Universe Unspooled (14369 words) by Antilocapra
Chapters: 3/?
Fandom: Iron Lung (2026), Project Hail Mary (2026)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung) & Ryland Grace, Ryland Grace & Rocky
Characters: Ryland Grace, Rocky (Project Hail Mary), The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung)
Additional Tags: In Space With Markiplier - Freeform, Dimension Travel, Blood and Injury, Swearing, Fix-It, Invincible II (In Space with Markiplier), mentioned - Freeform, timey-wimey weirdness, Vomiting, Illness, Hiding Injuries
Summary:
Simon swivels to face the rear of the sub and nearly chokes. The camera control panel is gone. The wall that replaces it is twice the distance away that it should be and cluttered with netting bags and some kind of glass-paneled construction. The wall is brightly lit, and lines that seem to run the length of it are at a diagonal intersection with the floor panels under Simon's feet.
Has he crashed into the SM-8 somehow? Or did the dropship pick him up when he was submerged in blood in the crawlspace? That would make things a hell of a lot easier, and explain why the engine isn't running anymore.
But no â the depth gauge was still firmly in the red when he just looked at it. Simon risks a glance over his shoulder to confirm, and notes that the oxygen meter has all four lights lit up. That must mean heâs on the COI dropshipâŠright?
âHello? Is anyone â oh!â A voice speaks, and Simon moves.
Iron Lung crossover with Project Hail Mary via In Space With Markiplier (specifically, the wormhole).
Chapter three is up and the previous chapter count is out the window. I don't know how long this thing is going to be, but I'm having fun.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Gordon Freeman was a normal man. He worked at Black Mesa as a level four scientist â the second to lowest in terms of priority. He essentially worked as an intern, but he didn't mind all that much. The work was easy, and it kept him busy. His wage wasn't⊠great, but he took the deal where he would get free housing at the work site. No mortgage or water bills, no utilities, nothing. So his meager wage was actually livable.Â
So, after a sixteen hour shift (remind him to never fill in for Casey again â a couple hours his ass, the fucker never even showed up), Gordon was fucking exhausted.
He is walking down the halls of Black Mesa, heading over to the dorms where all the low level employees lived. On his way back to his dorm, he feels eyes on him, like he was being watched. Gordon glances behind himself, and notices a guard behind him, going the same way.
The outfit was typical of a level one guard. Gordon immediately feels anxiety build up in his chest, but he shakes it off. The guard⊠is probably just going to meet up with a friend, or something. Gordon shook his head. No need to get all worked up for something that wasn't about him.
He glances to the side, and the guard is just staring at him. He gulps, immediately averting his eyes. It'sâ It's probably just because he's the only one in this hallway. Yeah, that'sâ that's probably it.
Either way, it's not something Gordon needs to think about. He's had a very long, and tiring day, and he just wants to get home, collapse onto his shitty twin-sized mattress, and pass out for the next eight to twelve hours.
But, of course, nothing ever wants to go Gordon's way.
As he is fishing for his keys in his backpack, he hears footsteps approaching him. A quick look over his shoulder shows it's the level one guard approaching, and Gordon can feel his palms start to sweat. "Evening, officier," Gordon greets, digging as fast as he could through his bag. Why does he always carry so much random shit with him? "Is there anything I can help with?"
The guard doesn't reply as he reaches into his pocket. "It's nothing personal, really," the guard says, stepping closer to Gordon. Before he even has a second to react, the guard's hand is over his mouth, and he feels a small prick on the side of his neck. "Just bad timing."
Gordon thrashes as soon as the prick happens. He kicks his legs out, hands balling into fists to hit the guard. But it was too late â whatever he just got drugged with works fast, and he could already feel the strength leaving him. The guard says something else he doesn't pick up as his limbs go heavy, and Gordon could feel their hands under his arms. His vision darkens, and Gordon Freeman goes unconscious.Â
All of this to say, what the fuck.
He opens his eyes, and something indescribable was in front of him. Abstract shapes moving through each other like they werenât physical, bright colors flashing and blinding him. He scrambled wherever he could to get away, and in just a blink it was gone. Instead stood what looked like a regular guy â a low level security guard. But their eyes practically were glowing a bright, piercing yellow under the shadow of the helmet.
âWhat the fuck?!â Gordonâs heart was racing in his chest.Â
âoh,â they say, staring at him. âyouâre alive.â
The person â thing? â in front of him sat down, knees crossed as their fingers drummed against their knees. Gordon, on the other hand, was scrambled into a corner, putting as much distance between himself and the creature in here. He was thoroughly freaking out. âWhat the fuck is happening?? What are you?â
âthatâs rude,â the thing says, their voice monotone. âsânot like iâm askinâ what you are.â
âBecause Iâm a fucking human!â Gordon snaps, even though he should definitely not be angering the thing in front of him, no matter how human it looked, "everyone is a human!"
"'m not human," the thing in front of him replies quietly, and Gordon holds back a scream. He knew that! Humans don't do whatever the fuck he saw!
"Okay â Okay, I fuckingâ I knew that," Gordon hissed, running a hand through his hair. "Do youâ what the hell's going on?"
"they brought you here," they reply, "but you're alive so i can't eat you."
I'm sorry, what?! "You were going to fucking eat me?"
"s'not a big deal," the thing has the audacity to say. "no one's judging you for eating meat. mr⊠judgemental. man."
"People aren't eaten! People don't fucking eat people!" Gordon hisses, hand gripping his hair. "Soâ fuck. Theyâ The fucking scientists brought me to feed you? Have they done that before??"
