What I Was Afraid Of · Track 64 · middle
Portal Gun
Portal Gun — *Portal*. Register: fiction. This song is sung BY this weapon, in first person, about the one thing IT was afraid of. Find the fear that is true of this specific object, not a generic one.
No audio yet — generation pending.
Lyrics
[Intro] I am cold polymer and a captive star. [Verse 1] They mounted me on a sterile pedestal, waiting for a hand to slip inside the casing. You map the geometry before you step, your visual cortex quietly erasing the concept of a dead end. I click. The three prongs flare. A tear in the room, suspended in the dark. [Chorus] They call me a gun, but I carry no lead, I just fold the distance from your feet to the edge. Blue for the entrance, orange for the floor, I am nothing but a sudden, violent door. And this is what keeps the humming in my shell awake: I can bend the room, but I can't keep you safe. [Verse 2] Speed goes in, speed comes out. That is the rule. I watch your boots cross the threshold of the room. I don't pull a trigger. I don't deal in blood. I just send you plunging past the metal and the rust. If you miss the white panel by a fraction of an inch... I am just the bridge. You are the one who has to flinch. [Chorus] They call me a gun, but I carry no lead, I just fold the distance from your feet to the edge. Blue for the entrance, orange for the floor, I am nothing but a sudden, violent door. And this is what keeps the humming in my shell awake: I can bend the room, but I can't keep you safe. [Bridge] I am the pacifist in the testing maze, offering a shortcut through the impossible phase. But as you drop into the loop, falling faster than sound, I am terrified I will never give you back to the ground. Terminal velocity is fifty-three meters a second. [Outro] You are falling. I am glowing in your grip. Blue to orange. Orange to blue. I never end the sentence for you. Just another hole. Just another.