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sparrowsarus · 1 year ago

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In which we work on character voices, there is a makeout session, and Xenk finds out he and Ed have been dating the entire damn time.

"I wish to kiss you, if I may."

Ed's smile shifts into something soft, and a little wry. "Well I'm not going to say no, obviously, but I was under the impression you weren't-"

The rest of the sentence is cut off by Xenk wrapping a hand around the back of Ed's neck and slotting their mouths together.

Permission to touch, permission to have--everything Xenk had been waiting for, given to him.

Ed's arms around his neck, his slightly chapped lips brushing Xenk's own-- maddening in all the best ways. He can't help it; he wants deeper, closer, more.

Ed makes a low, almost hitching noise, and Xenk has little time for metaphor or colloquialisms, but he knows music when he hears it—and this is a song he wants to listen to over and over again.

He finds himself pressing Ed against the wall, wood rough against his knuckles. Ed's mouth has left his and has now found itself against Xenk's neck--a slight hint of teeth has his knees nearly buckling, a broken noise coming from his throat that would be embarrassing, perhaps, if it did not come with the consequence of Ed's hips hitching against Xenk's own, the heat of him pressed against Xenk's thigh, callused hands slipping under his shirt and grasping his hips.

Distantly, he realizes that he could probably have all of Ed, right here, right now--and the thought is so dizzying he moans with it, burying his face into Ed’s shoulder.

"Oh gods sweetheart you can't--you can't make noises like that, you don't know what you do to me--" and Ed is moving from Xenk’s neck to his jaw, coaxing him to turn his head so Ed can kiss him again, this time with a slow, gentle slide of tongue that has Xenk trembling and unsteady. He wants, he wants so badly. Ed’s tongue is driving him mad: not too much, not too hard, just a slow, steady glide and Xenk is consumed with the thought that that’s what Ed is like in bed—

He breaks the kiss, thrilling at Ed’s noise of protest. He had spent so long thinking Ed wasn’t interested, would never want him back, and yet.

Ed’s eyes are nearly black, the sliver of blue barely detectable. His lips are kiss-swollen, and his chest is heaving. Xenk feels breathless and intoxicated, like he’s both drowning and flying, and it’s all because of the man in front of him. It’s too much. It’s not enough.

His expression must say something of his feelings, because Ed’s lips curve into a smile, and his arms wrap around Xenk’s shoulders, one hand against his neck, pressing their foreheads together.

“We can stop, if you want. I know you’ve got”—he flaps his hand—“paladiny stuff. Rules. Celibacy. That.”

Xenk is suddenly confused. “My oath does not require celibacy.”

Ed blinks. “er, since when? Cause I was pretty sure that was something you mentioned when we first started all this.”

Xenk thinks back to what they were discussing prior to the kiss, and cannot think of what Ed might be talking about. Ed tries to avoid figures of speech when he talks to Xenk, and Xenk tries to understand the more common ones, for his sake; but perhaps—?

Ed’s eyes are searching Xenk’s face, looking for an answer to a question Xenk doesn’t know. “You have…no idea what I’m talking about. Okay. Okay, clearly, somewhere, we had a communication failure. That’s probably on me. You mentioned it something like a year ago, when we first started dating, so maybe I misunderstood? Which is annoying, frankly, because we apparently could have been doing this the entire time.”

Xenk is now utterly, completely lost. “When we started…dating?”

But it is clear that they are still not communicating correctly, because Ed shrugs and says “Yeah, I mean approximately? I don’t have the exact date memorized, or anything, but about then.” He grins, and Xenk’s heart flip flops. “You know, babe, I love you and all, but you are utterly ridiculous sometimes.”

I love you.

Said so casually, so openly. Like Ed assumed Xenk knew. Like the world hadn't tilted on it's axis.

Ed's face turns serious, and his hand cups Xenk’s jaw. “Hey, are you okay? I didn’t mean you were annoying, just. You know. The situation.”

Xenk had spent the last two years longing for Ed; aching for his touch, his smile, his laughter. Every time Ed had casually knocked his shoulder, wrapped his arm around his shoulders, kissed his cheek for luck when Xenk had to leave him behind—it had burned.

It had taken two years for him to build up his courage enough to offer his heart, terrified of rejection. All to find out that Ed had assumed he already had it, and had tucked his own behind Xenk’s own ribcage.

It would be easy to just pretend that he had known this--to push back the discussion to a different time--but Xenk has never been good at pretense. But he also knows that, if he does not say what he needs to say correctly, Ed will get the wrong idea and bolt, and that cannot be allowed.

He wraps his arms around Ed’s body, holding him close. “Do not take this wrongly. But I must confess,” he says quietly, “that I did not know we were in a relationship till just now.”

Once again, Ed doesn’t do what Xenk expects. Instead, he looks utterly baffled.

“You—you’re joking. You have an armour stand in the corner! You have a favourite teacup! You live here! You sleep in my bed! Holga boils extra linseed oil for you! I have to move your seashell collection every time I dust! You really didn’t know?”

Xenk did not collect seashells. He had shown one to Ed, to gauge its appropriateness as a potential courtship gift, and Ed had put it on the windowsill; and when they took Kira to the seashore because she missed the ocean, Ed had pointed out interesting ones. Xenk had taken it as encouragement; apparently Ed had taken it as supporting Xenk’s hobby.

It is clear that, if this relationship is going to survive, they must learn to talk to each other.

“I did not know you saw us as such, that my behaviour lead you to assume I did. I am…not as experienced in these matters as one would expect, considering my age. I had thought myself blessed that you thought of me as a friend, and only recently became brave enough to ask for something else.

To share your bed, and think I did not have the right to take you in my arms—it was an agony. ”

Ed is silent, considering. Xenk leans in to kiss him—soft, this time. Gentle. All-too-brief, but this is a conversation they must have, if this is to survive.

Ed seems to agree. He unloops his arms from around Xenk, and tugs him to his—no, their, apparently—bed. They sit, and Ed takes Xenk’s hand, running a thumb along his knuckles.

“I’m sorry,” he starts. “I should have checked to make sure—but that doesn’t matter. It’s just— you kept inviting us on your adventures, and sometimes just me, and I started to think—I figured we were on the same page when I asked you if you wanted to come to bed with me. And you said something about only being able to sleep, and honestly I was so nuts about you by then I didn’t really care about not having sex or kissing you. It was enough just to know you wanted me back. Having you there, as much as you could be. It was enough. You were enough.” Ed huffs a laugh. “I was actually planning a way to ask you if you were allowed to get married, actually. And if you’d, y’know. Want to.”

You were enough.

I love you.

I wanted to ask you to marry me.

I didn’t need the rest of it; I had you.

It’s too much.

It’s not enough.

It’s perfect.

#thinkythoughts #xenk/edgin #xedgin #Sparrow's DnD posting #dnd honor among thieves

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ryusuisloveinterest · 4 months ago

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Xeno and Stanley flirting with Senku's mom who is a doctor after they made peace with one another, either separately or together works!

-🧨 Anon

Hello 🧨 anon! Thank you for the request! I hope this was good for you. I kinda made it a little stressful and angsty ig??? but I picture senku’s mama protective so that’s what I wrote lol. Also Xeno’s is much longer than Stanley’s sorry about that. I hope you enjoy! 💕

Xeno and Stanley flirting with Senku’s mom 🩷

I don’t think Senku would revive his mom after he found out what happened to Byakuya. He doesn’t want to be the one to tell his mother what happened to his father. But eventually he had to wake you up, after all a boy needs his mother. When you found out what happened to Byakuya you didn’t dare cry in front of him (so that’s where he gets it from). You hold him in your arms and explain to him that you’ll always miss and love his father but he would want him to go forward and enjoy life. But as soon as you’re behind closed doors, you burst into tears, crying for your husband and how you could never say bye to him or tell him how much you love him again. But of course life goes on. Senku continues to work on his science and you’re there with him every step of the way. But you couldn’t just stand around and do nothing forever! You decided to do what you do best, help others! You opened your own clinic and became the first official doctor in the stone world! Of course on your off time you go and visit Senku in his lab, bringing him and his colleagues treats and whatever supplies they need, including Xeno and Stanley. Safe to say they’ve taken quite an interest in you.

