#oc: miranda van dijk

[femur-bandit]

Half Life OC stories

Chapter 1: Point output

Content warning for blood, injuries, and self harm. Word count: 2201 Chapter under the cut!

The group of four kept a steady pace, trying to get out of City 17 territory, away from the fight. The uprising had come suddenly, and they had gotten lucky, coming across fellow combine dissenters who were all trying to flee the City. They didn’t know if there were others, but they didn’t have time to stop and look. Every moment spent standing around was a moment where rebels could attack and possibly kill them, so they had to keep moving. 

They had now reached an area that was unsupervised, where the buildings were empty, and there were more open spaces, getting close to the edge of the City. Almost out, almost safe. Everyone was quiet, straining their ears and keeping an eye out for stray rebels or CPs. All they could hear were their footsteps, boots walking over unkempt plant growth and bricks, and distant gunfire. Miranda, however, who was the only one keeping her helmet on, noticed a small sound being picked up by her microphones, and came to a stop, turning towards where she thought it had come from. Mindlessly, she slowly stepped towards the doorway of a house that no longer had a door, carefully listening for any other noises. The group moved on, not having noticed she was no longer following.

Suddenly, something shuffled from inside the building, making her perk up. Before she got closer and went inside, she realized she probably shouldn’t be doing this. She should get back to the group, before they start looking for her. She certainly shouldn’t burden them more.  Making up her mind, she turned around and started walking away. Until- THWACK! Something hit her on the side of her head, throwing her to the ground. Disoriented and in pain, she tried to get up, but was stopped right in her tracks when she got hit again, forcing her onto her back. She could barely make out the sounds of a person huffing and grunting, when she got hit again, the force and weight of the object making her mask crack.

A cry garbled by a CP mask rang out not too far away, and the three came to a sudden halt, heads snapping towards the source of the noise. It only took Avery a second to realize Miranda, who was apparently not with the group anymore, was the one making the noise. “Crap.” She hissed, and ran past the two men who had been following her lead, quickly making her way to their missing member, the others not far behind. Arriving at the scene, they discovered a dishevelled looking person bashing in the face of Miranda with a metal rod. 

“Hey, stop that!” Avery said, advancing towards the attacker, who only now noticed the three new people. Before she could get much closer, they dropped the rod and scurried away, being outnumbered and not wanting to deal with that. With the threat gone, Avery hurried over to the hurt woman and dropped to her knees, assessing the damage. “Hey, hey, are you still there?” She said gently, very worried about her state. Miranda laid still, her mask mostly shattered, pieces of the hard material jutting out between gaps, embedded into her face, and blood was visible under all of the mess. It made Avery’s throat tighten. “I- I can’t-” Miranda panted, her voice sounding twice, once through her voice changer, and once through her open mask.

Avery looked behind her at Philip, who had been watching the interaction with his arms crossed and an unreadable expression on his face, surprised to suddenly have eyes on him. “Help me get her up, we have to get her out of here so I can treat her face.” While Avery carefully made Miranda sit up, Philip walked over, and together, one on each side, hoisted her onto her feet. Her head lolled forward, loose helmet shards falling to the floor, along with a few droplets of blood. Testing, Avery took a step, and another, Philip following her lead, Miranda shambling forward. Seeing that she could still walk, Avery made eye contact with Vick, who had been fumbling with his gloves and was waiting in the most unrelaxed manner known to man. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Not too long after they resumed their trek, albeit at a slower pace, Miranda started talking in broken sentences to no one in particular. It sounded like nonsense to everyone around her, although it seemed that she sometimes spoke in a language none of the others could recognize or understand, and the nasally quality Miranda’s voice had gained had become apparent as well. After a minute or two of listening to her aimlessly ramble at irregular intervals, Philip scoffed, annoyed. “Can’t you be quiet?” He hissed. “She’s making us very easy to find if she keeps talking like this.” Vick followed up, tensely scanning their surroundings. Avery briefly pressed her lips together. He was right. “I’m pretty sure she’s got a concussion. Just keep an eye out, we’re almost out of the City. Look.”

