Companion Cube Gifts for Portal Fans

It was an emotional moment when I first beheld the Companion Cube.  I'd been through so much, platforming my way through puzzle rooms, reliant only upon the ingenuity of my portal placements.

I'd been so utterly alone.  Dependent for directions only upon the robotic reassurances of GlaDOS, and the writing on the wall.  That same clipped, corporate voice warned me not to get attached. 

People do get attached to inanimate objects you know.  The teddy bear industry has banked on it for generations.  But could I love a cube?

Yes, I really could.  GlaDOS knew I would.  Aperture Science had even left a pictogram on the floor depicting my emotional reaction.

I would carry my Weighted Companion Cube everywhere and I would love it.  The love-hearts said so and they weren't wrong. 

Yet such cruelty lay in our future.  Most of which we would defeat together, until it defeated us.  And I would fight and fight for the Companion Cube. I'd check every exit, shoot the hand-held portal device at every surface, ram the doors with all my strength.

All I wanted was to take my Companion Cube home with me.  Aperture Science had no intention of letting that happen.  There were tears in that chamber.  But I won't spoil it.  I won't say what happened next.  Those who were there know.  Those who survived to the end know more.

The Weighted Companion Cube and I know best of all.  We were there.  We saw it. We experienced it together.  My friend.

Real life never felt so cold, as when I was without my Companion Cube. 

Was it really so inanimate?  It sang and spoke to me, but so do all manner of mechanized things.  Yet GlaDOS gave the clue herself.  She told me that it 'probably' didn't feel pain. It was a prop, a tool, a toy.  It was wrong to assign sentience and a personality to such a thing.

Then why 'probably'?  If there was a possibility that it might feel pain, then the Companion Cube is alive.  It was still alive, despite all that we went through.

GlaDOS lies on the subject of Companion Cubes.  She changes her story.  She does not respect them.  Test Chamber 7 will haunt me forever.  The cake was a lie.  Or did I go mad out there?  Do sane people invest so much feeling and trust in a simple box?

I did. I do.  I want my Weighted Companion Cube with me.  I want to take it home.  All of us safe and sound.  I want it with me always.

There were energy balls bouncing, ready to incinerate us.  There were whole floors flooded with poison waste and toxic water.  There were fire chambers, which would have destroyed us both. There were platforms so high that only carefully placed portals saw us through.

Were you scared?  I was petrified at times.  But my Companion Cube was there.  Who can be afraid with a friend alongside?