The Punishment (fanfic)
The Punishment is a Portal fanfic written by conquerorwurm and actively illustrated by rubitrightintomyeyes. It first appeared on the Portal kink meme as the first fill listed and has since continued for eighteen chapters running. It is considered by many to be one of the best Portal fics out there though it is still a work in progress.
Wheatley has been brought back from space by GLaDOS for an unspecified punishment. She informs him he used to be human though he has no memories of his existence before he was first activated as a core. After GLaDOS destroys his metal form, he awakes alone in a relaxation chamber in his old human body, confused and disoriented. After spending some time getting acquainted with the nuisances and more... enjoyable functions of his new organic form, he sets out to make his escape. He runs into Chell who has also been imprisoned once more by GLaDOS, and together they delve into Aperture to try to make their escape. Wheatley has no knowledge of proper human discourse, leading to many awkward situations.
Over the course of their journey, Wheatley struggles to understand the propriety of personal boundaries and physical attraction, and Chell struggles with conflicted feelings of trust, wanting independence and craving physical intimacy with another human. GLaDOS does Her best to complicate things further in many manipulative and increasingly threatening ways.
- A Date with Rosie Palms: Wheatley needs to, to accommodate for his 'itch'. Chell is also an offender of this trope
- Ambiguous Situation
- Bad Dreams: Wheatley receives these courtesy of GLaDOS.
- Can't Kill You - Still Need You: The first chapter describes an Alternate Ending to Portal 2, where GLaDOS saves Wheatley from spaces. In the 10th Chapter this describes why.
GLaDOS: You are my punishment for her.
- Cry Into Chest: Chell does this with Wheatley when they find a bathroom, indicating how long it'd been since she's had the luxuries of self-cleanliness.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Played with. It's not that Wheatley can't, it's that he can't find the right words since he has no proper social human experience to find the words to describe his attraction to Chell.
- Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Wheatley again.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Though their exact heights are not determined, Chell is described as barely coming up to the level of Wheatley's chest.
- I Am Not Pretty: Somehow Wheatley mentally conceives the notion of attractiveness, having compared himself to Chell, believe he's quite ordinary.
- Inelegant Blubbering: After GLaDOS mindrapes Wheatley, he turns into a heaping mess and can't tell her apart from Chell and ends up pushing her on the floor by mistake. It's not until he actually sees that it's Chell is when he starts to calm down.
- Intimate Psychotherapy: Chell for Wheatley. Since she can't get her point her across verbally, she uses sex to explain to him that she doesn't mind his body at all.
- Mind Rape: GLaDOS to Wheatley. She inserted something into his body to allow her to see through his eyes and visits him in his dreams to torment him.
- Never Sleep Again: See Bad Dreams above. As a result of these dreams, Wheatley tries to fight off fatigue by refusing to do so, but in the end always fails.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Wheatley towards Chell.
- No Social Skills
- Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: GLaDOS attempts to invoke this in Wheatley. It doesn't last
- Was Once a Man: Wheatley. He was once an accountant that worked for Aperture and managed to appropriate billions of non-existent funds for their projects.