Xeno:

Xeno first met you when the Time Machine idea first came into mind

Senku awkwardly walks in with you following, cooing at all the things he’s accomplished

“Awww my little boy has grown so much! I’m so proud of you!”

Cue blushing Senku

Of course this also makes Xeno chuckle

“Is this your mother Dr Senku?” Xeno holds out his hand, “Dr Xeno. It’s a pleasure to meet you maam.”

Your smile quickly fades when he says his name, but you try to fake a smile

“Ohhhh so you’re the one that tried to get my son killed🙂”

He’s so taken aback

No one messes with mama’s boy

“Calm down ma I told you it’s all over now. He’s an ally”

You quickly remove your hand and walk past them. “He better be”

You then your head to face Xeno, “and you better keep your hands off my boy”

Oh he’s gonna like you

Every time you came over to the lab Xeno would try to start conversation

“Any patients today?” “Your son just came up with a new idea for the Time Machine.” “I heard you used to want to visit the states.”

At first you would half ass your answers

“No.” “I know he’s brilliant, now where is he?” “Not anymore.”

But your slowly started to warm up to him, and I mean slowly

“How was your day?” You asked him once. This was how you got to know each other better.

One day you walk in looking to give Senku some fruit you just bought

“SHIT!” You run to the scream and see a spilt concoction and a burn on Xeno’s hand

You set the fruit down and head over to him. You take out your water bottle and pour it on a towel, placing it on his hand

He smiles at the gesture

“I bet you didn’t think I’d be your patient today.” He teases

You chuckle, “nope, but you somehow always surprise me.”

Your bring out some ointments and continue to treat him

“I knew you were beautiful but you look like heaven this close.”

Shocked, You stop what you’re doing but quickly continue

Xeno smiles and continues to watch you work

That wasn’t the last you’ve heard of his teasing

“Welcome back Mrs Y/N. I smell a new perfume. I’m assuming it’s from Mrs Yuzuriha’s collection?” “You look so gorgeous today, as of course you do everyday, but you seem different somehow.” “I always like it when your hairs up.”

But one day he said it infront of senku.

“Could you two stop being gross? I’m trying to work.”

Senku thinks he hid it, but of course you catch it. the worry on his face

Pulling Xeno aside, you tell him, “do you know the reason senku wants this Time Machine to work? Because he wants his father back, and I want my husband back. I know my son, he’s worried that if he brings byakuya back that I’ll love you instead of him. Which wouldn’t be true!”

Taking a deep breath you continue, “but if for some reason my genius boy can’t find a way to do so, which I’m sure he can… I wouldn’t mind trying a life with you Xeno…”

You look him in the eyes, “just spare my son his worries…”

Xeno sighs and smiles, “of course, I mean I don’t want my greatest colleague to resent me. But I hope you know I’ll hold you to your word.”

Stanley:

Same as Xeno, you immediately all him out for trying to kill your precious boy

He honestly tries to keep his distance from you at first, he doesn’t want to cause a problem

Until one day he came back from hunting very injured

Xeno sent him to you as soon as he saw him

Not being able to deny a patient you tell him to sit down and wait to be taken care of

He didn’t say much except for a thank you and sorry for the trouble, but you didn’t mind at all

This became a routine for the both of you

He would come in with just a small cut or a nearly broken arm and you would take care of it

He thinks you’re the most beautiful woman in the world 10000%, but when he walks in and catches you hurrying around with the necklace Byakuya gave you he keeps to himself

So for months and months he will make small talk as he kept visiting you

“How’s your day so far?” “Bet you didn’t have the same patient everyday like me 3700 years ago huh?” “I can see where senku gets hard work from.”

Every single day his feelings for you increased

One day he didn’t realize his words slipping

“You’re such an angel you know that? Always taking care of me. You should let me treat you for once.”

Your head snaps up

“What?”

He’s too far in now

“I wanna take you out. Yknow grab a drink, actually talk and-“

“I’ll wait for my husband.”

He’s instantly quiet. He doesn’t dare say another word

You hold your face in your hands

“This Time Machine is a long shot. I know my boy is a genius and he can do anything he puts his mind to but I know some things aren’t possible.”

“Y/N I-“

“Please let me finish. I want Byakuya back more than anything in the world, but if he can’t come back… I’ll go on a date or two with you…”

You give him a soft smile

“Thank you, y/n. I hope whatever happens makes you happy,” he says as he takes your hand.

“Thank you. And please don’t tell senku about this.”

“I promise.”

#dr stone #dcst #dr stone headcanons #xeno houston wingfield #xeno x reader #stanley snyder x reader #stanley snyder #Xeno Houston wingfield x reader

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casp1an-sea · 7 months ago

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I love TCW and TBB but the white washing still pisses me off

All clones are meant to look like their live action counter pasts which are portrayed by Temuera Morrison

Temuera Morrison IS NOT WHITE

HE IS Māori

I’ve literally heard people say “He’s not POC because he’s light skinned” or “He’s not POC because he’s got Scottish ancestry”

That’s just fucking stupid and racist you’re disgusting!

—————————————————————————

This is a picture of Temuera Morrison around the time Attack of the clones was being filmed and also him portraying Jango Fett in that movie:

As you can see he is not super pale and his hair is VERY CLEARLY CURRLY!

Now here is a picture of Rex with the normal clone skin tone next to my poor boy Tech :(

LIKE WTF??????

After the release of the original trailer for season one of TBB they actually had to go back in and darken the clones skin tone due to all the back lash they got, but Tech still looks like this and Crosshair is also paler then the other clones aside from Tech.

Then there’s the clones with longer hair like Howzer, Obviously Hunter, and now Emerie too. WHERE’S THE CURL????? I highly doubt every clone straightens their hair every day!

It’s also the child clones too!

Omega always looks like she has pin straight hair

here’s some more examples

I will give them a partial pass because Daniel Logan who portrayed young Boba Fett in live action does not have the same hair texture as Temuera but still I feel like it should be based more on the adults then the children and the adults aren’t even accurate! Plus the kids are kinda pale too.

—————————————————————————

AND I DON’T WANT TO HERE ANYONE SAYING THAT IT WAS A STYLISTIC CHOICE OR THRY COUND’T MANAGE IT. THEY’VE DRAWN MULTIPLE HAIR TEXTURES BEFORE! and that’s also just not an excuse in general. If an art style can’t accurately represent certain hair textures there is a problem with that art style.

—————————————————————————

Also I gotta say it I am not a fan of the cyborg Echo design

Like come on now give my boy back his melanin

—————————————————————————

It’s season three Of TBB with new episodes coming out every Wednesday and there’s been seven seasons of TCW. Why has Disney not adressed these issues and fixed them if it’s something the fans have been mad about for a long time? Star Wars loves taking advice from their fans until they critique it on their harmful design choices.

—————————————————————————

I know this is a Star Wars thing, but I think it’s important for everyone to see

@xen-blank @thehollowwriter @ferris-the-wheel @fizzydreamz @hyperfixation-or-death

@ravenwing0110 @keii-starz @distant-velleity

@krenenbaker @elenauaurs @the-banana-0verlord @edith-is-a-cat @dove-da-birb

@cimonim-crunch @theosb0rnway @fryofthefrench

@sunshinechildskywalker @xentari94

#Star Wars #tbb #tcw #white washing

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decks-writing-blog · 2 months ago

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Here to Stay Drabbles: Not a Big Birthday Guy

Summary: I wonder, how would Gordon or Benrey try to handle celebrating each other’s birthdays?

‘Mr. Freeman’s b-day is on the 21st of this month. What do you think we should for it?’ read Tommy’s text.

Benrey looked up from the phone to glance over at Gordon, leading the way down the grocery store aisle with the cart. He hadn’t mentioned his birthday was coming up. It was still more than a week away but still close enough that he should’ve said something about it, right?

He turned his attention back onto the phone. ‘y u aking me?’ He’d never organized any kind of birthday celebration.

