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Mel
- Action Girl: She's every bit as clever and resourceful as Chell.
- Cryonics Failure: Mel was only supposed to be in suspension for a brief period of time to test out the relaxation vault. Guess what happens.
- Foil: Mel is already an established badass and needs Virgil's aid to escape Aperture, in contrast to Chell's normal background and either going things alone or being the Hypercompetent Sidekick to the personalities she works with.
- Heroic Mime: Never makes a peep.
- Made of Iron: Like Chell, she can take turret fire and lasers and walk it off.
- Noodle Incident: With regards to the 1936 Olympics, Virgil comments that Mel "should've gotten that silver medal", implying that she was denied or stripped of it under controversial circumstances. The incident is never elaborated on, or even mentioned ever again.
- Rip Van Winkle: Goes to sleep in 1952; wakes up in the 2000s.
- Sports Hero Backstory: Mel was a participant in the 1936 Nuremburg Olympics; specifically as a Track Runner. She joined Aperture back when they were using athletes, war heroes, and astronauts as their test subjects.
Virgil
- Voiced by: Stig Sydtangen
A personality core in the lower levels of Aperture that's eager to get out of the junkyard and get back on its rail so it can keep functioning. In exchange for Mel helping him achieve that, Virgil will help her escape Aperture.
- Ambiguously Gay: He obviously crushes on the Rainbow Core.
- Blatant Lies: At first he tries to "ease" Mel into the realization of what happened to her by pretending to be Cave Johnson and coming up with increasingly ridiculous lies to explain the state of Aperture. Eventually he drops the act because he figures she isn't that stupid.
- Continue Your Mission, Dammit!: Virgil is constantly telling you to hurry to avoid the rising goo, except you have infinite time, and you never even see the goo rising behind you.
- Defrosting Ice King: As the game continues he comes to truly care for you as a friend and wants to genuinely help you escape Aperture instead of just seeing you as a means to an end with his own rescue.
- Didn't Think This Through: He has a habit of suggesting things or coming up with plans that don't pan out because of a detail he overlooked.
- Heroic BSoD: He pretty much breaks down when he realizes that by shutting down AEGIS, the two of you have saved GLaDOS from destruction. Even though you're escaping shortly, he's still stuck down there and she's still alive...
- I Have This Friend: Virgil asks if Mel got the Rainbow Core's 'serial number'... for a friend, yes! A friend!
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He seems to have a naturally friendly and cheerful personality, but unfortunately it's often overshadowed by the stress he's under throughout the story. He has pretty much zero patience in the face of frustration, and there seems to be a new frustration around every corner, which means he's almost constantly on edge. Since he is prone to sarcasm, and pretty quick to chastise or even insult Mel when he's upset — even if the situation isn't her fault — he can come across as a bit of a jerk a lot of the time. However, even at these times, it's obvious that his heart is in the right place; and in the few moments when his patience is not being tested, his earnest and caring nature shines through.
- Meaningful Name: In The Divine Comedy, Virgil was Dante Alighieri's guide through Hell and Purgatory. Here, Virgil guides Mel first through the old 1950s Aperture complex, then the Enrichment Center.
- Mission Control: His main purpose is to relay you what's going on around the facility and help you out.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Is freaked out when he realizes AEGIS's third target was GLaDOS, and he saved her by proxy by helping you shut AEGIS down.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In-Universe. Virgil impersonates Cave Johnson's voice when you wake up from the Relaxation Vault, which you may or may not notice immediately. As you progress through the facility, however, his Norwegian accent keeps slipping through to varying degrees.
- Token Good Teammate: Behold the one Personality Core in all of Aperture who isn't stupid or evil in some measure.
AEGIS
- Voiced by: Harry Callaghan
The Aperture Employee Guardian and Intrusion System; in essence, AEGIS is in charge of security, particularly protecting Aperture's scientists. He's not too happy that they're all dead now and starts looking for suspects. Unfortunately, since you're the only active human being he can sense, he figures that's you.
- Animal Motifs: Spiders. The various Steam achievements related to him have spiders in their images, and Aperture can be seen as his vast web. Then there's his physical form, which is shaped and lit to evoke a spider in a web.
- Anti-Villain: He's just trying to do his job protecting the facility. The catch is he thinks he has to protect it from you.
- Big Bad: The main antagonist of the game.
- Calling Your Attacks: Announces every move it makes before doing them, even its booby traps. Likely the result of not being fully sentient like Virgil or other Aperture personality constructs.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Not that AEGIS is "evil" per se, but he has an deep and booming mechanical voice that fits his antagonistic role. This contrasts starkly against his logical, computer-like personality, and apparent lack of sentience.
- Foil: To GLaDOS. While she is emotive and expressive with a distinct personality, AEGIS is cold and robotic and seemingly has no self-awareness. While GLaDOS is feminine in voice and name, AEGIS is masculine. GLaDOS has a sleak and curved body, AEGIS' body is angular and blocky. There's also the fact she killed the Aperture scientists while he's tasked to protect them.
- Giant Spider: His physical form is designed after a giant spider sitting in a "web" of cables and connections, with the lighting around the chamber casting shadows around it to give the imagery of its legs.
- Inspector Javert: AEGIS thinks that Mel and Virgil are threats to the facility and attempts to eliminate them. All they want to do is leave the facility.
- Meaningful Name: Aegis is the mythical shield of Athena and Zeus; AEGIS is the system that protects Aperture's scientists.
- Obliviously Evil: He's not trying to kill you out of malice; he just thinks you're the one who killed the scientists, so he's just doing his job killing you back.
- Thanatos Gambit: AEGIS uses its last seconds before it shuts down completely to wake up Chell, apparently counting on her to destroy GLaDOS in his place and setting the stage for Portal 2.
Rainbow Core
- Voiced by: Harry Callaghan
A personality core located in a hidden area of a level for a quick cameo.
- Camp Gay: Its designation as the "Rainbow" core and its like-colored eye aren't enough? Listen to it talk.
- Easter Egg: It's an optional encounter hidden in an arbitrary level.
- Rainbow Motif: Its eye is rainbow-streaked.