"oh yeah," they say without hesitating, as if this isn't a massive deal. As if the people that had gone missing weren't feeding his co-workers â his friends â to this fucking thing! "they're normally, uh⊠not alive. though."
Okay. Okay, this is fucking awful. Gordon's going to be fucking killed here by whatever this creature is, after only learning what's been happening to the other missing people. Fuck, Gordon's just going to be a missing person now. He'sâ He has friends. He fuckingâ He had people who cared about him! He has a fucking pet goldfish in his dorm, but it's going to fucking starve to death now because Gordon's getting fucking fed to this fucking demon thing.
"woah, hey, it's ok," the creature says, taking a step towards Gordon. He snarls his teeth at the thing like a wild animal, all of his instincts telling him to not be near this thing. They back up, hands in the air as they sit against the opposing wall. "uh. not gonna hurt you."
Like he's gonna fucking believe that. He said it themself â Gordon was brought here as nothing more than a fucking meal for this thingâ Gordon wasn't going to believe a word it said. No matter how fucking human they want to look like. Fucking hell â it was about to fucking eat Gordon if he didn't wake up when he did!Â
He knew he was starting to spiral. His thoughts kept circling back on themself, repeating the same worries and fears as his hands pulled on his hair, the pain keeping him somewhat grounded. The creature was talking again, and he really should be paying attention in case they decided to attack or something, yet everything sounded too loud and he couldn't focus on anything.
He jumps as something lands on his shoulder. "do you have your, uh.. passport?"
"What?" Gordon's eyes snapped up to the thing, the random question snapping him out of his thoughts. "Myâ My passport?"
"yeah," they respond, "how else, uh⊠how else 'm i gonna know if you're good or not?"
"What?" A laugh sputters out of Gordon. "Whyâ Why would I have a passport?"
"y'know," they say, without elaborating.
Gordon lets out a small breath. "Please just⊠just give me anything to work with, man," he says, gently taking their hand off of his shoulder and putting it down. "If you're gonnaâ eat me or whatever, just do it now."
"whuh?" They blink. "why would i do that?"
"Itâ You literally said that's why they fucking kidnapped me, man!"Â
"nuh uh." They back up, leaning against the opposite wall again. The cell â container, thingâ it wasn't very big at all. It looked just a bit bigger than his dorm, although there was a glass wall dividing the room in half. Now that Gordon's looking, he could only see a small cot in the corner next to where the creature sat currently, along with a single toilet and sink. There was⊠quite literally nothing else in the room. On the other side of the glass was a pile of bags and purses in a pile, and if he quints, he could see his own bag on top of everything, thrown off to be discarded. Then, on the closest wall to the cot, was a heavy metal door that must lead into⊠somewhere, where the high level scientists could come in. Gordon shivers at the idea of them walking in and just⊠watching him. "what's your name? friend?"
Now it's Gordon's turn to blink at the thing in confusion. Friend? Where did they pick that up from? "Uh. It's Gordon â Gordon Freeman."
They bark out a laugh, a loud, jarring thing. "more like gordon cellman. gordon trappedman."
This really wasn't how Gordon's night was supposed to go. He runs a hand down his face, sighing. "Sure, man. What's your name?"
"'s benrey," the thing â Benrey â says. They don't say anything more, seemingly focused on a loose thread on their vest. Gordon takes this time to justâ fucking think. He was meant to be fed to Benrey. But they didn't eat him, for some reason? Because he was fuckin' alive?
But there is no way he's making this out alive. Either Benrey will get hungry, and actually fucking eat Gordon â or another Black Mesa scientist will walk in, and just shoot him. Keep him silent through his death. And fuck, man â he had so much he wanted to do. He didn't want to fucking die.
â â â
Gordon is resting on the bed, eyes closed as he's just trying to⊠relax isn't the proper word here, but he's not quite sure what to replace it with. He and Benrey had⊠talked, for a while? And they said they weren't going to.. eat him (something about humans being scary? For some reason?? It's not like he's stuck in a cell with whatever 'Benrey' is), and so he was laying down on the cot.
Last Gordon knew, Benrey was sitting on the ground next to him. They said they prefer it â saying it reminded them of home, which Gordon decided to ignore and file away, and not think about it. Either way, Benrey was either sitting or laying on the ground on the other side of the small, twin-sized cot attached to the longer wall. He's drifting in and out of sleep, and his mind is filtering out every sound he hears.Â
A loud, guttural growl causes Gordon to shoot upright, heart racing. He was facing the wall, his back to Benrey (God why did he do that?), and by the time he scrambles around to defend himself, it was too late.
Benrey is abstract. Their face is split open once more, the dozens of shapes clipping through each other in a way that makes his head hurt. But they're facing away from him, and Gordon's mind finally catches up with his ears as he hears Benrey growling at someone.Â
"â and we're best friends, so you can't hurt him, 'cuz we're gonna play heavenly sword laterâ" What? Gordon fumbles to grab his glasses, throwing them on his face and completely freezing up.
On the other side of Benrey, the other side of the glass, was a man with a gun. It was directly pointed to where Gordon's head just was, if it wasn't for Benrey stepping in and defending Gordon's sleeping form. The guard shouts at them, brandishing what appears to be a taser of some sort, and it only seems to make Benrey angry. They beat against the glass, causing the whole wall to shake as both Gordon and the other guard flinch. The guard starts the taser once more, before quickly backing up through the open door and fleeing.Â
What was that? Benrey defendedâ no, protected Gordon in his sleep. Risked themself getting shot for â for someone they've known for less than a day? Gordon's racing heart slows down as he tries to think of reasons.
