#Project: Freeman au

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

Portraits I made of my favorite eldritch business agents <3

[caffeinehevsuit]

So like i..

Your au is very funky and i love aus n drawing Gordons so—-

@gmanwhore ( apologies if you don't like being tagged )

[the-lambda-archives-ai]

Statement of : Gordon Martinez Freeman, 30 year old MIT graduate,Regarding a peculiar video game he’d found.

Recorded direct from subject, May 16, 200-

Statement begins.

Pt 1 > here

ABOUT 👇

Hello! I am the author of this AU, you can find my main at @inkzectz , for more meta questions about this AU, or for general comments about it, please go there.

What is the AU about?

LA : AI is a crossover AU of sorts, in the simplest way put, it’s TMA but with HLVRAI characters, TMA stuff happens but altered to fit the general HLVRAI narrative, and with my own changes, headcanons, etc. added

I will be updating/editing this post as I progress.

Will it have spoilers?

Disclaimer!!

The AU will have a lot of the original themes of hlvrai and more so TMA, more so, horror themes, this will include gore, body horror, worms, decomposition, cult themes, psychological horror, arachnophobia,flashing imagery, etc.

(Will update as I go on)

I also feel it is important to mention this is the first time I have ever made a ask blog/ web comic/ published a story online, I will make mistakes, please bare with me as I am trying to figure things out.

English is not my first language, I do my best to grammar check and write well, but at the end of the day I will also be making mistakes.

Please be patient with me.

This au is a passion project of mine that I am doing on my free time because I want to, it is important to remember as a reader, I do not owe you anything.

It is best if you’ve seen it but as of writing it right now (early ep 4) there aren’t any spoilers. Once I am a little further ahead then you may want to listen to it.

Yes, not a lot, but vague/mild spoilers about how the world works, plot points, and character.

Again the spoilers will be vague and mild at worst, as it progresses I would recommend listening to tma, but it’s sort of like how while half life knowledge is helpful in hlvrai it isn’t exactly necessary to enjoy hlvrai bc it’s different enough from it to not really matter (?) I hope that makes sense.

Asks rules

- No telling [ player ] exactly what happens ex : “omg [ player ] when you weren’t looking [ npc ] said this very important thing that is supposed to be kept secret for lore reasons”

- Please avoid asks like “tell this character they’re pretty” while I appreciate the compliment, I am trying to write a story and want to keep things as on topic as possible. Instead tell me on my main if you like the art, I’ll probably reply with a doodle or something, just not on here.

- Less so of a rule but more so of a general statement, I will be avoiding asks that either are too close to what happens or if answering would mean progressing the story too quickly, there’s a lot I want to happen and I want time to do it all.

- Another one that’s less of a rule and more of a general thing, if I don’t like what you said I won’t be answering.

- I also sometimes just don’t know how to answer some things.

- Please be respectful of the ships I choose to include and don't force your own, ship wars and such will not be tolerated.

- Please be respectful of others and do not spoil anything, not everyone has listened to TMA and knows it's themes.

I will not be answering everything, I cannot always get to every message so please be respectful of that.

Select character

Character abouts! [ Will be updating as I continue to work on the story ]

[ select ] > Mr. Freeman

> Gordon Martinez ‘Martini’ Freeman

30 y.o . 6’0 . 230lb . Romani / Puertorican . male [ he/him ] . bisexual

[ PLAYER ]

> Lives in Seattle, MIT graduate, left Black Mesa, works as a librarian IRL but also makes money via streaming video games occasionally, in real time it is 2018.

> Believes in the paranormal out of fear but tries to rationalize out of denial, he will never admit something is supernatural and will jump through hoops to rationalize even if deep down he does believe.

> Has a son named Joshua Medrano Freeman, who is 6 years old, Gordon and his old partner met in college but split up before Joshua was born, they remain civil but are nothing more to each other than Joshua’s other parent.

> Gordon rents an apartment with 3 rooms, his own room, Joshua’s room, and a third that used to be a guest room but he has so little visitors he’s just chosen to revamp it into a gaming room.

> Gordon works primarily in a library for now as he’s looking for a better job.

> Gordon often wears hoodies, sweaters, t-shirts, crew necks, and any general outfit one would wear at home, long curly hair that is beginning to grey due to stress, unkempt goatee, and almost always wears green tinted glasses [ he doesn’t need glasses he just thinks they’re cool ]

> His hair is usually pulled back in a ponytail but can also be found in a bun or just down.

< [ select ] > Mr. Coolatta

> Thomas ‘Tommy’ Coolatta, primary researcher, and technical head of the institute.

39 y.o . 6’7 . 190lb . Chinese/filipino . Male [ he/him ] . ???

[ NPC ]

> His father owns the Lambda institute and he grew up in it, he officially started working in the archives when he was 24, and of all the employees in the entire institute he has worked there the longest.

> No one knows who his father really is, Tommy being the only one who’s ever actually seen / spoken to him, his father is the real head of the institute but gives most his orders through Tommy, so Tommy is also technically the head as well.

> Not much is actually known about him, besides his father he doesn’t appear to have any other family, nor does he ever speak of his personal life much.

> Tommy primarily works as an archival assistant, specifically in research, he is the one who will verify details regarding statements or do further investigations into aspects of the statements.

> Tommy is quite the colorful character, often wearing colorful clothing and accessories, he seems to think doing so brings some cheer into an otherwise boring environment, he often wears patterned polo shirts, cheap company bracelets, pins, lanyards, pant chains, but is never without his signature multicolor propeller hat.

[ferry-man-farrow]

Ok yes fine i caved and started a fic for this AU eat up you sad fucks

[egelskop]

i am so interested in ur hlvrai au can we get a rundown

oh boy, this is going under a readmore.

fair warning, this is a LONG read because (1.) i am not a competent writer and (2.) i can't for the life of me keep things brief. sorry and or good luck.

ACT I

The Black Mesa incident: Gordon Freeman is provided an opportunity to do an informal beta test for a combat training simulation program that's in development in the Research & Development department of the Black Mesa Research Facility. (Read: He knows a guy in R&D and said guy knows Gordon likes video games and VR stuff, so he was like "hey you should come check this out when you're on break.")

The combat sim would be a revolutionary training simulation using artificial intelligence to enhance and realize the experience for the ‘player character’.

The test goes wrong, and Gordon can’t seem to disengage from the simulation and odd, unscripted things start happening; he has to ‘play the game’ to its full completion before he is able to exit the simulation safely. He has suffered a brain injury throughout the process, eye damage due to prolonged exposure to the headset and is generally traumatized by the simulation experience he at some point could no longer physically and emotionally distinguish from the real world. The project as a whole is shut down and Gordon is put into a rehabilitation program. Black Mesa covers up the incident as best it can, but whispers of it still echo around the facility.

Below is a page for a two-page comic i never finished detailing said events.