‘I was going to suggest we to go to Chuck-E-Cheese again. Do a surprise party like my Dad did for me. But then I thought maybe he wouldn’t like that. So I’m asking you. He’s your boyfriend so you’re closest to him and should know I think.’

Ooh. A party at Chuck-E-Cheese would be fun. Benrey had missed Tommy’s birthday party there because he’d been too busy coming back to life and scrambling to find a way out of Xen before he got stuck forever. But alas, Tommy was right; Gordon might not like that. The only time he’d brought up that party himself had been to complain about it how weird and uncomfortable it had been to go from his life being in danger to that ‘nonsense’. He’d immediately followed up with telling Benrey to not tell anyone he’d said that about Tommy’s birthday party, especially Tommy himself. Tommy apparently had some idea he hadn’t had fun though. Not that that was hard to guess.

But did Tommy have a point about Benrey being the person to ask about what to do instead? While it was true they lived together and were dating, Benrey had never been invited to a birthday party before – he’d crashed a few in the lab offices but none of them had been particularly fun and thus he hadn’t stuck around for long – let alone helped plan one. … He was in a good position to just ask Gordon himself though. So maybe that’s what Tommy had meant; he wanted him to ask Gordon.

Pocketing the phone, he jogged to catch up and then surpassed Gordon and his cart. Before he could protest, Benrey stepped up onto the front of it so that he was riding it while facing Gordon. Facing outward was more fun but it was conversation time.

Gordon let out a sigh as he stopped pushing. “Really, dude?”

“Yeah, really.”

“Okay, fine but I’m not going any faster. The staff here don’t get paid enough to deal with our bullshit if we crash into something.”

“That’s okay.” Their one good cart run had indeed almost ended in a crash. “We gotta talk anyway. Um, your b-day’s coming up soon. Where you wanna have the party for it? And don’t say at the lab, ��cause I wanna go to it too.”

Gordon resumed pushing the cart with his gun hand now too. “I guess my birthday is coming up soon, huh? I’d actually kinda forgotten it. How’d you hear about it?”

“Tommy texted me. How’d you forget it?”

Gordon shrugged as he stopped them in the cereal isle. “I’m just not a big birthday guy. It kinda stops being a big deal after you turn twenty-one.”

Benrey watched for a few seconds Gordon browsed and selected his preferred cereals. He’d tried a few himself at Gordon’s instance he try different foods, none had appealed to him all that much. “Well, what you wanna do for it?”

“Uh… I don’t know. The last couple years, I haven’t done anything. Before that, I got high and watched cartoons or the year I couldn’t get any pot, got drunk instead. I’m uh… not sure doing either is a good idea with the whole…” He gestured vaguely with his gun hand, currently securely wrapped in the scarf he’d bought for it. “Being inebriated when this thing is part of me sounds like a bad idea. Not to mention all my other problems that drugs and alcohol probably wouldn’t help.” He returned to pushing the cart. “So don’t worry about, ‘kay?”

“But we gotta do something. We could go to Chuck-E…”

Gordon didn’t even let him finish before interrupting. “No. Absolutely not.”

“Damn.” Benrey had expected that though.

“If that’s where you wanna go for your birthday, that’s fine. I’ll go and even try to have fun or whatever. But just… not for my birthday, okay?”

“I don’t got a b-day though.” He hadn’t been born. They’d established that for sure when going through his files.

“Decanting day then, whatever you wanna call it. It’s on April 1st if I recall correctly. Which I’m pretty sure I do since that’s fitting. We already missed it this year but I guess instead of dealing with celebrating mine, we could have a late party for you or something if you want.”

“Ooh, could we?”

“Yeah, dude. Since you’ve never had anyone celebrate your birthday before, we could totally do something. A party with gifts and stuff or we could go somewhere special, whatever you want, dude. And I doubt any of the others will care that it’s a few months late.”

Benrey’s grip on the basket in front of him tightened. It wasn’t the first time Gordon had done something nice for him, far from it in fact, but it still felt like the emotional equivalent of a surprise warm hug. His ‘decanting day’ was months back but Gordon was willing to throw him a party for it anyway because he’d never had one before. … A late party wouldn’t be proper though, would it? Surely not. But… but… he wanted it so bad. Now that he knew it was an option, how could he possibly not want it? Waiting all the way to his next decanting day would take forever.

It had been Gordon’s birthday they’d been talking about though. Benrey couldn’t take that away and make it all about himself. “Maybe uh… we could do a double party this year? Late party for me and on time party for you. Doesn’t have to big or whatever. We maybe don’t even gotta go anywhere. Could have a home party instead.” Benrey wasn’t sure where he’d want to go anyway. The main draw was the gifts, cake, and everyone being together anyway.

Getting all of the Science Team together physically in one place wasn’t exactly rare but with everyone having jobs and their own things going on, it wasn’t exactly the most common thing in the world either. Especially since Bubby had just gotten back from losing his job at NASA a couple weeks ago. So a big double party at home would be great.

Gordon thought about it in silence for a few seconds, his expression soft; he was open to the idea. “I guess that wouldn’t be so bad. So… sure, let’s have a double birthday party at home or whatever. Maybe it’ll even be fun.”

“Sweet.”

#hlvrai #here to stay drabbles #frenrey #hlvrai gordon #benrey

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avesdraws · 2 years ago

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he’s literally always having to deal with alien wildlife and it’s so exhausting description under the read more

First picture: animals are rarely kept by borrowers as they require space and supplies that borrowers often don’t have, but they are common in larger communities. Quails are both kept as mounts and for their eggs. Both quails and pigeons are seen as loving, loyal companions and greatly loved. Among the flying birds pigeons are the most common, as they are intelligent, easy to train and harmless. Borrowers who fly pigeons are specialists and extremely respected for their skills among the community. Pigeon eggs and crop milk are also very appreciated. Pigeons are usually slowly tamed as adults, but some borrowers manage to get chicks and work with them since young age. A domestic species of pillbug :) kept for eggs, meat and fertelize the land. Similiar to wild ones but larger and meatier, with a far more social and docile tempereament. They’re the most common insects, people think they’re so cute :) they’re also considered loving companions and often kept as pets. Other common insects are crickets and cockroaches, both for meat and as companions. Cockroaches are also kept to keep places clean as they feed off any sort of leftovers and stuff (added picture of a proud farmer with newly hatched cockroaches). Borrowers and crows are often in a mutual relationship, both helping each others look for food. Fourth picture: it says “this is a juvenile”, referring to the xen tentacle Fifth picture: top picture is “when distressed borrowers can make chirping noises” and the picture under it is “how he always is looking at humans”

#half life #ocs #Nick #Combine #<- tag they get until i find a name for the guy #speculative biology

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anons-has-hlvrai-aus · 8 months ago

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The Metamorphosis of Gordon Freeman [Chapter 1]

An Aftermath

Next Chapter

Summary: Gordon finds out four years too late that not wearing your helmet into a chamber filled with otherworldly radiation is going to have some strange effects on the human body. Luckily for him, there’s somebody that can help him accommodate to his new alien powers…unluckily for him, that somebody happens to be a certain former security guard that can’t seem to stay dead.

Chapter Summary: Gordon receives an unwanted visit from somebody he hasn’t seen in a long time.

Word Count: 4,406

Ao3 Version Link

Notes: So originally this chapter was much longer, and included Movie Night, but I realized it was getting REALLY long and I thought the initial conversation between Gordon and Benrey acted as a good introduction of things to come. The start of things getting jostled up in Gordon’s life.

Black Mesa had been busy for a while when it came to Xen. The details were of a need-to-know basis, and not everybody in Black Mesa had those qualifications, but that didn’t change the fact that the survey team’s most recent yield of specimens came with an unexpected addition.

Could they call it a man?

It looked like a man.

Correction, it almost looked like a man: average height, a slightly notable stomach, some dark and greasy hair…perfectly normal from a glance.

This wasn’t a normal man.

Normal men don’t bare razor sharp teeth.

Normal men didn’t tank loads of bullets with anything less than a few bruises.

Normal men didn’t come back from the dead.

Normal men don’t spew orbs of color from their snarling mouth.

Normal men don’t have scleras the color of honey and irises that were some sort of horrible color out of space.

