#gordon the employer

[just-a-space-nugget]

Half-Life: The Employer AU

@sepko1 ‘s Gordon Geeman (or Freeman Immortal) has inspired me to revisit my own “Gman Gordon.” Funny enough, I made my Gman Gordon around the same time Sepko’s came about so I’ve had to change a lot to my own cause well.. mine was REAL SIMILAR to their’s lmao! But I feel like mine is more than just a “Gman” if you feel me? Mine is more like “the employer” in my eyes.

I may make a small “Au” or something around him. It would involve Sepko’s Geeman and even a few other people’s “Gman” type characters. Just because well the nature of the characters is based around the idea of multiple “Gmen” type people, being the employees. Each Universe has its own “Gman” that maintains the universe and each individual timeline they contain.

But the Employer. Who is the Employer? The Employer is the one who oversees all Universes, all timelines, all employees. Wouldn’t it be interesting.. if the Employer turned out to be a Gordon Freeman? Possibly even the very first instance of Gordon to exist in the Half-Life Universe. The Gordon from the very first timeline. The one who set the president for all. That would be my “Gman Gordon”

I’ve posted this before but here is the og Drawing. I may do a new one.

More info below if you are interested in my thoughts and ideas.

He would wear an edgy version of Gordon’s Black Mesa Uniform. His glasses would be tinted to conceal his eyes. He also has an HEV suit he sometimes wears that is also in more dark edgy colors rather than orange to keep him hidden. He can be seen holding a black mesa brief case (like Gman) but is more commonly seen holding a Black Mesa clipboard with what feels like infinite paper but only appears to have two or three sheets on it at all times.

Depending on what he wants to look at or what he needs the second or next page of the clipboard changes. The first page is always the cover of the Black Mesa employee handbook.

He barely retains any of his original self. He purposefully suppresses his human side to keep himself focused on his job. He still has his own Universe. He no longer maintains it, instead he has left it in the hands of the og Gman who he employed long ago to keep it safe. He occasionally visits it. It serves as a place where he can go to think and feel “at home.” Deep inside he mourns his Universe. Mourns a time when he was still human. Now he knows that all instances of himself and the people he cares for despise him. Even though no one knows he is the “Employer” (except those he has employed) everyone always thinks the ideals of the many Gmen and their employer are working against them since they seem to have done nothing but harm their ways of life, emotions, and morals. Gordon The Employer has to face the fact that everyone he cared for now want him and his plans dead. When all he wishes to do is keep all timelines and Universes flowing. He wants to do what is best for each instance of everyone including himself.

After all if he had never made the choice to pull The Freeman into stasis for 20 years, who would stop the Combine? How would things have played out? Yes the choice to force Alyx into employment is morally wrong, but those are human morals. When it comes to the greater good of the universe and its timelines, human morals do not apply.

Time is not a concept that applies to The Employer. He is everywhere, anywhere, yet no where all at once. He is a singular entity but is sometimes referred to in the plural as “The Employers”

Alternative Universes and timelines of each are constantly appearing, constantly changing, evolving. The Employer must be able to handle the task of assigning each new universe with its own set of boundaries, key events each iteration of the first timeline must follow, and its very own Gman that must abide by these rules and maintain the new Universe accordingly. It is not an easy job, but he has done it since the beginning of time and deep at his core he is still a scientist, and scientists thrive in challenges such as these. And with each Universe came new challenges, new threats to his plans and to the plot each timeline should follow. As time goes on he realizes a pattern all instances of himself, Eli, Alyx, and in some cases Vortiguants have begun to rebel against his employees. A Little deviation from the core plot is not is not a big deal, things can be nudged to fix such things, but too much is seen as a threat and must be dealt with accordingly.

Each “Employee” or “Gman” must stem from somewhere. The Employer originally kept to a strict pattern of using different variations of the same “Gman” across universes. But eventually he saw the potential for employing those he cared for, especially ones from timelines where he saw they had potential. Slowly The Employer began to replace original “Gmen” with the newly trained and employed Employees. All was well, he even spoke with them individually, assisting (as best he could) with their transition from being human to a “Gman” including the emotional and mental strain that can cause. (However with his own emotionless habits it proved to be less than effective or comforting for the others.)

All was well. Until he decided to try and employ.. himself. And thats where Sepko’s Geeman comes in.