The obvious one that comes to mind is pact bonding. It's not unusual for evolution to cause animals to be pact bonded â hell, humans experience it, the social species humans are. Perhaps this is the same case for⊠whatever Benrey is? But, then again, it hasn't even been a day. Maybe twelve hours. And that's only if it actually was pact bonding! Benrey isâ Gordon doesn't know what Benrey is. A demon, some sort of supernatural, he doesn't fucking know â but nothing he's been told has been anything similar to pact bonds.
Benrey's staring at Gordon expectantly, and he blinks, meeting their eyesâ and they look light blue and yellow â Gordon swears they were just a bright yellow before. They look humanoid too â no longer abstract in a way that feels like Gordon's looking at what a migraine feels like.Â
Gordon shakes his head. "Sorry â What, what did you say? IâŠ" His voice drifts off, rubbing the back of his neck as his breathing calms.
"i asked if you're ok?"
Is he okay? Gordon doesn't know the answer. No, because he could have died there. Yes, because he is still alive, only because of Benrey. Yes, because Benrey protected him. "Yeah, man â thank you? For uh. Not letting them kill me."
"nah," Benrey shakes their head, though it seems unnatural â something they must have learned recently. Probably through watching the scientists here. "no one's allowed to hurt my friends."
Gordon should probably unpack that this creature considers Gordon a friend. At least it was better than being thought of as a pet? So Benrey sees that he has some consciousness at least. That's⊠hopefully reassuring. He'llâ He'll deal with that later. Probably whenever his brain leaves 'holy shit I'm going to fucking die', mode.
Well, now that the adrenaline has mostly left Gordon's body, he is exhausted. He feels like he's been awake for way too long (as long as you ignored the fact he was quite literally drugged), yet he still couldn't even bring himself to fully fall asleep in front of Benrey. His muscles ached, and the exhaustion came from deep within his bones. He pushes his glasses onto the top of his head, rubbing at his eyes with the palms of his hands.
He wasn't going to be able to force himself awake for long. "Hey, buddy?" Gordon asks quietly, and if he wasn't already leaning on the wall, he would have fallen to the ground. Benrey lets out a confused sound, staring at him, waiting for him to continue. "If you're gonna eat me, do it while I'm asleep, yeah?" His eyes close, the back of his head lightly hitting the wall.
"whuhâ no. 'm not gonna eat you, bro. we talked about that."
Gordon snorts at that. A weird demon creature just called him bro. God, this really was like some fucked up, evil dream that he's having. Hell. Maybe when he wakes up, he'll wake up back in his dorm and this all was some evil fucking dream. Gordon lets out a breath, and says, "okay. If you do, though. Make it quick, yeah?"
Gordon's pretty sure he hears Benrey say something else, but he doesn't process what they say as he slips into slumber.
Blood From The Blood God (14101 words) by Antilocapra
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Project Hail Mary (2026), Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir, Iron Lung (2026)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung)/Ryland Grace, Adrian/Rocky (Project Hail Mary), The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung) & Rocky (Project Hail Mary), Adrian & Ryland Grace & Rocky
Characters: Rocky (Project Hail Mary), Adrian (Project Hail Mary), Ryland Grace, The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung), Original Eridian Characters (Project Hail Mary)
Additional Tags: Blood and Gore, Swearing, Post-Canon, Amputee The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung), POV Rocky (Project Hail Mary), Vomiting, Starvation, Blood Drinking, Kind Of, it's not entirely blood at that point, it's been filtered through borrowed divinity, The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung) is a god, Kissing, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Starving Ryland Grace, love that that's a tag
Summary:
There were times after Rocky moved into the Hail Mary when Grace would be hunched over an experiment, struggling to make things work; struggling to find the solution that Tau Ceti held, then struggling to grow nitrogen-resistant Taumoeba faster. Sometimes he would sit staring at the farm-tanks, slouched in his chair with his hands dangling over his knees, and whisper to himself. âPlease,â he would say. âPlease, please, please.â
âWho is Grace talking to?â Rocky had asked in the stilted way heâd been stuck with at the time.
âNo one,â Grace had shrugged. âOr anyone. Anyone whoâll listen.â
Rocky does not understand humans. But now, he sits on the shore of an infant sea, a brand-new constructed world all around him just waiting for its single lonely occupant to take control of it, and wonders if human senselessness is worth a shot.
âPlease,â he whispers, running his claw through the water. âPlease, please, please.â
The sea does not respond.
Or, what if your friend accidentally catches the attention of a god in hopes of saving you, and that god falls in love with you instead?
completely raw, unedited, unfinished and abandoned wip below. lowkey a banger though i really like this concept. also you can see the original intent for haso tommy GIGGLING
1.6k words below the cut
Tommy Coolatta is not a human.
Which is probably something the normal person would not know that Tommy isnât a human until he tells them. Which isnât a bad thing!
Tommy honestly prefers that. He likes being close to a human â some could even say he takes pride in it.
Acting human â being human was sorta like aâ a puzzle. Or a game? Likeâ Like a crossword puzzle in the morning paper. You can see the facial expressions, the body language people make â butâ but he still needed to figure out what the final piece was.Â
And Tommy likes it! He finds it fun having to research humans, learn their silent language. Itâs a fun hobby Tommy liked to do before it was second nature to him.