Normal men don’t scale walls and ceilings completely nude, their eyes, fingertips, feet mysteriously concealed by shadows with no discernible source.

This wasn’t a normal man.

This wasn’t even a human, masculine or otherwise.

This was something else.

This was something unworldly.

This was something familiar to Black Mesa, despite the shape it currently took.

This was something Black Mesa’s scientists hadn’t seen for a long, long time, and they were going to take advantage of that.

SUBJECT: Gordon Freeman, PhD.

CURRENT LOCATION:

Random County Middle School

Poastgame, New Mexico

TIME: Containment Failure + 1491 days, 5 hours

EMPLOYMENT STATUS: It’s complicated

Gordon sat in front of a desk, a stern, withered figure staring back at him from the opposite side. Both were obnoxiously business casual, although his interviewer clearly had something a bit out of date. He grinned at the older gentleman, who simply maintained his analytical glare.

“You say you want to be a… science teacher… Dr. Freeman?”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s why I’m uh… that’s why I applied for the job here, yeah.” He nodded.

“It says here you graduated from MIT, very impressive.”

“Thank you” spills from Gordon’s lips without a second thought, his scrutinizing assessor briefly redirects his gaze from the paper back to him. It feels like an eternity before he switches focus once more.

“I am very curious about your previous employment, as well as the noticeable gap in your resume.”

Shit. Fuck. Damnit.

What could he even bring up as an excuse that didn’t break his confidentiality agreement?

There was so much shit that went on in Black Mesa: the shady business practices were just the start, the blatant coverup of alien lifeforms wasn’t exactly a reasonable excuse either, nor the multitudes of identical human men that were apparently illegal and wanted by the state of New Mexico, and he was pretty sure so much as whispering about the experiment that destroyed his workplace would paint a target on his back. Again. And he really didn’t need a repeat of last year’s ‘Ed Balls Day Celebration’.

That wasn’t even mentioning the complete disregard for OSHA safety regulations (he didn’t care if Tommy said it had been up to code, it most certainly was NOT in his eyes), the medical malpractice (he was pretty sure what happened in the mixology department counted as this, but he really didn’t want to throw Darnold under the bus considering how nice and genuinely helpful the guy was), the clear disregard of human decency that was the accursed laundry room and it’s wretched coin-guzzling dryers, the-

“Doctor Freeman, I am waiting for you to answer my question.”

Gordon stuttered, suddenly his train of thought failed to provide any sort of plausible answer. He deployed his most reliable excuse. “I’m uh, I’m kinda not supposed to say anything? Kinda supposed to keep quiet about what happened to the place. As for the gap… well…” Most people don’t like it when you tell them the reason you have a gap in your employment is because you spent two years attempting to mentally recover from the trauma of your last workplace, and even more people dislike when you tell them the rest of your gap has been from you trying to get a job and then failing, because the idea of anybody having such a long gap in employment is an enigma to anybody trying to hire, at least as far as Poastgame, New Mexico was concerned. Still, he couldn’t exactly lie about what he’d been doing for the past four years, so he told them exactly what was up with the gap in his resume.

As expected, it did not please the other man in the slightest.

Gordon looked deflated by the end of the interview, looking much like one of the numerous tweens currently outside the office, waiting to hear about their grade-school criminal records.

“Doctor Freeman,” the interviewer started, “this is a middle school, as you are clearly aware. You, good Doctor, are an MIT graduate. As far as I’m concerned, this job is way below your paygrade, and even if it weren’t-“

Gordon zoned out, replaying the interview in his head. He was doing everything right: the right clothes, a nice resume, being totally honest with the guy, didn’t accidentally swear like he did at his previous interview…What sort of arbitrary rules could he have been forgetting?

For a guy that had once ragged on his former co-workers, both living and deceased, about not being able to act like normal people, he was starting to feel like maybe he was a hypocrite with how much he struggled to follow basic etiquette.

Surely, the Resonance Cascade hadn’t ruined his social skills that much in just a week, but who was he to judge? This was the same guy that got nervous about making phone calls (It’s not even that hard! It’s talking to people! You love to talk to people!). Even then, he probably shouldn’t judge, Tommy got nervous about phone calls too, but Tommy seemed a bit more justified given his tendency to change his words mid-sentence.

If there was any factor of justification for Gordon’s awkwardness (and this was a pretty big one that even HE forgot about sometimes), then it was the additional matter that he was a video game character, one whose entire personality and backstory had been sculpted together by some person bumbling around their room in a VR headset for several hours. Now that the video game was over, Gordon had to rely on what was “taught” to him by the player, and that was more than enough to make him feel like a badly rolled DND character. He couldn’t even air his grievances to the Player, they had left not long after exporting their save file to whatever server was housing the Post Game. He did have an opportunity to talk to them, once, but trying to remember too many details of the conversation hurt his head; if he had any chance to tweak or change himself, it was that conversation, and clearly he had wasted it.

So, yeah, Gordon didn’t have an excuse. He was kinda stuck being the prime antithesis of a normal person, it seemed.

He nodded at the interviewer when he seemed to finish his speal, shook the man’s sweaty hand, and gave his empty thanks for the “opportunity” to speak to the man at all before making the drive back home. He couldn’t recall the details between when he left the school and when he got home, his memories always got fuzzy when he was driving by himself. He had enough video game knowledge to suspect it was Fast Travel. For a moment, he wondered if it was possible to turn off, but knowing his luck his attempt to do so would just end up turning his prosthetic arm back into a mini-gun, and then he’d have to figure out how to switch it back to normal.

He should have just asked the rest of the Science Team about the car thing years ago, but he had been putting it off after he decided it was preferable to being left to stew in his thoughts for the entire drive. And now he was suffering the consequences of his inaction, wondering only now if he could toggle Fast Travel and Mini-Gun Hand. Hell, maybe he had the power to toggle game difficulty this entire time and he wasn’t utilizing it, he would really like to switch Job Hunting to “easy mode.”

Whatever. Too late to find out now.

Gordon didn’t really need a job, anyways, given the hush money and all, he just needed some form of normalcy to keep himself from focusing on the events that got him here, thinking about that stuff for too long got him stressed, and bad things tended to happen when Gordon got stressed.

Needless to say, he was pretty sure the horrid little man sitting in the middle of his lawn was not a good omen of things to come, both for his stress levels and his attempts at normalcy.

He let out a long, irritated sound, similar to when one needed to be vocal about an upset stomach, and stepped out of the car. Benrey didn’t seem to notice Gordon quite yet, but he knew better than to let the smaller man be left unattended outside. He could call the police but… he’d really rather not on principle alone. He and the Science Team had all agreed that in case of emergencies, they would call each other first (against Gordon’s better judgment), and then either an ambulance or the fire department second.

Benrey… technically wasn’t an emergency right now. He was just a minor annoyance at best, and if for some reason the man did escalate into a greater problem, Gordon had the benefit of it being movie night at his place tonight. If something went wrong, and he couldn’t contact the Science Team for whatever reason, they would know, and they would raise hell at whatever was causing the problem, because at this point not even a second Resonance Cascade (god hope no such a thing occurs) would be able to stop those people from executing their weekly plans after four years of proper bonding time.

Gordon moved between his house and Benrey, keeping a good distance as he did so before engaging in any sort of conversation. He wanted to be as close to the front door as possible in case the non-human gave chase…not that it meant much since Benrey could noclip, but the idea of safety gave him comfort, even if it wasn’t ensured.

“What are you doing here?” He asked a bit too casually. He was sure his voice would better convey the confusion and dread he was feeling once his brain snapped out of what he could only best describe as a new stage of grief dedicated solely for rediscovering somebody who really should have stayed dead.

Bafflement, he was pretty sure what he was experiencing was bafflement. He wasn’t sure why, though. He’d seen Benrey come back from the dead quite a few times, but that all been four years and 31 days ago (and still counting). At that point you can’t help but reasonably assume somebody like that is going to stay dead this time, but apparently that was not the case for Benrey. That also wasn’t surprising, when he thought about it; the cheapest way to create a threat in a sequel is to just bring back the final boss from the first game.