At first he does nothing but watch from a far. When the gman set to maintain and train the new Employee turns up missing, and his other Employees’ ties to the Universe are served, he has no choice but to personally intervene. For the first time since the beginning of time he has to step out of the shadows and introduce himself to the rest of the Half-Life Universe. Having no choice but to collaborate with the Alyx and Vortiguants of this Universe in order to come up with a solution. At first it does not go as planned. Everyone in the universe rejects him and attacks him. Never giving him a chance to introduce himself or speak. Simply mistaking him for the rouge employee.. or The Freeman Immortal. Having to actually interact with those he cared about for the first time in… a while.. is challenging. Not just for the obvious reasons but because it touched the side of him he had long since suppressed. The Gordon Freeman part of him.

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

Phone call

[deezdoodles]

He would not fucking say that but I am allowed one bad joke today

[brokentoys]

anyway i just hate it when something takes a great character and just remove their depth. especially when they do it in favor for something more generic.

[korkietism]

A concept of mine. I see Gman in a similar situation as the collector from toh in the sense that there are much stronger larger than life beings in comparison to him that he is technically associated with. His world/dimension hopping, portal creation, and general manipulation of the things around him is a lot to those near him but there are beings much more powerful than him. His frequent disobedience to the path of things and how he values people over power is what ultimately ends him up here.

[fancyfeathers]

Okay so I had another Yandere!Batfam idea…

Just imagine a former detective raising her little sisters by herself after their parents died, she lost her job after taking a bullet and getting her leg messed up really badly and it doesn’t help that her little sisters are just a bunch of trouble and now ever time she goes down to her old place of employment it is to get one of her sisters who got into trouble. Commissioner Gordon cuts her some slack because he knows her and knows how hard she tries and he even tries to keep an eye on her sisters to keep them out of trouble because he knows they are getting into things they shouldn’t to help their big sister.

But bills add up…

One of her sisters is threatening to fail out of high school…

Another one got a broken arm in a fight…

And another one was recommended to Arkham Asylum by her school’s therapist because of her aggressive behavior, she bit another school’s student on a field trip and it doesn’t help that the other kid was Damian Wayne, the son of the billionaire who funds most of the city…

Meanwhile she feels like she is barely an adult anyway and she is trying to raise her sisters since her parents died, so obviously she is a mess when she goes to the GCPD headquarters to talk to Gordon for advice after her sisters went to bed and she finds her old boss on the roof with Batman and his birds, it’s even more embarrassing since she just came here after a fight with her sisters and Gordon is like family so there is no need to dress to impress around him, so she is in her pajama shorts and t-shirt along with her leg brace and cane.

She just waits for them to leave when she finally breaks down to Gordon on that rooftop about everything, but she didn’t notice the birds who lingered.

Suddenly over the next few days problems begin to fix themselves…

The one sister’s failing grades suddenly bolted up to A’s and B’s without her doing anything.

Medical bills were paid off for the other sister’s broken arm along with physical therapy for the former detective’s leg.

Then the sister who bit the Wanye boy, a professional child therapist has been hired for her so she doesn’t end up getting sent to that mad house, which is by no means suitable for a child, by some court judge.

It’s like their luck turned up for the better out of no where and along with that, their old detective ran into a cute guy when she was on her way home from physical therapy, his name is Dick Grayson…

I love the idea of the Batboys having darlings who are all sisters, I just find it cute and the fact that they are all parallels of each other one way or another…

[fatliberation]

hi, i'm a fat person who is just starting to learn to love and appreciate my body and i'm very new to the fat community and all that.

i was wondering if you could maybe explain the term ob*se and how it is a slur. i've never heard anything about it being a slur before(like i said, i'm very new here) and was wondering if you could tell me the origin and history of the word or mayy provide links to resources about it? i want to know more about fat history and how to support my community but i'm unsure of how to start

Welcome!

Obesity is recognized as a slur by fat communities because it's a stigmatizing term that medicalizes fat bodies, typically in the absence of disease. Aside from the word literally translating to "having eaten oneself fat" in latin, obesity (as a medical diagnosis) straight up doesn't actually exist. The only measure that we have to diagnose people with obesity is the BMI, which has been widely proven to be an ineffective measure of health.

The BMI was created in the 1800s by a statistician named Adolphe Quetelet, who did NOT sudy medicine, to gather statistics of the average height and weight of ONLY white, european, upper-middle class men to assist the government in allocating resources. It was never intended as a measure of individual body fat, build, or health. 

