02 (1:29:30)
    Glados excused herself. "Gee, thanks." Muttered Kyoko.
    Mi: "Ah it's more fun seeing you guys trying to figure it out, anyway."
    So they made it to the chamber.
    T: "You barely made half of it!"
    Hik: "He probably unmade most of it."
    R: "Doesn't even sound like he thought about making these tests."
    S: "What, mashing several smaller ones together makes it new?"
    Ma: "Might make it impossible, even."
    Kensuke entered the funnel, portals down, as Wheatley talked. "It involves these funnels, at least."
    Hir: "So it should have some challenge to it."
    His eyes laid on a flat portal surface. "Aha! I was going to place a portal down on that."
    Ky: "But you realised it would kill you. Congratulations, Ken."
    Z: "Depending on your angle, you should be able to get to that."
    R: "Just make sure you're over a funnel before you reposition your portal."
    Ke: "I'll keep that in mind, don't worry."
    The portal was placed on this flat surface, and he flew up.
    Wheatley tried to tell him the solution, only to get shocked.
    Much to everyone's amusement. "Okay, fair enough Glados." Conceded Kyoko.
    Ke: "I'll see what this button does, at least."
    Clicking the button, a frankencube fell into the void. "Aww..."
    Hir: "A good thing we have funnels."
    Kensuke thought the same, placing the funnel below the vent, towards Wheatley's screen. "Damn it."
    S: "Still trying to break the screen?"
    To which the player shrugged. "Always worth a shot."
    ... (1:30:45)
    Yet another look around. "Okay, button on the ceiling, so we need the funnel."
    Ma: "Please don't let that cube fall into the void again, Kensuke."
    Ke: "I'll certainly try my best."
    On her behest, Kensuke began the process of getting this cube towards the first portal, so that it may rest on the big button.
    Dropping the cube into the void, because he placed the wrong portal down. "Sorry! That was not intentional!"
    Maya pouted.
    S: "At least now, you could probably set it on a more direct route."
    Taking her suggestion, the funnel below the vent now went parallel to the television, Kensuke dispensing another abomination of Silicon Heaven.
    A few well placed portals later, and the test was solved. Despite some wonky physics almost condemning this frankencube.
    Z: "At least he managed to save that one."
    They couldn't help but laugh at how Glados deliberately shocked Wheatley. "She's probably right, that is a bad idea."
    Ky: "I'd say that was worth it, Hikari."
    Mi: "You gotta find your entertainment somehow. Especially in a situation like this."
    Hir: "Sounds like it helped her."
    R: "Comedy is a good way of dealing with situations. Among other things."

    Test Chamber 03 (1:31:55)
    Glados finally had good news.
    Ma: "Huh, so she didn't stockpile tests?"
    Z: "I kinda wonder why you'd even need more than the original testing course."
    Mi: "Glados wants more of that digital dopamine, obviously."
    As soon as they entered this test chamber, this good news suddenly became invalid.
    To their flat looks. "Gee, thanks Glados, you spud."
    Hik: "That's just accurate, at this point."
    T: "So what, you have to solve this frankenchamber?"
    R: "He probably doesn't even know how to solve it."
    Hir: "How did she not even know that?"
    Ke: "If the skeletons are anything to go by, it's been a while."
    The chambers crashed together.
    S: "Mementos, she calls it!"
    Ky: "Can we tell it's not two chambers mushed together?"
    Kensuke looked over this. "Yes perfectly seamless." He muttered, before getting to work.
    ... (1:32:35)
    Hik: "So there's a horizontal button, now."
    R: "A similar solution to the previous couple chambers, then."
    Blue portal down in front of the funnel, Kensuke struggled to find where to put the orange portal. "Uhh... ah!"
    He was soon floating over the bottomless pit, towards the button that controlled the cube vent.
    Ma: "Why does he keep putting it over bottomless pits?!"
    Mi: "Obviously to torture you, Maya."
    A panel was replaced with a target.
    Ky: "Great, there's Faith Plates again."
    Ke: "They aren't that bad." As he hit the button, the cube falling into a bottomless pit.
    Ma: "You knew it was over a bottomless pit!"
    Ke: "Whoops."
    Using the funnels, the cube slowly floated towards the two. "Happy?"
    Ma: "As long as you don't catapult it into the void."
    S: "I doubt he will. He'll have to get another cube."
    His hands on the cube, he flung himself to the freshly placed funnel, and from there it was back to the main room.
    Z: "You gonna try throwing the cube into Wheatley again?"
    Ke: "I don't think there's any portal surfaces in front of him, unfortunately." As he tried throwing the cube into the funnel above him."
    T: "I feel there's an easier way."
    R: "I feel he knows that."
    Said easier solution was just to use his portals to throw the cube into the funnel.
    From there, hitting the button was easy.
    Ky: "Ken, quick question. How are you gonna get to the door?"
    He seemed to realise this. "...Oh. Uhh..."
    Kensuke got himself up to the exit platform. Conveniently enough, the cube landed on a portal surface, and from there he was able to perform a similar solution to what he did before. "Like that, Kyo."
    Wheatley was rather disappointed with what happened.
    Mi: "Hey Maya, didn't you say they could develop a resistance to that sorta thing like people can?"
    Ma: "I didn't expect it to actually happen!"
    Hik: "It won't be fine, would it?"
    R: "I don't think so."

    Test Chamber 04 (1:34:55)
    The potato insisted this is fine.
    Ky: "She says that as Aperture is falling to bits around them."
    Wheatley admonished the two of them for doing the test right.
    Mi: "Oi, don't blame us you can't handle your addiction!"
    Ke: "Great, he got the turrets working again."
    Z: "He's an idiot but he got those working?"
    S: "He's not even good at insulting you. At least Glados knew how to really twist the knife."
    R: "If she wanted to call you fat, she wouldn't use such crass language."
    Much to their shock, however, Glados seemed to defend Chell.
    Hik: "Y'know, I should say this was rather hypocritical of her."
    Hir: "Maybe knowing she's Caroline has helped her."
    T: "She even said to Chell she was adopted."
    Ma: "So she's just doing that to rile him up more."
    On Wheatley's insistence, Kensuke continued what he was doing.
    Which was funnelling a turret over a bottomless pit.
    To the turret's credit, it tried shooting Kensuke as it fell into the abyss.
    Ky: "What was even the point of that lone turret?"
    Ma: "Upsetting me." She huffed. "So what does that button do, then?"
    Clicking it, they realised it made the funnel change colour.
    S: "That has other functionality, doesn't it?"
    T: "Nah it just changes the colour."
    Experimenting, Kensuke picked up the cube with the funnel. "Ohh it reverses it!"
    R: "Gives you even more control over it, doesn't it?"
    Once the cube was on the main path, Kensuke placed a portal in front of him, allowing the cube to come towards Chell and Glados. "Now if I place it on there, I should just be able to fly towards it."
    Which he did.
    Ky: "It's pretty cool, admittedly."
    Hik: "Unless there's a surface opposite the door, you might have to reverse that again."
    Kensuke placed a funnel so that it'd take the cube off the button. "Easy enough."
    And he went up. "And I even stopped the cube from flying off."
    Ma: "Thank you."
    Much to Wheatley's frustration. "We solved it, you moron!"
    R: "I wouldn't say you were helping, Kyoko."

    Test Chamber 05 (1:37:20)
    A harpsichord filled the room. "Looks like ya finally get some of that music you wanted, Hikari."
    Hik: "What even is that instrument? It sounds like a tinny koto."
    Mi: "I think it's a harpsichord, but Kaworu's the expert on instruments like that."
    Ke: "Either way, Glados doesn't like that."
    R: "It's all trying to make himself seem more intelligent."
    Pages were turning, as Kensuke entered the chamber.
    Z: "He's even pretending to read."
    S: "What would he read, anyway?"
    Ma: "Why does he need to read? Can't he just instantly upload the information to himself?"
    T: "You saw how he hacked passwords, didn't ya?"
    Hir: "And he's doing all this while not focusing on keeping Aperture running."
    Ke: "I don't even think he thought about this chamber." As he was glancing to a cube tube, before flinging himself over. "So, Faith Plates and funnels."
    R: "A part of me highly doubts he's read Machiavelli, anyway."
    Mi: "Christ, Kaji tried telling me about that and I got the gist of it."
    Ke: "It's all about unethical strategy, isn't it?" He noted, as he looked around on the other side, noting a small button and an angled portal surface. "Of course Glados has read it, she's practically the postercore for that."
    Funnel on the angled surface, he jumped back to the other side.
    Ky: "I think ya had the right idea before, Ken."
    Hik: "And at least high up, you'd could observe."
    T: "...Actually, we know angled surfaces are good for flinging yourself. What're the chances you can use the funnel to go up, then you place the portal on that surface?"
    Kensuke blinked. "That's a very good idea, Toji."
    He did as Toji suggested, landing where the two buttons were. "Thanks for that!"
    T: "Ah it's nothing."
    Hitting the button, a frankencube dropped, bounced off a Faith Plate and into a bottomless pit. "Aww..."
    S: "And I suppose you could do the same for that, Ken."
    Ke: "I'd assume."
    He did just that, the cube landed close by. "Would've been even better if I could've landed it on the button directly."
    Wheatley was once again disappointed by the apparently flaccid display, Glados taking the time to essentially confirm what their thoughts were.
    Mi: "So not only is it practically dopamine, you build a resistance to it like Maya suggested."
    Ma: "At least Glados was able to tackle this withdrawal head on."
    R: "Can't fault her for what she wanted to do. It's just the way she gets this science."