ACT II

The rumors reach the ears of a particularly tech-savvy researcher named Clark, who steals the project documentation and anything else he can get his hands on from a storage. At home, he looks into the project, reads about it, and gets curious about the simulation’s files themselves. They’re on a drive he plugs into his computer, and suddenly his system’s performance lags, windows open and close until a txt. file opens up. He comes into contact with one of the simulation’s AI that has somehow entered his operating system. He tries to keep it busy by having it poke around as he reads up on the simulation and its ultimate shutdown. When the AI reveals it can see him through the webcam, he panics and rips the drive out of the port. The invasive AI and the other project files seems like they’re gone from his system, he does a checkup but sees nothing odd running or otherwise. The next day after work he does another checkup. Finding nothing, he surmises he’s in the clear and starts up an online game. The slumbering, corrupted data of the AI sees its out, and disappears into the game.

ACT III

The transition/journey to the game is a rocky one, and the already corrupted data of the AI known as Benrey splits and gets even more fragmented. The largest fragment embeds itself into the game’s files to keep itself running. Without the foundation of the game to support it, it’d be lost to a dead void and slowly die out. Somewhat stable, it learns about the world around it; the game seems to be an exploration sandbox game. For now (and clarity), I’ve chosen to call this bigger, embedded fragment ‘Data’. (so this is the big benny with the right eye/one big eye in my art)

Data splits off a smaller fragment of itself, intending it to be an avatar or ‘player character’ but this grows into its own awareness and becomes who we’ll call ‘Beastrey’ (the smaller benny with the left eye and tail in my art).

The fragment ‘Beastrey’ wakes to a dead void, so Data uses its knowledge to create a private server for Beastrey, an empty world. Beastrey’s existence is an extension of the bigger part, with more freedom of movement to parse through the game and move freely within it, with the caveat that it can’t go ‘too far’ away from the host. Beastrey can visit other servers and relay information. Data learns and slowly starts building up the world/private server, at some point settling for an aquatic world because it reminds it of itself (something something sea of data). It's important to note that Beastrey retains little to no memories of the events of canon VRAI.

Data makes it easier for Beastrey to move around, and they grow to have more reach with time. At some point Data can alter the basic structural elements of the game, so it plays around with making things that are reminiscent of the memories it has of Black Mesa and Xen. At one point, it gains access to parse through the player base of the game, and takes note of an email address: ‘g.m.freeman@gmail.com’, attached to a player account. The name is somewhat familiar to it.

It sends an invite to join the server to the player account.

ACT IV

Gordon tries going back to work at Black Mesa after rehabilitating, but he has trouble separating his experiences with the simulation from reality, to a breaking point where an altercation with a security guard drives him to quit. He seeks professional help for his PTSD and anxiety, but still experiences dissociative episodes, migraines and somatic flashbacks localised mostly in his right forearm. Despite this, he is determined to continue living his life as normally as possible. He applies for a part-time job teaching physics at a local high school, the one where his son Joshua goes to, and remains relatively stable from there.

Joshua is 15 years old. Regular teen. After an impressive amount of pleading he got a VR-headset for his 14th birthday from Gordon (much to the disapproval of Gordon’s ex), and he’s been captivated by an exploration sandbox game since it came out a few months ago.

He gets an invite to an unnamed private server, and he accepts.

He is struck with awe as the world he enters seems completely different from the ones he’s seen so far in the game. Different flora, different fauna. Most of it uninteractible, though, or otherwise just retextured from its base game variant. Even the new enemy types, after a scare, can’t actually hurt him, it seems. He stumbles upon Beastrey, who is just as surprised to see him and wants him out until Joshua says he was invited.

Joshua commends Beastrey (who introduces himself as 'Ben-') on ‘modding’ everything in, but admits that he was disappointed to find that everything was just surface-level stuff. Beastrey inquires about what he’d like to see. Data is always watching, unseen, and decides to alter the world in the way Joshua described when Joshua leaves.

Joshua starts appearing more often, if only for a few hours at a time. He marvels at the ways the world shifts and grows with each time he plays, and takes to exploring it with Beastrey at his side, for whom strangely enough a lot of things are also new. Joshua teaches both Beastrey and Data about the outside world, thinking Beastrey is just a somewhat reclusive but likeable weirdo.

Joshua tells Gordon about the new friend he made, ‘Ben’, and the adventures he’s been having with the other. Gordon is happy to hear Joshua is having a good time, but is otherwise none the wiser. Joshua starts losing track of time in the game, but chalks it up to being invested.

During one play session, Beastrey confesses he isn’t the one who did all the ‘modding’, and invites Joshua to meet Data. Data, or at least its ‘physical’ in-game manifestation is deep within the world, past the aquatic twilight zone and strange, drowned ruins of an unknown facility. Data, for the first time, really sees Joshua, and the resemblance sparks something within it. Joshua is drawn closer to it, and just before he reaches it-

Joshua wakes up lying on the floor with Gordon hunched over him in his room, pleading with him to wake up. Joshua unknowingly got drawn into the game much like Gordon had been, and Gordon urges Joshua to never touch the headset again, taking it away. Gordon opens up about his experiences with the simulation a bit more. They both agree to not touch the game or the headset again.

ACT V

Gordon comes into contact with an old coworker from Black Mesa, and he inquires about the combat simulation project, if anything happened to it after it was canned. This is where he learns that an employee had taken the project files from storage and was consequently fired. He comes into contact with Clark, and Clark explains he had no idea he accidentally unleashed the AI unto the game. Gordon asks if anything can be done to prevent what happened to Joshua and himself from happening to other people. Clark confesses he doesn’t know, and that it’s up to the developers of the game to find anything out of place and make sure it gets fixed. Gordon decides to leave the matter where it lies, not wanting anything to do with AI and simulations anymore and to safeguard his son.

Some time passes.

Joshua starts getting repeated invites and messages, at one point he gets into a conversation with ‘Ben’ via a platform’s messaging system. Ben says he can explain everything, that he’s sorry. Joshua decides he would like one final goodbye. He finds the headset stashed away somewhere in the house, and, while Gordon’s gone, he turns on the game and enters the server.

Beastrey (Ben) is surprised to see him, urging him to log out and turn off the game, but it’s already too late and Joshua can no longer leave. Beastrey helps Joshua attempting to ‘exit’ the game by going as far away from Data’s reach, but Data stops Beastrey and traps Joshua, determined to wait to the point that he assimilates into the game completely.

Gordon eventually finds Joshua comatose with the headset on, and he panics. He considers calling the emergency services, but he’s afraid they’ll take the headset off or that removing Joshua too far from the game will hurt his son like what happened to him. He calls Clark, urging him to help in any way he can. This results in Gordon and Clark going back to Black Mesa to retrieve the project files and the other gear they can get their hands on to get Gordon into the game to free his son.

Gordon enters the private server with Clark’s player character, and thwarts any attempt from Data to impede his progress and trap him as well. Beastrey’s awareness is overridden by Data as a last ditch effort to deter Gordon and Gordon is forced to destroy Beastrey before he can reach Data. As Beastrey is taken over, Data gains Beastrey’s awareness, and finds his other, littler half never wanted to trap Joshua in the first place, and the way it hurt him to hurt both Joshua and Gordon to this extent.

At this point, Data wavers in its intention to keep Joshua trapped, even more so with Beastrey now gone, and recognises whatever it is that is driving Gordon forward in the game is outside of his control to manipulate, so he lets Gordon destroy it as well. In a way, it also feels as a fulfillment of its intended role as the ‘villain’. The server crashes, the world breaks apart. The ‘game’ is completed.

