welcome to xen @the-xen-project - Tumblr Blog

Welcome to The Xen Project!

A blog run by @daisybells This is your helpful navigational post that will hopefully answer all the questions you may have before starting through reading and sending asks to our cast of characters!

★ Alien Refs One and Two (Spoilers!) ★ Human & Android Refs [ To Be Made ] ★ Start Here ★ About under the cut :]

Welcome to The Xen Project! A HLVRAI Ask Blog following Joshua Freeman, Alyx Vance, and Barney Calhoun in their attempts to unlock the secrets of a since shut down project that happened twenty years ago and the disappearances that follow it. The blog will also follow Gordon, Coomer, Bubby, and Darnold in their studies upon the strange and mysterious world of Xen, while getting to know the aliens that live here. However, all may not be as it seems to them, or to Gordon, as you get through it. Chapter Tags: Prologue - Something New Chapter One - Xen Chapter Two - A Nightmare? A Calling? A Portal. Chapter Three - Forzen Chapter Four - Memory Lane Chapter Five - Secrets Uncovered [ Yet to Start ] Character Tags: Following His Fathers Footsteps - Joshua Freeman The Found Family of it All - Alyx Vance Practically Human in Every Way - Barney Calhoun Memory Lost Until Disarmed - Gordon Freeman The Voids One and Only Son - Tommy Coolatta Potion of Unfortunate Memories - Darnold Pepper Second to Forget First to Remember - Harold Coomer Prototype 80883 Android 01 - Bubby One With the Void - Gman Cal...who? - Benrey Forxen - Forzen Xen Project Other Notes - This tag is specifically for questions I myself (Freeman) answer as well as extra post. Character Pronouns Are Here Theres are a few rules to this blog, as there is any other! 1. I would prefer you didn’t send in any Magic Anons at this time! They would just make the story too difficult to follow. 2. If you know about this au and stuff I’ve talked to before, please don’t try and break the story by telling a character of something ahead of time! Anything like “Joshua watch out you might lose an arm” or anything else will probably have high chance of being ignored. 3. If I find any asks that make me personally uncomfortable or upset, I’m going to delete them, if not politely ask you don’t send something like it again. This means NSFW asks. Don’t want em, don’t wanna see em, please keep them out of the ask box. 5. On that note, don’t draw anything NSFW of the characters. And on that note’s note, there will be specific ships in this AU but I DO NOT WANT YOU TO SHIP JOSHUA AND ALYX. These two are ADOPTIVE SIBLINGS. If I see anyone shipping them I will personally fucking GET YOU! I also don’t want to see anyone shipping Alyx and Barney or Joshua and Barney for obvious reasons. 4. If I do end up making a discord for this blog, I want to make it clear that I Do Not want people arguing in it. The group will be made a spot to chatter about the AU and have some fun, not a place to fight and act like shit to one another, got it? More Rules Will Be Added If Needed

#TheXenProjectAU #Xen Project Other Notes #XenProjectNavigation #HLVRAI

somberine

weird horse moment !

somberine

is there anything big you would change about xen project if you were running the blog still?

Oh theres a handful of things I'd probably end up changing if I was still running the blog itself. Ofc I mentioned G's name. As much as I love referring to him as "G" given the character role he fills for the AU, I'd probably have him refuse any "proper" name, if that makes sense. G's tag would also be swapped to "Dream Eater" instead of "One with the Void" just because I feel it fits better. I'd probably change up Joshua, Alyx, and Barney's relationship a bit. Barney was meant to have raised Joshua on his own after the disappearance of Freeman and Darnold, but I thought this was kinda uninteresting so I had Joshua raised beside Alyx instead. Because of this, it made a lot of things weirdly conflicting in terms of story for literally no goddamn reason. Just chop out the whole "Raised beside Alyx" thing and swap it for "Raised by Barney as a person" instead and things would make a lot more sense. Alyx and Joshua would have still been very close friends of course, but it would ultimately eliminate a lot of nothing plot that was added for no reason. Would probably have Joshua the Rover be a bit more important to the plot too. The whole point of the rover is the fact that its meant to fill that emptiness Freeman feels due to missing his son. He doesn't know he has a son, but his memory is trying to get him to remember this, hence why he named the rover Joshua without really understanding why he named it this. Instead of it exclusively being Forxen that causes Freeman to remember all at once, maybe he'd instead gain his memory steadily over time up to the point that having Forxen ripping his arm off is like wild deja vu to him. Most likely be clearer in the flash-back section about what happened to Coomer and Bubby and how they ended up as part of the Xen Project first, since the story never really explores or goes into this at all. They were some of Freeman's buddies, its odd for him to have never as a person question what happened to them at all. Adding onto that, would probably be clearer about how Darnold himself ended up as a part of the Xen Project as well, its implied he was snagged only a couple months after Freeman but never explained why (wouldn't stop looking for Freeman) and I think this would have helped the story be a bit clearer as well. Probably have a whole chapter just for Freeman and Coomer to go over the Xen Equine themselves, what each of them are, who they are, what they can do, and so on. For being a story primarily focused on them, you really do not see them often. With this it would probably be made a bit clearer that Joshua is one of them and not just a human himself, since thats never really Mad Clear (a lot of stuff wasn't clear in the story) Sometimes its nice to re-think about a story and how you'd change and write it today, you know <:) its been like 4 Years since Xen Project has been active.