Oh god, was Benrey going to be his Dr. Wily? Was Gordon going to be stuck defeating the same creep over and over and over again for the next 30-something years? He couldn’t do that, his body still hadn’t recovered from the first time he fought Benrey.

The other man tilted his head slightly to Gordon, as if wanting to acknowledge him but not quite processing he was there. “mm…ding dong…” He poked at Gordon’s thrift store garden gnome, its cheeky smile and unbroken gaze were something Gordon had looked deeply into a few times too many since he got it. He wanted to think the longing it exuded wasn’t just his imagination, but he had accepted by now that it was probably his lonely mind playing tricks on him. He was more willing to accept this as imaginary compared to the skeletons.

“Hey,” Gordon spoke up, “Hey man, I asked you a question.”

“…what?” Benrey looked around again, less sluggish than before, this time locking eyes with Gordon. The smaller man’s face was almost an inverse of the gnome’s, they shared the same vacant stare, but the rest of his expression gave him a more pensive look.

Unlike the gnome, however, Benrey’s face could actually change, albeit subtly, such was the case when it morphed into a small smile upon recognizing Gordon. “Yooo! What’s up! Been a while, man. Been like…” He stared directly at the sun, or at least appeared to do so, his eyes squinting not from the glare but from his trying to process something. “…four years, and a month! That one month is pretty, uh, important.”

Gordon exhaled slowly. It sounded like one of those terrible, pig-shaped noise makers Tommy and Dr. Coomer had bought at the Dollar Store last week. “Whyyyyyy? Why now? Why are you-?” He felt a familiar anger boil over, and suddenly his tone and body language had gone from exhausted to brimming with rage. The edges of his vision went slightly red. “Okay! Okay, I’m going to disregard the fact that you can apparently tell how long it’s been since you last harassed me simply by looking at the position of the stars in broad-fucking-daylight, WHY, OF ALL TIMES, ARE YOU BACK? RIGHT FUCKING NOW?!?!”

He could swear he saw Benrey flinch slightly at his outburst, but he wasn’t sure. The man almost immediately responded with his usual calm.

“I told you man, that one month was important. I got, uh, my PS+ renewed. Played the whole time.”

Okay, that…sorta explained where he’d been for the past month, at least.

“Let me guess, Heavenly Sword?”

“Yeah!!!”

Gordon had the displeasure of witnessing the familiar sight of Sweet Voice spewing from Benrey’s lips. The man’s joy seemed to overflow at him remembering such a basic detail from his nonsensical monologue.

“It was so fun!” Benrey continued. “I got to play on a full server, throwing frags and shit at other people, really great cool stuff.”

The red faded from his vision. Despite wanting to so badly…Gordon simply could not stay mad at him. He was just sitting there, in the grass, blabbering on about Heavenly Sword like an excited child. Damnit, the man was even fidgeting with the hem of his shirt while he talked. Was Benrey even a threat, now? Did four years of whatever he was doing mellow him out?

Gordon’s brows furrowed, he should have been focused on the how and why of Benrey being in his front lawn like a sad dog, but for some reason his mind was derailed to the point of fascination by Benrey’s Adventures in Free PlayStation Plus.

“So you got PS Plus, were you, were you just doing that for four years? Were you just gaming the entire time?”

“Nah man, I was…sleep.”

“For four years? You slept for four entire years?”

“Yeah I got really tired after the uh, the heist. So I had a big sleep. I woke up though. That was kinda sucks.” That checked out, considering what happened after they had their heist in another world, but now Gordon was concerned about how Benrey remembered the heist; nobody was supposed to remember the heist except for Gordon, he vaguely recalls that he and the Player agreed to the Science Team forgetting the heist. Tommy kinda remembered, but only the parts where he had asbestos poisoning. Well, he supposed since Benrey didn’t count as a member of the Science Team, maybe him remembering wasn’t a problem, for now.

“They gave me one month of PS Plus after I woke up and came back. I like video games…can’t play video games in the other place though, so I agreed to the free month.” Benrey continued. He nodded and shook his head while explaining his story, always at the appropriate times where a head movement seemed necessary, almost like it was practiced.

“So you…” Gordon continued the conversation, trying to feel out if maybe he was being led into a false sense of security. “You played Heavenly Sword for a whole month without eating or sleeping?”

“Yea-no?? I ate…pigeons and…” He looked directly at Gordon, he was processing something again, “…tree rats.”

“Squirrels?”

“Yeah those.” His scrunched face changed to a neutral-looking smile.

He had seen Benrey eat pigeons back in Black Mesa, so he wasn’t too surprised the man had eaten squirrels; it seemed like a logical next step. It made sense, Gordon was pretty sure a diet consisting solely of cheese puffs and 7Up (he was pretty sure that’s what gamers ate) could kill even the hardiest of immortals.

Actually, Benrey didn’t mention eating any sort of fruit just now, did he just leave them out on purpose or, was he some sort of obligate carnivore? He probably should have focused on that more than on what he asked next.

“You cooked those before you ate them, right?”

“No. Sorry, I don’t have uh…microbe-wave.”

Gordon just stared at him. He shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was.

“Tastes better with the hair on ‘em anyways.”

“I’m not a medical doctor, but I’m pretty sure…that you’re gonna get a disease…” Gordon tried to choose his next words carefully. He really, really tried. But his brain was fried from the interview and the exhaustion was starting to catch up. “…Salmonella. You’re gonna get salmonella if you keep eating raw meat like that.”

It was Benrey’s turn to stare again.

“Oh, who am I fucking kidding?” Gordon threw his hands in the air, “You’re some sort of thing from another world, the bacteria probably just goes right through you!”

“There are…” Benrey paused, his face morphed into a mischievous, shark-toothed grin. “…yo there’s Bakugan in my meat?”

He laughed. Gordon laughed and laughed and laughed until he fell over drunk from the shock of Benrey’s statement, and then laughed until the tap ran dry and he was sober enough to wheeze a response. “No! That’s not-Benrey that’s not what I said at all. I expect that kind of joke from Tommy! Oh my god…”

All of the neighbors peaked over or around to see the commotion at this point. Gordon didn’t feel any need to acknowledge them any as he shakily pushed himself upright, they were used to the bullshit that followed him around by this point, they were just really nosy. They were gone as quickly as they arrived, by which point he was now sitting on the opposite side of his gnome. “Do…Do you wanna like…come inside or something, man?”

“No, I don’t like the color beige.”

In his hysterical drunkenness, Gordon had almost been willing to invite Benrey into his refuge, but the hospitality had now been lost.

He was seeing red again. “How did you know my walls were-? Did you noclip into my house?!” He took his glasses off and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “Fucking-! I keep getting fucking distracted! Dude!!!!”

Benrey watched Gordon gesture wildly with the hand not carrying his glasses around, directing every movement towards him.

“Why are you HERE?!” He screamed.

Benrey looked at the ground. “That’s uh, private information.” Slowly his head drifted towards Gordon again, he could faintly see the man’s creepy eyes follow the seams of his suit. “…Yo, we dressing up for movie night tonight?”

Gordon stiffened, standing back up. “How do you know about movie night?”

If Benrey knew about movie night, then either somebody told him, or…

“Tommy told me.” Benrey answered quickly, “Well, uh…he told his dad, and his dad told me. Mister Coolguy, Mister Govern-Mant, he got me the free month of PS Plus.”

Benrey fidgeted with the hem of his shirt again, sort of messing with it like he was messing around with a game controller while his mouth bubbled Sweet Voice and word salad.

“Like…he said he was going to buy more when it ran out, and now it’s been a month and my PS Plus ran out…twenty minutes ago.”

“We’ve been talking for about five minutes or something,” Gordon looked at his wrists. There wasn’t a watch on either of them, but it felt important to visually convey the flow of time. “So you’re telling me that your PS Plus ran out fifteen minutes before you got here, and you couldn’t wait another five or so for Mister Coolatta, for Tommy’s dad to renew it again? The PlayStation has games that aren’t multiplayer, you couldn’t play any of those for a while?”

