#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.

[deezdoodles]

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

[ladylunora]

hlvrai art dump

[lamphous]

think it's probably gonna take at least 3 more trips before we get there but I promise you all one day my mom WILL come to visit and we WILL go to retiree gay beach bar karaoke with my friends and I absolutely WILL convince her to sing jackson by johnny cash (her) and june carter (me) and it WILL totally rule

[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.

[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

[mickalicious12]

When looking for Work.

[reasonsforhope]

"Illinois will become one of three states to require employers to offer paid time off for any reason after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law on Monday that will take effect next year.

Starting Jan. 1, 2024, Illinois employers must offer workers paid time off based on hours worked, with no need to explain the reason for their absence as long as they provide notice in accordance with reasonable employer standards.

Just Maine and Nevada mandate earned paid time time off and allot employees the freedom to decide how to use it, but Illinois’ law is further reaching, unencumbered by limits based on business size. Similarly structured regulations that require employers to offer paid sick leave exist in 14 states and Washington, D.C., but workers can only use that for health-related reasons.

Illinois employees will accrue one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked up to 40 hours total, although the employer may offer more. Employees can start using the time once they have worked for 90 days. Seasonal workers will be exempt, as will federal employees or college students who work non-full-time, temporary jobs for their university.

Pritzker signed the bill Monday in downtown Chicago, saying: “Too many people can't afford to miss even a day's pay ... together we continue to build a state that truly serves as a beacon for families, and businesses, and good paying jobs.”

Proponents say paid leave is key to making sure workers, especially low-income workers who are more vulnerable, are able to take time off when needed without fear of reprisal from an employer.

Bill sponsor Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, a Peoria Democrat, said the bill is the product of years of negotiations with businesses and labor groups.

“Everyone deserves the ability to take time off,” she said in a statement. “Whether it’s to deal with the illness of a family member, or take a step back for your mental health, enshrining paid leave rights is a step forward for our state."

“This is about bringing dignity to all workers," she said at the signing."

-via ABC News, 3/13/23

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

Random G-Man headcanons/observations cause this old fart won't leave my brain

-He's simply a representative of his employers, being the one to do all the dirty work. His employers themselves are not a physical being, rather a massive conglomerate of consciousness that exist outside of this plane of reality, being a hivemind that Gman simply follows the orders of and speaks to sometimes.

-Is Not Human, if it wasn't obvious. I see him as also without a proper "true form", being a formless mass in its typical, non-human form, one that isn't really comprehensible to humans (aka its enough to make eyes bleed and brains explode). This is why he acts and moves so strangely, because he finds the human form very limiting, but it's best to be "polite" to humans and not immediately expose them to horrors beyond belief.

-Despite his strange behavior he has been mistaken for a normal old man. People tend to assume he can do less than he can actually do because of this, which is both to his advantage and also his detriment since some people think they need to help him with certain tasks-

-Stasis is a physical dimension that people can go to and stay in. To whoever is stuck in stasis (Gordon/Adrian/Alyx) Will simply be in a physical manifestation of a room/vehicle, in a state similar to catatonia, unable to move anything but their rapidly moving eyes, or react to anything. to them, no time passes between going into stasis and coming out of it.

-He has no blood. He can't bleed. If you somehow cut him, nothing will come out.

-His emotions are very dulled down compared to human ones, meaning he can keep his cool (mostly) no matter the situation. He sees showing emotion as "unprofessional".

-Gets bored easily, so it sometimes just makes random objects float for shits and giggles.

-Has a very low body temperature. The lack of blood will do that to you

-Treats every living being as if they're the same. refers to everything as "entities" rather than a Person or Animal.

-He knows how to lead a conversation a certain way. I remember looking through his HLA speech to Alyx, and he always manages to push the conversation topic towards something he wants to talk about in such a way that Alyx doesn't even seem to notice it happening. Manipulating it in a way where he always ends up getting what he wants. A master manipulator.

-If a regular human being were to open It's briefcase, they'd find there's nothing in it. Whatever is in there is not for their eyes, so it simply does not appear.

