"I don't know what way you guys do it from where you've been, but in Skyrim, it's all about survival. Once a threat becomes a apparent to us, we must eliminate it."
— The Dragonborn, Chapter 8
Portalborn
is a Skyrim and Portal crossover by Experiment 282.
The Dragonborn is a proud nord woman, thrust upon in her duties as the foretold saviour of Skyrim. She's loud and vicious with a slight hunger for power, but her heart is in the right place, proven as the Thane of Whiterun and as Harbinger of the Companions.
But she's also a Werewolf, which with all the restlessness that entails, leads her to sneak out of Whiterun one night and randomly find Doug Rattmann kidnapped by bandits. Then hears someone yelling about space as a meteor falls from the sky.
Confirmed to be part of the same Realmverse as Drakonophobia
This spurs a bizarre adventure for everyone involved, with a mixture of science and magic. As well as many a Culture Clash along the way.
The story was influenced by the Portal 2 Mod DLC.
This Fanfic provides examples of:
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A-C
- Action Girl: The Dragonborn Mostly the Diga personality, but even the Sandra personality gets a bit of action., Lydia, Chell Katria Syndia, Karliah.
- Adrenaline Makeover: Rick the Adventure Sphere, is given at Atlas like body that has been modified to fit the Skyrim theme a bit more. Chell as well as she wears the Thieves Guild armor.
- A God I Am Not: Played With, The Silver-Hand think GLaDOS is a God. while Lydia thinks She's a Daedra. Of course, we know they're neither. They never make comment on it, or they don't really care.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: GLaDOS, at first as she teams up with the Silver-Hand and the Brandobaris Then the group find GLaDOS as a human in Chapter 27.
- Almost Kiss: A sober one in Chapter 30 between the Dragonborn and Doug, then Jordis comes out of nowhere to announce that Dragons were attacking Solitude.
- Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: The amulet gives to Chell. Goodness knows what he's enchanted it with, but part of it allows her to sense him from afar.
- Anti-Hero: The Dragonborn shows shades of this early on. She'll do what she can to protect Skyim and it's people but she has done questionable things over time.
- Ascended Extra: The Oracle Turret plays more than the original role it took in Portal 2 where it appeared in one area as an Easter Egg, here, after an incident that turned most of the robots human, it's turned into a white-haired girl called Cassandra who is still as cryptic as her original turret self.
- Attack of the Town Festival: Chapters 29-31 deal with the lead up, during and aftermath of the Festival of the Divines in Solitude, where it's attacked by a slew of dragons.
- The Atoner: Wheatley, who still recalls the acts he did during Portal 2 and wants to make it up to Chell for what he did. Due to Chell being The Voiceless, it isn't clear whether or not she has forgiven him or not. We do take some looks into her thoughts and feelings, but overall it's never revealed for him to be considered forgiven.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: When they get around to it, The Dragonborn and Chell make quite the formidable team.
- Badass Boast: The Dragonborn is capable of these:Dragonborn: (To Galar) The only thing I want to see coming from your mouth is my sword up your gullet.
- Badass in Distress: The Dragonborn/Diga gets knocked out quite a few times, one time she gets kidnapped by the Silver Hand who have for some reason aligned with GLaDOS and it takes a mentally ill man, a moron and a competent Housecarl to save her. and Chell
- Chell mysteriously gets knocked unconscious and is left for dead on the side of the road until she's found by the Dragonborn. It's not entirely clear why or how that happened. Surprisingly, the Dragonborn is more concerned to get her to safety than to go out there and investigate the cause.
- Berserk Button: Threaten her friends and the Dragonborn has a hundred and one ways to kill you.
- Daryn also seems to be one for the Dragonborn.
- For Chell, touch her Portal Gun and you may find her blade at your throat. The Dragonborn/Diga found that out the hard way.
- Though this extends to just touching her or her stuff in general, The Dragonborn uses that to her advantage in C51 when she needs to wake Chell up after being left unconscious on the side of the road.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Chell's training with the Thieves Guild made her even more lethal.
- Big Bad: Daryn
- Mercer Frey becomes Chells as she joins the Thieves Guild and finds out what they've been doing.