Quetelet is also credited with founding the field of anthropometry, including the racist pseudoscience of phrenology. Quetelet’s l’homme moyen would be used as a measurement of fitness to parent, and as a scientific justification for eugenics.

Studies have observed that about 30% of so-called "normal weight" people are "unhealthy" whereas about 50% of so-called "overweight" people are “healthy”. Thus, using the BMI as an indicator of health results in the misclassification of some 75 million people in the United States alone. "Healthy" lifestyle habits are associated with a significant decrease in mortality regardless of baseline body mass index.  

While epidemiologists use BMI to calculate national "obesity" rates, the distinctions can be arbitrary. In 1998, the National Institutes of Health lowered the overweight threshold from 27.8 to 25—branding roughly 29 million Americans as "overweight" overnight—to match international guidelines. Articles about the "obesity epidemic" often use this pseudo-statistic to create a false fear mongering rate at which the United States is becoming fatter. Critics have also noted that those guidelines were drafted in part by the International Obesity Task Force, whose two principal funders were companies making weight loss drugs. Interesting!!!

So... how can you diagnose a person with a disease (and sell them medications) solely based upon an outdated measure that was never meant to indicate health in the first place? Especially when "obesity” has no proven causative role in the onset of any chronic condition?

There is a reason as to why fatness was declared a disease by the NIH in 1998, and some of it had to do with acknowledging fatness as something that is NOT just about a lack of willpower - but that's a very complicated post for another time. You can learn more about it in the two part series of Maintenance Phase titled The Body Mass Index and The Obesity Epidemic.

Aside from being overtly incorrect as a medical tool, the BMI is used to deny certain medical treatments and gender-affirming care, as well insurance coverage. Employers still often offer bonuses to workers who lower their BMI. Although science recognizes the BMI as deeply flawed, it's going to be tough to get rid of. It has been a long standing and effective tool for the oppression of fat people and the profit of the weight loss industry.

More sources and extra reading material:

How the Use of BMI Fetishizes White Embodiment and Racializes Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

The Bizarre and Racist History of the BMI by Aubrey Gordon

The Racist and Problematic History of the Body Mass Index by Adele Jackson-Gibson

What's Wrong With The War on Obesity? by Lily O'Hara, et al.

Fearing The Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

[internetskiff]

It's probably been discussed often how G-Man's voice actor interprets his pauses in speech as him experiencing multiple timelines at once, and there's something about that I find very interesting about that. It might just be me, but I feel as though over the course of Episode 2 and especially Half Life: Alyx, he has begun to sound increasingly amused and vaguely excited in each encounter.

In the heart-to-heart he has with Gordon, he speaks of the Vortigaunts in a tone that feels like contemptuous amusement. The delivery of the line "..but I had to wait until your.. Friends (heh), were otherwise occupied." makes me wonder, is he amused because of their past, or does he know something about them that we don't? In HL:A, it becomes even more blatant - he comes out of the dark with a smile on his face which holds for nearly the entire conversation, and he speaks to Alyx with an uncharacteristically mischievous tone.

I'm not even certain if we ever heard him chuckle before this. The closest thing I can think of is that stifled "heh" that comes from him when he refers to the Vorts as Gordon's "friends". His demeanor in the conversation gives me the impression that there's a joke of some kind, that the punchline is right around the corner, and he's the only one in on it. Alyx's employment might be the punchline, but it could also be part of a lead-up to something even larger. Whatever it is, I think he's getting increasingly invested in it. He knows the boiling point is yet to come and that excites him.

[serapherd]

rambles about the g-man and his connection with adrian shephard, because a recent conversation with a friend had me thinking about it

something hardly anyone ever mentions is that, while we call him "the g-man," his name is never actually dropped across the games. however, adrian himself has referred to him as a "g-man," the slang term for government man or FBI agent

what's interesting about this is that "g-man" as slang is rarely used today nor at the time of the black mesa incident, and especially not something any of the major characters in opposing force would say. it's like, thirties slang, being used by a twenty-two-year-old marine.

it might not mean anything, but i like to look at it as a little insight into adrian's personality, as even these diary entries written by him don't give us a lot to work with.

