Chelley ~ Ignoramus & Mute *ON HOLD*

Chapter 10: The Whole Story

So, my first steps. I'd say they went well. I mean, I wanted them to go better. I'm glad I have the support of Chell, and even Caroline on it. And yes, I'm calling her Caroline because she asked me to. But I've been practicing walking and blinking and basically all of that human stuff again. It was a bit nostalgic for me, if I'm honest. I mean, I remember the appearance vaguely. I suddenly feel more.... Accomplished. Like I was supposed to do that. I dunno, might just be the body. Which, according to Chell, is good looking to human standards.

On a related note, I can't actually say my 'Ch' at all... It just comes out as 'K' or 'Th.' I found that out the hard way when I tried to talk to Chell while we were walking back.

I was sitting in the couch by the cores, who weren't as mean as before. I guess we could be friends. I mean I only had a problem with Rick, who wasn't really much of a jerk anymore.

"So.... She just gave Aperture to her bots?" Began Rick.

"Yup. I'm not really sure why she would be acting so nice all-"

"What is it?"

"The cores!"

"We were the cores." Rick said, a bit annoyed.

"No-no the other ones! Anger and Curiosity, and the uh, Cakemix!"

"What about them?"

"Don't you get it?! She lost the cores. They were blown up in her corruption! She's like a normal bloody human now!"

Rick looked at her for a moment. She was staring at her birds with Chell. They were kind of just watching what they were doing.

"She does seem a lot nicer... I guess you're right."

"That's what I'm telling you, mate!" I said, smiling.

"Sure.... 'Mate.' "

I laughed. "But she still has a pinch of her other personality. Otherwise, she wouldn't have brought any of you back. So that would mean she does have two personalities."

"So you mean the old body and the human body... But there's another." Rick said.

"She does?!" I said, leaning in a bit closer. Caroline and Chell looked up. "Well, go on. Tell me."

"There's a reason she's called Caroline, you know. She's been a human before. Otherwise she would've had to learn how to walk with a computer. I mean, we did." Rick looked over at the other cores for a moment, then quickly looked back.

"So..." I began, "Caroline was her human name?"

"Apparently so. Uh, I was actually with her when she was like that. Actually, us corrupted cores had just finished being built. They didn't find out that we were corrupted until Aperture Science Innovators was long gone."

"Until Aperture Science who?"

"Innovators." Said Caroline, leaning a bit closer to us. "Aperture Science Innovators. That's the gap you keep talking about." She sighed.

Chell came a bit closer, too.

"Mr. Johnson was the head. He was the beginning. He put me in charge when he died."

"Uhm, so Aperture Science Innovators was where you two landed after the fall?" I questioned.

"Do you want me to just tell you the whole story?" She asked, with a slight frustration in her tone.

"Here's what I know. Mr. Johnson bought a salt mine in- Wait, that's not the start. Mr. Johnson was an entrepreneur, he had started a shower curtain company."