Now, on the other hand, Tommy has friends who⊠arenât quite the same. His friend â well. He likes to look⊠not quite scary? He doesnât want to scare peopleâ okay, well, scratch that because thereâs been plenty of times when heâs sat in a dark room, only to jump out at Tommy â but his friend doesnât want to be terrifying. He only wants to be able to prank people. So he doesnât commit to the whole human thing.
Granted, his friend can shapeshift. If Tommy could do that, heâd probably look a little less human, too. Like having glow in the dark hair. That would be as cool as, like â as cool as a fallen ice cream cone on a winter's day!
Tommyâs getting distracted. He wishes he has an ice cream cone right now â but either way! The point in all of this being that Tommy isnât human and you wouldnât even know it unless you were told. And Tommyâs friend also wasnât human, but not in the same way he was. That there are quite a lot of not humans at Black Mesa.
Granted, most of the not humans werenât⊠working for Black Mesa. Tommy and Benrey (Tommyâs friend heâs been mentioning â he forgot to introduce his name!) were exceptions because Tommyâs dad is sort of the ruler over the place. Sort of like the boss, but even higher than that! So Tommy, being the GManâs son, and Benrey being pseudo-adopted by the GMan, they were safe from the harsher experiments.
Not that a lot of people at Black Mesa even knew! Well. Tommy has an ability that, uhâ most people canât see! Just like his father, heâs able to stop time and use the trains. But he doesnât do it a lot, cause it makes him as nervous as one would feel jumping off a plane without an airbag.Â
Benrey on the other has is a bit more⊠obvious? Not only in his features, which you could probably just brush off as a weird guy â maybe the practically grey skin was some sickness, or just really pale, or even just the lighting! Or the teeth that look as sharp as a sharks was just a cosmetic thing, people get their teeth sharpened all the time. The shadow casted over his eyes was purely because of the guard helmet Benrey wears â everything could be brushed off as just a weird quirk. Human brains were good at just taking that sort of information, and filing it away to never think of it again.
But Benrey also has this â well, he calls it âthe Black Mesa Sweet Voiceâ. Itâs his native language, or they think it is at least. See, GMan found a baby (or well, young) Benrey when they first opened the portal to Xen, and then GMan got there, there didnât seem to be any other aliens like Benrey. And this thing came naturally to him, so surely it was like a language.Â
âŠOops, Tommy still hasnât even explained what the Sweet Voice is.
Itâs a physical, visible language. Benrey sings different notes, and produces color. Each color represents a different emotion, and they can mix and blend and transform into different meanings. Blue means calm, but blue to cyan means that heâs overwhelmed. These songs can get complicated â Tommyâs seen Benrey spew out seven or eight colors at once. And it always seems like itâs a part of his emotional regulation, too. He can keep the colors back, but itâs like physically bottling up his emotions and theyâll all eventually spill out, anyways.
Of course, everything isnât a one-to-one ratio and meaning! Tommyâs only as fluent as he is because he grew up with the other! And, well â the fact that Sunkist (the Perfect Dog) also speaks it helps. Because sheâs such a good girl.
But! He keeps getting distracted talking about his research and his family!!Â
The point of this is that Benrey is always going to look off to humans that stick close because of his sweet voice. Tommy can blend in no issue, but Benrey canât unless he bottles every emotion up. Which obviously isnât good, cause then it builds up and up until it's like a volcano erupting, or when you open up a shaken soda can.
So when Benrey wants a job at Black Mesa to stick close to Tommy, heâs concerned. Not that Benrey canât make his own choices â but Tommy just worries. He knows that no one can do anything because the both of them are under GManâs protection, but..!
âitâs chill, bro,â Benrey says with a smile, hand on Tommyâs shoulder when he says he got the job. âtheyâre stickinâ me in the boring parts, ânyways. no people around.â
Tommy bites on his nails, before grimacing at the taste. Right, he has a special nail polish on to help him break that habit. He instead switches to bouncing his foot nervously as he speaks. âWhat if someone tries to take you?â
âthen dadâll spread their atoms across the universe,â Benrey says with a smile on his face. âduh.â
âWhat ifââ
âsshhh bro, youâre stressing me out.â he pats Tommyâs shoulder again. âwe can meet up for lunch, yeah? lunch munch?â As he talks, purple and blue bubbling out of his mouth.
Tommy bites the inside of his lip. âOkay,â he says after a moment. âBut if anything happens you have to text me or Dad!â
Benrey laughs, these wispy white bubbles that fade into green flowing from his mouth. White to green jasper means bursting out in laughter, Tommy translates. âyou got it, man. will do officier.â
Tommy snorts. âYouâre the security officer,â Tommy corrects, which Benrey scrunches up his face and sticks out his tongue, blowing a raspberry. âEug, I shouldnât worry about you, causeâ cause no one would put up with you! Youâre like â Youâre like, Ryuga, fromâ from Beyblade!â
âouch dude, câmon, iâm not that bad,â Benrey laughs, ruffling Tommyâs hair. âyour ryuga brother has feelings, too.â
âYou know what I mean!â Tommy huffs, and he has to admit he does feel a bit better now, even with how insufferable Benrey can be sometimes. He crosses his arms, before standing. âWell! If youâre first day is tomorrow, I canâ I will show you around as a, uh, a tour guide!â
Benrey rolls his eyes affectionately. âalready putting benrey to work? sending benrey coolatta off to dunkin one last time?â
âYouâre lucky if youâre going to a Tim Hortens, now letâs â letâs get going!â Benrey gasps in mock offence at Tommyâs words, but the two eventually make it out the door for Tommyâs shift. This is probably definitely not allowed, but no one stops him in fear of facing the GMan. Who really isnât that scary, but Tommyâs also seen the man cry over the tree that fell over during a large storm last summer, soâÂ
Tommy is really bad at not rambling.Â
The two tour Black Mesa â at least the parts Tommy typically goes for a shift, and a few off the different guard posts that Benreyâll probably stick to during the first training period.