[engeorged]

The Influencer : Milo

Words by @engeorged

Illustrations by @badoobers

Find the rest of my stories here

Milo was drifting in life. Now I’m his late twenties he hadn’t really found a purpose in life or a job that lasted for more than 6 months. He was more athletic than smart, but popular and always surrounded by people. He would do pretty much anything to gets a laugh. Setting fire to his farts was his specialty, guaranteed to bring the house down. Once nearly literally when he set fire to the curtains.

Never good enough to be captain but always good enough to be picked first for most things. He excelled in rugby due to his size and build. One thing he was head and shoulders above the rest at. Towering above most of this peers, by the time puberty have finished with him he was 6’6 and built like a house. He had broad shoulders with a physique to match. Thick arms and legs and an ass you might assume was some sort of joke prosthetic. Real country corn fed type with dirty blonde hair and usually some combination of darker facial hair.

When all his friends went off to university, he stayed behind to care for his father who was dying of a rather short lived and aggressive illness. This took him to a fairly dark and lonely place as he hit his twenties. He expected all his old friends to start drifting back to the town they grew up in but most were high flyers and weren’t interested in coming back to that small life. Ever the optimist Milo set about trying to find himself a career. He would try most things once. Hospitality didn’t really suit his bulking frame, knocking stuff over regularly with one of his large limbs. Being the size he was didn’t really suit nipping between tables either. Retail bored him and he rarely lasted a few weeks. Ballon modelling, catering, tree surgery, manual labour all came and went. Nothing really stuck. His life was spent between jobs crashing on sofas and living in his parents basement when that wasn’t an option.

His latest idea was to try and make it as a social media influencer. He was funny enough and decent looking enough to at least have a go but nothing he made seemed to go viral. There were a few times he thought he’d cracked it but his views never made it past the high hundreds. He was currently living above a pizza place in a shitty flat share and supporting himself with three jobs. Dog walking, delivering pizza flyers and a few days looking after some rich guys house whilst he was off round the world. Milo was coming to the sad realisation that he was just like every other washed up jock struggling to hold his shit together.

It was Friday evening and his employer Mr Gordon was away again. This time brokering a merger in Singapore or Shanghai or Seoul, something like that anyway. Milo was sat next to the pool drinking a beer, daydreaming of the day he would have his own house like this. He was in a bit of a funk and a little bit buzzed with the several beers he had downed on his empty stomach. As he brooded on his life he started a bit of a downward spiral. Eventually coming to the conclusion that he’d had enough. The influencer thing was dumb. Influencers were all ball sacks anyway, he wasn’t about that life.

Out of the blue last week he’d had a DM from a friend he’d not seen for years. Will had gotten married straight from college, as his cheerleader girlfriend got pregnant and Milo hadn’t really heard from him since. Apparently he now had a successful business in construction or logistics and after they were chatting he said he had a few entry level jobs going if he was interested. Milo had closed down the message at that point, but right now it was starting to look promising. The pay was ok and he would be trained on the job. Even if it meant a lifetime of desk work, maybe that kind of stability was just what he needed? As usual he couldn’t find his phone so he searched round for it and eventually found it in the footwell of his batteries pickup. Unlocking the screen, he began to go through and delete his five instagram accounts then his twitter handles. He’d leave Facebook as no one bothered with that any more anyway. However, as he opened his TikTok app he noticed a notification at the bottom of the screen. Opening it, his eyes widened, as he saw what was in the message. One of his videos in the last day had actually finally gone and done it. He’d gone viral. Quickly he scrolled through the notifications to work out which video it was and to his surprise it was a mukbang video he’d done a few weeks ago. He’d bought two kfc family buckets and had ploughed through them in half an hour. Chugging the soda at the end and showing everyone his swollen belly. It was a bit of a low point afterwards and he nearly deleted it as it made him feel a bit vulnerable. He was so glad he left it up there as now this might be his ticket to fame.

The video had amassed over 200,000 likes in just over 24 hours. Scrolling through the comments, there were people from all over the world commenting on how amazing the video was and how good he looked. Milo was a little surprised at how many thirsty comments on there. People commenting on how hot the video was and how hot it was to see his bloated belly at the end. They seemed to be impressed at how much he ate as well. He remembered at the time feeling a bit sick but he was a big guy. He was always capable to eating big. He was known for it with his three brothers who would always get a bit competitive over family meals. Especially at Christmas time when they would take bets on who could eat the most. Milo was pretty much the undefeated champion, even now his eldest brother Tom had gotten super fat.