the tutorial chapter of opposing force shows us that g-man was making the rounds around the boot camp adrian was at,

it seems g-man was arguing for adrian's spot on the advanced training list, likely to prime him for indoor combat inside black mesa

the thing is, this was two months before the resonance cascade happened. why would g-man have done all this if he didn't consider adrian a critical resource? it was because adrian was his initially his primary candidate. he was the original "gordon freeman" in a sense

you can sort of see this in the contrast between g-man sightings between both games, as in half-life's beginning chapters, g-man is typically observing gordon from a casually approachable distance, like behind a door or from a catwalk gordon is able to cross

^ this is after the resonance cascade, adrian hasn't been deployed yet

as gordon is forced back underground by the presence of the HECU, g-man's sightings have become much more distant and sporadic

^ this is around the same time that adrian regains consciousness after his osprey crashed. gordon is much closer to xen by this point

why is this important? it shows a shift in g-man's demeanor the moment that gordon gains a reputation among the other survivors, meanwhile adrian is left behind on the surface, g-man doing the bare minimum to ensure he doesn't step out of line.

^ this is after gordon has become a hot ticket item. note that g-man is not trying to be discreet at all here lol

i believe g-man's physical distance between a potential hire can signify their value as an asset to him, with g-man becoming harder to reach once he takes interest in somebody, potentially in order to prevent himself from distracting them or inspiring them to get closer.

the speech g-man gives at the end of opposing force also has some interesting implications about how he views adrian

think about how g-man makes you, the player, feel. the answer you get will depend on who you ask, but most often you see people say they become curious, uncertain, or even just weirded out.

now, think about someone like gordon or even alyx here. people who at a glance, are just that; ordinary people. g-man speaks to them individually, with either emotional appeal or appeal to rationale.

g-man is awfully formal with gordon, much as his superiors at black mesa were. g-man also gives gordon something that he's rarely had over the course of the game's plot, that being a choice. he is allowed to refuse the offer of employment, even if doing so would be a guaranteed death. and canonically, gordon did accept the offer.

the difference between adrian and gordon's survival to g-man is that, despite his success in combat, gordon was hardly ever trained in it. gordon freeman is the everyman. this makes him easier to grasp, given that g-man can generally assume what gordon would want based on his quality of life. with this in mind, here me out:

adrian is unpredictable by being predictable. think about it,

adrian shephard is a combat soldier. he signed on, aware of the kind of situations he would be getting himself into, and he made it out of black mesa alive. all according to g-man's original plan, right? wrong.

people enlist in the military for many reasons. some are simply scooped up by recruiters. it would be a HUGE gamble for g-man to give adrian the same type of privilege as gordon by hiring him, since g-man doesn't know what there is to appeal to within adrian. for all we know, adrian might not have cared what happened either way!

not that i mean to suggest adrian is passively suicidal or anything like that, but we really don't know what would've been his ideal outcome for himself regarding the situation. we don't even know his motivation for fighting to survive black mesa, aside from his writing from beforehand which says he wants "change and adventure"

adrian being dangerous and hard to read conflicts with his potential as an asset to g-man, making g-man unsure on how to approach him. since there's not much he can infer about adrian, what does he do? he plays the "im just the messenger, it isn't my fault" card

all of this puts adrian's evaluation into question, specifically his status

it's as blunt as the rest, but choice of wording almost insinuates adrian is a criminal. not "delayed" or "on hold" but "detained"

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 110 (Conrad Finally Gets a Lead)

At work the day after his call with George Brindleton, Conrad lasted at his desk for all of twenty minutes before nagging thoughts about Rafa pulled him from his reports. He tried to find employment details for butler services in Sulani, but no one employed anyone named Rafael. Either Conrad misheard, or George hired him under the table like he did just about everyone else. If it was the same Rafa, did George know about his connections to Los Tigres?

He wanted to book a flight to Sulani to look for Rafa himself, but the chief wouldn't authorize the expense without a more solid lead than Conrad's hunch. If George Brindleton turned out not to be involved, he'd sue, and the chief was careful with her force's funding.

Conrad recalled he and Heather's conversation with Malcolm the night Ash got his prank call. He'd interviewed George by video call, and maybe Rafael's face would be visible. He'd be able to tell whether it was the same kid he knew years earlier. He was sure of it.

Either way, he didn't have a warrant, and he knew he'd need one with the Landgraabs. Even if he could convince Malcolm to let him watch the recording, he'd expect something in exchange without a warrant. Conrad just wanted to know if it was Rafa, and he placed a call to Judge Morrison - the same man who presided over John Brindleton's bench trial.