Benrey averted his gaze. “I could but…”

He waited, but Benrey didn’t continue his statement. He was starting to consider the possibility that Benrey was lying out of his ass right now and that he had simply stolen enough information from the Science Team to keep Gordon preoccupied while they all died a slow, painful and permanent death before killing Gordon himself. He waited another two minutes before breaking the silence, hoping maybe that Benrey didn’t know that Gordon knew what he was planning. “But what? Why won’t you play single player games?”

Benrey looked at the ground again. “…I’d like to go inside the house now please?”

“Uh-?”

“WAIT! Can we go to my house instead? Pretty please?” He asked in earnest, pulling off a fucked-up alien version of ‘sad anime eyes’.

Well, if Benrey really was distracting Gordon to leave the Science Team dying somewhere, he did a scarily good job at hiding that fact. He must have been trying to get him into a secondary location to finish the job.

Hastily, Gordon tried to come up with an excuse while he put his glasses back on.

“Uh, sorry man. I wish I could, but uh, the guys are gonna be here in about…an hour, and I still need to change into some normal clothes and figure out what we’re eating for movie night. So-“ He twisted away from Benrey pulling something out and trying to force it into his line of sight, reminding Gordon of his various intrusive thoughts of being kidnapped in the past few years.

Benrey frowned. “Bro it’s paper.” He shook the parchment around for demonstration.

Through a partially-covered mouth, Gordon asked “Can you please not shove paper in my face?”

Benrey responded by wobbling the paper more until Gordon finally accepted it.

“Fine, what is this?”

“Mm…list. Food list.”

“Food list?”

“Food list.”

The paper that the list was written on had been improperly torn from a spiral notebook; you could easily see where the lower half of the page was simply ripped instead of following the tear-away lines. The handwriting on it, by contrast, looked incredibly clean, almost like it was typed out aside from a few blemishes of human error like scribbles over spelling mistakes or a long line from where somebody had made an order and then at the last minute asked for something completely different, much to the chagrin of the transcriber.

“…This is really nice handwriting.” Gordon admitted.

He felt his phone buzz in his pocket, prompting him to look over his messages.

One of them was an unflattering picture of him from a few minutes ago, dying of laughter in his front yard, sent by his neighbors from across the street to the neighborhood group chat.

‘This idiot can’t even comprehend the true form of Gnome Chompski’s attack. XD Ignore the guy in the back dunno who he is.’

Thanks Gina and Colette, very cool.

The other message was from Bubby, so maybe the rest of the Science Team wasn’t dead after all. At the very least, Bubby wasn’t dead.

‘You’d better be goddamn home by now. I’m changing my order again. I want a Sausage Melt, and I want my hash browns smothered and diced. Also, Harold wanted to make sure you added pecans to his chocolate chip waffles. If you forget those nuts again and he cries, I WILL make it your problem.’

“Did Bubby change his order again?” Benrey asked, his expression dead serious. He didn’t wait for an answer, apparently he could just tell from Gordon’s expression and considered that enough to snatch the paper from his hands and scratch out one of the orders with a pen he pulled out from hammerspace. “This fuckin’ guy, I can’t believe it. This is the THIRD time man.”

“I think I can handle the orders from here.” Gordon said. He got the list back without much of a fight, which was preferable to getting into a tug-of-war over a piece of paper.

“I will…see you later?” He slowly backed away from Benrey to get inside his house, tripping as the terrain switched from grass to concrete beneath his feet. “I’m going to go inside now and…do the stuff I said I needed to do!” His hand clutched the door knob, and immediately Gordon turned around to wiggle it open. His face paled with realization that his initial plans to bolt at the first sign of a threat would not have worked anyways, not solely because Benrey could noclip through objects, but also because Gordon would not have had the time to unlock his front door before Benrey did…whatever the fuck he had planned.

Just like in the horror movies.

Shit.

Gordon was a fucking horror movie protagonist and he wasn’t even one of the long-lasting ones. He was the final girl from the first movie that they kill off at the start of the second to make a point.

“Hey man, you dropped this.”

A key ring appeared in his peripheral vision. Gordon strained his eyes to meet Benrey’s line of sight, the man had that deceptively innocent smile from before as he held the keys out like a joy-buzzer.

He took his keys back with the speed and grace of a claw machine, unlocked the door, and just stared longingly at the interior for a minute.

“Inside? Inside for Benrey?”

“Yeah, sure thing man…” Gordon sighed and walked inside, letting Benrey follow behind. If he was going to die, might as well get comfortable first.

#hlvrai metamorphosis au #metamorphosis au #hlvrai #hlvrai au #fanfic #half life but the ai is self aware #half life vr but the ai is self aware #the metamorphosis of gordon freeman

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brianwashere · 1 year ago

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if your requests are open, could i have benrey with a s/o who's also part of the science team ? i love your writing and thank you !

Uhhhhh YURRRRRRRR. Benrey Benrey Benrey. Love that little freak (affectionate). I wanna put him under a microscope and study him.

Alrighty I did HCs bcc it just felt right and I wanna work through my inbox.

You uhhhh need a player 2?

-you first met bcc you were a scientist and when you checked in he asked for your passport.

-you were confused, but luckily you got the company email so you had your passport on you

-xe was immediately enamored by you

-less in a “man I love him” and more of a “man he remembered his passport. I should give him my PlayStation tag.”

-so it nervously asked for your PlayStation tag

-you had to explain you were an x box user

-he nearly considered losing interest in you then and there.

-anyway

-you’re good buddies with Gordon, you’ve even met Joshua

-so when you and Benrey start dating he’s pretty off put

-he expressed his concern to you but he never even brings up breaking up with Benrey bcc it’s your life and obviously Benrey makes you happy

-even if they’re very very weird

-Coomer and Bubby knew from the beginning that Benrey liked you—he didn’t tell them—they just knew

-they just watched it happen and said not too subtle things

-“oh young love, don’t you remember those times, Bubby?” “I can’t even remember what I ate last night.”

-Tommy was very similar

-“oh look at that, Benrey’s sweet voice is red and pink around you! Red to pink means ‘I think you’re pretty neat!’ :DD”

-even Sunkist knew what was up

-before you got together he’d catch you as you walked into black mesa and say “I don’t think you uhhhh now where you’re going there, pal.” And he’d walk you around black mesa, purposely misleading you so they got to spend more time with you

-when you do get together it’s probably a very awkward and confusing confession

-Benrey’s like “so uh…I need a player two”

-“Benrey, I already told you I have an x box…”

-eventually you two get there though

-Benrey constantly uses sweet voice around/on you (if you’re ok with it, obviously)

-it’s xer love language

-when you first see him in a form that’s not his human-ish one you’re obviously alarmed but after the initial shock you’re very curious

-you are a scientist after all

-it actually makes xem feel really good about themselves

-it is startling to wake up in the middle of the night and see some humanoid figure in the top corner of your room with 30 fluorescent eyes all staring at you

-“you alright, babe?”

-“hm? Oh, yeah. Just watchin you..”

-you figured out they actually don’t sleep

-all in all it loves you to Xen and back

#benrey x reader #Benrey x male reader #hlvrai benrey #hlvrai x reader #hlvrai x male reader #science team #fanfic #fanfic writing #science team reader #science team x male reader #male reader #benrey hlvrai #benrey

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haruhar-u · 1 year ago

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well better than the alternative

reupload Vil & Reader

taglist(again I don’t fully remember it from the other blog so if you don’t want to be tagged lmk) : @xen-blank @cheezy-moon @silvers-numberonefan @krenenbaker @edith-is-apparently-a-cat @minty-bubblegum

You gently applied the polysporin to the cotton swap. You were surprised that the Vil Schoenheit himself asked you to help him after his overblot. You were even more surprised he let anyone see him like this. His skin was sickly pale, his hair was greasy and he hadn't done his skincare routine for days. You still shudder when you think about that forsaken day. You were just the manager for NRC during the VDC yet, you got dragged into another overblot. “Try not to flinch.” You lean over to his bedside to attempt to clean the wounds he sustained.

You notice his muscles tense up as you apply the rubbing alcohol covered swab to his cheek. “Hurts? Well..That's better than the alternative of you being dead.”

