How many times has he been caught off guard by the Science team just existing???
I don’t think he would take walking into a dark room first very well after getting his arm hacked off with an army knife.
Maybe there’s a moment where Dr Coomer gets a bit too close and Gordon has to take a moment to check he’s not one of the Clones that want to tear into his flesh to puppet him like a meat suit still alive
What if Tommys being a little quiet which isn’t unusual for him but when Gordon sees him standing behind and observing the group and conducting himself around the room in an important manner he has to check that time hasn’t frozen and he isn’t about to be face to face with the G-man for a cryptic conversation that could be the difference between the death of humanity and dying painfully from an alien attack
If the lights start flickering, taking his sense of sight for a second before briefly illuminating whatever hides in the shadows. Bubby might look awfully like a prototype. God forbid they are in a situation where Bubby has to run towards Gordon to get out of the line of fire.
And Benery. Just Benery. I think no matter how much development they go through, Gordon will jump into fight or flight the moment he appears somewhere he wasn’t expecting to see him. Just having to constantly have tabs on where in the room he is and what he’s up to.
If there was to be a normal world after black mesa, the science team would be irreversibly welded together from their experiences but would also be constant reminders of the worst part of their lives
I don't feel like feeling bummed anymore so here's a thought that makes me happy:
We technically do kind of have some 'some time in the indeterminate future after the events of hlvrai' content: the ACAB stream. While the canon-ness of that in the hlvrai universe is questionable at best, I loved seeing a glimpse of life for the team post Game who, having presumably escaped The Game, are now, as Coomer suggested in his farewell speech, game hopping into different titles.
Mainly, I loved seeing Gordon in that stream. Gordon in hlvrai is tired, scared, in pain and by the end, completely worn down. He's far past the end of his rope but he feels this intense need not only to survive but to lead those he's with to safety as well. He feels the crushing weight of being The Protagonist. The Player Character. And the fact that he seems mostly unaware of the nature of his existence as The Player Character just adds a level of confusion and desperation. Everything rests on him but nothing is in his control, not even really himself in many ways.
Gordon in the ACAB stream knows he's in a game and in no real danger. He laughs at himself for getting 'so worked up about it' at times. He's not The Protagonist. He's part of a team that's actually working together. He's not trying to fight for his life against impossible odds. He's not feeling the weight of what he feels are real deaths at his hands. He's playing a game and he's having fun doing it. Even Benry's return, though it upsets him, he laughs off, to some extent. He can joke around, even with Benry, because he doesn't feel his life is constantly in danger and that he's responsible for the survival of his whole group and possibly the whole world.
We get to see the more chaotic, fun loving side to him without the weight of immense responsibility on his shoulders. The 'Swordon Freeman' moment where he's so giddy about going ham on cops with a sword he found was so great because it's definitely a side of Gordon we see at times during hlvrai, but very much suppressed by his being forced into the role of the leader and protagonist.
He's here of his own volition. He's working with the team, not just trying to drag them around. He's not scared and desperate. He's not the vessel for someone else to progress through a plot. He's playing a game and he's having fun. I like to imagine that's still what the future has in store for Gordon Hlvrai.
was gonna use terrible comic day to post this but its an idea thats been bonking around in my head for a min. if i knew how to program and the songs wouldnt all be copyrighted i would totally make this game.
i didnt just wanna do spooky shadow spindly thing bc that's been done by literally everyone and i figured this was a good way to make it supernatural but still unique
Song list and ID under cut, I'll also edit the previous versions to have IDs.
Song List:
Kazzer - Pedal to the Metal
Paramore - Fast in my Car
Adele - Hello
Brandy - Best Friend
BEGIN ID:
Multiple images of various scenarios for a hypothetical game- each image is inside a sketchy circle. The background is blue and glitchy. The first circle shows a POV of someone driving a car in a forest. In the road in front of the car is a little girl with long hair, shut eyes, holding a teddy bear. The radio plays the lyrics: "Put the pedal to the metal a little more when it's scary, but one thing I know for sure, keep my foot to the floor". There is white text above the circle that reads: "eventually obstacles progress from just odd roadways and following nonsense cues to encountering spirits. They look just like real people: at first, that is. This one phases through your car, making you realize she's a spirit and not a random little girl."
The next circle shows the driver's POV again, but the car is stopped and a skinny woman is leaning inside through the open passenger side door. She has long wavy/crimped hair and is wearing a dress. She says "Please... let me in!" her face is terrified, mouth open and mascara dripping down her cheeks. The radio plays the lyrics: "No one's the same as they used to be, much as we try to pretend. No one's as innocent as can be," below the circle in white reads: "these spirits want to escape, through possessing you or hitching a ride- both of which are game over. The spirits faces are stuck the way they were the moment they died, creating an uncanny effect where they're speaking- but their face remains in horror."