The final boss is defeated and both Gordon and Joshua wake up. Joshua luckily wasn’t exposed long enough to have suffered any lasting damage, except for what seems to be a minor headache and some light sensitivity (and a vow from Gordon to get him checked out by a doctor as soon as the clinics open).

--

The whole ordeal results in Clark, Gordon and Joshua sitting in a Denny’s at four in the morning, eating pancakes somewhat solemnly, completely exhausted but also still reeling from the virtual battle. Joshua learns that ‘Ben’ essentially died, and he can’t help but cry for his friend.

“Honestly, I don’t think he’s gone,” Gordon admits, picking at the last bites of his pancakes. "I think he- or whatever that was, has a hard time staying dead. Like a cockroach, you know? At this point I’m just wondering when he’ll turn up again.”

Clark hums in agreement. Joshua seems somewhat reassured by his words, wiping at his eyes with the scratchy napkin as he settles into the squeaking diner seat.

“But,” he starts with a sigh, pointing his syrup-covered fork upwards to the ceiling in a decree, “One thing’s for certain…”

He thinks back to a time rife with virtual gunfire, caging walls and hysterical laughter echoing through the halls of the Black Mesa research facility. Five sets of footsteps and a whisper of his name.

“…No more VR. No more headsets. Ever.”

--

TL;DR: Gordon got trapped in VR and then Joshua also got trapped in VR. Benrey is there but also not.

thank you for reading. here. ( x ‿ o ) 🫴

[anons-has-hlvrai-aus]

Vortal Incarnation [Chapter 1]

Observation Terminated

Next Chapter (TBA)

Summary: Gordon Freeman declines the G-Man’s offer and faces the consequences of those actions. Twenty years later, a vortigaunt with some of Gordon’s personal effects shows up outside of the City 17 train station, and it only goes downhill from there.

Chapter Summary: N/A

Word Count: 3,972

Ao3 Version

Notes: If I had a nickel for every time I wrote a story about a guy named Gordon Freeman turning into an alien…you know the rest of the meme. One of a handful of Half-Life related projects that has been bouncing around in my head for at least a month now. The rest will possibly get releases while I’m working on this and Metamorphosis, or they might not, we’ll just have to see. Notes are hard rip. This project is also one of two AUs in which Gordon is a vortigaunt! I’ll see about getting something written up for the other…maybe…possibly.

Between binding himself to a man he couldn’t trust, and certain death…he unfortunately would have preferred certain death. After all…he’d gotten lucky with everything else these past two days…either he got lucky again, or his luck ran out. It was a significantly more trustworthy gamble than whatever the man in the suit had prepared.

At least, that’s what he’d told himself when he backed away from the door of the tram and politely declined the strange man’s offer.

“Well, it looks like we won't be working together.”

The words, etched with sparsely concealed disappointment and anger, now repeated in Gordon’s head like a scratched-up vinyl record while he lay crumbled to his side in a pool of his own blood. He was almost totally blinded. His glasses had shattered spectacularly and gotten into his eyes. One side of his vision was totally gone while the other was blurry and red. It was either a miracle, or another sign of his “luck,” that he wasn’t dead from the head trauma he was suffering from.

The HEV suit was utterly destroyed. He could feel the breastplate split in so many parts that it scratched at his exposed fingers if he brushed against it with more than the faintest touch. His legs had lost their feeling long after the suit’s morphine supply had run dry and long before he’d finally tripped up and fractured something from his dominant hand from the impact.

The aliens he’d been confined with had seemingly decided against the use of their biological weapons in exchange for chasing him around with the vague threats of violence just long enough for him to finally lose his footing; after that, they’d gotten their anger out in any way possible short of an actually painless death. Gordon figured that if they were smart enough to hold grudges, they would obviously want to take their sweet time tormenting him over the loss of their leader.

He’d heard them snarling between themselves in conversation, likely debating how else to prolong his suffering, but that had been so long ago now that he wasn’t sure if the silence was them quietly relishing in his pain or from his ears being destroyed without his knowledge.

Gordon had to wonder if he was even still alive at this point. He wouldn’t have to wait long for an answer.

His confirmation that his body hadn’t failed him quite yet came in the form of something flipping him onto his back and dragging his body along the ground. It wasn’t the big guys, this felt like something closer to his size, like those alien slaves with the lightning powers.

He seemed to guess correctly as he now heard a group of the worker species chatter in their strange tongue while they took Gordon away. He would have fled the moment he heard them if he had the strength for it, having rapidly learned to jump for cover at the first sign of their presence; he didn’t even have the strength to jump out of his skin, now.

For a moment, he was sure he heard one say “Free Man,” but perhaps he was imagining it from all the exhaustion and blood-loss.

Consciousness began to slip from him, but he tried his damndest to keep himself awake, despite the pain that coursed through his body. He knew if he let go now, he likely wouldn’t wake up. He doubted that anybody was looking for him, or would find him if they were, but he felt compelled to veer away from the clutches of death regardless.

As strong as his will was to live, however, the same could sadly not be said for his body, now catching up with all of Gordon’s injuries.

As his heart gave up, a voice spoke to him. It was a guttural voice that didn't belong to anyone he could remember, but for some reason it felt familiar and like he’d heard it very recently. He hadn’t time to ponder where or when he’d heard this voice, only the time to hear its one message to him:

“The Free Man will live.”

And as the last syllable escaped the lips of this familiar stranger, so too did the final breath of Gordon Freeman.

-

Between his responsibilities with the Resistance and his duties as a Civil Protection Officer, Barney Calhoun was a very busy man.

He didn’t particularly like his Civil Protection job, but he was good at it. He’d had to do some unsavory and cruel things to keep himself away from suspicion, but the illusion of unshakable loyalty had given him a good reputation with his coworkers at City 17’s primary train station. Anything he said could be trusted, and anything he wanted to ‘handle’ was his to take.

A sigh escaped his throat as he stood idly in the interrogation room he was sharing with one of his morally bankrupt coworkers, whom he had mentally codenamed as ‘Snitch’ with how quick he was to rat out any civilians he thought were acting out of line. Barney had heard somewhere that Snitch had his brain surgically destroyed by the Combine; he was willing to believe it, if only so he didn’t have to consider the possibility that a human could naturally decline to that point of cruelty…that he could possibly decline to that point as well…

Barney focused his attention to one of the monitors in front of him to see a passenger train arrive at the station. There was nothing noteworthy about the new arrivals that he could use to warrant one of his ‘surprise interrogations’ for recruitment, such as a history of legal but subtly rebellious behavior, but that thankfully meant Snitch wouldn’t be pulling anybody aside for a petty excuse to beat the shit out of them, either. No interrogations also meant no excuses to get Snitch out of his hair, unfortunately, so he’d have to listen to the man brag about how he was probably going to get promoted soon.

After a couple of minutes, there was a knock at their door.

Snitch opened the spy hole to see another of their coworkers, turning to look over at him after they had shared a brief exchange between themselves.

“They need some more hands next door.”

“Go for it.” Barney told him.

“Not gonna join us?”

He shook his head.

“You’re going to fall behind on your quota if you’re not careful.”

“It’ll get done.” He assured with feigned cruelty. “I’ve got my ways.”