- Big Damn Heroes: Wheatley comes to save the day in Chapter 62 as he brings his swarm of Dwemer Automaton minions from Alduin while they're in a test chamber. He was too late for Syndia though.
- Bizarrchitecture: Aperture, now that's situated in the ruins of Arkngthamz. Every time they visit there it's changed and its more like a maze than anything, depending on who's controlling it.
- Blood Knight: The Dragonborn at first. She mellows bit by bit during the story.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: In a weird way, Chell becomes protective of the Dragonborn after a certain point, when its revealed in a later chapter she met up with her sister Syndia who calls upon Chell to defend her at all costs, so she's forced to save her on several occasions. They're not altogether all the time since the Dragonborn can defend herself most of the time, but Chell seems to know what she needs to do when she needs to do it.
- Brought Down to Normal: Aperture has a new function in which it can block out the flow of magicka (the Magicka Suppression Field), preventing anyone from using their spells.
- This dependency comes back to bite Diga in the ass when They're fighting a technologically modified Alduin in a particular test chamber and they run out of arrows, she discovers she can't use her fire spells or even shout...or heal her sister when she's brutally torn by him.
- Butt-Monkey: Doug and Wheatley share this role, though Doug more so.
- Call-Back: In Chapter 10, after Doug discovers where the Dragonborn went, he leaves in a steathily manner to save her, just like the Dragonborn did for him in Chapter 1.
- GLaDOS needs Doug alive for his scientific mind. When GLaDOS becomes human, they need her alive.
- Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: Doug's schizophrenia is evident enough that he hallucinates quite a bit, especially under duress. He knows what he has and yet has some difficulty in grasping in what is real and what is not.
- The Dragonborn/Diga has this issue later on, as her Split Personality becomes evident but she's not wholly aware of it.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: GLaDOS doesn't really want to kill Doug as she knows he is one of the only smart ones out there.
- The same can be said when Caroline is human and the Dragonborn wants to kill her but she can't.
- Childhood Friends: Chapter 50 reveals that the Dragonborn and Brynjolf were orphans at Honorhall in Riften, alongside Babette.
- Child of Two Worlds: Mentions of this are spread regarding the Dragonborn, makes sense given that she's a human with the soul of the dragon.
- Cloudcuckoolander: The Space Core.
- Companion Cube: The Trope Namer, manly Dougs, is said to be in the dungeons beneath Winterhold College but for what ever reason it isn't safe to go under there and grab it.
- It comes back in Chapter 52.
- Continuity Nod: Several
- GLaDOS mentions the room with the screaming robots in Chapter 11 that she talked about in Portal 2
- Mentions of Android Hell from the first Portal.
- The descriptions in the dream that relate to the room the Dragonborn found herself within in Chapter 15 sound like the quest involving Azura's Star. In fact, it's believed Azura was talking to her.
- After being informed that the Dark Brotherhood was out to kill, the Dragonborn hesitates to sleep. This is because after you Kill Grelod. they send you a note and falling asleep triggers a cutscene to waking up in a cabin with Astrid.
- Following up on the sleep problem, her lack of sleep is also caused by her being a Werewolf. The one downfall of being a werewolf in game was a particular bonus buff couldn't applied if you had slept for a few hours.
- Cool Big Sis: Syndia is this to Sandra AND her other self Diga, though Diga isn't aware and actually loathes Syndia
- The Dragonborn/Diga can be considered this to Chell and Wheatley.
- Crazy Survivalist: Following up from the escapades between Portal and Portal 2, Doug proves this even in the first chapter.
- Creepy Child: Cassandra, the former Oracle Turret. She spouts out nonsense that borders on prophetical.
- Crisis Crossover: Starts off as a fun and quirky adventure with a clash of cultures of those from Tamriel and those from the world of Aperture, then general becomes something dark twisted later on.
- Culture Clash: It's made clear of the differences between the modern world where Aperture came from and the fantasy world of Skyrim. There is talk of cars and toast and the like between the characters.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Hinted to be happening with Doug since being hooked up as the 'DOS' of Aperture.
D-F
- Deadly Upgrade: Doug was convinced by the Control Program to take it's power, forcing him to take control of the facility at further risk to his health.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight Syndia, although she was dead when Diga found her, after being torn by Alduin and dropped on the ground, with Diga desperately trying to heal her, even after she was long gone. This is even knowing the magickal lock was still in place. Diga didn't care.