There were hundreds of comments asking for more and demanding a live stream. Taking a moment to think, he came to the slow realisation that he was in a huge mansion with permission to eat anything he wanted. Mr Gordon wouldn’t even notice if he cleared the fridge which was always well stocked. He had already consumed a good dozen beers which was giving him a decent amount of Dutch courage. Dizzy with beer and ambition he hit the live button and headed to the kitchen. Several thoughts rushed through his head whilst he waited. The watcher count stayed at zero for 5 whole minutes. The adrenaline began to wear off and he started feeling embarrassed. Maybe he’d jumped the gun. Maybe he wasn’t destined for internet fame. Maybe the video going viral meant nothing. Just the victim of an algorithm. Then suddenly with a ping the counter went up to one. The lone watcher was typing . . .

🥵

Never had a single emoji made Milo feel so great. A few seconds later, a second ping happened, followed by a third. People were coming. Soon the watcher number began to rise and with an intake of breath Milo began talking. Moving round kitchen he showed the watchers what was in the fridge The beer and wine store was pretty stocked, so that was always an option but the general consensus was that they wanted him to eat not drink. Opening the double doors of the huge fridge revealed a world of options. Someone in the comments even asked him if he could eat the whole lot. To which he laughed and said ‘Maybe!’

In the end it was decided by the group, that he was to eat a load of leftovers from some party Mr Gordon had had a few days before. As soon as Milo started to pull the tubs out of the fridge he began to regret suggesting it. There was a lot of food. Two large tubs, a platter of entrees and a good two thirds of a huge chocolate and caramel cake covered in thick double cream. As he laid it all out on the Italian marble worktop he propped his phone up against the fancy fruit bowl. The watchers were up to 800 and still rising. Adrenaline pumping, Milo started stuffing his face. The comments were rolling in thick and fast. Too fast for him to read but as they rushed past he could see the people were loving it. Lots of little images were pinging up and AR lenses people started to be applying to him, making him look like a cowboy and then an alien and then a cute fluffy teddy bear which everyone agreed made him look adorable with.

As he shovelled in the rich canapés, he could feel his stomach begin to tighten. He wondered whether or not to say anything but the second he did the watcher went crazy for it! So he continued describing to the watchers everything that was happening to him, lifting his T-shirt to show them his slight curve as his thick abs began to rise. There were numbers and emojis flying all over his screen and he had no idea what any of them were but he was obviously smashing it. This gave him some momentum to plough through. The entire platter of entrees were now firmly inside his now gently curved stomach. As he finished the tray he lifted his shirt and showed everyone again, jokingly slamming the tray upside down on the counter.

Over the next hour he ate like he had never eaten before. The first run containing a selection of nibbles, including some of the best duck bao buns he’d ever seen. Every one was decorated to look like a cute little animal which the crowd watching especially enjoyed. After those he stated I inhaling some mini sliders and pulled pork blinis. He began to slow down a little as the tub began to empty and so, needing a little break, he stood and pulled his shirt completely off revealing his now substantially distended stomach. The comments were turning slightly feral as people were lapping it up this slab of a man, stuffing himself silly. Giving him instructions to rub it or push it out. There were a few weird vaguely sexual suggestions which he put out of his head for now. There was time to process that later. However, on the whole everyone was loving his engorged stomach. Who knew this was the thing would turn him into an influencer?