Brindleton Bay was small enough that Judge Morrison presided over almost all cases worked by Brindleton PD, and Conrad had gotten to know him well over the years. "Lieutenant Gordon! Congratulations on another promotion! How's the family?"

"They're great, Your Honour. How's your son taking to his first year at college?"

"He makes me proud every day. What can I do for you?"

With his warrant secured, Conrad made his way to San Myshuno. Traffic on the Simmerloop was light, and he was grateful to make such great time. Gratefully, he found Malcolm home alone. "Conrad, what are you doing here?"

"I need to see the video of your conversation with George Brindleton." He flashed the warrant, and Malcolm immediately grew defensive.

"Why? Is Brindleton PD not having any success of their own?"

Conrad shot a glare in his direction, but he grudgingly led them upstairs to watch the conversation. George kept the phone trained on his own angry face for much of the call - which didn't tell him more than the precinct knew already. But when George turned to Rafa for a drink, the phone in his hand turned with him. A flash of dark hair, on a tall young man with an athletic build, was visible in his shaky camera.

If he could take it to the lab, they might be able to improve the quality of the image enough for him to justify expensing a trip to Sulani. "You can keep your research, but I need to make a copy for our files."

Malcolm rolled his eyes. "You won't let me break a story, you need my help with your own work...What is it about this particular case? Is it about Ash's prank call? You took his phone away and nothing's happened since. Is it about the cartel? Los Tigres de Selva?"

Conrad quickly weighed his options. "Listen, Malcolm, it goes deeper than that. My college girlfriend ran drugs for Los Tigres, and she's the prime suspect for the murder at the docks. Not George Brindleton."

"You brought drug dealers into my son's life?"

"I thought I was done with her and I'm trying like hell to get her out of our lives and behind bars, but you're just as likely to invite drug dealers into his life if you run with this story. We're trying to bring her in without disturbing the cartel because you don't want to sniff around Los Tigres de Selva unless you're ready to fight for your life. Your mother is as powerful as anyone else we know, but do you want to put a target on the rest of your family's back with this stuff?"

"You mean no more than you have already?"

The men left one another in foul moods - neither was wrong, but neither was particularly proud of themselves, either.

Heather was relieved when Conrad walked in the door in one piece. "I was worried," she gushed, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

"I'm sorry I didn't text. I ran into traffic on the way home, but I think I found him. I think I found Rafa."

"You found him?" Heather practically jumped from her skin with excitement. "Where?"

His hands dropped lower on her waist. "I watched Malcolm's video with George Brindleton, and I think I saw him working as a waiter in his villa."

"You saw Malcolm about the case?"

"I told him the truth, Heather."

Her spine straightened. "You- you're not worried he'll tell Nancy about the cartel connections?"

"We can't keep lying anymore. The more he knows, the less likely he'll be to put anything on Simlandia National and endanger his son. Nancy wouldn't argue with him about that, and I'm not sure he'll even tell her, if he can avoid it."

Heather nodded, pushing away her anxiety as she embraced him. "That does sound a lot like Malcolm."

With her fears abated and their family all safe at home, Heather and Conrad celebrated breaking new ground in the search for Rafa with a steamy late night shower. ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 2.1 Summary

Gen 1 Start | Gen 1 Summary

[johannestevans]

I have manually cross-posted the bulk of my works to my site, and only have a little under 150 still to post across!

Once they're all done, I will then start going through and putting in my tags. In the meantime, you can search for kinks in the description!

Some short stories to start with:

A Fish Riding a Bicycle - Romance short. 4k. A repressed wizard is at odds with the Dean of Magical Arts’ new secretary.

Like A Thief and an Assassin - Rated M, 6,7k, M/M. A kooky thief at a for-hire intelligence agency starts to romance his handler. Banter and some back-and-forth, mounting sexual tension, age difference. Tone is playful and restrainedly horny.

Archival Management - Erotic short, 10k, cis M/M. Magical archivists in Camelot with the most mundane of delicious emotional and sexual issues. Featuring age difference, orgasm denial, oral, desperation, crying, a bit of mild humour and nastiness, delicious emotional manipulation, and a heavy dose of mind-reading.

Warden Gordon and the Angel in the Woods - Fantasy short. Working in a magical national park, Gryff Gordon has a contentious relationship with a local angel.Fantasy short. Working in a magical national park, Gryff Gordon has a contentious relationship with a local angel.