    Test Chamber 06 (1:39:30)
    The televisions in the elevator room had bluescreened. "I didn't know Aperture ran on Whistler!" Maya immediately jested.
    As Kensuke went to look. "Maybe not Aperture itself, but certainly the reactors."
    R: "Why would you run nuclear reactors on Windows."
    Ky: "Maybe Wheatley tried installing it on the reactors or something."
    Ma: "It'd certainly explain why they were acting up."
    T: "And you just have to vent whatever Gods forsaken thing they have into the atmosphere?"
    S: "Not like Aperture would give a damn."
    Hir: "At least Glados gives as much a damn as to keep things running."
    Z: "Can't say that of Wheatley, eh darling?"
    Ke: "Well, hopefully they don't blow up before we tear Wheatley to shreds." As he walked to the chamber.
    Wheatley moving the chamber.
    Mi: "Why is he moving you closer to him? Does he want you to beat him?"
    Hik: "At least we can use his moronic tendencies to our advantage."
    ... (1:40:15)
    Kensuke waited for the chamber to stop moving before beginning to solve it. "Big button, Turrets, Emancipation Grill, Hard Light."
    Clicking the button, a Faith Plate immediately flinging a cube into an Emancipation Grill, to Maya's cry. "Cube for the button."
    Ky: "Block the cube from hitting it, don't torture her too much."
    R: "Glad to hear you care for Maya's wellbeing." In deadpan.
    Second attempt was too low. "Damn it."
    Third attempt was too high. "I'm not doing this intentionally, I promise!"
    Maya pouted.
    Fifth time's the charm. "Ya got it eventually, at least."
    Mi: "Needlessly torturing Maya all the way."
    Using the hard light, he now blocked the turrets, so that he could acquire the cube. "So he's at least got regular turrets either stockpiled or manufactured."
    Hik: "That's not a good thing."
    He managed to get out of the turret trap before they all opened fire, at least. "Alright, so now we just toss it on that Faith Plate..."
    Which he did, it impacting the television and shattering it. "HAH! You can break them!"
    T: "And he thinks we're the idiots for doing so."
    Ma: "He's certainly thinking a lot of himself."
    Ky: "If God was that stupid, he would've done something stupid like thrown this world into the sun or something." Muttering. "Ya probably need to block the cube again, Ken."
    Ke: "I can certainly see that." As he did just that, the cube now rebounding off the hard light.
    R: "You can hold it, Kensuke."
    Ke: "Yeah I know." This time around, he and the cube flung up and impacted the hard light.
    Z: "Remember there's turrets."
    He stopped his jump. "...Yeah I know."
    Now with hard light blocking the turrets, he was able to solve the chamber.
    Wheatley still admonishing him for solving it 'incorrectly', as he made his way to the exit.
    Hir: "I wonder if he'll try getting a rush by killing you."
    Mi: "I don't think that'd surprise anyone here in the slightest."
    Ke: "If these bluescreens are anything to go by, he won't have to kill us."

    Test Chamber 11 (1:43:05)
    The facility shook.
    S: "She's right about that, at least."
    Mi: "It'd bad she is right about that."
    They entered the chamber, Wheatley explaining what he wanted to do. "Hang on a minute, wasn't the last chamber number six?" Queried Maya.
    Ke: "Maybe he's trying to rush us."
    R: "Or, him moving the previous chamber skipped a few."
    Ky: "Does a computer really need to use tape for recording?"
    Kensuke probed the nearby Faith Plate. "And I shouldn't have to solve it any faster, he can just watch it faster."
    T: "I'm astounded he even knows how to record. Even using that camcorder of yours would've been impossible for him, Kensuke."
    Z: "Man there's everything in this chamber, isn't there?"
    Ke: "I doubt I could solve this chamber fast if I wanted to, then." He mused, jumping into the laser pit. "And a redirection cube, as well."
    He got himself back to the main chamber.
    Hir: "Where to start, then?"
    Ky: "That frankencube might be a good idea. Ya might just be able to use that angled surface."
    Kensuke placed a funnel on the angled surface. "Not a good angle for that, at least."
    The funnel was placed on another angled surface, in front of Wheatley's screen.
    S: "That wouldn't do much either, unless you wanted to get in a cycle."
    Z: "There's that flat surface there, right? What if you funnel yourself up, then you use velocity?"
    Ke: "That could work." As he placed the funnel down. "Oh there's a button up there as well!"
    It was only now they noticed what needed to be done to activate the two elevators. "So the top button activates one of them, and the laser hole there activates the other."
    R: "Those cubes were there for a purpose."
    He hit the button, and indeed the platform descended. "Well, now we know for sure."
    Dropping down. "And then that cube there can be used for the laser."
    Ky: "Ya didn't have to show us again, Ken."
    Ke: "...Whoops. Well, lemme see if I can get that without the cube, then."
    He couldn't, the funnel getting blocked by glass.
    Mi: "Just do what Zero Two suggested, Kensuke."
    Ke: "...Yes Ma'am."
    ... (1:45:50)
    Doing what was suggested long ago, he flung himself to the frankencube. "Now, we should be able to block that laser. Which I think turns off the funnel, otherwise it wouldn't make sense to have that angled surface."
    Which was easy enough. "Oh thank the Gods they don't explode."
    Portalling back.
    Ky: "Looks like ya right, Ken."
    Ke: "Least I got that right." One portal on the surface. "Now it's just a question of velocity, now the funnel's out of the question."
    Hik: "Faith Plate."
    Ke: "Thank you." Portal on the target of the Faith Plate, he flung himself to the redirection cube. "Alright, got the next cube."
    Which he immediately used to redirect the laser.
    Z: "Quick question, how are you gonna get through that portal now?"
    Ke: "...Oh. One moment."
    Removing the laser from the redirection, he set up the frankencube below the button, and placed another portal in front of another laser hole.
    S: "So now that's just a matter of using the funnel."
    Hir: "And getting that laser done, as well."
    Which he did, getting burnt as he shared the portal with the laser.
    Mi: "I'm sure you could've set up the cube, portal yourself up there, then get the laser there."
    To which he shrugged. "It worked."
    T: "Yeah, you might have all your limbs intact."
    Hikari grumbled, as Kensuke reached the first of the moving platforms. "Now it should be a matter of portal management." Suggested Ritsuko.
    With said portals, he disengaged the laser, reactivated the funnel, allowed the frankencube to hit the button, before removing the frankencube from the button. "I feel I could've gotten that done faster."
    Ky: "Wheatley sure thought that." She chuckled. "Still, don't let it bring you down, Ken."
    Ma: "We know well at this point that it's never a bad thing to get help from others. No point suffering alone."
    Mi: "Yeah, we can suffer together!"
    They entered the elevator, Glados once more complaining about Wheatley's lack of care. "We'll sure be suffering, alright."

    Test Chamber 12 (1:48:15)
    The ground shook several times, as they entered the chamber. "What the hell is that?" Remarked Toji.
    Ke: "I don't know, but I know red is not usually a good thing." A look towards Kyoko. "With exception."
    She poked her tongue. "Nice save."
    R: "So it'll probably kill you, one way or another."
    Z: "As Glados would say, try to avoid it."
    Hir: "Wheatley might've flung himself into it long ago."
    Despite their best instincts, they decided to continue testing. "Alright, aim for the hole."
    S: "You're getting pretty good at that, Kensuke."
    Mi: "Helps you lot trained him, eh?"
    Ritsuko audibly facepalmed.
    Hik: "So one activates the platform. I'm assuming the top one deactivates the death field?"
    Ma: "It'd be required to get past the death field, so I'd assume as well."
    The platform having moved a little bit, Kensuke decided to test their assumption. "Looks like you're both right to think that."
    T: "And now you get to manage that."
    Ke: "Joy." Flat. "I fully expect to die once or twice."
    Ky: "I'm sure most of us expect that, as well."
    He jumped onto the unstationary scaffold, and began the careful manipulation of the laser. "So when this gets halfway..."
    The scaffold stopped, and the death field deactivated. "Nice, that works!"
    It didn't take long before he reached to where the button was.
    Hir: "That looked like another laser hole connected to the door, so this cube should be a redirection?"
    Ke: "On the opposite side of the death field." He muttered, manipulating the lasers once more. "At least I noticed where this cube was dropping, this time around."
    Ma: "Didn't save those other cubes."
    ... (1:49:40)
    Platform stopped, he dispensed the cube. "Hopefully that landed there."
    S: "You sound confident."
    Ky: "Only one way to find out, eh?"
    Placing his portals to jump to the platform, he realised the platform wasn't even near.
    Mi: "Well, we know it's there now."
    Momentarily reactivating the platform, it was now close enough for Kensuke to jump on.
    Z: "Say, you can't redirect that death field with the cube, can you?"
    Ke: "I won't even try that." Flat, reactivating and deactivating the platform.
    T: "That's nowhere near over, Kensuke."
    Hik: "As long as he doesn't activate the platform before getting away from the death field."
    The platform started moving closer, however this time around, his portal to remove the laser failed to land. "ShitshitshiOkay, we're good." He sighed, having barely avoided making fried Chell.
    Ky: "Jesus Christ, Ken! If you were literally a millisecond slower!"
    R: "At least you avoided an embarrassing death, Kensuke."
    Ke: "I got that going for me, at least." He couldn't help but laugh at his precarious situation. "It's honestly a miracle I survived that."
    Deactivating the death field gave him a lot more breathing room.
    Hir: "You could probably solve the chamber just from there."
    Ke: "Y'know, I think I ca-" The words died in his mouth. "Where's the cube?"
    If this was closer to the surface, they might've been able to hear the cawing of a crow. "GODS DAMN IT!" As he realised what he must've done.
    And everyone burst into laughter, "After all that as well!"
    Ke: "Yeah yeah, rub it in would ya."
    ... (1:51:00)
    T: "This sure feels familiar."
    Ke: "Uh huh." Flat as a pancake.
    Ma: "Well, at least this time around, you can avoid getting a close shave."
    Landing back on the platform. "Got that going for me, at least."
    Which soon started moving again.
    Ky: "Man this game can really fuck you when it wants to."
    Ke: "Or if you're not thinking straight. Mostly that, actually."
    S: "It's a good thing you have a lot more minds behind you, then." With a small smirk.
    This time around, he was able to get through the death field without very nearly killing himself. "What was it you suggested, Hiro?"
    Hir: "Depending on the position of the platform, you could probably just use the cube there and still be able to reach the door."
    A few small nods. "I can see that."
    He repositioned the platform closer to the button, before allowing a laser to shine close to him.
    His first course of action was to shine the laser onto the television with Wheatley on it, destroying it.
    R: "Good catharsis?"
    Ke: "Oh certainly." As he finally reached the end of the chamber.
    Which closed the door. "...Oh right, the laser."
    He got the door open easily enough, Wheatley encouraging the two to rush.
    Mi: "Sure looks out of service."
    R: "If by out of service, he means out of existence."
    Ky: "We're getting a tour out of it, at least." As Kensuke traversed the funnel that had appeared.
    T: "Yes these are some very lighty lights, Wheatley."
    Hik: "They're probably all he understands of them."
    Z: "It's more than I know of them."
    This tour was cut short by the imminent threat of a test chamber threatening to crush them.
    Which Wheatley, bless his electronic heart, tried to get them out of, as they landed in an old office. "Now where are we?"
    Ke: "We haven't fallen back into old Aperture, at least." As he walked out of this office, onto catwalks.
    And nodding to Glados' suggestion to kill him, once she gets control.
    Ma: "Killing might be a bit too much, but he does deserve something."
    Ke: "Well, I'll leave that to her." Dropping into a loading zone.