“Do you think you could play along with me? Would that be alright with you?” He asks you. Well, this was a side of Vil you don’t often get to see. It also wasn’t one you were used to. Vil’s usually confident, a caregiver, strict yet he still cares. In a good way. Overblot recovery seems painful based on what you saw with well, the other 4.

“Play along?” You tilt your head confused.

“To the media…This never happened. Or else my career is done for.” You can tell he felt guilty about what happened with Neige too. The blonde let out a sigh, “Sweet potato, could you tell me what's wrong with me? I should’ve kept my cool. I shouldn’t have-”

“Vil, envy’s a bitch to deal with. I’m not condoning your actions, however.. As far as the media knows you’re just sick with a bad cold right now. ” You reassure him, while reorganizing the get well soon cards and mementos sent from the rest of Pomefiore + the scarabia vice and housewarden on the bed side table.

Then he mutters something that catches you off guard, “Could you tell me if I’m still pretty?” But when you’re about to answer you notice he’s asleep now. He looks so peaceful. Almost like a sleeping kitten. Best not wake him. He deserves it

#vil schoenheit #vil x reader #vil shoenheit x reader #vil twisted wonderland #vil twst #twst wonderland #disney twst #twst #twst x reader #pomefiore #pomefiore x reader #gender neutral reader

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shinysparklesapphires · 7 months ago

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Don’t you know it’s rude to pry into someone’s business?

Name: Nyx L’eau

Age: 17

Nicknames: Nyxie (Luis) Madame Mystère (rook) siren (Floyd)

Sexuality: bi (fem pref)

Pronouns: she/her

Voice Claim: X

Species: claims to be a nixie, but doesn’t look anything like one

Twisted from: the nixie of the millpond

Abilities:

Shapeshifting (is able to change her form into anything she wishes)

Swimming (she can swim fast that’s it)

Rumors of an unusually large fish along the coast of the kingdom of heroes has been spreading, but it may have well just be Nyx searching for her next meal. Don’t be fooled by her words, she couldn’t care less about you or your well being. Unlike Orion who finds humans repulsive and disgusting, Nyx finds them a more as pathetic and weak.

💌: @h2llish @xen-blank @lowcallyfruity (if u wanna be in the art tag just ask!)

#sapph’s marble statues #twisted wonderland #twst oc #disney twst #disneys twisted wonderland #twst #twisted oc #twst wonderland #twst fanart #🌊: nyx

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supersizemeplz · 1 year ago

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Loaded Teas & Introductions

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II x Black PlusSized Reader

A #supersizedfic mini. I heard this mashup on TikTok and fell in love. But the initial one shot is inspired by a comment I seen if hearing it and seeing the love of your life. So here’s the mashup and I hope you enjoy. Excuse any typos.

Its this one thing that caught me slippin..

It’s this one thing, I want to admit it..

It’s this one thing and I was so wit it…

The soles of the regularly worn sneakers met the pavement in rhythm to the instrumental of the mix that played. Yahya smirked at the smooth blend of the two songs. Greeting the few people he passed, he made his way to his favorite spot for loaded teas. The headphones on his head made him feel as if he stood inside the song. The words floated around him as he moved his shoulders softly whilst nodding.

Pushing the glass door open, he was hit with a rush of cool air and the aroma of faint sweetness. Light bounced off the tiled floor to add to the brightness of the room. Soft tones danced on the walls and matched the relaxed decor of the establishment. He pushed back a headphone from his ear and softened his music. A smile graced his lips.

“Sup, Ya. How’s it going man?” The asian barista greeted him with a smile. His dark hair was pulled into a bun atop his head as he stood behind the counter. The soft blue uniform hugged his body comfortably, showing off his toned figure. Short sleeves hid the top of the colorful artwork that adorned his left arm. “The usual or would you like to try our new flavor?” He raised an arched brow for added affect.

“A new flavor?” Ya smirked. “You know I’m down for whatever magic you make, brother. Let’s w switch it up.” Xen smiled, clapping his hands together before getting to work.

Ya turned to lean against the counter as he waited for his order. Catching up with his old colleague like usual. He laughed at a joke that Xen said as he looked to the door that notified the entry of another customer. His eye caught her hips hugged by the sundress she wore. But when he caught that smile..

“Whoa..” He breathed the words just loud enough for Xen to hear. “She’s beautiful.”

“Who?” The barista raised an eyebrow and followed his line of sight. A smile caught his lips and he sat the finished drink on the counter. “Ohhh, beautiful she is. Why don’t I introduce you to her?” He lifted a hand to the smiling woman that had bent down to coo at the toddler of a customer close to the door.

Once she stood, her eyes found them both at the counter. She smiled bigger as she approached. Ya couldn’t help but return the expression. As she got closer, he noticed the light catch the glint from her septum ring. “Xen. How is the world treating you today, brother?” Her full lips were glossed and he took in every word she spoke.

“I’m doing amazing, actually. I got a workout in before my shift, I have a date tonight, and my good friend came to see me.” Xen gave a gentle tap to Yahya’s shoulder. “Yahya, meet Yana. She’s good friend of Samaria. She was a bridesmaid at our wedding.”

Yana held out a hand, meeting his eyes for the first time. Ya felt his heart skip a beat as he accepted her soft touch, losing himself in a trance. The song he was listening to earlier was hushed and on repeat. He felt like this was a scene in a movie. Her lips moved but he didn’t hear the words leaving them.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Yahya.” Her words finally broke through with a giggle. Ya snapped from his admiring with a nervous chuckle, rubbing his neck once he freed her hand. Mumbling a ‘Sorry’.

“Uh, you can just call me Ya. If you’d like?” He grinned, standing up straight. Xen coughed to cover his laugher, getting a quick side eye from Ya. Sending him off to fix her usual order with a smirk. Yana had amusement in her eyes as he nodded, repeating the nickname.

“Ok, Ya. I like that name. It rolls off the tongue..” She looked up at him through her lashes. “How long have you known Xen?”

“We were good friends in college. Shared an apartment together the last two years of college.” He explained. “He’s the reason I got through Calculus II.”

“He is a wizard with numbers.” She added in. Getting a theatrical bow from Xen. They all laughed as he placed her drink on the counter by Ya’s. She thanked him with an excited squeal as she paid. After declining Xen’s offer for it be on the house. “I always look forward to my drink for the day.”

“Me too. I hate I can’t get over here more often.” Ya took a sip of his. Giving a hum of approval. “But i make sure to find time out the week to come over and visit.”

After a few minutes of conversation, the bell dinged to introduce a group of customers. Moving both Ya and Yana off to the side by themselves. She looked off for a moment and he got a glimpse of her close up. Her features were soft and he wondered if her skin felt as soft as he imagined. The scent of her perfume was soft and similar to strawberries. He loved it.

“Sorry, if I’m being to forward but..” He cleared his throat before straightening up. Mentally encouraging himself. “Would you allow me treat you to dinner sometime? Just a night of me proving myself to you.”

#yahya #yahya abdul mateen ii #oneshot #black reader #plussized reader #black plus size reader #one shot

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noneuclideanwhimsy · 3 months ago

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Hey!! This is really random coming from me since I usually yap to u abt catcf, but im rlly curious to know what the other fandom I keep seeing u post about is, something involving a G-man?? Idk what it is but it looks rlly cool :3 could u maybe explain it to me? Feel free to yap as much as u want.

Thank you for asking, I love rambling about my interests and this particular fandom is my special interest so I really love rambling about it :]

Anyway. Half-Life is a video game series released by Valve Software, the first game came out in 1998 and was about an experiment going horribly wrong at a research facility called Black Mesa. On May 16th 200-, 27-year-old theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman (this is our player character btw) did what his higher-ups told him to do and shoved a suspicious crystal under a beam. This resulted in the Resonance Cascade, the inciting incident of pretty much everything that happened since in the series, in which a bunch of portals to a borderworld (basically a universe that can serve as a bridge between other universes) called Xen opened and aliens started coming out of them and wreaking havoc on Black Mesa. Then things got worse somehow with the military showed up, but not to save the BM staff but to shoot everybody on-sight to cover up the incident. Gordon grabbed a crowbar and started fighting his way through all of the aliens and soldiers, eventually making his way to Xen and killing a creature called the Nihilanth, who was keeping the portals open and invading Earth with an enslaved species called the Vortigaunts because it wanted to get away from the Combine (we’ll get into what the Combine are and why they’re so scary in a bit). Then Gordon gets saved by the G-Man.