Gellert's New Job - Gellert has worked as a business manager for the King family for nearly a decade when an error in judgement brings his employment to an abrupt end. Lucien Pike, a rival kingpin, employs his services instead. Fantasy, crime, and a good bit of dark humour. 21k. Rated M. Transgender, autistic man’s POV; both protagonists are autistic.

Daddy's Boy - In the magical smuggling town of Lashton, the youngest son of the Laithes, a prominent crime family, struggles to make himself heard and accepted by his family, especially his father. At the age of 17, he undergoes a metamorphosis. 23k, rated E for violence, featuring Dai Laithe, Oidhche Laithe, and the rest of the Laithe family, with some appearances from Gellert Osgodby and to a lesser extent, Lucien Pike.

Divine Bodies - Erotic Short. The god Freyr expects good work from his priests, but gives good rewards. Featuring transness, divinity, magical HRT, size differences, come inflation, consensual nonconsent, somnophilia, gangbangs, stomach bulges, come inflation, public humiliation, power dynamics, nature imagery, gender expression and embrace of gender identity as faith and worship!

[just-a-space-nugget]

The Employer

This is an old drawing? Painting? Creation? Idk what to call it. I made this about a year or two ago and never finished till now. So here he is! Gordon The Employer!

Reblogs Help!

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

An Analysis of Gman in Half Life: Alyx

HL:A Gman is by far the most interesting version of Gman I've seen and I've noticed so many details in his one interaction with Alyx, to the point I needed to make a full post about all the bullet points. (Note that this is MY personal interpretation, so it could be different from what was intended or what other people believe)

Starting from the very beginning, when Alyx asks whether Gman is Gordon Freeman or not, he responds in a kind of. Condescending way.

It's almost like he's amused by the fact he was mistaken for Gordon. not to mention the use of "Imprison" in the statement, almost as if he's not only making a snide remark towards Gordon, but also implying that even he sees Gordon's employment as "imprisonment". Not to mention the implication that it really does not take that much to hold Gordon captive in one way or another. Could also be literal, meaning Gordon isn't near powerful enough to require a full Vault be built around him.

A: "So. Who are you?"

Alyx asks a very simple question cause. why wouldn't she be confused? She expected a super-weapon; she expected Gordon Freeman, so when she found nothing but a man in a suit who straight up scoffs at the misunderstanding, of COURSE she'd want to ask questions. However, Gman only responds with:

Gman deflects the question, but rather than completely ignoring it, he simply leads it into a new question: "What can I offer you?"

He guides the conversation to a different topic, luring Alyx away from questioning who, or what, he is, whether it's because he doesn't want to (or can't) give an answer, or if it's because he simply wants the conversation to move forward rather than being caught on the nature of Gman himself.

G: "Some believe the fate of our world is Inflexible. My Employers disagree."

This statement is funny in an ironic way. he states that fate is flexible and can be changed, yet. When was the last time Gman didn't have full say on what can and will happen? By making everything go a very specific way, you CREATE fate.

G: "They authorize me to… nudge things in a particular direction from time to time. What would YOU want nudged, Ms. Vance?"

The use of word "Nudge" is an interesting way to describe changing things within the timeline. though something else that's interesting is his facial expressions during this moment.

He looks almost. Kind. but in a forced sort of way. It feels like he's expecting a certain answer from Alyx, and is just waiting for her to say it.

However, when she says she wants the combine off earth, his expression changes.

The change in expression implies that Alyx's answer was not the one he wanted or hoped for. Thus, he once again ignores what Alyx said and gives his own reasons for it.

G: "Ahhh. That would be a considerably large nudge. Too large, given the interests of my employers."

Rather than giving Alyx a second chance at a more reasonable request however, he instead says:

G: "What if I could offer you something you don't know you want?"

It finally clicks together why Gman's there: To make a deal. Whatever Alyx said before this moment was completely irrelevant. No matter what Alyx requested to have "Nudged", he would have brought up his own offer. He had already mapped out how the conversation was going to end even before Alyx had even begun speaking to him. It was just a matter of getting there.

Gman showing Alyx her fathers death was an intentional and targeted choice. Alyx is a little more naïve here than she is in HL2, not to mention her close relationship to Eli. Eli is one of the only people she has left at this point in her life, so. Why wouldn't she want to save him? This is exactly the reason Gman chose this event in particular above anything else, because he knew it was an offer Alyx would NEVER say no to. He knows Alyx more than she knows herself, and had already predicted the outcome of the situation. So, understandably, Alyx kills the Advisor in place of her father's life.

