I honestly had no idea anybody could realistically put as much emotion into a companion cube story. Very well done, I'm impressed.

When I first played that level, I just lol'd and didn't think much of tossing it in. But now I'm bound to think about that cube a little differently. XD

Here's how I solved that puzzle my first time around:

after filling the first energy ball receiver (and popping off a camera), I explored and found the little ratman hole (and read everything on the wall), the other puzzles, and the ledge I needed to climb up on.

'if I had two cubes, I could make it without' I thought, 'without going through all that other BS.'

So I collect up all the cameras from the ratman hole and deposit them by the final ledge. I take my time to carefully stack them one atop the other (they fell over a lot). Then I place the Companion Cube on top, hop up, grab the Cube and finish the level.

This also allows one to finish the lvl with min. portals for the achievement.

...in related news, lovely job. much better than those "like ZOMGLULZ! This tiem itz my char dealin' wit GLaDOS. Plz read. Not a marysue! i swear." fics that one generally finds. Good introspection.

Wow, so much emotion in less than 10,0 words! Congratulations!

This was a triumph.
I'm making a not here:
HUGE SUCCESS...

XD Keep up with the good work and I hope to see new stories.

:( poor companion cube.

I don't have an Xbox or anything, but I got The Orange Box for my friend who has and Xbox360 under the condition that I can play portal on it, and thst was this weekend, so were on, like, level six, but I've seen walkthroghs, so...

That was brilliant. Great. I loved it. Very sad. You are really, without a doubt one of the best writers I've seen in a while. I admire how you contrast with most writers on in several ways. Most people have the problem that their diologue takes up most of the story, but you went almost without diologue, and made a great one with a driving plot. Most people write what's popular, and though thats a bit of what you did, from your author's notes I can gather that you did it because you wanted to know why, as a little bit of a writing adventure, or exercise. I like you, randominuyasha. You have become a great author.

Nice job...I miss the companion cube :( When I played the first thing I said about the record thing is "Someone held it longer than this!" Anyway Good job!

That was actually pretty cool. The fact that it was in first person certainly made me feel more emotion than I might in third person narration. The way that Chell felt for the Cube was actually pretty believable; not once did it sound a little out of line for Portal.

I don't see many Portal pieces, but this is deffinetly an example of how one should be. Greatly done!

this is a great tribute to our faitfull companion cubes, i just wish that valves store didn't run out of companion cubes after the first hour there were on the market! they truely are incredibal!

Very nice and thorough. I'd probably have done the same if I were faced with that situation, though it would be incredibly odd if I ever WAS faced with such LOL. You did a lovely job.

I spotted a few typos here and there, but, really, that's beside the point; this was an adorable read. Poor Chell. Chin up, girl-- you'll be avenging your best friend soon enough! :P

We have the same view on this, and the other subjects did too. You know that platform that you had to shoot the portal onto to get the ball into the reciever behind the doors? Shoot a portal behind it and another on the wall next to you. The others (wich I call ratmen) put their shrine to the cube there. Here's some of their poetry:
"Not in anger
Not in wrath
The reaper came today
An angel visited
Their gray path
And took the cube away."