- Distressed Dude: Wheatley and Doug share this role.
- The Dragon: Mercer Frey to Daryn
- Even the Girls Want Her: Lydia admits she's attracted to the Dragonborn as well
- Evil Sorcerer: Master Illusionist Daryn
- Fantastically Indifferent: Slaying Dragons is the main protagonists job. It annoys her, but she does see the benefit in selling off the Dragon's bones so it's not all bad. They get in the way most of the time, otherwise she doesn't take it that seriously as she does it with ease that it ultimately becomes boring.
- Fish out of Water: The fic details how the characters from Portal adapt to the lifestyles of Skyrim. Though Doug tries to make do with some inventions of his, made out of common materials and parts from Aperture.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: It's possible that Doug fell for the Dragonborn the instant she saved him. Several times.
- Foregone Conclusion: As Drakonophobia suggests, Diga, Chell and Wheatley survive and start up a new group, and Diga becomes the Realm-Walker.
- For Science!: GLaDOS /Caroline's main goal. After turning human she takes advantage and works to remake Aperture so she can do this once more.
G-I
- Genius Bruiser: The Dragonborn packs quite a punch but studied at the College of Winterhold to learn spells and necessary things to heighten her power and understanding of magic overall.
- Grief Song: Chapter 55 has the Dragonborn and Chell bond over a random radio playing Exile Villify by the National, after the Dragonborn loses Farkas to turrets.
- Hellish Horse: The Dragonborn gets given Shadowmere in Chapter 50.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Doug and Wheatley have been friends since the old days of the facility thanks to the Buddy Core Program.
- Hope Spot: When the Dragonborn finds Farkas again it looks like the two get to finally share their feelings together. until the turrets arrive, then all oblivion breaks loose. Chell saves Diga but Farkas is lost again.
- Hot-Blooded: The Dragonborn/Diga.
- Humanity Ensues: Daryn used the Wabbajack on Wheatley and, well, did not exactly turn him into a human, but rather, a High Elf. He freaks out at first and thinks there's something on his head when it's actually his hair.
- This also happens to the Oracle Turret and GLaDOS
- I Know Your True Name: Syndia invokes this on the Dragonborn, leaving her stunned for words.
- I'm a Humanitarian: A variant. Early on the story, The Dragonborn holds a mental distaste to the Altmer, notably those of the Thalmor BUT finds their actual taste quite sweet when she's a Werewolf.
J-L
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The Dragonborn can be brash but she does have her sweet side.
- Killed Off for Real: In Chapter 30, Chell 's most valuable possession, smashes into pieces during a battle. Rest in Peace, Portal Gun.
- Implied: Farkas
- Syndia Arch-Fire in Chapter 62. Torn by Alduin.
- Living Emotional Crutch: The Dragonborn to Doug.
- Chell to Wheatley. After the event's of Portal 2, Wheatley suffered from immense guilt and still does. He makes a shrine to her and his main desire is for her to forgive him. Given Chell doesn't talk, this might take a while. The Dragonborn even notes that if anything happened to Chell, Wheatley wouldn't forgive her, despite her and Wheatley having a close friendship themselves.
- Living MacGuffin: The Dragonborn, Cassandra and an unknown third component are elements to ascend one into a God. How or why is never explained. Yet.
M-O
- Mad Scientist: Doug shows signs of this due to his illness but he does have a good heart.
- Though signs of this change when He becomes the DOS of Aperture, and is suggested to have indirectly caused the deaths of Farkas and Syndia.
- Magic Knight: The Dragonborn/Diga dabbles in all three main branches. She is mostly the Warrior but knows a bit of magic and can use stealth tactics as shown in the first chapter.
- Magitek: Caroline expresses interest into developing the tech alongside technopathy and considers it a worthy investment. Aperture itself gives the impression to this to outsiders who no nothing of it. Doug also develops his 'inventions' and powers them with soul gems.
-
Magnificent Bastard: Daryn. - Mental World: Sandra and Diga share one in Chapter 61.* Missing Time: Between Sandra and Diga, they both feel like they've missed something. this is because the two are the same.