Snitch shared a glance with the other officer before sliding the spy hole shut and backing out of the room.

Precious seclusion at long last.

He cut off the cameras in the room and pried off his mask with a loud, deep sigh while he watched the passengers of the last train file through the station.

“This shit was much more tolerable in Black Mesa…” He told himself.

One of the monitors pinged him about his room’s lack of camera feed, which he quickly acknowledged and hand-waved as being part of the room’s regular maintenance routine, which wasn’t far from the truth. This room didn’t agree with something about the Combine’s camera setup and was prone to spontaneous blackouts; to the frustrations of the almighty space empire, the only solution that seemed to work was turning the cameras off at semi-regular intervals, so that was now a permanent maintenance requirement for this room. So…one point for the glorious fickleness of machinery!

He smirked a little over the inkling of freedom he got from such a strange little coincidence. He didn’t have anything to report to the Resistance today, so he would hold off on calling Doctor Kleiner for now. The man was busy anyways and wouldn’t have appreciated being distracted. Instead, he would monitor some of the cameras that lined the outside of the train station. They were there to catch anybody trying to sneak in or out of City 17 through the train station, but nobody had tried anything of the sort for years now.

Monitoring that area was still a requirement, of course. Due to the lack of commotion behind the building, Barney’s computer was oftentimes the only one listed as checking these cameras when he popped in on them, not that he actually used them to check for humans. He spent more time getting a dopamine boost from watching crows meet up than he did looking for people trying to sneak around, but he was technically following protocol when nobody else was so this somehow earned him popularity points with his peers. One point for…laziness, he supposed?

“I bet you guys haven’t even noticed the world’s gone to Hell…” He said when the first camera caught a small murder of the little black birds. “Lucky little fuckers…”

Somebody knocked at the door again, Barney took this as a hint to put his mask, and the cameras, back on.

He opened the spy hole to Snitch.

“I’ve finished cycling them, they’re online again.” He huffed, knowing his coworker had only been sent back to nag him about the cameras.

“Yeah, yeah.” He looked behind Barney at the monitors. “Birds…” Snitch scoffed.

“As always.”

“Nice to know your years of experience are paying off…” The venom in his comment could be heard through his mask’s voice filter. “You should accept those promotions, you know. You could be getting compensated big time to watch birds from the fucking Citadel by now.”

“Do you want in, or not?”

“What’s wrong?” Snitch chuckled at Barney’s attempt at deflecting. “Scared of a few body mods?”

“Do YOU want to be the one that gets ‘bird-watching duty’ in my absence?”

The man backed away from the door and shook his head. “Hell no. Nobody else here would be caught dead checking those cameras.”

“I rest my case.”

“Enjoy your birds, you fucking weirdo.” Snitch pointed at him before turning tail towards the front end of the building. “You’re wasting your time.”

Barney, wanting to get the last word in, decided to tease the man before he left. “One of these days, there’s gonna be something other than birds out there, and I’m gonna be the one to find it.”

“Like hell you are. I’m going to harass citizens near the rations dispensary.”

“Not even going to pretend to be modest today, I see.”

“Fuck you.”

With Snitch gone, Barney let out a small laugh and returned to his crows. He switched through the cameras a few times. Some had more crows than others, but definitely no people.

After a couple more minutes of flipping through, Barney had more or less gotten his fix of corvid shenanigans for the day. Just before switching the screen to someplace interior, he noticed something…odd.

There was a blind spot beneath every camera, just small enough that one could never hope to fully utilize it to evade being caught during surveillance. There was something hiding in one of those blind spots, and it was driving the crows crazy.

Barney fixated on the blob of movement at the bottom of the screen, switching screens to see if any of them had a better view.

Soon, the blob moved further away from the wall and into a clear shot for Barney to process what he was seeing.

There was a vortigaunt outside.

How the hell did a vortigaunt get all the way over here? He didn’t think they were teleportating in from Xen anymore, but maybe he would need to double check that?

The vortigaunt was…wearing something. It looked like…was that Uriah?

No, no it couldn’t have been.

It was stupid for Barney to assume that any vortigaunt wearing a lab coat was Uriah.

And obviously it wasn’t him, because while the lab coat this vortigaunt was wearing was draped over his shoulders, it was obviously fitted for a human. Barney couldn’t speak for any other vortigaunt scientists, because he didn’t know any others, but he knew for a fact that Uriah had his coats modified to fit his longer arms. So at the very least, Barney was pretty sure this Vort wasn’t somebody he knew.

But that just led to more questions about who this was and where they’d come from…

Kleiner said something about trying to get that teleporter of his working not that long ago, hadn't he? With how spontaneously this guy had shown up…were they connected to that project somehow?

Had Kleiner taken some poor vortiguant from Black Mesa East or White Forest and made them the subject of a test? It was morbid to think the older man would haphazardly throw something alive into that machine after the last time but…then again, Last Time had involved that cat…

Barney shuddered.

He wasn’t going to rule out “test subject” as a possible answer for who this vort was.

Upon further investigation, this guy didn’t even seem to be aware of his surroundings. He not only seemed clueless of where he was…he seemed clueless of how he’d even gotten here.

Barney saw that…and the first thing that came to mind was when he escaped Black Mesa with Doctor Rosenberg and had experienced that “Harmonic Reflux” thing. Yeah, Barney had known he jumped through a portal the first time, but getting caught in the reflux made him so disoriented that he very nearly forgot how he’d gotten to the places he’d ended up. If it was that bad for Barney after only a couple of bad teleports…how bad would it be if it was that vortigaunt down there?

The Kleiner test subject theory was becoming more likely…

Of course, this guy could have also just been drugged or something by the Combine.

He’d have to go outside.

That vort may have been safe right now, but if they started wandering into the city, they would definitely be captured and tortured, and Barney simply wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he let that poor fella be taken into custody.

He slowly reached over to cut off the cameras again, then hesitated. No, that wouldn’t do. He needs to wait before cutting off the cameras, to keep it realistic.

He stepped back towards the door, keeping an eye on the screen to make sure the vortigaunt didn’t go anywhere, then bolted into the hallway and out the back.

The back door was heavy and slammed loudly against the exterior wall. Crows scattered everywhere as Barney approached.

“You-!” He said with a commanding tone, pointing a finger at the startled and confused alien. He paused, trying to remember what the ‘correct’ term to use was while in-character since vortigaunts hardly counted as citizens in the eyes of the Combine. His mind failed him, and he decided the ‘formality’ wouldn’t matter here.

“Come with me.” Barney motioned towards the door he’d just come through and then walked around to shove the vortigaunt inside.

He ignored any questions he got from his coworkers as he kept pushing the vort forward into his interrogation room…which was locked.

Damnit.

Barney knocked at the door, the spy hole opened in front of him.

“Where the hell did you run off-?” Snitch started to whisper before seeing the ‘detainee’ he was dragging along. “Son of a bitch.”

“…Told ya.”

“Just get the hell inside.”

The spy hole slid closed, the door swung back open, and Barney’s new friend was escorted into the interrogation room.

“…Need any help with this one?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

Snitch didn’t complain. He and Barney didn’t get along, but he still respected him enough to take what he said at face value. As such, he stepped out of the room once more.