    Test Chamber 15 (1:53:05)
    Ma: "We skipped a few again?!"
    Ke: "I suppose we were going to those three chambers." Before he hit a big button. "Okay, toggle funnel."
    Z: "Button behind that glass there."
    Ky: "Small button there, probably a cube."
    T: "And no exit." Muttered Toji, upon hearing Wheatley's musings.
    R: "That's usually an important prerequisite to a chamber, admittedly."
    S: "He included everything but an exit."
    Mi: "Bet he'll just crash two chambers together and call it a day."
    While he didn't entirely do that, creating the exit did require some destruction.
    Hir: "Well, you got an exit, at least."
    Ke: "Just gotta get there." As he hit the small button.
    Much to Maya's relief, a small platform extended below the cube, preventing it falling to the void.
    Hik: "This surprise is probably death."
    Ky: "Aperture does have a tendency to use that as a surprise, I noticed."
    T: "It's not even a surprise anymore."
    Ke: "That platform is all well and good, but how do I get the cube now?" As he put his portals down, setting it up for the funnel. "I was assuming I could put it there and get the cube to me by quickly running over."
    Z: "Well that plan's down the drain."
    He clicked the button again, another cube dispensing. "No, that doesn't change it."
    Mi: "What's opposite to the platform?"
    Flipping himself around. "...Yeah I can work with that."
    The opposite wall was the right height to catch the cube, and from there Kensuke could enact his original thought. "Thanks for that, Commander."
    She scratched the back of her head.
    ... (1:54:20)
    A cube in the hands, he went to the glass. "Now to see what this does."
    Propulsion gel dispensed. "...Wait, we get to use gels as well?!"
    R: "The pipes were connected."
    S: "I wouldn't have thought Glados designed courses that used gels."
    Ky: "And God knows Wheatley couldn't do it."
    Not only was there the gel, there was a nicely sized ramp to go along with it.
    Z: "Well that's pretty obvious."
    Hir: "Looks like you're flying again."
    Ke: "It's landed on a non-portal surface, though."
    Mi: "You got a funnel, don't you?"
    Ke: "...Can you put the gel in the funnel?"
    Kensuke decided to test this empirically. "...Oh that's sick!"
    And in an instant, he had a runway. "Now, let's see where this goes."
    He ran, and leaped, and fell to his death.
    R: "Did you expect there was a platform to catch you."
    Ke: "Somewhat."
    Ma: "Well, at least you can say you tested that empirically."
    Ky: "Maybe the paint got to your head, Ken."
    Ke: "Yeah that's probably the explanation for my brain fart."
    ... (1:55:15)
    A cube in the hands, he went to the glass. "Ahh I have to do this again."
    Which he did, also getting the speed paint down in short order.
    T: "Jeez you can even see the frustration in your gameplay, Kensuke."
    He found another portal surface, suspiciously opposite to Wheatley's screen. "Though I wonder..."
    His first two attempts at graffitiing Wheatley's screen failed, due to him placing the wrong portals.
    Ky: "Eheh, are you a bit tilted, Ken?"
    Ke: "Maybe a little bit." He tried again. "Oh and the paint isn't even that high." He muttered. "Alright, let's see how to solve this."
    Z: "I'll suggest you'll need that cube again."
    Instead of going the easier route of portalling to where the cube was, he dispensed another cube.
    Much to Maya's chagrin. "Now that wasn't necessary!"
    Ke: "Yeah you're right."
    Now with the new cube on the funnel button, he walked beyond the ramp.
    R: "You had the right idea, using the ramp."
    Mi: "You probably just missed a step."
    Ke: "I know that now." Placing a portal on a distant surface, a funnel appearing. "At least jumping to my death allowed me to see where I should've put the portal."
    S: "I bet they put that Emancipation Grill there just to spite you."
    Hir: "Wouldn't even be an intentional spite; that's a completely different chamber."
    Ky: "Now, you should be able to leap over."
    Which he did, landing in the funnel.
    He sighed. "Yeah I think that did tilt me a bit."
    Kyoko did what she did, wrapping herself around Kensuke. "Lemme absorb your anger, Ken."
    He couldn't help but chuckle, even as Wheatley played up his surprise. "...Thanks Kyo."
    Ky: "...Man, he's really making it obvious, ain't he?" As she waved Sayaka over to this impromptu cuddle pile, ensuring he could still control the game.
    Sayaka soon joined in. "Thing is, I think he thinks he's being subtle."
    Ke: "His idea of subtlety is probably a train horn." Remarking, as he enjoyed this. "...Thank you as well, Sa."
    They both smiled.

    Test Chamber 16 (1:57:55)
    They were now back in their chairs. "That's what I said, Glados!" Exclaimed Sayaka.
    The walkway to the chamber collapsed.
    T: "I doubt he even has to try to kill you."
    Hik: "Whatever plan he comes up with is probably safer than whatever happens around you."
    Mi: "And he calls it butterfingers."
    Ma: "He doesn't even have fingers."
    Z: "A good thing that white paint still works then, eh?"
    Ky: "Yeah, I wonder why she gets that impression." A wry thought, as they reached the chamber proper.
    Ke: "Turrets, funnel, few buttons."
    Hir: "If I understand that pictogram, the big button reverses the funnel."
    Kensuke tested this, as Wheatley cackled. "Indeed, Hiro. He's really not being subtle anymore."
    Ky: "You're just gonna have to come up with a solution before the three chambers are up, then."
    T: "Should be easy enough with him running the show."
    Kensuke went to inspect what a pipe was, only to get riddled with bullets. "He might not have to kill me if I keep this up."
    R: "It looks like a repulsion gel pipe."
    Ke: "I wasn't riddled for nothing then, good to know."
    S: "How will you get those turrets, anyway?"
    Z: "I'd say the funnel, but those portal surfaces don't look right."
    Kensuke had a thought, portalling to where the gel dispenser is. "So if this dispenses gel..."
    Placing a funnel in front of the gel pipe, he activated the gel. The gel now floating in the funnel. "Okay, it's timed, but I can work with that."
    T: "How're you even gonna get out of there, Kensuke?"
    He activated the gel again, but this time deactivated the funnel as the paint was above him.
    T: "Oh, like that."
    ... (1:59:30)
    The funnel back down, Kensuke hit the button before entering the funnel. "Now if I hit this button, I should be able to keep that bit of paint within the funnel."
    R: "Giving you ample time to use said gel, good thinking."
    Ky: "And then you can use that gel to deal with the turrets!"
    Ma: "...Are you going to make those turrets bounce, Kensuke?"
    Mi: "It's what I'd expect would happen."
    Hik: "Especially since things automatically start bouncing, when painted."
    Indeed, that was what Kensuke was planning, the gel slowly floating above the turrets. "...Now perish."
    The gel fell down, and the turrets bounced into the abyss, yelping all the way. Maya whimpered, as Kensuke looked around.
    S: "Now you can get that button without getting perforated."
    He finally found it. "Right."
    The button revealed an angled surface.
    T: "Just a matter of velocity now."
    Ke: "Which I can use the funnel for." He realised, portals down and entering said funnel. "...Maybe not a funnel there." As he hit a shallow ceiling. "Let's try there, then."
    Much to some snickering.
    Z: "So the way I'm seeing it: fly through the portal, bounce off the gel, get to the exit."
    Kensuke sounded in confirmation. "Good to see my idea has support."
    He dropped, and flew, and bounced to the exit. "Nice."
    Hir: "He sounded rather... calm."
    Ky: "He must've found something amazing."
    Mi: "Glados certainly thinks so."
    Hik: "Well, we don't have to wait too much longer to find out."
    R: "I wouldn't say that was a good thing."

    Test Chamber 17 (2:02:00)
    Wheatley continued being 'subtle'.
    Ma: "Yeah, I'd back up the claim we were running out of time."
    Z: "One or both of them better come up with a plan."
    And so they entered the chamber. "This... seems easy."
    Ky: "Probably a chamber he made."
    S: "So what, grab the cube while flying, and open the door?"
    Mi: "That is easy. Dunno about you guys, but my bullshit sense is tingling."
    Hir: "Maybe he just wants to get us to the surprise faster."
    Ke: "Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest." With a sigh. "Well, let's see what this has to bring."
    He jumped onto the Faith Plate.
    ...Going right. "HAH! Knew it!"
    Hik: "You and me both, Commander."
    On the Commander's behest, the two high fived.
    R: "That was a pretty good one, admittedly."
    T: "For someone like him, especially."
    Ky: "Even though some of us still sensed something going on."
    Mi: "I knew something was up, but I was expecting it after the chamber."
    Wheatley explained his surprise.
    Maya couldn't help but huff. "Ah, that must be the co-op mode."
    Ke: "You think it is?"
    R: "It would explain a few things, compared to using humans."
    S: "So when do you think you could get co-op working?"
    Ritsuko shrugged. "We can certainly try getting it working. I'm certainly curious about it, I shouldn't lie."
    ~~~
    ...He Kills You.