In the flurry of messages, one user was beginning to stand out. The messages he sent were in bold and a mustard yellow colour which made them stand out. Pausing the chat so he could try and read them, they came from user @fulltank87, who seemed to be offering some advice. The guy advised Milo to head to the fridge and grab a bottle of soda and chug it as fast as he could without belching and hold it for as long as he could whilst leaning to the right. He ran to the fridge and slowed down as his fullness hit him. Grabbing a 2 litre bottle of coke he lined up the shot and got ready. @fulltank87 gave one more instruction to push a straw into the neck of the bottle and push the end down the side. This came back to Milo as a cheap way of doing a beer bong. Rummaging through the cupboards he finally found a plastic straw and popped it inside the neck. Getting back into position so the audience could get the best view, he lifted the bottle to his lips and threw it back. The coke pushed down his throat fast nearly causing him to cough and choke but he managed to push through. Closing his eyes he concentrated on the heavy flow of the coke surging down into his already swollen gut. He had a way of relaxing his throat so he didn’t need to swallow which came back to him from his rugby party days. From the side the viewers got a perfect view of his thick adams apple bobbing up and down with the liquid and if you looked carefully you could see his stomach inching out a little further.

Toward the end the coldness of the cokeand the bubbles were hurting the back of his throat and he nearly had to stop, but he knew he could make it. With a loud roar he finished the whole thing and immediately felt sick. Remembering the suggestion, he leant to the right and tried to hold it but he could feel bubbles rushing up his nose. With another almighty roar he let out the biggest burp he had ever done. He could literally feel his belly going down as the gas escaped.

Instead of turning people off, this seemed to be the highlight of the live. Approval was pouring in from the now people watching, which now had reached 1k. The adoration and attention he was receiving, along with and the stretch provided by the coke gave him the momentum to keep going. Pulling open the second tub he found a whole load of chicken wings which were his all time favourite. There must have been at least thirty of them. He teased the load to the watching crowd who responded with more of the same reaction. Looking down at his stomach he was a little scared. He wasn’t this big when he did the kfc mukbang video. He’d seen his belly like this before at family gatherings but looking at how much food was left he would definitely be pushing his limit.

Milo decided to tell the live stream exactly how he was feeling, hoping it would endear him to people. He showed them how swollen stomach was, running his hand across is distended bulge. He was feeling an awful lot of pressure just under his ribs which he half remembered was where his stomach was. Obviously, tips and comments poured in from that point. People telling him how to eat, what angle to eat at, the speed at which he should eat them. Overwhelmed, he found a way to filter just @fulltank87’s comments, who was calmly explaining to him how he just needed to simply keep a fast pace up and rhythmically start eating. So Milo did just that. He got into a rhythm of breaking the wing and stripping the meat off with his teeth and sucking the succulent flesh off of it. Whilst he chewed it and swallowed, he prepped the next wing. Ignoring the pressure building up inside him he ploughed through and within 15 minutes the tub was empty. Standing again he proudly displayed his swollen belly. It was now much more pronounced. Making his long torso, oval as it swelled. Giving time for some audience interaction would be a good move to let him have a little breather. Rubbing his furry stomach and arching his back for emphasis he showed off the results of his feasting.

Milo was beginning to feel as if he wasn’t able to eat any more when he glanced at the watchers. He was up to 1.2k which was insane. He needed to finish this for the people watching. Plus, if he could finish this challenge he could definitely build a whole career out of this. The only thing left in the counter was the large cake. The only way he was doing this was to totally ignore the uncomfortable feeling of his belly pushing against the counter. This was possible. The end was in sight. And that end was 4000 calories of rich cake. Spurred on by the encouragements, Milo found the largest spoon he could find and stood up for this final lap. There was nothing for it but to undo the top button on his shorts which popped satisfyingly. He felt his stomach relax as it filled the space vacated. This also had the unfortunate impact of sliding his zipper all the way down. Panicking, he checked his phone screen and thankfully today was not a day when he had chosen to go commando.

Determined to finish this he hefted a large spoon full of the cake and pushed it into his mouth. The cake was unbelievable. The cake was light and fluffy with bitter dark chocolate ganache through it. The sweet salted caramel sauce filled his tastebuds with electricity. All offset but the light but heavy whipped cream. The cake was perfection. Pushing on he crammed more and more of the cake into his mouth, cream and chocolate smeared all over his face. He was beginning to loose himself in the tastes that were filling his brain, almost numb to the building swell of his stomach. The viewers going wild in the comments. Urging him to finish his challenge. Milo had an almost out of body experience where he was watching himself eat on his phone. On the screen, his stomach was comically distended, curving up from the gaping v of his fly. His neatly trimmed stomach hair covered in grease from the food on his hands as he had rubbed his distended gut. In a dream-like state he watched himself finish the cake. The whole thing now concealed inside his hugely bloated stomach. Comments and congratulations from all the watchers were streaming in as he stood face on to the camera breathing heavily. Belching under his breath he assured them he would be back and leant forward and turned the live stream off.