- Mooks: Silver Hand who are working with the Brandobaris.
- Morality Pet: Wheatley, Doug and Cassandra serve this to the Dragonborn.
- Nervous Wreck: Doug doesn't want to fight and when the Dragonborn makes him kill something, he loses it.
- Nice Guy: Doug and Wheatley try hard.
- The Nicknamer: GLaDOS hardly calls anyone by their real name. The Dragonborn is the Draconic Lycanthrope, Wheatley is the Moron, Chell is the Mute, Doug is the Schizophrenic.
- Wheatley calls Doug Douggie and occasionally calls the Dragonborn, DB.
- No Name Given: The Dragonborn is never referred to by name. Her alternate personality is even given a name before her actual one is revealed.
- No OSHA Compliance: Aperture itself. Especially when you're stuck in the ruins of Arkngthamz, which is prone to earthquakes.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: It's established that the Dragonborn is a Werewolf early on. While they have the usual abilities like they do ingame, it's seen that they're resistant to the neurotoxin but not completely immune as it triggers the transformation in self-defence and makes them more aggressive as a result.
- And it's also shown that fellow Werewolves can speak to one another telepathically.
- The Nose Knows: One of the Dragonborns many abilities is that due to her being a Werewolf, her human form has a greater sense of smell that allows her know where someone is near.
- Oh, Crap!: In Chapter 49, Syndia mentions to Arnbjorn that the Dragonborn hates the Dark Brotherhood. Her sister, Sandra, is the alternate personality of the Dragonborn. So, the Dragonborn is furious when she wakes up in the Sanctuary."Syndia'": Dear Sithis: Diga.
- Only Sane Woman: Poor Lydia.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Wheatley.
- Powered Armor: In a strange representation in a fantasy game, GLaDOS had constructed power armor for the Dragonborn that offers her higher resistance to fire, not to mention having a function that allows her to wear the armor even when in Werewolf form.
- The Power of Hate: The Dragonborn fights rather aggressively in battle and she's pretty aggressive in her personality. Though she knows when not to use it as well.
- Promotion to Parent: When Cassandra comes into the picture, The Dragonborn has her live with her in her spare room.
- Properly Paranoid: In one of Doug's flashbacks, particularly in Chapter 9, Doug coincidentally walks passed an interview room and sees a woman inside the room. A co-worker who was in there hands him a folder and tells him to file away. Said folder is the profile of the woman, stamped with the word rejected. Upon observation of the woman (implied to be Chell) and her documents, he decides to file it away for himself for reasons he can't even figure out. This may have been impacted due to the fact his superior, Henry, had just shown him the Master AI that they had in development just previously made him rather anxious.
- Recruited from the Gutter: Sort of how Chell was recruited into the Thieves Guild...'"Brynjolf"': I found her lost on one of my jobs. A client wanted something back that they had lost in a bet. So we obliged and went on our merry way. It was in Windhelm and she was sheltered in the dread that was the Grey quarter, even though she was clearly not an Elf. She had unusual markings and clothes and was very...hostile...stubborn even. The clothes on her back weren't giving her proper protection, and she was freezing. She was wearing peculiar shoes and I asked her where she had gotten them from. Of course, she didn't answer and...whacked me in the face.
- Running Gag: People describing the Dragonborn smelling like wet dog.
S-Z
- Sanity Slipping: Doug at times, though he really wasn't sane to begin with. Slips further when he becomes Ratt DOS.
- Science Is Bad: Debated. Doug mostly tries to invoke the good sciences like his so called inventions and Chell uses her Portal Gun and still has her Long Fall Boots as they're still considered useful, but the majority of Aperture and the tech is used for nefarious purposes...
- Secret Test of Character: The Dragonborn tries to get Doug to fight a giant of all things, except he's extremely hesitant to do so.
- Shipper on Deck: Lydia once shipped Dragonborn/Farkas but now somewhat supports Dragonborn/Doug purely based on their actions towards each other.