    The Part Where He Kills You (2:02:55)
    They reached the part where he kills them. "Well, this is the part where he kills us."
    Ky: "Do ya think this is the part where he kills us?"
    S: "I certainly think this is the part where he kills us."
    Ritsuko would've hit her head on a desk, but settled for loudly facepalming. "If I didn't know we were all going into this blind, I would've said you guys planned this."
    Kensuke and his birds all poked their tongues out at her.
    Z: "Bit over the top, ain't it."
    T: "He must really want to kill us."
    Ma: "The fact the game said it three times over wasn't evidence enough for you?"
    Hik: "They really want us to know."
    Kensuke panned over a portal surface.
    Hir: "Course, I doubt he will kill you."
    Ke: "Oh yeah, I'm not gonna die to him."
    Mi: "As soon as you figure out a way not to die."
    He panned around at the spiky panels. "Even just the panels would've been enough."
    R: "Throwing you into the pits would've been enough."
    Ky: "Wouldn't be the first time he thought of something idiotic." Before she chuckled. "Did you see what I saw, Kensuke?"
    Back to the screen. "Ehe, the white gel?"
    Kyoko gave a nod. "You know what to do, Ken."
    Ke: "I sure do." He smirked.
    He painted his platform white, before getting the hell out of dodge. "Let's goooooo!" He excitedly exclaimed, as the platform was crushed, and as he legged it.
    S: "Go Ken!"

    Not Today (2:03:30)
    Through the Emancipation Grill.
    T: "Y'know, I don't exactly believe him."
    Ke: "Yeah and I'm not going back, after that."
    Z: "If that failed, he's sure as hell not gonna catch you now."
    R: "Good for him. It'll allow him to get to him."
    Ky: "He's doing what Glados did! Trying to make this seem all friendly and that!"
    S: "Oh he was pretending he was gonna murder her, eh?"
    Ke: "Not falling for that!" As he reached the end of a catwalk, noticing a few portal surfaces.
    Hik: "Time to fling yourself."
    Mi: "It's very convenient those portal surfaces are there."
    Hir: "Another way Wheatley screwed up, I imagine."
    Chell was flung across, the music welling. "Oh it wasn't obvious I wasn't coming back?"
    Ma: "Why is there a cube th-"
    A mashy spike plate smashed the cube into the wall. "Nuuu!"
    Ke: "Least I'm not to blame for that, for once." As he got across the now broken catwalk, entering the loading zone. "Let the games begin indeed, Wheatley."
    Ky: "If you're meant to be playing chess, he's playing something like janken."
    S: "He probably doesn't even know that."

    Crap Turrets (2:04:35)
    Back to the action, Kensuke continuing to rush.
    At least until Wheatley crashed a test chamber into the catwalks.
    T: "Welp, that's a trap."
    R: "Good to see it's obvious."
    Hik: "And I imagine we'll have to go through whatever he has planned."
    Ke: "Knowing him, it'll be something completely stupid."
    Mi: "He is capable of some good thoughts."
    S: "When the stars align."
    Ky: "And when God decides on it."
    Ma: "Hopefully they're smiling on us, this time around."
    Ky: "Pfft, since when was God smiling on us?"
    Z: "I'm sure your relationship can be one example."
    Glados also knew it was a trap, at least.
    Hir: "Not like you can't not trigger the trap."
    Kensuke shrugged, placing portals. "Oh well, let's see."
    They landed in the chamber, and were immediately surrounded by turrets.
    ...Broken turrets, much to the amusement of everyone. "Well good fucking job, Wheatley."
    S: "He had working turrets! Why are they the crap ones?!"
    T: "He didn't even unbox that one."
    Ma: "Gods they're still adorable!"
    Kensuke began looking around the room. "Good to see even the room screen is broken."
    Ky: "I don't know how he got a boxed turret down there."
    Hik: "Thing is, it's probably functioning."
    Z: "He just forgot to unpack it, obviously."
    With this brief break, all the while Wheatley tried to determine if they were being killed or not, he began tipping them. "You don't have to torture them more, Kensuke!"
    Ke: "I genuinely don't think I can make it any worse on them."
    Hir: "So he's angry you're not telling him if you're dead or not?"
    Mi: "I'd be amazed if he could tell us he was dead."

    Good Turrets (2:06:15)
    His fun over, Kensuke left the quote unquote death trap. "No, we're still very much alive, dumbass."
    T: "I still dunno how he got the crap turrets."
    Kensuke twitched at the various incorrect card based phrases. "That's not how it works!"
    S: "At least you got proper turrets to let out your anger."
    R: "You'll most likely need the funnel, anyway." She noted. "As it looks like the catwalk ends."
    Hir: "Why does that room have a funnel, anyway?"
    Z: "Because Wheatley doesn't have a brain, darling?"
    The player used his brain to disable the turrets, with the funnel.
    To one turret's credit, it was able to riddle him with bullets even while it was floating away. "Gah don't kill me!"
    Ma: "Can't say I feel too sorry." A small huff.
    As he confirmed Ritsuko's observation. "Yeah that's probably deserved." Before jumping into the funnel.
    Wheatley revealing another deathtrap. "Not again!" Maya pleaded, as the turrets were ground up.
    Chell was able to avoid this fate, almost comically easily as a matter of fact. "Is he even trying?"
    Ky: "That's the thing, I think he is."
    R: "I wouldn't use Machiavellian to describe him." Muttering, as Kensuke entered the next room. "Well you use the funnel."
    Ke: "Pretty obvious, ain't it." Funneling through the open door. "Let's see how this screws us over this time."
    T: "That, I take."
    Chell being Aristotle, Wheatley once more tried crushing her with a mashy spike plate.
    Key word tried, Kensuke placing a funnel down on a conveniently placed surface.
    Mi: "Thing is, if he just sped up the crushing thingy, he'd get you."
    R: "Good thing he's an idiot. He could've just disabled that funnel."
    S: "Good for us, at least."

    Bouncing Around (2:07:55)
    Kensuke continued making his way through the facility. "It really doesn't help his case he dragged me closer to him."
    Ma: "If he has any sort of intelligence, he would have done what Glados did and proof everything."
    Ky: "That didn't even work out for her, what chance does he got?"
    A pipe full of blue paint fell down, destroying the catwalk.
    Hik: "Good thing it's blue gel."
    R: "Good thing it didn't kill you, despite his hopes."
    Kensuke inspected a broken window pane. "Might have to deal with turrets."
    He went into the next room, as Wheatley had an idea. "A lot of turrets!"
    S: "That could've ended badly."
    T: "Getting turned to Swiss cheese is never a good thing, I feel."
    Fleeing, he glanced up. "Good thing that's there."
    Landing in the room. "Button, Plate, blue gel."
    Z: "The button probably activates that paint."
    Hir: "And I'm assuming you'll use that Faith Plate after you deal with the turrets."
    Mi: "It's just dealing with this turrets that's the thing."
    Probing the button. "Yeah, it activates it."
    Before turning to the turret room. "...And there's a lot of portal surface."
    Maya immediately grew dejected. "...Aww I see what you have to do."
    Ke: "Ah I'm sure they might enjoy it."
    Portals placed, he activated the gel.
    The turrets immediately began bouncing around, as they were covered in the paint.
    Everyone except Maya found this amusing. "...Hmpf."
    Neglecting to use a convenient portal surface, Kensuke jumped to the Faith Plate and on the Faith Plate, now that the turret situation was taken care of. "Oh that one's still bouncing!"
    Ma: "That's not a good thing!"
    Said turret soon fell into the void, blowing up. "Why is everything so cruel to them?"
    Ky: "Don't blame us, blame Aperture for not only giving them sentience, but making them adorable."
    T: "He is just trying to save his own skin, after all."
    Ma: "I get that much, at least..."

    Bombs (2:09:30)
    Loading done, they soon found themselves in a small office.
    All the while Glados went on at length as to how she'll torture Wheatley.
    Ky: "I'm not even gonna complain."
    Ma: "Why does she have a room full of screaming robots?!"
    T: "Are those bombs?"
    Mi: "What makes you think that?"
    T: "They're circular and glowing red, that's an obvious bomb."
    Hitting the obvious button, Kensuke was pleased to find out it moved the bomb chute, the bombs now harmlessly blowing up on the floor in front of the office. "Well I certainly see a use for that."
    Z: "What're the chances you could use that to blow up that white gel tube?"
    Hir: "It'd allow you to get through to that room, that's for sure."
    R: "I assume you saw that panel above you, Kensuke?"
    Ke: "Yeah I saw it." As he looked up. "Though the one in front would be better for our purposes."
    Portals down, he backed up to avoid the bombs.
    ...Perhaps backing up a bit too much, as he passed an Emancipation Grill, promptly shutting his portals.
    The flattest of flat looks on his face. "Damn it."
    S: "I wonder if that was deliberately designed to do that."
    Ke: "It's sure making me think that." Muttering, Kensuke replacing the portals before the bombs could drop.
    White gel flew everywhere.
    T: "Got it done in the end, at least."
    Ke: "At least."
    Kensuke portalled himself to the other side, continuing through an office and to another catwalk.

    Morton's Fork (2:10:50)
    To a conveyer belt. "Can't wait to see how he tries to kill us now."
    S: "Key word try."
    Kensuke dropped onto the belt, and lo and behold it started, threatening to toss him into a crusher.
    Z: "I'm guessing he didn't account for that other catwalk."
    T: "Does he ever account for anything?"
    On the catwalk was a shiny red button, that immediately deposited bombs, as Wheatley began his negotiations.
    Mi: "You bet your robotic ass they've been a failure!"
    Hik: "Bombing that pipe might be a good start."
    Wheatley continued as Kensuke broke the pipe.
    Hir: "If those are portal surfaces, you could probably use that gel to speed yourself up, on that belt."
    Which he did, and was close to running on it before Wheatley gave his ultimatum.
    R: "Oh so he wants you to kill yourself now so he doesn't have to later?"
    Ma: "Doesn't exactly sound optional."
    Ky: "Either he dies now or he dies later. Real fuckin great options there."
    Ke: "I'm gonna tell him just what I think about his options."
    Placing his portals down, Kensuke attempted to bomb his television.
    Taking three attempts.
    T: "Yeah I'd definitely call that a no."
    S: "You bet he's gonna do a lot worse to him, when Kensuke gets to his lair."
    R: "Glados didn't even call it her lair." She mused.
    Mi: "Power went to Wheatley's head almost immediately."
    The propulsion gel now back on the conveyer, it was trivial for Kensuke to get to the next section. "Well, we didn't get crushed."
    Z: "A shame for Wheatley, I'm sure."