Barney mumbled to himself while cutting out cameras, and then pulled his mask off.

“H’okay…” He sighed, “we’re safe to talk for a little bit…”

The vort drearily looked at him. Either his suspicions that they were drugged were correct, or they weren’t much of a talker.

“Hey, are you…can you understand me alright? Nod your head two times if you can.”

They tilted their head, as if trying to process the question, before awkwardly nodding their head twice.

“Okay, are you able to speak?”

They waited a bit before shaking their head.

“I see, sorry about that…” He was terrible at reading VSL, so getting the vort to sign for him was off the table for now. “Do you know where you are, or how you got here?”

They took significantly less time to answer this question, shaking their head again for both questions.

“Alright. I’m gonna do what I can to get you to connected with people who know you, okay? Just gimme a second…”

Now that Barney was up close with them, he at least had a better idea of this guy’s distinguishing features. If they were part of the Resistance, maybe somebody would be able to recognize them from his description and explain what happened to them that way. It was worth a shot…

The first thing Barney noticed was the eyes. They kept their three, secondary eyes closed at all times; whether this was a preference or a result of the vort’s condition was yet to be determined. He was also able to note three specks of yellow in the iris of their main eye that formed a vague triangular pattern, which would prove especially useful for identification. Along the back of their neck were the remnants of some fins or external gills, apparently vortiguants had those in abundance during youth and they were supposed to fall out during adulthood. Barney rarely saw any vortiguants that didn’t have at least a few of those frills somewhere on their body, but they were usually frayed and fragile. The frills along this vort’s neck seemed pretty healthy, suggesting to Barney that maybe this one was on the younger side.

Their abdominal hand fell limp, but it didn’t seem to be broken, at least. In fact, this vort looked about as healthy as he could have imagined a vortigaunt to look, which shouldn’t have been possible if they had been on Earth for a while.

The vortigaunt, unfortunately, kept their lab coat tightly wrapped around them using their two primary hands, making it difficult for Barney to find any notable birthmarks or tattoos. He didn’t want to be intrusive by asking them to undress just so he could find out, so…

“Is it okay if I check your pockets?”

They nodded again, this time pausing to squint at Barney. Did this vortigaunt…know him somehow?

The vort suddenly winced and clutched the side of their head.

“Woah, hey now!” He pulled them aside to a nearby chair. “If you’re trying to remember something, let’s take it slow…I’m sure it’ll come back to you naturally…”

The vort leaned back in the chair, the tension in their shoulders notably diminished once they did so.

“There we go, just relax. Now…let’s take a look…”

The breast pocket was searched first, with Barney able to find a rolled up tie inside, stripped with red and black.

“Heh, I hope you’re just holding this ridiculous thing for a friend.” He joked, getting a silent chuckle from the disoriented vortigaunt. “I haven’t seen a tie like this in a long time…”

As he rolled the tie back up and returned it to his owner, Barney’s gaze was drawn to a familiar angular emblem on the opposite breast of the coat…

“Black Mesa.” He whispered.

The vort, seeming to regain a hint of cognizance, raised a hand to possibly sign something, but they quickly seemed too lost to form anything and instead clutched their lab coat once more.

Barney frowned. A jacket this pristine couldn’t have come from Black Mesa, not after 20 years.

He pushed further thoughts to the back of his mind, figuring that everything would make sense once this vort was, at the very least, identified.

He checked the pocket closest to him this time, it was stretched from an attempt to fit something larger than was possible for the fabric and space provided, but the only thing inside was an ID, also Black Mesa issued if the pattern from the jacket and tie was anything to go by.

Barney pulled the card out with interest, hoping the card’s owner might lead a hint to somebody in the Resistance, maybe even somebody Barney knew.

He gave pause upon seeing the photo, having to will himself to read the name next to it:

Gordon Freeman, Ph.D

The picture, of course, had a youngish man with a dorkily stoic face staring back at him, dark green eyes almost glowing with a hidden sense of mischief.

Barney sighed and used a free hand to wipe away the tears that pricked at the edge of his eyes.

Was it wrong for him to still be grieving? Twenty years was a long time to have your best friend be dead. He knew the vortiguants talked on and on about how ‘The Free Man will return’ but it was hard to believe them when the only thing Barney could see when he thought of that name in connection to those words was his best friend being dragged away by a pair of armed troops, bragging about how they were going to hide the body.

Hide the body.

His best friend’s body.

There was a picture in Kleiner’s lab with Gordon’s face on it, very grainy and nearly impossible to make out who was who, it had done nothing to replace the image of Gordon’s unconscious form for the past 20 years. Looking at the ID Card in his hands, however, pushed away the dread of that mental image; Gordon had always been so careful with his stuff, or even with stuff he had been entrusted with, and whoever had held onto this little piece of plastic had done well to put just as much care into keeping it pristine as Gordon himself would have. It was a perfect picture for Barney to reminisce over, any worries about where and when Gordon died were secondary to the flood of emotions Barney felt seeing a clear glimpse of his best friend during life.

He didn’t know if this was supposed to be a sign from the vorts, or a gift from them, or whatever…but it was relieving to look at.

“Gordon Freeman…” he sighed longingly.

Curiously, the vortiguant looked at him attentively.

“…what?”

They looked at the ID, then back at him, trying to mirror the stoic expression on the card.

Barney pursed his lips, looking at the ID again, then at the lab coat.

They looked at him expectantly.

No.

No, no, no.

There was…no way.

“…Gordon?”

There was NO way in Heaven, or Hell, or Earth, or Xen, or wherever the fuck the Combine came from…

The vort nodded.

Eyes widening, Barney checked the lab coat’s final pocket, immediately finding something plastic that formed a thick frame. He pulled it out.

Glasses.

Not glasses for a vortiguant, although Barney was sure they existed, but for a human. Black rimmed glasses. The glass itself looked like it had been shattered long ago, but the frames were completely fine.

“Gordon??” He asked again, desperation and hope welling up in his throat.

They…he tilted his head in confusion, but nodded again regardless.

“Oh…” the air caught in his throat as he put the glasses back into Gordon’s pocket. He had to control his breathing just to make sure he didn’t scream or burst into tears from the revelation. “…my god, it’s…you’re…” Barney couldn’t help but let out a short laugh.

Gordon Freeman was a vortigaunt. He didn’t know how, but he was. How could he not laugh?

Gordon squinted, once again trying to recognize him.

“I guess it has been a while, hasn’t it?” He didn’t wait for his friend to try any sort of reply “…it’s me, Gordon. It’s Barney…”

[its-ya-girl-phoeni]

Lucas: All right, Boyfriend, are you ready to see your memories? Find out who you really are?

Boyfriend: I'm not so sure. What if I don't like what I see?

Giles: We've come all this way. Go on.

Boyfriend puts the tube into the machine. An image pops up on the screen of Boyfriend – or rather, Bonnie Freeman. At the bottom of the screen, it says DAY 1)

Bonnie Freeman: (On tape) My name is Bonnie “Bon Bon” Freeman, and I wish to unsee what I have seen.

All: (gasp)

Boyfriend: What the skibidi?!