The silence in the kitchen was deafening. The only sounds he could hear were the faint gurgle of his stomach digesting the huge quantity of food and his own heart, beating in his ears.

Looking down his normally flat stomach was arched out from his body. He felt utterly packed full. He just about managed to make it to the shower where he stripped off and got in underneath the rainfall setting. The warm water soothing his massively swollen dome of a gut. He couldn’t even really move. He just allowed the soothing water to wash off the evidence gluttony. As he stood there with his eyes closed his thoughts turned to what he might do next.

Find Part Two here

[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.

[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!

[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 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

[contemplatingoutlander]

In this column, Charles Blow provides the historical context for Juneteenth, and the continuously "evolving" struggle for "freedom" for Black people in the U.S. This is a gift🎁link, so anyone can read this entire column even if they don't subscribe to the NY Times. Below are some excerpts:

Last week at a Juneteenth concert on the South Lawn of the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris said that on June 19, 1865, after Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, “The enslaved people of Texas learned they were free.” On that day, she said, “they claimed their freedom.” [...] Although it’s a mark of progress to commemorate the end of American slavery, it’s imperative that we continue to underscore the myriad ways in which Black freedom was restricted long after that first Juneteenth. [...] Most Black people couldn’t claim their freedom on June 19, 1865, because their bodies (and their free will) were still being policed to nearly the same degree and with the same inveterate racism that Southern whites had aimed at them during slavery. The laws governing the formerly enslaved “were very restrictive in terms of where they could go, what kind of jobs they could have, where they could live in certain communities,” said Daina Ramey Berry... the author of “The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, From Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation.” [...] Upon arrival in Galveston, the Union general Gordon Granger delivered General Order No. 3, which said “the connection heretofore existing” between “former masters and slaves” would become “that between employer and hired labor” and that “freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages.” The order also had a curious stipulation: that freedmen would “not be supported in idleness.” [...] A notice from Granger published days later in The Galveston Daily News informed the public that “no persons formerly slaves will be permitted to travel on the public thoroughfares without passes or permits from their employers.” In other words, white people would still dictate where Black people could be. In 1866, a Texas state constitutional convention adopted the state’s Black Codes, codifying suffocating limits on Black autonomy. As the Texas State Library and Archives Commission describes these laws:

In this way, the codes “outlined a status for African Americans not too much removed from their earlier condition as slaves.” Beyond this, for Black people in the 1870s, being a convict in Texas essentially meant relegation to enslavement, because that was when the state’s convict leasing program took off. [...] The question of labor is at the core of how we must understand emancipation and Reconstruction because American slavery, an entire capitalist system representing billions of dollars in wealth, was built on free Black labor, was brought to its knees and would have to be propped up; newly freed Black people were fed back to the machine to keep it running. [...] As Corey Walker, the director of the program in African American studies at Wake Forest University, emphasizes, the idea of freedom, particularly for Black people in this country, is continuously being negotiated and contested, so “Juneteenth marks a moment in the ever-evolving and expanding project of American democracy.” “It is,” he said, “a project that is never complete. It is never fulfilled, even at the moment of Juneteenth. And it’s one that is ever evolving to this day.” [emphasis added]

[tanoraqui]

thinking about my tags on this post, I'm pretty sure the best way to do an au in which Team Tadpole forms without tadpoles, pre-tadpoles, because Wyll keeps heroically saving the day partly by befriending at least one key henchperson per major enemy...is if Ulder disowned him rather than exiling him, so Wyll became the Batman Blade of the Gate. Living in the shadows, stubbornly alone, helping the people who even the Flaming Fists can't, or won't... He has a firm principle of only killing "monsters", so for pettier criminals, he usually sends them walking up to the nearest officer of the peace with a friendly Suggestion that they turn themselves in for their crimes. This makes Ulder's teeth grind like coffee beans. Their dynamic isn't so much Batman & Gordon as Spiderman & J. Jonah Jameson.