They had already passed the last gates a while back, abandoned by the Combine. There were not many buildings left to pass, and visible between them was a field, with a forest further back. Philip frowned at the view. They continued in silence, putting Miranda’s occasional talking aside. Reaching and crossing the field felt weird, none of them having been in contact with this much nature for a long, long time. The grass and earth felt soft underfoot, the four of them creating a gentle symphony of rustling as they passed through the previously unstirred blanket of green. Bugs flew and jumped as their temporary resting places got disturbed. Miranda had fallen silent, the change in scenery noticeable even to her. There were scents, long forgotten, hanging in the air, but they could not pause and enjoy any of it, not yet.

As they passed the first few trees, everything changed again, the grass thinning as it made way for a floor of pine needles and dead leaves, ferns and bushes obscuring their path. Once they were deep enough into the forest to have the trees hide them, Avery came to a stop, halting the group. She looked around, and stepped towards a thick tree together with Philip and Miranda. “Let’s have you sit down, and I’ll take a look at you.” Avery said, lowering and sitting the injured woman down at the base of the tree. No longer having to support her, Philip stepped away, staring into the woods, and then looking back at the City with a dark look on his face.

Mentally preparing herself to deal with the unpleasant, Avery kneeled. After briefly casting a glance at Miranda’s face, she carefully removed the lower part of the mask that contained the air filter and radio, and then the part on the back of the head, discarding them on the ground. Time to get down to business. Miranda’s face looked horrible. Genuinely horrible. Plastic and glass shards were embedded into her skin all over, and her eyes were not spared of this fate. Her nose was broken, a thin but solid line of blood trickling down her lips and chin, along with the blood coming out of all the broken parts of skin, slowly dripping down her face. Some areas were swollen and bruised.

Avery reached out, having stared for long enough, and grabbed a shard, pulling it out of Miranda’s skin, making her gasp, which in turn made Avery wince. “Sorry, but I have to get these out.” She apologized, dropping the piece she had in her hand. The commotion got Philip’s attention, and he started watching the scene, crossing his arms. One by one, the pieces of mask got removed, until all that was left were open cuts and gashes. Diverting her gaze, Avery looked at different parts of her uniform. “I need… Hm.” She mumbled to herself, eyes landing on her armband. No, that would not work as bandaging.

What else was she wearing that could cover the wounds and slow the flow of blood? Ah! Right, the standard Civil Protection shirt. Without warning, she started undressing herself, taking off her gloves, pulling her vest over her head, and zipping her uniform open. Both Vick and Philip were confused by this, briefly making eye contact before looking back at the two women. After taking off her shirt as well, she was left with an almost completely bare upper body, having left her sports bra on.

The garment in her hands was a pale grey, with the Combine logo printed on the back. It was what most Civil Protection units wore while out of uniform, and what could be worn under uniform as well. Avery switched her gaze between the shirt and Miranda while she thought, figuring out how to wrap it around Miranda’s injuries and keep it on her head. Once Avery made up her mind, she folded the shirt in half horizontally, with the lower half in the back, and the upper part in the front, and applied it to the wounds.

She then gently tilted Miranda’s head while keeping the shirt in her hands, and tied up the sleeves behind her head. Miranda let out a hum when the fabric made contact with her face, and moaned in pain when it got tightened to keep it in place. “Sorry.” Avery apologized again, sighing afterwards. “I covered your face, which should do, for now.” She waited for Miranda to reply, but the woman stayed silent. She hadn’t heard her, or didn’t have anything to say. Avery didn’t mind either way. “Alright, let’s discuss what to do next.” She said, putting her clothes back on and standing up, turning towards the two men.

Being brought back to the reality of their situation, Philip frowned again. “Well, we can’t go back to the City. Or the Combine, for that matter. While I’m sure they would love to accept units unwilling to die for their cause back into their warm and caring arms, I don’t want to deal with the situation that’s going on.” Vick had his hair tightly grasped in his fists, causing himself pain, and was staring at nothing. “They’re not going to come after us, are they?” He said, breathing shakily. “I don’t think so, the rebels fighting them are a much higher priority to the Combine compared to, you know, the four of us. We’ll be fine in that regard.” Avery replied.

“But what about the rebels? We were part of the Combine, they’re not going to like that-” Vick tightened the grip on his hair and hunched over slightly, his breathing speeding up. Seeing that he wasn’t calming down, Avery got worried. “I’m sure they’ll understand that we won’t bother them, really…” Philip clenched his jaw and sighed in frustration. “Calm down, panicking like that is not helping.” He snapped at the other man, and Avery glanced at Philip, before looking back at Vick, speaking calmly. “Look, none of us are wearing our masks, and we’re outside of City territory. We don’t look like ordinary Civil Protection units, we have no connection with Overwatch, and we won’t attack anyone unprovoked. Rebels should realize we’re no threat, and attacking us would be a waste of their efforts.”