- Ship Tease: Dragonborn/Doug is prominent, as Doug is suggested to have a thing for her, and the Dragonborn for him too. Dragonborn/Farkas as well. Wheatley/Chell is hinted. In Chapter 47 It's revealed that Vilkas, Rick and even Lydia have the hots for the Dragonborn, turning this into a Love Dodecahedron
- Signature Scent: Apparently, the Dragonborn is described of smelling like wet dog.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Doug finds a diary entry of the Dragonborns in Chapter 9 that reveals the Dragonborn had plans to marry Farkas, via the Amulet of Mara that she had stored away. Farkas had been pointed out to be a very decent man indeed by her and she notes how close they've been.
- Skewed Priorities: When Doug is in the clutches of a Dragon in chapter three while in Winterhold, the Dragonborn is in the Inn at the time. She can hear the Dragon's roar and thinks more on the fact that more Dragon bones mean more money than thinking about Doug's livelihood. Then she sculls her drink, then goes to save him in the most hammiest way possible, but not before she identifies it as a Frost Dragon.
- Split-Personality Takeover: Chapter 31 It's revealed that for what ever reason, something during the attack on Solitude in Chapter 30 triggered Sandra, the Dragonborns other personality.
- Technical Pacifist: Doug describes himself as this. He becomes horrified at the prospect of combat and hurting people.
- Though at the beginning, in Chapter 4 (while drunk) he doesn't want to become a burden to the Dragonborn and wants her to train him for his own sake.
- Technopath This is discussed between Doug, Wheatley and Caroline, as all three exhibit some kind of power like this and Caroline feels like this is worth investing into as a business. She even meets up with Maven Black-Briar of all people who pairs her up with the Khajiit Ri'Son to make her sure her investments aren't going to waste.
- Wheatley demonstrates this in Chapter 46 where he manages to use the power to control the Dwarven Spheres and even a Centurion to take down the Falmer and their slaves.
- The Reveal:
- In Chapter 3, Dagur from the inn in Winterhold talks with the Dragonborn regarding something that was said to be in a cave near Azura's Shrine and a Khajiit known as Jo'Amal that was investigating a ruin there and died. The Dragonborn and Doug enter and find Wheatley in a treasure chest.
- In Chapter 10, they find Aperture is up and running again in Skyrim.
- In Chapter 30: The Dragonborns alternate personality, Sandra, takes over.
- In Chapter 49: The Dragonborn personality is known as Diga.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: The Dragonborn in Chapter 3 when she fights a Dragon that's taken Doug Rattmann in Winterhold.The Dragonborn: I'm the Dragonborn bitch! FUS RO DAH!
- Took a Level in Badass: Chell was already a badass, survived from being killed by two murderous AI's. She'd joined the Thieves Guild and learned many valuable skills.
- Even Wheatley gets a go of this. He tries to be brave but then it ends up looking worse for wear. Chapter 46 exhibits an ability to control Dwemer robots thanks to his technopathy.
- Try to Fit That on a Business Card: The Dragonborn. Diga Arch-Fire The Knight of Orphans, Thane of Whiterun Thane of Solitude, Thane of Falkreath Draconic Lycanthrope
- Unexpectedly Abandoned: As the Dragonborn returns to Whiterun in Chapter 52, she discovers everyone, including the Guards and the Jarl, have gone missing.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In Chapter 14 as the Dragonborn discusses GLaDOS with Jarl Balgruuf, Wheatley runs in and tells them that a Dragon is attacking the city. The Dragonborn, having done this many times before, just tells everyone to sit tight. Moments later, she returns with nary a scratch, a casual stride, then sheaths their sword....then...Jarl Balgruuf: Can we continue?'The soul of the slain Dragon is then absorbed into the Dragonborn from afar, who is then covered in an ethereal LIGHT, only for her to pull her hair away from her face afterwards'Jarl Balgruuf: So who do you believe can take down this creature? (refering to GLaDOS)
- Vitriolic Best Buds: The Dragonborn and Chell are beginning to evolve into this.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: When Doug takes the Control Program, he takes control of Aperture. Doug wasn't entirely sane to begin with, but this just made it a hundred times worse.
- The Voiceless: Chell, also, Atlas and P-Body.
- Worthy Opponent: The Dragonborn considers Chell this. But she makes the effort for the two of them to become allies, even friends
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: The Dragonborn says these exact words when she hears Doug yelling for help when he's captured by a Dragon in Chapter 3