The third circle shows the driver's POV again, there is a chubby woman waving through the driver's side window. She has a perturbed, concerned expression with drawn together eyebrows and grit teeth. Her hair is tied back with a bandana and there are two curly strands draped down her face. She wears a t-shirt that reads "songfest 1984" The radio plays the lyrics: "Hello, *ksst* it me you're looking for? *static* call me when you need a friend, 'cause i'm your sister, and always for ya, and-- *kssst*" White text above the circle reads: "upon finally meeting the spirit who's been helping you, she asks through the songs to get in your car, to escape this haunted road. She's gotten you this far, after all. But can you really trust her?"
A couple thoughts I had while overthinking this awesome concept (and famous driving-related urban legends), particularly with thoughts of acceleration/deceleration in mind:
You suddenly see a pair of brights/highbeams in your rear-view mirror that are clearly rapidly gaining on you, to the point where there's even a clear shadow of your car stretching in front of you and loud longhaul truck honks are heard, which would normally cause a player to speed up...
But then the chorus to Pink's "18 Wheeler" cuts in with "You can push me out the window/I'll just get back up./You can run me over with an 18-Wheeler truck/ and I won't give a f*ck...", indicating that for once the Objectively Scary Thing you're dealing with is actually harmless, and to stop gunning the engine to let the ghostly truck pass right through you.
At the other end of the spedometer, we all know what speed trap cams are, yes? Especially on roads where there are NO friggin' speed limit signs ANYWHERE near them to tell you how fast is too fast before one of them nails you for being a sliver over the limit? Annoying, right? Well, I say let's apply them here, AND make them useful!
Now, in early game you'll come across them with no issue whatsoever. Trigger them, don't trigger them, doesn't matter (outside of the MOUNTAIN of speeding tickets mailed to the driver if they make it out of this alive). The point is, these early ones are just there to let you know they do, in fact, still exist, even along this eldritch stretch of asphalt.
The real party starts later in the game, when the hazards start piling up. At this point, sometimes when a song indicating something's in the backseat starts playing, it'll also get chopped up by bursts of Sammy Hagar's "I can't Drive 55". This is your cue not only to not check the backseat, but also to tell you to speed up past 55mph (roughly 88kph) and deliberately trigger the speed trap cams, and the bright flash will pull a Fatal Frame and fry the malevolent thing that was creeping up behind you in the backseat.
i didnt consider the acceleration/deceleration aspect before, but it's a great concept! I feel like many songs could apply to it- because there are many songs about going fast and going slow (with various meanings, of course)
the speedtraps are great not only because it's nonsensical and eerie on this eldritch road- but also the speeding ticket thing would be SO FUNNY. im imagining at the end screen of a successful game when you get back home, it shows a pile of speeding tickets all addressed to you from nobody lmfaoo (similar to how at the end of FNAF you see your paycheck and its super low)
Oh yeah, I love the thought of multiple songs being a signal for the same thing too, since it means you still have to pay a bit of attention even after you think you've memorized the instructions that each song equates to.
Or, taking it a step further, an entire nightmare difficulty mode (naturally unlocked after beating the "base game"), which adds an entire new set of songs that aren't in the base game and only play the portion of the song right before the "instruction line" of the song to test exactly how well the player knows the songs being played.
As an example, in the "base game" you get the straightforward "Don't Turn Around" by to warn you of something in the backseat, but in the nightmare mode you'd instead get the first three lines of the chorus to Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" ("You make me/Feel like I'm livin' a teenage dream/The way you turn me on, I can't sleep/Let's run away and don't ever look back, don't ever look back"), and if you don't know what come's after "Let's run away and-" you get got.
Also, I'm glad you find the speed trap camera thing as funny as I do. I like to think you ONLY get tickets for triggering the "unnecessary" ones, like the eldritch road is shaming you for being a reckless driver after you've escaped it (or it's just being a petty bitch since that's all it can do while you're out of its range lol).
ooooo yes completing songs!!! having to memorize that shit in nightmare mode would be great. I think in that mode maybe the reason it keeps getting cut off is the ghost who's helping you is being interfered with by the others so the song cuts to static right before the instruction plays
also some switch ups maybe! like it plays the first line of a song, then switches to the actual instruction song. EX:
[coming up on a speedtrap, but you have to stop moving at it]
"Hollowed out and filled up with hate/ all we want is--" *static* "Hold on, wait a minute! / feel my heart's intention, oh / Hold on, wait a minute!"
so it psyches you out, thinking you have to do one thing (go fast in your car) but then following it with the real song (stopping). the fake only plays for like one line so you have enough time to recover thankfully.
romaincrisis
theartofmadeline
origamiaround
2087
germansingergirl
areudirty
dededos