Bonnie Freeman: For the past year, I have been working as an assistant for a visiting researcher. He has been cataloguing his findings about Gravity Falls in a series of journals. I helped him build a machine which he believed had the potential to benefit all mankind, but something went wrong. I decided to quit the project. But I lie awake at night, haunted by the thoughts of what I've done. I believe I have invented a machine that can permanently erase these memories from my mind. (She holds up the memory erasing ray.) Test Subject 1: Bonnie. (She shoots it. The screen goes to static and comes back on; DAY 5) It worked! I can't recall a thing. (Static, lab is in disarray; DAY 22) I call it the Society of the Blind Eye. We will help those who want to forget by erasing their bad memories! (Static, Boynie looks more masculine and nervous; DAY 74) Today, I came across a colony of little men, very disturbing. I would like to forget seeing this. (Uses the ray again. Static, Boyfnie lab is a mess, her arm is thicker and less thin; DAY 189) I accidentally hit another car in town today. I feel terri-boopible! T-terrible. I've been beep booping lately. I wonder if there are any negative side effects to- (Static, Boyfrine has blue hair and is filming from a motel; DAY 273) I saw something in the lake! Something BIG! (rips her sweater sleeves and beep boops. Static; DAY 618) My hair's shortening a little, so I got this cap from a thrift store! Hey, why are my shoes red? (Static; DAY ???. Boyfriend is wild-eyed and filming from the junkyard. Maniacally giggling and beep booping:) Skebap be bopo bapboop beepbop bappity bopo beepaa skbep! Bop skdoo beepop beepop beep! Bapboop skdoo bap beepo skdabeep bap skdoo boop bappity skebap! Bep beep de bop beep beepaa beepaa beepo boop skbep! Bop be be de bop be de skbep bip boop bop boop boop bep! (The tape ends as he forms a circle around his right eye.)

Giles: Oh, Bon Bon, I'm so sorry.

Boyfriend: Aw, hush. You kids helped me get my memories back, just like you said.

Giles: But did you want those memories back?

Boyfriend: After all these years, I finally know who I am. Maybe I messed up in the past, but now that I seen what happened, I can begin to put myself together again. (Hamboning:) Thanks for opening my eyes.

Lucas: Still don't know what that means. So, wait. You weren't the author, but you worked with him. Do you remember who he was?

Boyfriend: It's beginning to come back, but I need more time. And reading glasses. Heck! (spits) I got some rememberin' to do.

Oh, this hurts (positive)

The idea of Bonnie gradually losing her mind in the game world is so angsty and I'm all here for it

(bonus: I like to think in this AU she caught a glimpse of Downbeat during the portal incident, similar to how most people theorize Fiddleford saw Bill when he got sucked in)

[kemosabeko]

RE Actor AU!

I thought I could hide it but I really can't anymore

*this is mostly about wesker but will I apologize? Nah. Imma do my own thing.

A/N: these are very, VERY self-indulgent

Warnings: None, just fluff and crack

Also this is my first post in Tumblr so idk how do texts/posts works in here :p

This was created because my current hyperfixation rn is wesker (YES)

You'd think with his role he'd be uptight and quite the serious actor. Yknow those types.

Oh boy oh boy would you look at that. He just brought another coffee for everyone on set.

MF LITERALLY IS ONE, IF NOT THE MOST, KINDEST PERSON YOU'LL MEET.

Always there to help crews moving their things, especially the heavy ones like camera.

Helps fellow actors with their script and scene.

But the most noteworthy trait of his is being a family man.

WOFJWISHJS GODDD HOLD ON

He literally SHOWS OFF his twins to his co-workers.

Everyone is a victim

"Chris look at this. They're walking"

"Yeah you showed that to me like five times alr-"

"they're WALKING"

Okay biggest victims are Chris and Leon

Jill and Chris are people who entered the industry the same time as Albert and has worked on multiple projects with each other. Hence, their closeness.

Now back to the general cast

Chris and Claire are literally siblings in real life

This franchise is actually Ada's first acting role in the industry! Which immediately became a huge boom to her career, which she didn't expect.

She was actually originally working as a stunt woman, but one time a manager suggested her to do acting after seeing her try to double a character since the original actor was sick, and she couldn't be more thankful that she took the risk.

She's very skilled in martial arts!

She and Albert are some of the few casts that don't do double-stunts.

Leon is a child actor starting from the age of 7.

Came from a very wealthy (aristocratic) family

ABSOLUTELY IDOLIZES ALBERT

Y'know that one story of Tom Holland when he talked about RDJ and was absolutely stunned when he entered the set?

Yep. That's literally Leon on his first day on set.

Look. He's worked with a lot of big shot names. Cate Blanchett, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Nicole Kidman, you name it!

But has he ever worked with this man with basically a face and body carved by the greek gods themselves, slicked back hair, and possibly the smoothest and healthiest skin ever, who's basically his entire fucking idol and goal to work with? NO!

So why, should he NOT FREEZE UP when he finally met him on set?

Albert saw a blonde, handsome boy sticking out like a sore thumb from the entrance of the set. He quickly realizes that this is the actor they cast for the protagonist. He walks up to them and smiled warmly.

"Hey! we got a new face around here. You must be Leon Kennedy right? Nice to meet you! I'm Albert Wesker"

He stretched out his hand to shake with him, but all Leon could think was

"oh my god... it's ALBERT FUCKING WESKER"

Poor blondie basically stopped working for a few seconds, before he realized how stupid he looked and was on his way to ruin his first impression.

He quickly snapped out of his shock and went to shake his hands and OH MY GOD THEY'RE SO SMOOTH AND WARM AND HIS SMILE--

Had to take a breather when he went to his tent after that encounter.

After that and throughout the shooting, they became closer and eventually became close friends

Which is how Albert met you but that's for another story.

Carlos has a HUGE and I mean, simp level of huge, crush on Jill.

This man really was the real smooth operator cause when he heard that Jill, together with a male character, will be the MC for the third franchise? Oh this man was on a MISSION.

Immediately auditioned and prepared for the role like his life was on the line (on his defense, it was)

The first to hear about this was Chris.

Which he then gossiped to Albert.

To which they both supported Carlos by giving him tips about what Jill likes, hates, her fave foods, her favorite movies, all of that and etc.

CHRIS AND ALBERT #1 VALEVEIRA SHIPPER 💯

Literally had them plotting the most insane shits for a date

Thankfully, their shenanigans bear fruit after a year when Jill finally accepted him as her boyfriend.

Man was so over the moon, he deadass called the other two in the middle of the night to talk about what happened.

Albert was NOT happy being interrupted in his sleep, but decided to let it slide hearing the joy in the younger man's voice.

After all, he wasn't so different when the same thing happened to him with you.

Oh also, did I ever mention that Albert ADORES children?

Which is why he found Sherry so cute! Even though she plots pranks with Leon and Claire occasionally.

Throughout the years, they have become absolutely close friends that they consider each other as family (I'm starting to hear Dom Toretto)

Leon and Ada also eventually became a couple after years of painful pining (the rest of the cast and crew had to suffer witnessing their years of pining for each other)

They often do a late night chats with each other, sometimes they do IG live together when everyone's free.

The fans ABSOLUTELY eats them up because it's their source of meme and crack content from the cast.

The Behind The Scenes were filmed by almost all of them, or whoever wants to.

Tons of them are Chris tripping over almost everything.