Meanwhile, Tommyâs prepping for tomorrow. There's gonna be some super important test that someoneâs running involving some sort of crystal? Tommy doesnât know a lot but he knows that itâs going to be happening in this sector, so he reads up on it just to get some knowledge on it.Â
â â â
The next day approaches, and Tommy is nervous. So many things had already started going wrong â he had to swap shifts, so now heâs suddenly the one watching over this experiment â and most importantly!! Get this!! The guy was running late!!!
Unbelievable, right?Â
The guy finally gets into the chamber, and Tommy has to do a double take, because holy shit is that Benrey in there???
Tommy has to quickly rush towards the test chamber, and finds Doctor Coomer and Bubby standing there, yelling at the man â Gordon Freeman, apparently â about the experiment.Â
Benrey catches Tommy's eye and he turns to wave at him with a smile on his face. âtommy!â He shouts, his sharp teeth shining as the light hits them. âtommayyy!â
Pink sweet voice blooms from his mouth, lighting the room with his affection. Tommy smiles, waving from above. He watches Mr. Freeman turn to Benrey, talking and gesturing as the man talks. Tommy couldnât hear him, but he was very expressive. âBenrey! Whatâre you doing in there?â He shouts, causing the two men next to him to wince. âOops. Sorry.â
Benrey doesnât answer him, apparently to focused on the conversation happening in the test chamber. Tommy bites the inside of his lip, shouting a warning to Mr. Freeman to not move the card too quickly.
âŠ
Tommy should have kept his mouth shut.
The crystal explodes in the test chamber, and the whole sector shakes as the glass in front of them breaks. Tommyâs pretty sure he passed out â no, he knows he passed out, because we woke up in a different room with Dr. Coomer next to him.Â
âAre you alright, Tommy?â He asks, propping Tommy up to sit up.
(Okay after finishing this I realized that I basically just wrote an alternate intro to a fic I already have posted - so if you like this kind of actually-a-game thing, go read All In Your Head on AO3 here.)
15. trembling hands
Gordon scratches behind his ear, then at the top of his head where the bands of the VR headset rest. He's been in this session for hours, but he can't stop now - the Science Team is in the middle of a multistage puzzle that requires them to climb two flights of stairs and swim a flooded corridor to get to the handle that unlocks the gate to the tram tracks. And of course, there are headcrabs everywhere. One of them got him good a few minutes ago - he's got an alert flashing in his HUD that his health needs to be replenished soon.
"M-Mr. Freeman," Tommy calls, and Gordon looks up quickly. "Is - are you okay?"
He opens his mouth to say he's fine when Bubby interrupts.
"You look like you've got lice. Do you have lice?"
"What? No!" he yelps. "No, I do not have lice! What kind of fucking question -"
"You, um, you were were scratching your head a lot," Tommy says doubtfully.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Gordon!" Dr. Coomer says brightly. "However, prompt treatment is crucial to preventing an infestation. We don't want an infestation, do we, Gordon?"
"I DO NOT HAVE LICE!" Gordon bellows. "Oh my god, you guys - I had an itch! I've got green slime crusted in my hair! It's normal! There are no lice!"
There's some grumbling, but they seem to accept that. Gordon heaves a sigh and goes to tuck a loose strand of hair behind his ear - and there's already a hand there.
He jumps and makes a very manly noise - not a shriek, thank you very much - spinning around to glare at a blank-faced Benrey who is standing way too close behind him.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
"Just tryin' to fix your head-thing."
"My -" Gordon gulps, his heart suddenly thundering in his chest. He can't have heard that right. "My what?"
"Your head-thing." Benrey gestures vaguely at him. "With the cover over your eyes an' the straps n' shit."
"You can see that?" Gordon whispers, darting a terrified glance over his shoulder at the rest of the Science Team, who are crowded around a vent cover debating whether or not everyone could fit inside. "How can you see that? Since when?"
Benrey shrugs. "Since always. I guess you can see through it, though. Right? Otherwise you'd be bumpin' into everythin' like a lil clumsy boy."
"What is your fucking problem?" Gordon hisses. "I'm not - it -"
"What color are your eyes?" Benrey asks. "'Cause the others say green, but I can't see 'em, an'...maybe I want to."
"You want me to - what, take the headset off?" Gordon shakes his head, his pulse thudding in his neck. What the hell is going on? Benrey is a character in a game, albeit a heavily-modded one. How the fuck can he see the VR headset? "If I did that, I wouldn't be able to see you, you know."
Benrey leans forward. "Shows what you think," he grins, and then blows a stream of cyan Sweet Voice into Gordon's face.
Gordon flinches and for a moment, he thinks he can feel the cool burst of bubbles on his face. With trembling hands he reaches for his temples, grabs hold of the VR headset, and begins to raise it up.
the open ending of this one really got my mind running, so i drew out a little continuation!
i see two ways to run with the second to last sentence: hlage style valve ai mod mind fuckery, or yearning cause of the separation between player and npc. i went with the former, he actually felt that shit faintly
The player squints in the bright light of their monitor, which is displaying a readout map for the game file so they can attempt to keep track of this nonsense. There's nothing and no one else around - they're alone in here. So the whole phantom sensation of Sweet Voice bubbles brushing against their skin must have been just that - a phantom. A hallucination. Fucking great.