    Velocity (2:12:40)
    A part of the next room fell apart, Glados rueing the day Wheatley was ever created.
    R: "Yeah, he really did a number on this place."
    Ma: "I'd say Aperture ran better without anyone at the helm."
    Hik: "So we need to reach that funnel, I imagine."
    Mi: "It's all how."
    The player continued looking around. "Well, there's ample portal surfaces."
    Z: "One below the funnel, one in a corridor."
    Hir: "I think that gel might come in handy."
    Ke: "I reckon you're completely right, Hiro." Placing his portal down.
    And paint immediately rushing in. "Well that was a fluke."
    Ky: "You didn't know what portals were where again?"
    S: "I think he was distracted by the destruction." She mused.
    T: "Worked out right for him, at least."
    Kensuke shrugged, portals down. "I was planning on walking back there anyway. Less exercise, at least."
    Ma: "Not like that's a bad thing."
    He ran and shot himself up towards the funnel.
    Ky: "Jeez it's still falling to shit."
    Glados started talking with Chell. "You bet we don't want to put you back in there."
    R: "Do we have any options?"
    Ke: "And we already concluded Glados is the best option."
    Z: "Which I still can't believe."
    Ke: "Oh but at least she has a conscience now."
    Hik: "Took Caroline long enough, didn't it."
    Hir: "I thought she was Caroline."
    Mi: "Maybe she has several aspects. And the one in charge usually is just a psychopath."
    S: "That can happen?"
    R: "It certainly happened to someone here." As Kensuke entered the loading zone.

    Core (2:14:15)
    T: "So how're we getting out of there?"
    Ke: "Up, I'm assuming."
    It was indeed up, Kensuke finding his way soon enough.
    At least he would've, if he didn't fall back down again.
    R: "It's a good thing you have those boots, Kensuke."
    Ky: "If he had a Yen for every time those boots saved him, he could fund Aperture for himself!"
    Now a bit more carefully, he landed at the top.
    Finding a few cores.
    Z: "Now those will come in handy."
    S: "I'd hate to be the light core."
    Kensuke couldn't help but chuckle, as he looked up towards it. "Your job is to be a lightbulb."
    Ma: "It'd be a simple job, at least."
    Hir: "So you just plug those cores in?"
    Hik: "Bit of an antithesis to the last game, isn't it?"
    Mi: "It is!"
    T: "Jeez that yellow eyed one is especially mental, ain't he?"
    R: "There's a reason they're all listed as corrupt. Wouldn't surprise me if they were all listed for destruction, at least under Glados' rule."
    Ke: "She's got the right idea, at least." Walking towards the breaker room, passing by gels and bombs for days. "Get him corrupt enough to force a transfer."
    Kyoko couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. "We might be getting a boss fight, Ken!"
    To which he smirked. "Can't wait to see how we get him."
    The potato core was plugged in, the lift going up.
    Z: "Let's get some revenge!"

    Lair (2:15:20)
    And so they entered Wheatley's lair.
    Mi: "Man he's really built it up."
    T: "Oh and you're on a time limit as well!"
    Ma: "Just like the last game. Only this time around, everyone will die."
    S: "At least he's looking to get this affair over and done with."
    R: "Even scheduling how this will go." Muttering. "Why the hell would you schedule a minute break in your precious six minutes of not blowing up?!"
    Ky: "Forgetting the fact he should be focusing everything on not blowing up the facility."
    Wheatley actually showed himself as having some sort of intelligence, learning from the mistakes of Glados.
    Hik: "That is actually pretty thoughtful of him."
    Ke: "As we said, he is capable of such thoughts."
    Hir: "Rarely."
    Z: "I see one glaring issue with using bombs, however."
    Ky: "Pipes are good at carrying a lot of stuff, but they're damn fragile aren't they?"
    The battle began, Kensuke taking their suggestion to bomb the pipe carrying the conversion gel.
    Much to Wheatley's quote unquote pretend screaming.
    R: "Now, it should be a similar process to the last game."
    Ke: "Throw the bombs in Wheatley's face?"
    Ritsuko gave a single nod.
    S: "Oh yeah you are actually bombing him!"
    The bombs started up again, Kensuke placing his portals down and almost immediately throwing a bomb in Wheatley's face. "Nice that works!"
    Glados delivered the first core, with Wheatley knocked out. It took Kensuke a few attempts to get to the upper catwalk, but he got there eventually.
    T: "Gee I wonder what that core likes."
    Hik: "I think it's the ocean."
    Hir: "Speaking of, that blue gel will come in handy, I'm sure."
    Ma: "Yeah, I can see why that core ended up in the bin."
    R: "How does a core even find out about space to become so obsessed with it?"
    Kensuke shrugged. "Hopefully it screws up Wheatley a bit."
    ... (2:17:25)
    He jumped up, connecting the Space Core and corrupting Wheatley a bit.
    Ky: "Okay, the neurotoxin's off. But that doesn't fucking matter since the reactor's gonna blow!"
    Z: "Not unless Kensuke keeps bombing him."
    Of course, Wheatley started with the bombs again.
    Which was promptly thrown back in his face, Kensuke immediately seeing how to counter the shield.
    T: "Jeez that's just pathetic."
    Hik: "Kinda fitting for him, Toj."
    Soon enough, the next core was dispensed by Glados.
    Mi: "Great, he's the sexist core."
    Ma: "Ah I think he's just trying to complement us."
    S: "It's more complements than Chell has ever gotten so far."
    Ke: "It could help if Glados didn't sway him around." He muttered, as he portalled to the now broken catwalk and failing his first attempt to grab the core.
    At least his second attempt was successful, the Adventure Sphere introducing himself and trying to act all suave.
    Key word trying, all the ladies in the room flatly staring at them. "Yeah alright, maybe they are a bit sexist." Conceded Maya.
    R: "If this was how he generally interacted, I can see why Glados wanted to dispose him."
    S: "He's ogling Chell, isn't he."
    Ke: "I assume you want me to plug him in before you guys throw him through the screen up there."
    Mi: "Preferably."
    ... (2:18:30)
    The Sexist Sphere was plugged in, corrupting Wheatley yet more.
    Hir: "I should question how corrupting the main computer destroys the reaction explosion timer."
    Ky: "We have even less time now!"
    Hik: "Not that we'll even need more than ten seconds to get Wheatley disabled again, if the last bombing was anything to go by."
    Ma: "I'm kinda amazed they have that sort of contingency for if they don't know when the reactor will explode."
    Mi: "Bit of an extreme one."
    To Wheatley's credit, it took more than one bombing cycle for Kensuke to disable him, but that was mostly due to unfortunate positioning.
    T: "You still saw right through his shield."
    R: "Thing is, he's protecting all the places he was bombed in."
    Ke: "That wasn't enough, obviously."
    The last corrupt core was dispensed.
    Z: "How the hell are you getting to that?"
    A pipe carrying propulsion gel broke, splattering everywhere.
    Ke: "That, I'm assuming."
    The core was easily acquired, which allowed them to catch the utter garbage it was speaking.
    S: "I mean, it's a terrible mnemonic but it does work."
    Ky: "What is that, an anti intelligence core?"
    It talked about the discovery of cow's milk.
    T: "Can't deny his logic, I suppose."
    It talked about the best name.
    Mi: "CRAIG?!"
    It talked about the origin of the automobile brake.
    R: "Kensuke, plug him in before I start pulling my hair out."
    Ke: "I'm running out of time anyway, so gladly."

    Stalemate (2:20:05)
    The Wheatley Sphere was plugged in, corruption now at 100%.
    Ky: "Nice!"
    R: "Now it should just be a matter of initiating the transfer."
    T: "Unless Wheatley says no to that."
    Ma: "Wheatley's completely corrupt, isn't he? They need a core transfer."
    Glados asked the automated systems to get on with it.
    Z: "Can understand why she wants to rush at least."
    Wheatley almost screwed himself over, thanks to his sarcasm.
    S: "It still ends in a stalemate? They said a replacement was required!"
    Mi: "This is why I don't like bureaucracy."
    Hir: "It's a good thing Chell has some training as a stalemate resolver."
    A fire broke out in the stalemate resolution annex, the facility still intact enough for the emergency sprinklers to work.
    Hik: "Good thing he didn't find that earlier, eh?"
    Ke: "Certainly would've made our deaths more certain."
    To the cheering of Glados and the consternation of Wheatley, Kensuke began making his way to the annex. "Okay, can't get in this way."
    Ky: "Good thing you got a few portal surfaces, then."
    Ke: "Oh yeah." Both portals were placed. "Let's end th-"
    Wheatley initiated part five of his plan, Chell flying across the room. "Oh you asshole!"
    R: "I must say, that was another good idea on his part."
    Chell displayed her immense tenacity by getting right back up. "Holy shit girl, you literally just got bombed and you're still going?!"
    S: "Someone for us to look up too, eh Kyo?"
    Ky: "You fucking know it!"
    She looked to Wheatley, immediately grabbing her portal gun once more.
    The roof above her gave way.
    A beat passed. "...Oh my Gods." Kensuke quietly realised, eyes going wide at the glorious sight in the night sky. "This isn't about to happen, is it?"
    Ritsuko couldn't help but smirk, herself gathering what was to pass. "You know what that portal gel is made of, Kensuke."
    Ke: "I sure do!" A wide grin grew on his face, as he double checked his portals. "It's made of MOON!"