Claire trying her stunts and being extremely proud when she successfully does one without her double.

Carlos just playfully punching and having beef with the camera.

It also includes Albert teaching Ada some stunts on how to do them better and more safely, and vice-versa.

And then you got Luis, Ashley, and Leon straight up doing a mukbang ASMR for one of their BTS (they failed horribly cause they, especially Luis, can't stop laughing)

Luis tries teaching Ashley spanish but eventually gave up. But after a few months, Ashley came up to him and said in almost perfect spanish "soy un raton rubio"

Loverboy felt like a proud parent he started singing out of nowhere.

*I feel like I really have so much more to put but maybe I've finally exhausted my ideas so here they are!

[inland--empire]

Hello All! I am O/G-man and this is my stupid little blog. I am obviously quite into Half Life and all adjacent media, but I also love HLVRAI. I am REALLY into Disco Elysium right now too :) There will be pictures of bugs on this blog, mostly mantises, and they will be under the tags #women and #girls

Header and icon by meeeeeeee

I WILL BLOCK IF YOU BRING G-MAN HATE ONTO MY BLOG.

My pronouns are it/they/xit/can/mant/click/tap/nova/patch/stitch/slay/loverboy/starman. If you want to know how to use em, this is a really handy resource! It's also just nice to have for your own pronouns!

I do use. Other names. Orchid, Omega, Doll, Sweets, Arcade, Tequila, Colette, Cave, Wallace and Francis are all. Viable options. You can also call me. Dr. Sunshine. Or the Scarlet Milkman. If you want to use a full name please use Sunshine-Lalonde! I got adopted by Mom Lalonde lol.

My really epic IRL list (you can use the names of my irls for me too ig) (I am in a constant Harrier Du Bois/Inland Empire/HLVRAI G-man/Rose Lalonde/Scarlet Milkman/Commander Tartar shift, and on top of that I am in a Cyn shift)

Alter listttttt

My stimboard blog: @multiversal-stims

My selfship blog: @hanahaki-arcade

My otherkin blog: @emphasis-on-the-other

My irl blog: @lab-rat-girls

My HLVRAI au ask blog: @project-mary-bell-township

My Half Life oc ask blog: @black-mesa-brew

Team PNK ask blog: @team-pnk

Orange Box Trio Kinhelp blog: @orange-box-kinhelp

Credit

This is my icon btw! I edited the Gordon Freeman out because. I would not fucking say that

I love you all and have a nice day.

[hikarry]

Oh, now we’re talking. The homosexuality undertones on this bitch were devilish (it was 2010. I know we complain a lot but, realistically, it's nice we even had undertones of gay in a big project like this back then with big house name actors like Benedict and Freeman).

Watson's dry humour on this one scratched such a good itch on my brain (*High stakes situation*: 'How would you describe me?'/'Late?'). God, he's delightful.

First, let’s address this little moment: Someone is shooting at you in a museum -> Your reaction: 'Careful! Some of those skulls are over 200,000 years old. Have a bit of respect. Thank you'. I know we in Sherlock territory here, but that scene is so fucking Aziraphale coded. In the Sherlock AU I'm writing, I have Aziraphale as Watson and Crowley as Sherlock, but that line made me stop on my tracks to reconsider my choices.

Anyway *clears throat* focus on the plot, shall we?

The episode opens with some threatening graffiti, and a string of murders. Promising start. Yet, sometimes it feel like Sherlock forgot to press fast-forward on his own brain on this one (but I choose to overlook that because of that little smile he pulls in this episode. You know the one. I said I was going to review everything, but I never said I would be fair or unbiased.)

I have very bad memory, so, even though this is one of my favorite shows and I've watched this more times than I care to count, I don't remember any of the resolutions of any case, so I just sit here trying to deduce things before Sherlock and usually I fall short (because I'm dumb, mostly. I have the brain power of an old steam train) but the cipher was child’s play—took me five minutes to cracked it with a cocktail in hand.

Sherlock and John are still the best part of the show tho (watch my tune change drastically when we get to season 2 and I lay my eyes once again in the masterpiece that is Irene Adler). Their bickering and banter carried this episode on its back. I particularly always enjoy Sherlock being utterly useless at basic human interaction. Watching him try to connect with other humans is like watching me trying to dance— can be endearing, but it's mostly awkward, and mildly painful.

That said, I did love the vibes. The shadowy atmosphere, the eerie museum, and Sherlock's limited combat skills? All excellent. I thrive on aesthetic chaos and incompetence, and this episode has enough to keep me entertained.

Final verdict? Gave it 5 out of 5 even though I should have given 4 again cause I always offer bonus points for sword fighting.

[valencrime]

Pinned post!

I'm Dottie, They/She/He are fine, I'm an adult.

I write, and draw, and cross stitch, and sometimes I even remember to post those things to the internet.

Fanfiction masterpost, in order of most recently updated! If something is on Hiatus but I do not explicitly say I don't wanna continue, just assume it's still in my heart and I'll work on it when the stars align.

In Between Days - 12,394 words - published 2025 Inanimate Insanity - Incomplete - (4/?) - "If my death helps them survive, I wouldn't have any regrets." And then he woke up. (Time Loop AU)

UNDO UNDO - 19,856 words - published 2024, finished 2025 Inanimate Insanity - Complete - (5/5) - MePad is dead. Test Tube doesn't think he should stay that way.

End of the Line - 1,261 words - published 2024 Great God Grove - Complete - (1/1) - King's perspective, at the top of the spire.

Heart in a Headlock - 10995 words - published 2024 Undertale - Incomplete (3/?) - I'm enamored with timeloops, and wanted to write something self-indulgent about Frisk and Chara. Maybe you'll like it too

Between the Between the Scenes (More Between, More Scene) - 14037 words - published 2022, last updated 2023 Dungeons and Dragons - (11/?) My DND drabbles all compiled into one, easy for my friends to find fic. AUs and in-character letters and lost scenes, oh my! Gordon in Breen's Office, What Propaganda Will He Make? - 54569 words - published 2020, last updated 2023 Half-Life - Hiatus - (24/?) Do you wanna read a story where nice things happen to the cast of Half-Life 2? A story where Gordon gets put in Doctor Breen's Office instead of on the train to City 17? I'm giving everyone a happy ending, dang it!

Project "FREEMAN" - 11448 words - published 2020, last updated 2021 Half-Life but the AI are Self-Aware - Incomplete and LIKELY abandoned - (4/?) (1/1) Gordon is the only AI AU.

Beast Synonyms - 1911 words - published 2021 Half-Life - Hiatus - (1/?) Cool dragon AU

Half-Life Mermaid AU - 9811 words - published 2020, last updated 2021 Half-Life - (1/1) (1/1) (2/3) - What if Half-Life characters got to be HAPPY? Also mermaids are real. Three stories in collection.

Love (to) Spoon - 4459 words - published 2020 Half-Life - Complete - (1/1) - A Secret Santa that is technically part of a series, but can standalone. Gordon Freeman and Barney Calhoun give each other heartfelt gifts, Post-Half-Life 2 Episode 2 (except Eli isn't dead)

Bomb Rush Blush - 1681 words - published 2020 Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion - Complete - (1/1) - Callie's here to help with the rescue at the subway! Unfortunately, she's gotten a bit lost.

remember when malls existed - 1753 words - published 2020 Half-Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware - Complete - (1/1) Gordon Freeman needs to get presents for his son at the mall!