They try to tilt their head to peer up into the headset, but the angle is all wrong, so they simply sigh and glance to the side. They haven't heard anything from the headphones yet. Maybe Benrey left?
"Seen enough yet?" they ask.
"So...you can't see now?" Benrey's voice comes through the headphones as if he's standing right in front of the player, and they resist the urge to flinch. The binaural audio is really fucking weird without an accompanying visual. "Why?"
"Nope," the player says, knowing the mic will still pick their voice up and wondering if it'll sound off in-game, like it's coming from above Gordon's head. "Sure can't."
They're about to continue, to explain that they can still see, they just can't see the game or Benrey himself, when they're interrupted by something shocking - direct, firm pressure on the tip of their nose.
They gasp sharply, bristling like a cat and nearly crossing their eyes to make sure a giant bug hasn't landed on their face or some shit. But they already know the truth. There's nothing there - in the real world, at least. They try not to hear Dr. Coomer's voice echoing in their head as they slam the headset back down, barely catching a glimpse of Benrey's still way-too-close face and outstretched hand before swiftly turning away.
"Okay! That's enough!" Gordon barks, his head swinging to scan the area. The rest of the Science Team is gone, but the vent cover is still intact, so they must have decided not to try that route. Thank fucking god - Gordon doesn't think he could handle being jammed in a tight space right now, let alone with Benrey. "We need to catch up with the others."
"Y'didn't answer..." Benrey starts from behind him, but Gordon waves a hand to cut him off and heads for the closest doorway. He can hear voices down the hall - Bubby's yelling about something, and Dr. Coomer sounds like he's punching crates again. If he can get back to the others, he can maybe have a moment to think.
His mind is spinning. What the fuck was that? What happened? Benrey's hand was right in front of his face when he could see through the headset again, and the sensation was so real.
Something touched his nose. Something touched him. That shouldn't be possible. That can't be possible. It's a game, right? It's a game. It's not real.
It's not real.
But if it's not real, he's losing his mind. Which one is worse? Either the game is starting to affect reality, or Gordon is going insane.
There's only one way to find out, really. No matter how weird it is, he's got to get Benrey to touch his face again.
stumbled across your account just to find out you wrote evergreen this is like being a christian and stumbling across the guy who wrote the bible. hi ur fucking fanfic is going to haunt me until i DIE(positive)
(Evergreen)
Omg what an endorsement! I'm glad that story stuck with you. I wrestled with it a lot to get it coherent, so I'm glad that all the timey-wimey nonsense holds up.
If you haven't seen it yet, there is a pseudo-continuation I did for the wintertime last year where they all go to the snow months after Evergreen concludes - it's called Spindrift. It's not necessarily 100% canon, but I had planned for the characters to go to the snow during Evergreen and the timing just didn't work out. So I wrote that little coda instead. See below for an excerpt:
Benrey shrugged. âShould be the last of it. I had the, uh, the sticks n'the mud, so I knew there was an after before. An' after the after, I had t'get Bubby out, n'then with the snow I still knew there was an after after that.â
Gordon stared at him for a moment. â...What?â
âY'wanna fight?â Benrey asked.
âWill that mean this conversation is over?â Gordon asked.
âYeah? Sure.â
âThen yes, I would love to fight.â
Benrey swung an arm around and slung a handful of snow that he must have been holding onto the whole time into Gordon's face, causing him to sputter and stumble backward.
Everything falls apart.
(LAST CHAPTER YAY YAY YAY)
They squeeze the handlebars of the hoverbike that Hazard had helped train them how to ride, trying not to think about the last time they had been on a computer.
Or the fact that behind Dark, a trail of computers had been sparking out of the network, burning up and dying in brilliant flashes like stars.
Dark wouldn't hurt them.
Right?
The first issue they encountered was a barrier, when they had first been testing the idea. Of course, they made sure it was dormant. During hours when no sane person would come online. From there, they could start testing.
A lot of things had been tested against the barrier. Only one had worked.
"You're sure you want to do this?" Chosen asks.
"You're just going to end up making it worse," Vic grumbles, and for what it's worth, Chosen doesn't argue. Despite their mission to protect Noogai, they... weren't great with the emotional side of things. None of them were, really. When you're only made to fight, that's kind of how arguments go.
For most of them, they couldn't just run away from their problems. Therein lied the problem; Dark could. They could run faster than any of the rest of them.
And the only one who could catch up was fighting with them.
"You're hesitating," Chosen says, unhelpfully.
"I know. Shut up, or I might kick your ass and disappear too."
They expect a laugh. They don't get one.
Glancing over at Chosen, they pause. "What did you say to them?"
Chosen winces like they've rubbed salt in the wound, and refuses to elaborate.
"Great. You're a huge help," Victim growls.
They sit there in silence for a moment.
"Don't die fixing what I caused."
"...you think it's that bad?"
"Please." They say, and Vic sighs. "Promise."
"Okay. Whatever. Promise."
Chosen exhales.
Before Vic can ask any more questions, they blast off with a rush of flame.
They needed to talk. Eventually.
Eventually.
Instead of thinking about the painful, soul-bearing conversation everyone had to have, Vic steadies their grip on the handlebars, and steels themself as they enter the PC.
The first thing that hits their senses is the smell of burning metal.