Since you asked about the G-Man specifically (and since he’s my biggest comfort character and I love him to death), I’ll explain what we know about him. He looks like a mostly ordinary human authority figure, just a tall man in a blue suit, if a little uncanny and with glowing eyes. The term ‘G-Man’ is old-fashioned slang for a government agent and is what the fandom calls him (I sometimes say G' for short) because it’s his name in the game files (it's not his in-universe name, he doesn’t have one to our knowledge). However, he’s strongly implied to be a far greater force than any human government just assuming a form humans can comprehend. He’s widely considered to be the greatest mystery in gaming; nobody knows exactly who he is, what he is or what his motivations are, the only things we know about him is that he more or less controls time and space and ensures the story of the games happens as intended with minor nudges in the timeline and by ‘hiring’ important people. Nominally, he answers to a group of even more nebulous ‘Employers’, but his goals don’t always align with theirs and he occasionally deviates from their orders.

Anyway, the G-Man says that him and his Employers are impressed with Gordon’s work liberating the borderworld and preventing further invasion of Earth, so he offers Gordon a job under him. Gordon accepts, and the G-Man puts him in stasis outside of time and space for about 20 years.

In this interval, a whole lot of things happen on Earth, mostly to do with the fact that this is when the Combine choose to come a-knocking, attracted by all of the interdimensional disturbance caused by the Resonance Cascade. The Combine are a nightmarish parasitic collection of alien species that cannot innovate on their own and therefore seek to invade and assimilate as many worlds as possible in order to steal their existing innovation. The Seven Hour War happens, and that name kinda speaks for itself. It ends when Wallace Breen, the former administrator of Black Mesa, strikes a desperate bargain with the Combine in exchange for humanity’s surrender, and so they keep humanity alive and establish an oppressive, dystopian regime on Earth with Breen as its puppet leader as they slowly drain Earth of its resources, turn humans into brainwashed soldiers and try to replicate the teleportation technology that caused the Resonance Cascade.

However, as it often is with humans, not all hope is lost: a handful of other Black Mesa survivors including scientist Eli Vance and his daughter Alyx Vance start a Resistance against the Combine, which includes teaming up with the now liberated Vortigaunts, who now live on Earth and are even more oppressed under the Combine than the humans are (poor guys can’t catch a break).

Half-Life 2 was released in 2004 and is about Gordon Freeman being returned to the post-Combine Earth after his stasis and teaming up with Alyx and the rest of the Resistance. A lot of humans see Gordon as a saviour figure come to liberate humanity for a second time after he already saved them from one alien invasion, which also paints quite the target on his back for the Combine. Quite a few things happen in this game: a Resistance member named Judith Mossman who wants to protect Eli and Alyx is manipulated by Breen into betraying Gordon’s location to the Combine but Gordon gets away and they get Eli instead and ship him off to torture prison, which Judith did not agree to. Alyx and Gordon then storm the torture prison to rescue Eli where they find Judith and figure out that she‘s been working with Breen and Alyx obviously doesn’t take that very well. They find Eli and go to escape with the Combine’s half-finished, clunky replica of a Black Mesa teleporter, but Judith panics and sends herself and Eli to Breen’s headquarters in the Combine Citadel instead. Alyx and Gordon reroute the teleporter back to a Resistance laboratory and make their escape, but the teleporter, being a half-finished, clunky mess, proceeds to explode and bring down the whole torture prison.

This explosion also messed up the teleportation process and Gordon and Alyx only made it back a full week later, when they find that the blowing up of the torture prison has sparked a full-blown uprising from the humans, who now have solid proof that the Combine aren’t untouchable. Gordon and Alyx join the fight, wanting to storm the Citadel and rescue Eli for real this time. They fight their way there but ultimately get captured, coming face to face with Breen himself, who tries to get them all to surrender. Judith then decides she’s had enough of Breen’s nonsense and backstabs him, setting Gordon, Alyx and Eli free. Breen attempts to make an escape using a Combine portal, but Combine teleportation devices aren’t exactly known for their stability, so Gordon destroys it before Breen gets there and Breen falls to his death in the elevator. Before the whole Citadel can explode and take the whole surrounding city with it, the G-Man freezes time and appears once again to save Gordon (and possibly also Alyx), putting him in stasis once more.

This is where things get a little messy, because instead of using another full game to wrap up this story, Valve decides to release the sequels via smaller expansions called ‘Episodes’; at least three were planned, but only two ever came out.

Not a whole lot happens in HL2 Episode 1, the most notable thing is that the Vortigaunts all team up and use their powers to pull Gordon (and possibly also Alyx) back out of stasis, which the G-Man isn’t pleased about but does let them go. The rest of the episode is everybody trying to get the sparkles out of the city before the Citadel blows up, which they successfully do.

HL2 Episode 2 is where the plot picks back up. The Resistance find out that the Combine are trying to use the leftover energy from the Citadel explosion to send a call for reinforcements to their home universe, something they can prevent if they launch a rocket into space from a Resistance base called White Forest, so that’s Gordon and Alyx’s next destination. They do have to stop for a bit when Alyx gets stabbed through the back by a Combine-made creature called a Hunter and almost dies, but Gordon helps some local Vortigaunts save her life, with the minor caveat that Gordon’s and Alyx’s fates and souls are now forever intertwined. The G-Man also appears here, telling Gordon that Alyx was originally meant to die at Black Mesa but he defied his Employers to save her life. Then he tells the still unconscious Alyx to tell her father to ‘prepare for unforeseen consequences’ and, as usual, mysteriously disappears.

Alyx wakes up and they make it to White Forest, where they receive a message from Judith informing them that she’s also been busy since she left the Citadel. She somehow managed to uncover the Borealis, a research ship that went missing many years ago from Aperture Science (Black Mesa’s rival research facility, they’re very unhinged and have their own games, the Portal series) and is thought to have incredible technology on-board. Most of the Resistance is enthusiastic about finding the Borealis and using its technology against the Combine. However, Eli, upon receiving the G-Man’s message through Alyx, reveals to Gordon that he’s heard these words before and that he’s certain they mean another Resonance-Cascade-level disaster is inevitable if they use the Borealis and decides they should destroy it instead. Then there’s a big battle with Combine forces as the Resistance try to launch the rocket. They’re successful, and the Combine fail to call for reinforcements. Then Gordon, Eli and Alyx go to board a helicopter to the Arctic where the Borealis is located, but before they can do that, they’re interrupted by a pair of Combine Advisors bursting through the wall. Advisors are creatures with powerful psychic capabilities, unlike anything the Resistance has faced before, and while they eventually retreat and Gordon and Alyx survive, Eli is killed in this struggle.

For a very, very long time, this exact cliffhanger was the end. HL2 Episode 2 came out in 2007 (which is also the year I was born, funnily enough). Half-Life 2 Episode 3 still does not exist, and neither does Half-Life 3, to the point where it’s a meme in the pc gaming community that Valve can only count to 2.

What does exist is Half-Life Alyx, a VR-only game with Alyx as the protagonist that released in 2020 and technically takes place between the first two games but also does a lot of cool wacky timeline things that would take a separate post to explain because this one is already getting absurdly long. Another thing I didn’t mention is the HL1 expansions, which are a handful of shorter campaigns released between 1999 and 2001 that tell the stories of other characters who survived Black Mesa and are also questionably canon due to being made by Gearbox Software, who got a few Valve canon things wrong. There is so much more to talk about here but, again. This post is very long and I would understand if you didn’t even read this far. If you did, thank you very much!!! I love my silly anti-nihilist video games about the indomitable human spirit standing in the face of forces beyond its comprehension, and it brought me great joy to get to yap about them for 14 paragraphs straight. Thank you again for sending this ask ^^

#long post #VERY long post #half life

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