This line. This line is so interesting to me in particular. Rather than describing Eli as a "person" or "human", and describing the dead Advisor as something "alien", he refers to both as "entities." almost as if he sees both of them on the same wavelength of sorts. It implies Gman sees no difference between a human and an animal, or alien of some kind. Sees them all as simply that. Entities.

Yet another example of Gman deflecting the questions given to him, guiding the conversation instead towards Alyx herself.

G: "A previous hire has been unable — or unwilling — to perform the tasks laid before him. We have struggled to find a suitable replacement. Until now."

Him referring to Gordon in this way is interesting to me. Was the sudden wish to drop Gordon from employment due to the Vortigaunt intervention in HL2 Episode 1? Was it because Gordon was truly incapable of fulfilling certain "tasks"? Or maybe it was because Gordon was not as vulnerable to Gman's influence? It's unclear, and it's also not clear whether this means Gordon is fully free of Gman's control or not.

At this point it's made crystal clear that Alyx killing the advisor in place of her father was a contract she was signing, one she didn't even know she held the pen to. This was always going to be the outcome of the interaction, since the beginning. Everything Alyx had done up to that point was to help Gman and his "Employers" get further in their goals now that Gordon was deemed "Incapable". Nothing that Alyx could have done would've mattered; her "fate" was decided from the beginning.

Overall what I gather from this ending is a lot about Gman as a character. He never truly lies, yet he purposefully leaves out important details, such as the fact that reversing Eli's death wasn't without a price. He manipulates the conversation to fit his wants and needs, ignoring direct questions he sees as unimportant to his goals. And the thing is, he does it in a way that Alyx doesn't even seem to notice. He has played this game so many times that he knows exactly what moves to play. He knows the people he talks to more than they know themselves. He uses their worst fears against them to make them go to him for safety.

Judging by the things Gordon survived in Black Mesa, you can gauge he had a strong will to survive. So what better to do to seal a deal than to threaten that life he cares so much about? To tell him that the only other option was to go under Gman's employment else he face death itself? Alyx had such a strong connection to her father, so what better to do than to tell her that Eli will die if she doesn't do anything, luring her in to sign a contract without even knowing what she was signing?

Gman is a master manipulator, no better words for it. And he always manages to do it in such a way that you can barely even notice it happening. He never raises his voice. he never shows irritation or hostility aside from only one instance. Because why should he be frustrated? He's won even before the game started. And honestly that is frightening to me, cause it shows that he's done this many times before and knows just how to get what he and his "Employers" want, regardless of how it effects other people.

[destieltropecollection]

Destiel Trope Collection 2024 | Day 16: Secret Relationship

Perpendicular | @notastupidbird Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 3,691 Main Tags/Warnings: Canon Universe, Season/Series 05, Angel Castiel (Supernatural), Dead Jessica Moore (Supernatural), Secret Relationship, Sam Winchester Knows, Jealous Sam Winchester (not romantic), Light Angst, Grief/Mourning, Diners, Motel Rooms, POV Sam Winchester Summary: In the quiet moments of the last days before the lead-up to the Apocalypse, Sam watches his brother fall in love with an angel.

A Driver Worth His Salt | @thefandomsinhalor Rating: Explicit Word Count: 67,834 Main Tags/Warnings: Modern AU, Crimes and Criminal, BAMF Castiel, Slow Burn, Slow Build, Top Castiel/Bottom Dean, Trauma, Pining, Angst, Summary: Twenty-year-old Dean Winchester hates fixing up stolen cars on the side for Gordon Walker. But with his grandfather’s dry-cleaning business slowly dying, medical bills piling up, and his younger brother Sam abandoning the prospect of attending college because of their grim situation, Dean convinces himself that it isn’t as reckless as it seems. When everything goes belly up, leaving him in a troubling position with the wrong people, a representative of the Garrisons, the city’s most powerful and notorious family, offers Dean to help him with his situation in exchange for his employment. The job is simple: drive the passenger a few times a week to yet-undisclosed locations and return with said passenger without fail. Don’t ask questions. Be on time. Be discreet. And never interact with each other outside of work. Shady, but simple. So, he accepts. But once he meets the passenger in question—the sharply dressed and rough-looking Castiel Novak—Dean finds that abiding those rules may be more complicated than he had anticipated.