There was silence for a moment, Vick breathing hard, until he went quiet and started hitting himself on his head with his fists in unison, letting out small grunts with each impact. Avery and Philip watched, one uncertain what to do, and the other too surprised and uncaring to want to think of what to do. But when Avery finally decided to at least try to do something, Vick stopped, resting his fists on his head, and then dropping his arms to his sides. He huffed a few times, straightening himself back up, and glancing at the two watching him before averting his gaze, embarrassed. “Are… you okay?” Avery asked.

Vick somewhat turned his head towards her, but kept his eyes on the ground, not doing anything else. “Good enough.” Philip mumbled, and looked at Avery. “So, where are we going to go? We can’t stand around here all day.” He said, speaking at a normal volume again. Avery got a thoughtful look on her face, and gazed around. “I suppose we travel until we find a place to stay. That might take a while though, so we should be prepared to gather food and rest in the open for the time being.” Miranda, who was still sitting at the base of the tree, caught her eye. “And we’ll have to take turns supporting her until she’s good enough to walk on her own.”

Nobody felt enthusiastic about the plan, but they didn’t have any other choice. It was all too sudden, being ripped, freed, from their lives working under the Combine, forced out of the City. A certain Anticitizen One had caused such a large stir that it made way for a rebellion to rise and fight back in a major City. What it meant for their futures, they didn’t know. All they could do was move forward and leave their previous lives behind.

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Chad and Lewis (first drawing on the left) belong to @ravenekrops

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the van Dijk family, around the time of half life 2

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Reasons why the ex cps became cps, and how they ended up leaving the combine

Avery joined civil protection to have something more to eat than measly weekly rations, thinking she only had to stand around and watch citizens. She quickly realised this was false however, and started regretting her decision, but made the best of her situation, helping out citizens whenever she could.

Miranda was forced into civil protection when a particularly mean cp threatened to seriously harm her children, unless she were to join civil protection. She did it, and being a cp made her mental health much worse. She never tried to find a way out of being a cp, too hurt by the situation she was in and generally feeling hopeless.

Vick is a very paranoid person, and was constantly scared to be breaking some invisible rule as a citizen, scared to be hurt for no reason. He joined civil protection in the hopes to be safer, and while he no longer had to worry about getting hurt after joining, he had to make sure he didn't mess up the other set of rules he now had to follow, still very anxious in his daily life as a cp.

Philip was sick and tired of living a sad citizen life, and wanted to be on the better side of this whole fight. He ended up enjoying hurting citizens a bit too much, and he later considers his time as a cp the best time of life.

The four of them found each other during the uprising, Avery, Miranda and Vick not wanting to fight the rebels, and Philip not wanting to be a part of a losing fight. They grouped up and left City 17 together, travelling until they found an abandoned house in the forest, making that place a home for the four of them. They lived by hunting and foraging, until they were found three months later by rebels from White Forest, who brought them to the base to keep an eye on them.

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OC introduction: Lucian van Dijk

At age twenty, while she was in City 17, she started to get fed up with citizen life, and started exploring the nooks and crannies of the city, getting into places she was not meant to be. Eventually, she found a houndeye, who was stuck between buildings, and Lucian came to him most days to feed him pieces of ration bar and bugs she had caught. She named him Ster (meaning star in dutch).

Story:

Born three months before the seven hour war, Lucian was a part of a family with one mother (Miranda), one sister (Merel), and one brother (Johan). They lived in the Netherlands, but were moved across europe once the combine started occupying the earth. They managed to stay together for years, until first Johan was moved away, then Miranda was pressured into becoming a CP, and finally Merel and Lucian got seperated. She did get along with other citizens, but less so than when she was younger and with her family.

However, one time when exploring the abandoned part of the cuty, she came across a headcrab zombie, who attacked her, slashing her face and giving her those memorable scars. Citizens she lived with told her to stop exploring after they saw her injuries. Instead of doing so, she instead decided to escape the city with Ster, to look for her family in the wilderness. The most she had seen of scenery like that was during train rides, zooming past through the windows.