    Moonlight's Embrace (2:21:25)
    The portal gun fired, as everyone fell silent. "Ken? Did you just..."
    A twinkle.
    Before the air began rushing out. "I sure did, Kyo!" Laughing like a madman all the way.
    Mi: "You just did that." She couldn't believe it. "You shot a portal on the fucking moon!"
    Ma: "She doesn't grab onto something, she'll be on the moon soon enough."
    T: "The fact she even did this is awesome enough."
    Chell was dragged out, but grabbed onto Wheatley just in time.
    Hik: "Oh Gods it really is the moon."
    S: "Holy shit." She awed, as they looked down on Earth.
    R: "And near an original moon landing, as well."
    Z: "You guys already landed on the moon?"
    Ke: "This is so fucking insane! Who the hell would even think to do that?!"
    Hir: "We know her name. Chell."
    Wheatley begged Chell to let go.
    Ma: "And he still only cares for himself!"
    Ke: "If I have to die in the vacuum of space, I'm taking him with me!"
    The Space Core got what he wanted, almost tossing Chell from Wheatley.
    T: "They'll be happy about that."
    If Wheatley was capable of bodily functions, he would have required a change in pants upon hearing the voice of Glados. "Ohh is he gonna get shot to space as well?" Thought Kyoko.
    Mi: "After all that I hope he does!"
    She said she was not coming back.
    Z: "Aha! I think he's gone!"
    Wheatley was knocked away, his desperate begging fading into the distance as he was given the Nightmare Moon treatment.
    Ke: "Well I know we're probably dead, as well. But at least he's gone!"
    Ky: "Fucks sake, I'd call that a badass death."
    Lucky for her, Glados thought otherwise. "...Wait, we're not dying?!"
    Ma: "She actually saved us?"
    R: "I suppose she does keep her promises."
    Chell soon fell unconscious, as Glados started moving herself back.

    Destati (2:20:30)
    They saw her awaken, in an elevator.
    And with the company of a couple of robots. "Oh Gods they're adorable!"
    Ky: "I bet they're the co-op bots."
    R: "I doubt Maya would complain if they were."
    She squeed.
    Amazingly, Glados showed relief as Chell awoke.
    T: "Wow, it's almost as if she's turned a new leaf."
    Z: "Maybe she won't kill us."
    Mi: "It does sound like she's learnt the value of friendship, at least."
    S: "And friends don't kill one another."
    Ke: "Unless you're Rei and Kaworu."
    S: "Well, yeah."
    T: "I still dunno how they got together."
    Hik: "Love's a wonderful thing, eh Toj?" As she deliberately rubbed up against him. "Seems even murderous computers can learn something close to that."
    Ma: "Love's a whole 'nother ballgame, but friendship is a good start."
    Caroline was deleted, the lights immediately becoming cooler.
    Ma: "Oh well never mind!"
    Ky: "So d'ya think she'll keep up her end of the bargain to not kill us?"
    Hir: "We are pretty hard to kill, aren't we? Maybe she'll just turn us loose or something."
    Glados certainly admitted as much.
    Mi: "Can't deny she had an easier life before we came along, eh?"
    Z: "You know something has gone wrong when you get shoved into a potato."
    R: "Rather understandable she calls us a lunatic, then."
    Ma: "Especially since we almost sent her to the moon."
    Ritsuko did well to suppress her laugh at Maya's small pun.
    Ky: "Oh wow, she is turning us loose."
    Ke: "Ain't that a change."
    S: "There's probably a twist to this." She muttered, as Glados told her to never come back.
    Mi: "Oh I gotta remember that line."

    Cara Mia (2:23:45)
    The elevator went up and up and up, alongside the music.
    Stopping at a door.
    Hir: "And here's the trap."
    Turrets were revealed, and deployed.
    S: "Knew it."
    Hik: "Bit of a stupid end for Chell, isn't it."
    Z: "Well, we thought her dead anyway, didn't we?"
    The turrets weren't firing. "...Why aren't they shooting?" Thought Misato.
    ...They started singing.
    Ky: "Ah no."
    Ma: "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-"
    R: "Let her have her fun, Kyoko." With a soft smile, as the song continued.
    Ke: "This must've been what they were rehearsing for."
    Mi: "It's quite a nice song, admittedly."
    The elevator went onward and upward, passing by several scenes of various turrets.
    Before revealing a veritable choir of turrets, one soloing. "There's so many!"
    R: "And I bet they're all about to sing, as well."
    They began their opera, the fat turret leading.
    Ma: "That's so cute!"
    T: "What the hell is that turret in the back?"
    Ke: "...Is that the animal king turret?"
    Mi: "It has a crown, so I'd assume so."
    King Turret began the baritone.
    S: "Quite the sendoff for Chell, isn't it?"
    Hik: "I wonder if Glados is trying to say something for her? Composing a damn opera for her."
    T: "The only person I know that composed a song for his girlfriend was Shinji."
    Hikari laughed. "And she certainly appreciated it, didn't she?"
    The singing continued as the elevator went further up, through yet more derelict facility.
    And at it's apex, Chell was released into a field of wheat, on a bright summer's day
    R: "I'm not sure what Glados was on about, that all looks perfectly fine."
    Ke: "Maybe whatever happened with Black Mesa didn't affect the world."
    Hir: "I still don't know what happened at Black Mesa."
    Ky: "Well if you wanna play it, Ken could probably lend you a copy and a computer if you need it."
    Hiro and Zero Two looked between one another. "Yeah we can go for that."
    From behind her, a rattling.
    And from out the shed, the original Companion Cube.
    Ma: "Aww and she even has a friend!"
    ~~~

    (2:25:50)

    The door slammed.

    And the credits started. "She's singing again?"

    "Hey, she has a nice voice!"

    "The interface looks a lot more slick, as well." Thought Misato. "So, how was this game, Kensuke?"

    "Fucking awesome!" He exclaimed, bouncing off his chair. "Holy hell that ending. Who the hell would even think about that?"

    "Obviously Valve did." Mused Zero Two.

    "Well, it's good to see you enjoyed this, Kensuke." Ritsuko chuckled. "We'll be sure to give you a call if any other video game comes through a Rift."

    "And you bet I'll play it."

    "And not just because you can claim it's work." Prodded Kyoko.

    "It is work, technically." Said Ritsuko. "They are Rift Materials. It's NERV's discretion to go through them; see what they are."

    "And how they can be useful to us." Added on Misato. "Speaking of, will the Magi audit both games?"

    The Subcommander nodded. "They'll see if there's any of those transmissions in the first one we missed, and then we'll trawl through this one. See if we can squeeze anything good out of it."

    "I doubt anyone would complain if you were able to get that co-op working." Toji remarked. "So since I'm starting to see these sorts of highly classified materials from other dimensions, I take it that's a good mark for my potential to become pilot?"

    "I mean, it'd be a good way to keep you silent about this." Chuckled Misato. "But in all seriousness, you've seen how our new pilot system works. And... I really want to move to it." As she became more serious. "Though... I know it's a lot to think about for you two."

    "You don't have to if you don't want to." The Subcommander added on, as the song kept going. "We'll let you two sleep on it, discuss it between you two. And... if you agree, we'll make sure it's worth your while, alright?"

    A small spot of quiet, as Toji thought. "...Look, as long as it means I can help protect Hikari from whatever monsters come our way, I'm all in."

    She blushed. "...You're terrible at negotiating, Toj." Chastising to hide her feelings. "When they hired me, I managed to net paid for university for all the pilots."

    Scratching the back of his head. "Y'know I'm not too much of a people person. I bashed Shin-man when I first met him."

    "Hell, you did that to me when we first met." Deadpanned Kensuke. "That might as well be your standard greeting."

    "Yeah yeah, just prove my point why don'tcha." Rolling his eyes. "Ya see why I tend to leave the talking to Hikari."

    "Ah, you have a way with words with people you're close with." Hikari nudged.

    "Still, point still stands." Ritsuko began again. "Sleep on it, take your time. Do what's best for both of you."

    "I will." He confirmed.

    "All the while you were discussing his potential job prospects here, Glados has been roasting us!" Kyoko exclaimed.

    "This whole song has just been jabbing at Chell, hasn't it?"

    "And she isn't even thinking of Wheatley." Thought Maya.

    "Probably thinking if he ever somehow came back, she'd murder him." As he continued to listen. "Though... a part of me is thinking she didn't actually delete Caroline."

    "She is Caroline." Firmed Ritsuko. "She cannot delete her unless she wanted to delete herself. I think she just said what she said to Chell to prevent her from thinking too much about it."

    "Hey, did we ever catch that song?" Kensuke queried, as the credits began to wrap up. "Exile Villify."

    "Still Alive we know of, Want You Gone is obviously this one." Ritsuko ran through. "...No I don't believe we've encountered that song."

    "If it's credited, it must be somewhere." Thought Zero Two.

    To which Ritsuko shrugged. "It's something to find, then."

    (2:28:15)

    The credits ended, and the screen shut down.

    Revealling Wheatley and the Space Core in... well, space.

    "Oh now he fucking apologises!"

    "Took him long enough, eh Kyo?" Prodded Sayaka.

    "And it only took him getting banished to space."

    "A bit extreme, but at least he's not dead."

    "We wanted him dead, Maya." Misato muttered.

    "...I think the Space Core is orbiting Wheatley." Noted Ritsuko.

    "At least they're enjoying what happened." Zero Two chuckled.

    "Not Wheatley."

    "Oh yeah, but who cares what he thinks now?"

    "Hopefully for the Space Core's sake, he doesn't have to spend too long around Wheatley."

    "I think the Space Core is lucky, Toj. It doesn't have the mental capacity to understand Wheatley's lack of mental capacity."

    "Odds are, they'll eventually run out of power anyway." Ritsuko thought. "They can run on as few as 1.1 volts, but even that would drain without an outside source."

    "So he is dead?"

    A nod at Misato's suggestion.

    "Good." She thought. "Hopefully he doesn't go landing in our world."

    (2:29:00)

    And they were back at the menu.

    "Heh, they even changed the menu." Maya noted.

    "Well, I guess that's us done now." Kensuke sighed. "Almost a shame."