All that really needs to happen for him to pick up Shadowheart as a sidekick is for one person to ask the Blade for help because the Sharrans stole their child/are aggressively cult-recruiting their friend/other typical dubious Sharran thing; and then he unravels that whole temple like a ball of yarn - or at least, enough that Shadowheart leaves and becomes local secondary superhero...the Pale Priestess? the White Wolf? (In this house we stan werewolf!Shadowheart!)

Then the Blade notices a barely-noticeable pattern of disappearances that's been going on for over 200 years, and the bloody trail leads right to Szarr Mansion...

(Wyll does not deal with the slightly-under-7,000 vampire spawn in the basement. The Blade leaves a note for the Flaming Fists and their ducal commander, along with a pile of evidence of Cazadar Szarr's crimes, and a pile of dust that was once a vampire lord.)

(Possibly this attracts Raphael's attention, because it was a loss for Mephistopheles? Raphael would be almost as good a comic books-esque recurring villain as Bhaal cultists.)

Gale somehow becomes their Guy in the Chair - still living in Waterdeep, mind you; he communicates mostly via Scrying, Sending, etc. Typical archwizard aloofness. Until The Incident, in response to which maybe he asks the others to get him books from Sorcerous Sundries, which leads to Lorroakan turning himself over to the Fists :) on charges of Apprentice Abuse [I'm sure Rolan wasn't the first] and general Being The Worst.

All throughout this Wyll is angstily - while acting the confident, ever-optimistic hero - refusing to talk about how he has devilish magic or why he Needs to leave the city to go kill a random specific devil/demon/other monster once a month. His friends know he made a pact and that's it. They offer to help. Wyll refuses lest Mizora make his life and theirs a living hell.

They start looking into Enver Gortash and his numerous sketchy dealings. In this AU, too, the Blade tracks Karlach down through the battlefields of Avernus...to ask her some questions about her former employer. He doesn't have much hope for answers from a notorious battle-devil, but it's their only lead...

But then she's Karlach, so he offers to help her escape instead. They're nearly out - or they are out? - when Mizora appears and orders Wyll to stand down. Wyll does not stand down. Karlach tries to behead her, so Mizora leaves him alone...for a little while. She catches him alone later, back at his base, and drags his soul through the fires of hell and turns him into a devil.

They ally with Orin, possibly unknowingly, to attack the Bhaalspawn leader of the Cult of Bhaal! She betrays them, right after murdering her kin!

[insert something here that's like speedrunning the whole plot but backwards]

Lae'zel shows up at some point, bleeding and halfway through her own character arc which she's been doing solo, having been snatched and tadpoled, killed a Sharran to regain the Prism, nearly killed by her own people for being tadpoled, regained the Prism via a lot of murder... She's now on the run from pretty much everyone but she's determined to re-prove herself to...somebody...by singlehandedly killing the Netherbrain.

(She tries to kill our heroes because she assumes they've been tadpoled.)

Wyll breaks his pact for good and is willing to go down fighting for his city even without any powers; then Ansur with his final-for-real-this-time dying breath gives Wyll draconic magic, so he can be the sorcerous Dragon of the Gate.

Epilogue: the Heroes of Baldur's Gate answer a call for help from their neighbors in the Reclaimed Lands to deal with all the ex-cultist goblins who've still been running around kidnapping and, idk, eating people since the Netherbrain was destroyed. They arrive to find that the goblins are already being bloodily Dealt With...by an amnesiac Dark Urge, who isn't actually being very bloody about it at all by their typical standards, and who has no memory of anything before like a month ago.

Everyone points weapons at them except Wyll, who insists that if they've truly reverted to ignorant innocence, then they should have a second chance, to mend their ways and help fix what they broke in the world. This is, fundamentally, a group wherein a bunch of morally dubious assholes (except Karlach, who's an angel and we're delighted she's here) outsource their moral compasses to Wyll; and honestly it's not like this is surprising behavior from him, so...welcome to the team!