They choke on smoke faster than they expect. In fact, the computer is filled with it. Shards of the taskbar explode in their peripheral.
Breathe, Mitsi's voice directs from their memories, but the air is so choked with smoke that they're not entirely sure it's a good idea. Instead, they begin to call outâ before the ground rumbles beneath them.
The computer isn't fighting back in the way they remember. In fact, it seems largely inert as their world flips, and they are flung across the screen.
The scream that leaves their lungs isn't the voluntary one they planned on, but it's enough to get Dark's attention anyway. Dark's barrage stops, and the air is very still for a moment despite the crackling heat surrounding them as Dark lowers themself to the ground.
"I know what you're here to do. I'm not coming home."
Vic exhales a bit incredulously. "You can't stay here either. You know that."
"You don't even want me there," Dark spits, and Vic flinchesâ which, unfortunately, only seems to cement Dark's belief of this. "I'm right, aren't I? I'm just an inconvenience to you. Chosen doesn't want me. You don't want me. So I might as well leave."
"What about Noogai?"
"Oh, right, Noogai," they reply bitterly. "Of course YOU say that. You only care about him! Both of you!"
Oh.
"Dark, that's not..."
They try to reach out, but Dark swings first. "Don't touch me!"
It hits harder than either of them expects.
With the air knocked out of Victim's chest, whatever they were going to say it mootâ instead, they just crash into the files of some stranger's computer, with a blow that they had not bothered to soften.
Their head is too busy spinning to notice how Dark recoils, or looks down at their own hands, before stiffening, looking down on them.
"Don't follow me."
It's not a request. It's not a question.
"Dark," they beg one last time, or try, but they're too weak to get the words out without whispering.
Dark turns, shooting off into the portal into the outernet.
Victim isn't able to stop them.Â
The desktop is shattered into smithereens. It never occurred to them how powerful Dark and Chosen were.
How devastatingly weak Victim was.
They scream. No one hears them, of course. But they scream anyway, maybe because no one can hear them this time.
They were helpless. To stop Noogai. To stop Dark.
To help either of them.
They stagger to their feet as the cursor twitches. To go home.Â
Alone.
â
Noogai has gotten worse than when they left.
Chosen, pleadingly almost, looks to Victim to be rewarded with good news. Their shoulders sag.
"Sorry," they whisper hoarsely. "It's all my fault."
"Damn right it is."
Victim expects to see some flare of anger, of the defiance they've come to known Chosen for. Instead they just sigh, soot swirling in the air with the heavy sigh.
They don't expect it to hit so hard. But it hits with a finality.
Dark is gone. And they are still here.
And Noogai was getting worse.
"Are you going to scold me?" Chosen asks, tone sardonic.
Vic shakes their head.
Instead, they lean into Chosen.
Chosen stiffens, at first.
Then, it loosens.
Chosen starts to quietly cry.
Vic doesn't let themself cry. Not yet. They needed to be the strong one. They were the oldest. Not by technicality, but the oldest nonetheless.
It would be a long time before they would ever let themself cry in front of Noogai, or Chosen.
Instead, they cry into Mitsi's arms quietly in a lonely room where no one else would hear them. Sometimes Agent's. Never, never in front of Noogai.
â
When Noogai wakes up again, he asks, of course.
"Where's Dark?"
Their mouth turns dry, and they give the only answer they can.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
The Hollowheadsâ and their stray humanâ are doing the best with what they have.
Sometimes, it's not enough.
Noogai wrapped his arms around himself. "It's not your problem."
"Not my problem," Victim grumbles, and he feels shame heat his face. "You always say that. You don't get to dictate what I concern myself with."
"But I'm not even that sick!"
"No buts. You're staying laying down."Â
Victim doesn't leave time for argument, holding up a hand and rushing out of the room. He frowned, slumping against the pillows that he had been using to prop himself upright while drawing, and scrawled another half-hearted doodle, this time of his old house. He wasn't any good at drawing structures, but it was something that, reliably, did not come alive.
He hadn't told Victim about that yet.
When he was real, it was pretty easy to guarantee none of his creations came to life. Now that he was part of the digital worldâ the 'outernet', as Vic had dubbed it (Noogai knew it was Newgroundsâ he recognized some of the faces there. He never said anything. That would be weird. He was already weird enough as it was) he couldn't trust paper to not betray him.
It already had once.Â
The door opened, and Noogai snapped his notebook shut like he's been doing something wrongâ not that Victim paid it much mind any more. They were both jumpy around each other, for better or for worse: they had quickly discovered yelling and accusations made things worse, and, with Chosen as anxious as they could be in the earlier days, sometimes ended up with a hole in the wall or a Victim-shaped dent. So for nowâ and with any luck, for the rest of forever, some part of him thinks, they don't talk about it. They don't talk about the way Victim cowers at things that don't exist. They don't talk about the way Noogai shies away whenever Vic makes any sudden movements, and they don't talk about how Chosen was created. They talk about the mission statement, sometimes. But they avoided talking about why it was there.
This, however, was before the rule about Dark.
Neither of them want to talk about that, though. So instead, he looks down at the pills that Victim is shoving in his face.
"Your corruption suppressants. You haven't taken them yet today."
Oh. He blinks. "I thought I ran out of those, I..."
"You could have asked for more. You know Mitsi and I have access to this medicine."
"I didn't want to bother you," he mumbled, taking the pills in his hands. That, and honestly, he had entirely forgotten to ask.
"You're going to get me killed for not helping you sooner when I didn't even know what was wrong," Victim replied. "And that is why I keep track."
