Hello! I noticed that when escaping with Wheatley, you find a room from the "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day" gimmick to get more test subjects. That same day, the Encrichment Center was flooded with neurotoxin. Obviously, Chell's father, whoever it was, worked at Apertutre, since Chell's name appears on the last backboard, which has the overgrown potato. I also noticed that the 3 big letters that had fallen off of the board, were NEU. Hmmm... ring a bell? How about the first 3 letters of NEUROTOXON? With which, Aperture was flooded with the VERY SAME DAY? This leads me to believe that Chell's dad knew about the neurotoxin ahead of time, and may have passed it down to Chell to help her escape.

Poster =

The rest = +

Wheee math problems!

It is highly unlikely that Chell's parents would be Cave and Caroline. Chell looks around her 20's while Cave Johnson died early 80's/late 70's? and I'm guessing that Caroline wasn't in any good state when they were trying to 'pour her into a computer'.
Maybe the relaxation chambers preserve age?

Yes, Chell's parent worked at aperture as in one of the texts on the project said "got things from daddy's work" and she was at the bring daughter to work day. I think that it is more likely that Chell is half-immune to neurotoxin and I think GLaDOS mentions this sometime.

I just want to point out: why does Rattman care so much about Chell? In the comic he protects her, and he drew her all over the walls in his art 'dens'.

chickenmobile wrote:
I just want to point out: why does Rattman care so much about Chell? In the comic he protects her, and he drew her all over the walls in his art 'dens'.

I think this is probably because Chell was the only other human besides Rattmann himself left alive in the facility. Also, being off his rocker as he was, he believed that she was some sort of super-being and the only one capable of taking down GLaDOS (as it turned out, he was right in several aspects of his belief). He did what he could to help her along through Portal 1 with his wall-scribbling arrows, and he recorded her actions on the walls as a means of expressing what he was seeing and perhaps tracking her progress.

Caroline was Cave's assistant, not his wife. Also, Chell could very easily have been Cave's adopted daughter, her real parents unknown. She certainly doesn't look very much like Johnson in appearance.

NuclearDuckie wrote:
Caroline was Cave's assistant, not his wife. Also, Chell could very easily have been Cave's adopted daughter, her real parents unknown. She certainly doesn't look very much like Johnson in appearance.

How could Chell be adopted by Cave when he died before she was born?

I always thought Chell was Cave and Caroline's kid.

According to the Combine Overwiki, Cave Johnson died sometime during the 1980's (Most likely 1982). This is when he named Caroline his successor. Let's assume that Chell was born sometime in the early 1970's, and at a young age did the Potato Science Experiment above, before Cave died. I'm going to assume Chell was about 10 years old when she did that experiment, which means she was born in 1972.

Nothing significant happens with Aperture Science in the 1990's, but around this time is when I would guess that Chell was put into stasis. Which would make her 20-some years old. Which would also explain her young looks.

slayer wrote:
I'm going to assume Chell was about 10 years old when she did that experiment, which means she was born in 1972.
Nothing significant happens with Aperture Science in the 1990's, but around this time is when I would guess that Chell was put into stasis. Which would make her 20-some years old. Which would also explain her young looks.

So Chell would have to be around 40 years old if Aperture is in current time and she hadn't been put in stasis.

During the events of Portal 1, she would have been in her 30's.

Found a story loop hole: When you start at the beginning of the game, (before you meet Wheatley,) a tanning screen is on to supply you with Vitamin D. However, when you wake up thousands of years later, the screen is off and it looks like it's been off for a while. So why is Chell's skin not pale or blue from lack of Vitamin D?

Another Bad Pun wrote:
Found a story loop hole: When you start at the beginning of the game, (before you meet Wheatley,) a tanning screen is on to supply you with Vitamin D. However, when you wake up thousands of years later, the screen is off and it looks like it's been off for a while. So why is Chell's skin not pale or blue from lack of Vitamin D?

Could be that the screen is broken not the actual machine? Who knows xD

And I doubt that someone can just lay on a bed perfectly preserved for thousands of years.

How many months did it say that Chell was in there for? Nine, nine, nine, nine... That would be like 8 centuries...

wait...

Valve stated that Chell was in stasis for hundreds of years. I mean look at the place, vegetation is growing everywhere.

slayer wrote:
Valve stated that Chell was in stasis for hundreds of years. I mean look at the place, vegetation is growing everywhere.

Gasp! I was really hoping that this would tie in the Half-Life series. Imaging how different everything would be...
And why isn't the earth desolate, destroyed or filled with Garbage? I mean if it was 800+ years into the future wouldn't humans have destroyed the earth?... lol

Also I thought that to get plants to grow anywhere you would only need a couple of decades without up-keeping the place. Especially seeing as Chell destroyed the roof in the last game.

Also correction:

chickenmobile wrote:
So Chell would have to be around 840 years old if Aperture is in future time and she hadn't been put in stasis.

I don't think the gap between Portal and Portal 2 is hundreds of years. I'd say it's closer to 20-50. Pretty sure the 200+ years thing is just...

... by the community. But hey, if you can find a statement from valve to the contrary, I shall retract my own.

I know they said it in one of the Videos about Portal 2 before it's release.

As for humans destroying the Earth, I can see how they might use up all it's resources in that amount of time, however we don't know how Half-Life's story ends with the Combine, and whatever happens there might shed some light on Earth's future.

Nacimota wrote:
I don't think the gap between Portal and Portal 2 is hundreds of years. I'd say it's closer to 20-50.

The number thrown around in The Final Hours of Portal 2 is 50,000. Yeah, fifty thousand.

50.000 years is toooo much. But a like 500 years is reasonable. I think its arount 500-1000 years. I wonder what chell will find on the outside. (Except new rooms full of air ) This leaves a leak in the storyline.

The Announcer says "50 days" when Chell wakes up. He didn't say "1 month and 29 days" (depending on the month of course). This means the announcer only uses "days" when measuring how long someone been in suspension. When he says "9" six times, I assume that Chell under suspension for 999,999 days. Since there are 365 days in a year, then 999,999 days equals about 2739.72 years. I did the math along with the in-game resources. This is not "Baseless Speculation."

The "9999999" announcement was a malfunction of the Aperture Science computers. If you listen to the actual sound clip there, the "9"s continue through the duration of the announcement being made, for a total of 55 before the sound clip ends. The number of 9's means nothing.