Underweight and malnourished from having to survive with little to no survival skills left her spending a lot of her days in the infirmary. Recovering was not too hard, but she did struggle with insomnia, the nights she had spent in the forest awake and scared of being attacked wrecking her sleeping schedule. The trauma from nearly dying from both the hunter and her lack of survival skills bothered her a lot too, but safe in the base, surrounded by people, she could slowly get better.

She ended up in the forest, and not too long after, just a few days, she and Ster were attacked by a loose hunter, which gravely injured her. Barely alive, she dragged herself over to a house, where she spent a number of days recovering, while Ster hunted for the both of them. Lucian took the clothing she found in the house, and once she was well enough she went out into the forest again, still searching.

Three months of surviving later, some days after the uprising, they found the White Forest base, and they were taken in. Arne Magnusson was not pleased with having a houndeye being brought into the base, but Lucian stood her ground and argued until Magnusson agreed to let Ster stay.

Personality:

Incredibly stubborn and determined. Her willpower can keep her going past her limits. Curious. Likes being around people, but not necessarily interacting, is content quietly sitting near others.

Green brown eyes. A big nose and a big chin. Brown hair at shoulder length with white streaks. Fair skin. Two scars on the left side of her face.

Appearance (as of her stay in White Forest):

Random facts:

- When she was a little, old enough to move around on her own, she tried to eat whatever bugs she came across. Miranda tried to stop her, but didn't always succeed.

- She often spent time stargazing and looking at the animals in any given city.

- She loves hearing music, but hearing people sing even more so. She'll drop what she's doing and sit and listen for the whole time someone's singing.

- During her escape from the city, she came across a dead CP, and stole their boots.

- Had many hallucinations during her stay in the forest, mostly due to a lack of sleep, but also from eating toxic plants.

- She likes carving little wooden figurines, and carves people she likes, later gifting them the figurine she had made.

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Avery taking shards of helmet out of Miranda’s face and eyes, after escaping the city during the uprising, with Willow, Aiden (both belonging to @featheredcritter), and Vick in the background.

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art from a few months ago that I posted but didn’t like how it was formatted so here it is again with a less shitty background

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Open for digital art commissions! (I don't have a ref sheet atm) DM if interested, we can work out prices together (5-50 euro range) I'm open to recieving storyteller saturday asks! STS related OC list under the cut, I have a lot of guys haha

Non half life OCs/versions first, as the half life OC list is very long - Altar, it/its/doesn't care (torture demon story) - Lieze, she/her (horror story) - yet to be named man, he/him (horror story) - Kid, they/them (monster world) - Noctiel (still need to rename him), he/him (monster world) - Sky, they/them (borrower world) - Sophian Schildt, she/her (superpower world) - Liselott, she/they (superpower world) - Thies, they/them (superpower world) - Lily and Delta, she/her and they/them (science experiment story) - Jul-Fek, they/them (the canon elder scrolls world) - James, he/they (AU of the guardians of ga'hoole world) - Savannah, they/them (AU of the guardians of ga'hoole world) The half life gang (from the half life game series), sorted into groups (these groups are not static and do change over time as the story progresses). Important note: I have had some of these half life OCs for over five years, and there are posts about them on this blog going as far back to around the end of 2019. I remember privating some posts in the past, but a lot will still be visible. Anything posted before January 2025 is highly likely to be OOC or no longer canon in some way. Keep this in mind when scrolling through my blog. The van Dijk siblings: - Lucian van Dijk, she/her/doesn't care - Johannes "Johan" van Dijk, he/him - Merel van Dijk, she/her White Forest rebels: - Rick Brown, he/him - Michelle Laurent, he/him - Keith Fumer, they/them - Diniz Amaro, they/them - Sasha Lytvynenko, she/her - Odalis Lytvynenko, she/her Storage outpost rebels: - Sandra Fumer, she/her - Michael, he/him City 17 ex CPs: - Miranda van Dijk, she/her - Avery Brooks, she/her - Philip, he/him - Vick, he/him Aperture experiment: - Lily and Delta, she/her and they/them ??? not sure yet: - Sophian Schildt, she/her - Liselott, she/they - Sky, they/them Almost everyone here has a normal society version (world that is practically the same to ours with nothing special or supernatural).