What is this I don't even.

chantilly-lacey:

conquerorwurm:

Srs Wheatley discussions herein

(Not really, just jabbering at Lacey about The Punishment and forgiveness and writer’s laments and stuff)

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Aww, I really appreciate your input on this. This has been one of those nights where I can’t decide if I regret everything I’ve ever done, and I think I’ve decided that I don’t.

I sometimes wonder exactly how much people actually pick up on the bits and pieces of details like those you mentioned that I’ve strewn about the chapters. It’s mostly extraneous and really just fleshes out the world, but I figure a lot of times they pass under the radar because of how they are included or how people read it. You’re probably one of the most observant readers of this thing and it is always a pleasure to see you processing your thoughts about it and forming your own conclusions from what you gathered from the story!

It really is all just a matter of interpretation. I have a pretty broad range of Chells I will gladly accept, and a much, much broader range of Wheatlies I will accept as well. I think I just get nervous sometimes that someone will read my story and think “that’s not X at all” because it doesn’t fit into their ideas for the story and while I’m confident in the decisions I’ve made, that just kind of erodes my confidence a bit over time.

But even while there are a thousand ways to take any character in Portal, I agree that there is a certain core aspect to them that needs to be present in all iterations. It’s not something I can easily define, but I know it if I see it. Or if I don’t see it.

And I totally get you with having completely separate headcanons for the game and for your story. I’m in that position too, and it feels so odd to carry two complete concepts for a set of characters (and for Aperture itself) around in my head. Yet somehow it works!

All that rambling aside, I sincerely love what you’ve done with both Chell and Wheatley in Day by Day. There is this fantastic, terrible friction between them, and Wheatley is every bit of a jerk as he should be, and Chell is this amazingly tough but pretty obviously messed up individual… you’ve struck just the right tone with the choices you made for their characters. I so look forward to seeing how you develop them further, especially with the few hints you’ve given about your ideas for future chapters.