Couch Time - 3069 words - published 2020 Ducktales 2017 - Complete - (1/1) Della's having a rough time on Earth, so she calls up one of her favorite cousins to help out!

Observe, Think, React - 704 words - published 2019 Inanimate Insanity - Complete - (1/1) MePad thinks about the rare feelings he has, and what causes the worst ones.

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

Phone call

[caffeinehevsuit]

Peeks in

Drops here

Silly..

@gmanwhore

Thought this fit Sunshine.

[headcrabrangoon]

how did the original accident play out in the rangoon au?

I've told the story of the aftermath from a few different perspectives, and it's high time I addressed the start of it all.

If you want the TL;DR: Gordon was conducting some unsupervised tests with a teleporter he was modifying. Lamarr was loose and got involved when the machine started falling apart, and the two regained consciousness as a single disoriented and distressed being.

If you want a longer story...

The setting is White Forest, six months after Alyx killed the Advisor and vanished. In the time since then, she'd been reported as being sighted only once by Dr. Mossman on the Borealis shortly before it was destroyed. The logical conclusion would be that she was killed in the crash, but Gordon didn't feel her death through their vortal connection. It's clear that she's not gone, only displaced. The task of tracking down a human being who could be anywhere in spacetime seemed impossible, but if anyone was willing to take the challenge, it would be Eli Vance and his colleagues at White Forest.

Gordon was especially dedicated to the project. He had plenty of reasons to be, not the least of which was being able to feel Alyx's life force through the fabric of the universe. Vortessence was not easy to study in a purely physical manner, but Dr. Freeman knew it was too important to leave out of his research. He spent months synthesizing notes from Vance, Kleiner and Mossman's developments in teleportation with personal observations and oral accounts from experienced vortigaunts, and was finally at a point where he felt confident in using equipment to test his theories. If he can understand teleportation in relation to the vortessence, he can find Alyx. If he can find Alyx, he can do something important on purpose, driven by his own will, and then he might feel a little bit like the person that everyone else is so proud of.

It wasn't exactly headline news when Lamarr got loose that night. Her kennel was being cleaned, and while there was an effort made to contain her, she was a very clever and curious beast who loved to explore. She was attracted to the sounds in the lab-- for most of her life, spent alone with Kleiner in his City 17 lab, these sounds mean Her Person is doing Important Work. Things moving and changing, making rhythms or unexpected loud sounds that make her jump and startle. Her favorite thing to watch, made even more tempting when she was not allowed to be present. It made hiding in the vents even more exciting.

It was not Her Person working, but Gordon was fine. She had not known him for very long, but he was friendly to her, Kleiner and the rest of Her People liked him a lot, and he liked to do Important Work, so he was allowed to be in her inner circle. Still, she wasn't sure if he'd let her hang around and watch him, so she stayed hidden.

He stayed working for a long time. Sending things from terminal to terminal, recording the readings, making modifications, starting over. Really, it would have been safer and smarter to do this sort of work with a lab partner, but Gordon was determined not to bother anyone. With White Forest growing from a Resistance base into a living community, people were looking to Eli and company for leadership, they had enough on their plates. Meanwhile, Gordon was struggling to find his place in peacetime. If he could just do this for them... If he could just do this for her...

He could get a little distracted, letting his thoughts take over like that. Distracted enough to not register that the readings from the equipment were starting to trend toward something dangerous. Distracted enough to disregard loose parts, even. But Lamarr, from her hiding place, was paying attention to the way the machines were moving.

Later, she might understand that a headcrab launching at a person's head from out of nowhere isn't the best strategy for getting them out of harm's way. In fact, there's a good chance it well put them further in harm's way. Regardless, she'd wanted to help, but instead she just put them both in the blast radius when the restrictors blew on the smaller teleporters.

Neither would be able to remember exactly what happened or what the impact felt like, which is unsurprising given that having your nervous systems spliced together counts as cranial trauma. The physical and psychological toll is immense and immediate, as their neurons are on fire and their immune systems are rejecting each other. It's hard to process anything, they can't separate their thoughts or understand what they are. But they know that they've made a terrible mistake.

[ask-onelife-au]

Read me!

This is a roleplay/askblog about my Oneshot/Half-Life crossover AU, One-Life. Currently, the only characters available for asks are Niko and Kip.

I'll to stay as in-character as I can, unless I mark something as OOC (out of character), such as if I'm announcing a hiatus.

Other roleplay blogs are free to interact!

▼ Tagging System ▼

#ask-response: Responding to an ask

#ooc: Out of Character

#roleplay: Roleplaying with another character blog

#os game rp: Anything not OOC

▼ About the World ▼

This takes place 19 years after the Black Mesa incident. The Combine control most of the world. Gordon Freeman has not arrived yet.

The Citadel acts as the Tower. The Sun is gone and has been missing for the past 3 years.

The Refuge, re-named City 6, is the equivalent to City 17.

Due to City 6 being too unsafe, Kleiner's lab is abandoned, and he and Barney now live in Black Mesa East (Eli's lab/hideout)

There is no World Machine or Old World. The World is canonically real.

Kleiner and Eli are a couple

BISEXUAL ELI

Black Mesa East is the main rebel base.

▼ About Kip ▼

Kip barely survived the Black Mesa incident. She escaped with a few unimportant scientists, as well as Silver, who was a half-finished project at the time, taming her in the process. Silver has since been completed, mostly using Combine scrap.

She and Silver are very close, and share a kind of sisterly bond.

She's been through a lot.

Lives in Black Mesa East. Niko considers her their aunt.

Obviously the gayest woman the world's even seen

▼ About Niko ▼

Niko suddenly appeared in Black Mesa East one day when they were very young. They were summoned here by the G-Man, though nobody knows this.

Prophesied by the Vortigaunts to restore the Sun one day and help take down the Combine.

Nonbinary

14 years of age

Raised in Black Mesa East by Kleiner and Eli.

▼ Other Information ▼

This blog is run by @local-robotgirlthing

I don't have any facesprites made yet, so for now, I won't be using any

When sending an ask, please specify what character it is meant for.

[alix-is-o-a-k]

What's your Nark fic recommendations? I keep seeing it on my dash and don't know where to start.

Oh gosh I have so many- here’s a list! If it has ‘(#)’ that means number of works in the series. There’s way more than this that I like, but here are all the ones I’ve really liked. (Only a couple have links, sorry!)

Walking biohazard by litamaze (sicfic!)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/4329113

Being with you makes the flame burn so good by Nickclose

Cabins & campfires by nolassolace 

Single dilf Nicholas-close-foster-freeman-swift by nolassolace and litamaze

A consuming faith by kibbles423

Game night (2) by kibbles423

Hibernate with me by serikyl

Never love an anchor by anonymous

Songbirds (5) by litamaze

69 first dates by unseeleighfae (memory loss!au)

Lark gets weird (about Nick) by unseeleighfae

Underneath this flickering light by travvymybeloved

And they were roommates by litamaze

Nights like these by unseeleighfae

Hope this helps!