    "All good things and all that, Ken." Kyoko ran her hand over his arm.

    "And maybe if the Subcommander can get it working, we'll be doing the co-op soon enough."

    "Heh, I'll certainly see what I can do. Might not be for a short while; we'd essentially have to reverse engineer the entire game and whatever network it ran on."

    "Just sic the Magi on them, like everything."

    Ritsuko rolled her eyes at Misato's suggestion. "You know how they're like running this, right? I'm not running it until we can get resource usage to at most half of the Magi. That way if we have to run two instances of this, we won't deep fry their brains."

    "Well, make sure you get us involved, if you get it working." Zero Two suggested. "I certainly wouldn't mind playing with my darling, eh?"

    "It does seem like fun." He smiled. "I'm sure you two wouldn't mind as well." Directed towards Toji and Hikari.

    "Pretty sure I'll fry my mind doing it." He huffed. "But I definitely wouldn't mind. It's... always pretty nice playing games with you, Hikari."

    "Likewise, Toj." She smirked, as they both got up. "I take it we're dismissed?"

    The Subcommander nodded. "We can take it from here. Once you exit, Kensuke."

    "...Oh yeah."

    He quit out, swapping himself out with the Subcommander. "Make sure you keep us informed about what goes on with this, Subcommander."

    "We will, don't worry." As she waited for the prompt to return. "Since it does concern you, somewhat."

    He went towards Hiro and Zero Two. "You two wanna go on a bit of a trek to my house?"

    They craned their heads.

    "Computer."

    "...Ohh, yeah alright!"

    "Do you really have that many computers that you can just let them pick and choose, Kensuke?"

    Chuckling and nodding at Maya's question. "Yeah."

    "Ya do know he trash picked that Octane of his." Muttered Kyoko.

    "And that's probably the best computer he's even found." Chuckled Sayaka. "Though it is kinda fun, scavenging for that kind of stuff."

    "What, you two just spend your weekends scavving for old computers and fixing them up?"

    All three nodded. "We don't just fuck all day and night, Commander. I know we're teens and we all very much love one another, but we have other hobbies."

    "If you know who I live with, you can understand my thinking."

    She barked a laugh. "I'm sure if we were allowed to live together, we'd be like that."

    "My point exactly."

    To which she poked her tongue. "C'mon, you guys!"

    The five soon left, as Ritsuko logged out of this terminal. "And you two, think about it, alright?"

    Hikari and Toji nodded, before they too made their leave.

    She sighed. "At least the Magi survived this."

    VIDEO STOP (2:30:05)

    "Miraculous, isn't it." Flatly mentioned the Commander.

    "They were running flat out, Misato." As Maya checked her terminal. "Magi loads returning to nominal levels."

    "Inform the facility that Magi maintenance has concluded, and regular operations can continue."

    "Yes Sempai!" As she did just that, on her terminal.

    "And I imagine you want to check on your other half, Misato."

    "You know it, Rits." She poked her tongue, before she too left.

    "So what are the chances she's married and/or with child by the end of the year, Sempai?"

    The Sempai couldn't help but chuckle. "You see it too, don't you." As she went to another terminal. "She's even more smitten with him than usual, isn't she?"

    "Least it sounds like she's enjoying her time, without her charges."

    "Wasn't obvious before?"

    To which she sighed, going to her terminal.

    "...I know you're still struggling with that, Maya. But... she is fine."

    "I know. It's... just longing, isn't it."

    She turned back to her terminal, simply wanting to get some work done to distract herself from those thoughts.

    At least until she was hit in the back of the head with something soft. "...Did you just throw a pillow at me, Sempai?"

    "...No?"

    "Wha?"

    Maya turned around in her chair and looked around, trying to find what hit her.

    Her eyes went wide, as she realised what is was.

    And she squeed, picking it up. "Sempai, look!"

    It was a plush turret, around the same size of her head.

    And yes, it was as adorable as Maya would've hoped for.

    Ritsuko just rolled with it. "Hopefully that can help cheer you up, then." The Sempai couldn't help but smile, as Maya snuggled it, before she propped it up next to her terminal. "...It is kind of annoying you got hit with something soft, though."

    "Ehehe..." She awkwardly laughed. "How weird would it be if I bought this home and put it on the couch or the bed or something?"

    "Knowing what it is, a bit." She chuckled. "Good thing I'm a bit weird too."

    Another squee. "And you're not as weird as some Ritsukos I know of, Sempai."

    "I got that going for me, at least."

    The two of them now a bit more cheered up, they began trawling through the various data that these two video games had to offer.

    "...Hey Sempai? Were we done with that Mahou Shoujo Kensuke lended us?"

    A beat.

    "Damn it, I forgot to give that back to him."

    Maya giggled. "He's coming in for work tomorrow, Sempai. You can give it back to him then."
    ~~~
    Kensuke open the door to his rather sizeable room and hit the lights, still decked out with figurines and the ensign of the JMSDF (which almost resulted in him getting his ass kicked, according to Rei).

    And a whole heap of computers. "Jeez, that's a lot."

    "Ah he has more in the spare room." Shrugging.

    "Plus, I'd say it gives some charm to it."

    "Not just because you share a bed with him, I'm sure." Prodded Zero Two.

    "Only on weekends, unfortunately."

    "At least until Ken can find a place somewhere, now he's got a well paying job."

    "And when we're old enough." Kensuke remarked. "I don't think NERV would allow me to get an apartment until I'm out of school, at least."

    "A shame we can't age faster, eh?" Kyoko prodded. "So what computer d'ya two want?"

    The two Klaxosaurs glanced between one another. "Anything that plays the original Half Life, honestly."

    "Well that should be easy enough."

    Grabbing a beige, mid sized tower from the pile of computers, he got it connected to the various peripherals required. "Looks like a bit of a wreck."

    "You would've been talk of the town if you had this computer back in '98, Zero Two." He chuckled, applying power. "Pentium 3, 256mb of RAM, TNT2 graphics."

    "I don't think either of us know what those words mean." Hiro flatly prodded.

    To which all three snickered. "Even we know those terms, by now."

    "Basically means it's good enough to play just about anything you wanted. Hell, even nowadays it's still pretty good."

    A harsh noise played over the speakers. "Always hated that startup sound." Kyoko muttered.

    "That looks... kinda similar to Whistler."

    "It's a couple generations removed, but it gets the job done." Kensuke shrugged. "It's either that or Millennium, and you really need a golden goose of a computer to get that running properly."

    The two Klaxosaurs blinked. "I just wanna play Half Life."

    "Heh, alright."

    As the computer was being shut down, Kensuke gathered a spare monitor, some spare peripherals and cables, and a spool of burnt CDs. "I'm sure one of those is Half Life, but it'd give you guys other things to mess around with."

    "So you're just giving us all this without a tutorial on how to use a computer or anything."

    All three of them shrugged. "Windows is a baby's system. If a damned secretary can use it, you can too!"

    They couldn't really argue with that. "What's a secretary?"

    "Right, other world and all that."

    "You two'll be fine." As the tower was placed in front of them with the other peripherals. "Match the plugs in the right holes, make sure everything's connected to power, and that should be all. I'm pretty sure you guys have my number from when I tried calling you a while ago, so you can fall back on that if you encounter something weird."

    The two nodded. "Okay, I have one more question, though."

    "Shoot."

    Zero Two indicated to the pile of computer parts at her feet. "How on Earth are we getting this to the Geofront, where our apartment is?"

    The Puella and Kensuke looked between one another. Kyoko couldn't help but smirk.
    ~

    The sun had now set, and Hiro and Zero Two were dragging the computer and various computer parts in a wagon, along the street to the nearby station that lead to the Geofront. "How is it so heavy?!"

    "Oh don't be like that, darling!" While Hiro was breaking a sweat dragging this wagon, Zero Two was practically skipping. "Seeing the sights and stretching our legs is never a bad thing, eh?"
    ~


    The perpetual daylight of Antarctica at this time was havoc on his body clock, but it was well worth it for Spencer Makinami. "Set it down." He spoke into a handheld radio, the sound muffled by his full body radiation suit.

    A crane slowly descended, dropping its cargo onto the deck of the glorified freighter he had hired. "Never thought we'd be seeing you here again, Voyager." Quietly remarking.

    "Do you think you'll find anything?"

    "I doubt there would be anything physically, other than impact damage." Before he pointed to his suit. "Never hurts to be careful, though."

    Back to his radio. "Drop the buoy and let's get out of here."

    Lack of ozone and the general feeling of this cursed place generally meant trips down here were few and far between, and always fleeting.

    Didn't remove the need for Makinami and company to monitor this desolate wasteland.

    Soon enough, there was only the buoy left, diligently monitoring their surroundings, beaming them to several satellites for all to see.

    And just in case.
    ~


    Blue eyes fluttered open.

    "Heh, finally awake?"

    Asuka gave a small stretch, still holding onto Shinji. "This is practically the only time we can sleep in so late, Shin-chan. I'm making the most of it."

    An amused chuckle. "Suppose that's what those two are doing, as well."

    She looked down to the foot of their bed, seeing Rei and Kaworu curled up together.

    "Heh. I'm pretty sure we need to say those five now, Shinji."

    With her foot, she prodded the two of them. "Oi, you guys up?"

    "...Now we are." Murmured Kaworu.

    "Rei says she wants to rest for a bit longer."

    "So she's put you in charge?"

    Eliza as Rei nodded. "And yes, she knows it's midday."

    "Nothing like a sleep in, Eliza." Chuckled Kaworu, not particularly caring who was currently in charge of Rei's body.

    Asuka couldn't help but smile. "...I still can't believe you guys still wanted to be with me, after how I rushed everyone."

    While they were no longer doing anything close to sexual with one another, Asuka... certainly appreciated the company. And the warmth.

    So, Rei and Kaworu dragged their bed into Asuka and Shinji's room. 'One big sleepover', Rei described it as.

    Of course, now the room was practically all bed, not like that was a bad thing. "We do love you, Asuka." Softly remarked Rei, now in control, as she dragged Kaworu up with her to Asuka. "At least this way, we can make sure you know."