Mr Hyde | @Taymarpigeon Rating: Explicit Word Count: 82,502 Main Tags/Warnings: Professor Castiel (Supernatural), College | University Student Dean Winchester, No Sam Winchester, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - College/University, Top Castiel/Bottom Dean Winchester, hurt/injury, Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Brief Mention of Attempted Sexual Assault (Not Between Dean/Castiel), Age Difference, Pining, Dom Castiel/Sub Dean Winchester, Light BDSM, Angst, Fluff, Gratuitous Smut, Voyeurism, Bad Parent Mary Winchester Summary: Life can hurt you, and it can heal you. Sometimes it will do both those things at once. For Dean life hasn't been much with the mercy and grace - if you get his meaning - but at twenty-four years old things seem to finally be turning around: he's out from under the shadow of his father, pursuing his dreams by going to university, and getting laid on the regular. All sounds good right? Except Dean's got a cock loving skeleton in his closet and an asshole professor tempting that bag of bones beyond reason. He could say no. He should say no. He could master his desires and walk away, but then... Well, life sometimes hurts as it heals.

[thatfeelingwhentheshowisover]

Coomer: his greeting dialogue trigger is broken, he has multiple consciences going at the same time due to his clones he feels their pain and fear, his body loosely resembles a humans due to the replacement of limbs with robotics and generous removal of organs with few being replaced

Bubby: no real noticable glitches cept the car, he has pyrokinesis and can fly(fr spin dashes in the boss fight), he resembles a human more than Coomer but is more physically resilient than a human since he is the "ultimate lifeform"(Shadow kin fr)

Tommy: no glitches but does have an "auto aim" due to being an NPC and is scared by this, the full blown human of the science team, he made Sunkist when he was younger and he learned how to read sweet voice because of her

Darnold: no glitches but his programing prevented him from joining the team even though he wanted to, he invented most of the Gatorade flavours and is rich from the royalties, he is a normal human, and he is a workaholic

Forzen: he can glitch to random areas on the map but he doesn't have any real control over where he ends up, he joined the military so that he wouldn't have to pay for college, he never expected to be put into action, "Team Nice" was made up by the rest of his actual assigned group because they all decided he was useless and wanted a way to send him away, him and Benrey "were" friends because they got into a heated argument about gamer YouTubers they'll get over it though

Benr(e)y: got a respawn glitch a no clip glitch and his code got sorta overwritten with the code for The Nihilanth near the end, before the events of the game he was a volunteer for human experiments with xen crystals which caused his ability to use sweet voice and increased resistance, possibly why he was used as a vessel for the messed up Nihilanth code

Gman: has no glitches but is fully aware, his "employer" is the game itself he was to ensure the game continued as it was meant to, Benry's glitches did complicate things like how the time freeze didn't effect him, Mr. coolatta can freeze time and has connections to most files within the game

Gordon: is the host for the player and looses consciousness once the game starts, as the vessel he cannot die no matter what happens, the player can see the world as it "truly" is, before game Gordon was chosen for the xen experiments but was declared a failure because he didn't change as noticeably as Benry(let's just say there's a reason he's the player character)

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 19 June 1865, after the US civil war, Union general Gordon Granger gave a proclamation in Galveston, Texas, stating: "The People of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and property rights between former masters and slaves". It then clarified that the relationship between formerly enslaved people and their enslavers should become "that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages… they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere." As news of the declaration spread across the state, large numbers of enslaved people began to effectively go on strike and desert their plantations, returning to states they came from or heading for cities containing Union troops. The following year, Black Texans decided to celebrate Juneteenth on June 19, holding festivities and parades. And in subsequent years the celebrations grew, and spread with Black migration to cities like Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle. Later in the 20th-century the holiday had largely faded from the public mind, but in the 1980s Black activists made a concerted effort to reinvigorate Juneteenth as a public holiday. It was officially recognised in Texas in 1980, and following mass Black-led protests in 2020 was made a federal holiday in 2021, although many employers still do not give paid leave for Juneteenth celebrations. Back in the 1800s, one formerly-enslaved Texan, Felix Haywood, later reflected on his emancipation: "We thought we was going to get rich like the white folks... But it didn’t turn out that way. We soon found out that freedom could make folks proud, but it didn’t make ’em rich.” More: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9111/Juneteenth Pic: Juneteenth celebration, 1900 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=647159507457268&set=a.602588028581083&type=3