The implication soured the teasing tone a little, and he looked away guiltily, swinging his legs and shrinking into the hoodie he'd been wearing to avoid looking at the damage to his body. "Have you found Dark yet?"
"No. No signs." They sighed. "Don't worry about Dark. I've got the best people there are on the job. If there is hair or head to be found of them, they'll make sure it's done."
"And... what if there isn't?"
Vic gives him an uncomfortable lookâ one that in their year together, he's learned means 'shut up before it turns into a fight.'
So he does.
The silence stretches on, uncomfortable and burdensome.
"I'll be back to check on you in a bit. Make sure you haven't gotten worse," they say cooly, in that calculated way they did before all hell tended to break loose as they got up. Still, they slowly move to stiffly pat him on the shoulder in whatever comfort they could offer. "Take a nap or something."
And like that, they were gone, leaving only the sinking feeling in his chest to accompany him to sleep.
â
It has been a week, two days, and five hours since The Dark Lord was declared missing.
Every second of it was driving Victim absolutely insane.
"What do you MEAN, you can't find them?"
"We just can't." The taskforce they'd come to know as Primal replied. Chosen for her keen eye and swift movementsâ and ability to dodge fire if truly necessary, although Vic had hoped it wouldn't come to thatâ she was a very, very good huntsman.Â
Agent (as they'd come to know him from Mitsi's teasingâ they were pretty sure he had a different name but Mitsi had always called him Agent, and it felt awkward and overly formal calling him by his full name after that, so Agent it was) adjusted his glasses. "I might have theories on where they went. But you're not gonna be happy about it."
"Tell me."
The search team exchanged looks. "You said they could fly. Working theory is... they went up."
Victim's heart drops out of their stomach.
"No," they say softly.
"There aren't many people willingâ or ableâ to follow them. Butâ"
"No. I'll go if we have to go on a computer."
"You don't have to," Mitsi says softly.
They give her a look.
They can't. She knows this. She gives HER look she gives when she thinks Vic is being stupidâ or more accurately, ignoring something, maybe.
They turn to Agent. "See if you can track down their last location. Before they went up. If we can track them down..."
"This is insanely dangerous," Hazard says, ever the practical one.
"I don't care. It's my responsibility to protect them."
From humans goes unsaid. From themself, even moreso.
Still. The search team shuffles, uncomfortably looking to Mitsi, and, mercifully, she does not deny Victim this. She nods instead, and they all scurry off to work.
The room goes empty, except for her and Vic.
"You'll figure this out," She says gently, placing a hand on their back. "You're the most resourceful person I know."
"Resourceful isn't what the others need right now," they groan, and Mitsi doesn't seem sure what to say to that at first.
Aaaand we're done with the teleporter malfunction fic! This four chapter fic is seven chapters long because I lost control of my outline (and my life) very quickly. But it was a lot of fun to write, and hopefully it's fun to read. Read it here!
Run, Boy, Run (This World Is Not Made For You) (2103 words) by Antilocapra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Project Hail Mary (2026)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ryland Grace & Rocky
Characters: Ryland Grace, Eva Stratt, Rocky (Project Hail Mary)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Ryland Grace & Rocky are Best Friends, Light Angst, Daemons
Summary:
âPlease,â Eva whispers, her voice shaking, âdonât make this harder.â
Grace would be more shocked by that show of emotion if he werenât currently standing on a countertop, attempting to fend off two suit-wearing goons with a ballpoint pen. His daemon told him they were goons from the start, but he didnât want to believe her. And now look where they are: betrayed by a friend, and menaced by goons.
Daemon AU of selected events from Project Hail Mary.
A new chapter of the teleporter malfunction fic is up - read it here! This time I managed not to add any more chapters to the count, so we just have the Simon POV epilogue to go. This thing was supposed to be short...
New chapter of the teleporter malfunction fic is up. As is typical, I have FULLY lost control of my outline, and now there's another chapter added to the full count and also they get to deal with an unexpected asteroid. Surely this will be fine... But hey, at least Rocky can swear now!
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (5376 words) by Antilocapra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Half-Life VR But the AI is Self-Aware (Web Series)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Characters: Benrey (Half-Life VR But the AI is Self-Aware), Gordon Freeman, Tommy Coolatta
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, ambiguous setting, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Swearing, Non-Linear Narrative, members of the science team are mentioned but not physically present, Pre-Relationship
Summary:
Benrey had just shaken his head and looked out across the scrubby basin at the flat horizon. âIâm too far away,â heâd said. âAnâ not just away, but - over -â he waved one hand and shrugged. âXenâs not a place, really, sâlike a sink drain. Everything ends up here, but nothing comes from here. And nothing gets out. Dunno how Black Mesa did it. Must've broken the law a few times.â
âI donât think thereâs a law against making portals to other dimensions,â Gordon said.
âLaw of physics, bro,â Benrey had snorted. âArenât you some kind of physician? Scientist? Lil baby physicist doesnât know how transdimensional travel works?â
Gordon had chuckled a bit. âDo you?â heâd asked.
Benreyâs face fell. âNope. Sâwhy Iâm still here. I donât think I can do anything more than this - and this is only âcause Black Mesa already punched holes out. Iâm just lookinâ through the patched-up spots.â
__________
Hey hi hello this fic was started in 2021 and has not been touched since 2022. Then today I opened it up, went "hm" and finished it in one fell swoop. So if it's a bit incoherent, that would be why. Don't worry about it. Come play in the sandbox with me.