    She couldn't help but huff, as Rei cuddled up to her, and as Kaworu settled behind Rei. "Shows me you can love without the whole banging bit."

    "I haven't heard many complaints about Misato's policy." Prodded Shinji.

    "She did have a point, Shinji." She sighed. "Though... I honestly like this better. Just... being with all of you."

    "Much like how we are normally." Noted Kaworu.

    "I certainly do not mind spending my time with you three."

    "I think everyone here feels that, Rei." Shinji chuckled.

    A comfortable silence, Asuka enjoying the presence of those closest to her.

    "...Heh. I love you guys."

    Their little moment was interrupted by a light thud, coming from the end of their bed.

    Rei grumbled. "I suppose it has been a few days since we have had to deal with Rift Material."

    "You certainly have low hopes." Mused the fish, as he disengaged to investigate.

    His own hopes immediately dropped to lows that rivalled his feelings during Elfen Lied. "Oy."

    He held up a sizeable doujin to the group, the cover depicting Asuka with less clothing than she was currently wearing, leaning on Shinji.

    Everyone had unamused looks. They all knew how the last doujin went.

    Asuka perfectly encapsulated the feelings of the group with a single line: "Aww shit. Here we go again."
    ~~~

    With how the last doujin went, it's rather understandable why they're a bit wary of the one the tumbleweed found :V But we'll get to that soon enough.

    We can see Misato is working on her curiosity, seeing if it is actually possible Randall Vogel could be the father. And they can't just go on Maury unfortunately, unless the Magi count as Naoko Akagi for legal purposes.

    Meanwhile it seems like her time has Evangelion has had a few consequences for Yui Ikari, especially now her soul is not occupied with tending to another. So what is to stop her soul from going walkabout?

    Perhaps it's a sign of something else. But at least she has someone willing to help her, whenever she ends up there.
    Ain't that a strange sort of interaction to think about :V

    Speaking of Makinami, Spencer is still working on his own business. I have a feeling having eyes in Antarctica will be handy, for the future.

    Though enough about existensial threats, let's focus on video games! You bet they loved it, especially the ending. And I bet they wouldn't mind if more video games came through a Rift, they'll have to wait for the next election though :V
    I've added the co-op for Portal 2 and the Ratman comic, as well as Half Life 2 (which will most likely include episodes 1 and 2) to my polling list, so if you want more video game Chronicles, remember to vote :)

    Of course, right now we're getting back to a doujin. Yes, the next Chronicles, we'll be covering After End Of Evangelion! In the After Chronicles!
    (also known as The Epilogue of Evangelion or Sono Go No Evangelion, it really depends what wretched hive you find it in :V)

    Either way, first glances at it, our Tumbleweed really shouldn't be worried about it. At the very least, it'd be nice catharsis after going through Elfen Lied :V
     
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  • Apocrypha
    • For those concerned with the final fate of Wheatley and the space core, they do canonically survive portal 2...technically. Valve made a few cameos for them that sorta explain what happens to them, but it differs per cameo.

    In the skyrim offical mod, they end up in another world with the spacecore joining the dragonborn in their journey and Wheatley stuck in the stars.

    In tf2, its implied that Wheatley fell back to earth, repurposed into a sentient sapper, and sold to the tf2 mercs. Hes rather alright with it all things considered.

    In lego dimensions, he ends up falling into a rift that gives him gravity manipulation properties and helps the player for a few levels. Ending with him replacing glados with the space core and him and Chell going into a Dimensional Rift to somewhere. We never learn where this pair went.
     
    Okay, very happy with how their experiences with Portal 2 turned out, though i'm slightly sad that they weren't as sympathetic as I was towards Wheatley. In my mind, he's a moron, sure, but he only wanted to help, and the moment he was no longer being affected by the mainframe's built-in power trip (like, what the actual hell, Aperture?!), he very clearly wanted to fix it. Guess that's just opinion in the end, though. Good job, BG. :D

    BG_Character_592 said:
    The door opened. "And I said 'Oatmeal? Are you craz-'"
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    Heh. Still going through MLP withdrawal, eh? Can't say i'm much different. :p

    BG_Character_592 said:
    He quickly glanced around. "Don't see an appropriate slope here, at least." Before waltzing to the upper office.
    T: "Doesn't look like anything of note here."
    Hik: "Just computers and cabinets and that."
    Just as soon as he arrived, he was about to leave. At least until he saw a poster.
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    Aw. Was really hoping they'd see the Borealis room. Would've been a really fun setup for if/when they got to play the Half-Life 2 saga. Ah well, can't have 'em all.

    BG_Character_592 said:
    S: "This is Aperture, though."
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    Not sure if it was deliberate, but this is from a song parody, isn't it?

    BG_Character_592 said:
    Though enough about existensial threats, let's focus on video games! You bet they loved it, especially the ending. And I bet they wouldn't mind if more video games came through a Rift, they'll have to wait for the next election though :V
    I've added the co-op for Portal 2 and the Ratman comic, as well as Half Life 2 (which will most likely include episodes 1 and 2) to my polling list, so if you want more video game Chronicles, remember to vote :)
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    Super hyped, now. Rest assured, if possible, I will be voting for all of these.
    Geez, how long is my wants list now? Kill la Kill, Gravity Falls, RWBY (first 3 volumes w/ trailers & WoRs), Star Trek '09, Little Witch Academia, JoJo (1st season), Madoka Rebellion, Marvel Cinematic Universe (in phases if need be), Portal 2 Co-op & Comic, Half-Life 2 & episodes... Yeah, probably too long.

    On another note, looking forward to AEoE's Chronicles. That said, I haven't actually read it, nor do I know what it's about, so i'm probably going to have to search around for that a bit.
     
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    BG_Character_592 said:
    "Was something going on with the Magi today? The meeting was really choppy for me."
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    Phh, meetings are overrated anyway.
    BG_Character_592 said:
    "And where would we find the DNA of Naoko, who died eight years ago?"
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    Since I'm not an expert at DNA tests, is the mother's DNA even necessary to determine the father?
    BG_Character_592 said:
    And so he jumped into the repulsion gel covered pit. Bounding over.
    Kensuke giggled. "That's awesome!"
    He bounced back into the pit, bounding around like a pronking pink pony.
    Kyoko couldn't help but chuckle at Kensuke's amusement. "It's very easy to entertain you sometimes, Ken."
    S: "I mean, it is pretty cool." Like Kyoko, she couldn't help but smile.
    T: "So what, you can just paint surfaces with that stuff and use it as a springboard?"
    Z: "Sure looks like it."
    Ke: "Man I could just bounce on this all day!"
    R: "There is still testing to be done."
    Ma: "And I'm sure the following tests will use it extensively."
    Kensuke finally portalled himself up. "So that button opens the door."
    Hik: "Meaning you'll need a cube. Maybe that button on the other side."
    Ke: "...Ah, maybe your velocity is reflected, as well."
    He tested this empirically, bouncing over to the platform. "Now that's cool."
    Clicking the small button, the cube dropped down onto the gel. "Woa that bounces on the gel as well?!"
    Mi: "Heh, he's getting excited again."
    Kensuke immediately threw the cube back into the pit, laughing at how it bounced around like it was the most amusing thing he's seen.
    Which, in all honesty, it was.
    T: "Shit, I'm finding it kinda amusing as well, Commander."
    Ke: "Ah I'm sure I'll get bored of it eventually." As he threw it back into the pit, still giggling. "Maybe."
    R: "Kensuke."
    Ke: "Okay, okay." A small sigh, as he grabbed the cube and bought it through the portal.
    Before throwing it from the height. Much to Ritsuko's flat stare. "Sorry! Couldn't help myself."
    She sighed, as they were watching the cube bounce around. Ritsuko found it somewhat disconcerting that everyone was enraptured watching this cube bounce around.
    Mi: "It is pretty cool, admittedly."
    R: "Are video games really in such a horrid state nowadays?"
    Ke: "Yep."
    The cube eventually came to a stop. "Alright, I'll solve it."
    He bounced to the exit with the cube. "Button's on the other side, Ken."
    Ke: "I knew that."
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    I feel there's a "WEEEEEEEEEEH!" missing here somewhere. :p
    BG_Character_592 said:
    R: "Try not. Perhaps jumping cancels some of your velocity."
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    So I guess it's no longer sufficient? :V
    BG_Character_592 said:
    the cover depicting Asuka with less clothing than she was currently wearing
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    If that is indeed the case, I'd say that sounds more like quite the coincidence on Chronicles!Asuka's part. ;P

    Wixelt said:
    That said, I haven't actually read it, nor do I know what it's about
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    Made a more detailed plug earlier in the thread, but since it's getting late to search myself :p :
    Essentially WAFF/comedy/slice of (post-impact) life with a bit of an underlying plot of S/A travelling to Germany.
     
    Wixelt said:
    Aw. Was really hoping they'd see the Borealis room. Would've been a really fun setup for if/when they got to play the Half-Life 2 saga. Ah well, can't have 'em all.
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    I didn't even considered I might've missed it until I was long passed it :V
    And as they said, they know there's still a lot more in both games they missed. Good thing for file auditing :D

    Wixelt said:
    On another note, looking forward to AEoE's Chronicles. That said, I haven't actually read it, nor do I know what it's about, so i'm probably going to have to search around for that a bit.
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    You need to know what to look for, admittedly. Took me a short while to find it (which might've been reduced if I read the thread but oh well :p)

    As I said and as I'll keep reminding, look for the original Japanese title (Sono Go No Evangelion), as even searching for the authors name only got me to a decade old post on a particular wretched hive's forum.
    Which led me to the original name, so it was enough :V

    JimmyWolk said:
    Since I'm not an expert at DNA tests, is the mother's DNA even necessary to determine the father?
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    From my admittedly brief research, it looked like it. Gotta compare the DNA of the child to a known entity, after all.
    And as I said, not like they can go on Maury :V

    JimmyWolk said:
    For those who *really* don't want to be spoiled at all
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    Seems rather apt for the Tumbleweed's situation, then :V
     
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