daisyhooves

One more Joshua for the road :) need a TH icon for him.

daisyhooves

Say hello to my new and improved son, okay?

somberine

Joshua

somberine

I'd love to see what the babies look like

Newborns have the basic shape of what their older counterparts look, but less features catering to just them, as the older xen equine slowly shift their appearance in little ways to cater better to who they are.

They also have a lack of large numbers of feelers, frills, and details. Typically starting out a single color and gaining more markings and spots over time. These little guys have absolutely no teeth in sight.

They communicate only with weak calls.

somberine

what is a xen equine?

They're an alien species I created for an au forever ago that I kinda got attached to. Now they're just a general species I made that I think about sometimes :) theres a bunch of different types of em!

Theres the OG Xen Equine, an ancient breed known for its amazing shape shifting abilities as well as its strange way of dream hunting. They're the oldest of the group and communicate using the light on their bodies. These particular creatures are known for their dream entering abilities and feed off the fears and anxieties within other's dreams to thrive. They mean no harm, and are generally very harmless within dreams themselves. When in a dream state they have the ability to bend the dreams to their will.

This is the aquatic breed, a breed that lives primarily around large bodies of water and feed of the life that lives inside these bodies of water. This species isn't particularly fantastic with shape shifting, but their ability to communicate through echo location is a curious one. Using the lights on their bodies, they warn others near by of any danger that may be about. This kind typically has their eyes on their chest with a rare chance of being born with no eyes at all.

This is the cave breed, known for its massive front paws used for digging deep cave systems to safely travel without harm. This breed never has eyes and primarily uses smell, sound, and feeling on top of echo location to detect anything that may be around from food to dangers. Its a very hostile kind due to its easily frightened nature, and will attack anything it sees as a threat. The lights on its body are used to flash in specific patterns and confuse whatever it may be attacking, or is attacking it.

And then theres what I've made the Narrator ofc. The navigator breed. They live primarily on land and always require at least one partner of their own or another species to live to their fullest otherwise they'll grow lost, lonely, and anxiety riddled and cant survive on their own. A sort of symbiotic relationship of sorts, this type of Xen Equine is closest related to that of the ancients, with the lack of being as skilled in their ability to shape shift. Instead their skill lies in the ability to bend time at their will, with restrictions. This species is generally born with one eye and two false eyes, though they can rarely appear with no eyes at all.

Every kind of Xen Equine reproduces asexually, and each is born from an egg. Most start with a basic form of a kit that has little to no special features, later growing into added features they so choose as they get older. Such as the Narrator's arrowed tails being specific to only him, or G's neck void being specific to them. Some how ever can become these without being born as one, though these are special circumstances. Some can also be born as a mixed breed! Much like my OC Joshua.

#hi this blogs dead as bones but i figured whoever still goes here would like this

is this blog dead?

[ no? maybe? honestly i’m not sure yet. while i love this blog a lot, a lot has been going on like...real life wise. my grandparents who I genuinely love back in CA ended up with covid round the start of the month, and it hit my grandfather pretty hard so hes currently in the hospital. hes stable right now, but i’m kinda sitting on the edge of my seat and been bein’ kept in the dark about it by my mom which! kinda sucks! i’d like to know if hes okay more than just ‘hes stable’ you know? on top of this works been getting harder, we’re really short staff where i work so weeks haven't been consistent, and it extra sucks considering this year was..what uhh...let me check, nine year anniversary of my sisters death? which really also hasn’t been great! the month over all has just been one hard kick after the other, so i haven’t had time for anything i really enjoy or time for my blogs. most art i produce isn’t even really full drawings rn and its like...i’m just not sure! we just gotta sit and see how things go right now. sorry about that </3 ]

#crow chitter chatter #covid mention #covid cw

Yeah! New chappie names :]

Chapter names all thought out and in order for the fresh restart! Like one or two of these are actually the same from last time, such as Memory Lane and Secrets Uncovered, but the rest are all brand new and fit a specific theme to that chapter. Some chapter names go hand in hand as well, which is just a little fun extra thing. Prologue (Chapter 1) - A Sign Chapter 2 - "Life" on Xen Chapter 3 - Neglected Space Chapter 4 - Unexplored Territory Chapter 5 - Memory Lane Chapter 6 - Anxiety Incarnate Chapter 7 - Working With Portals Chapter 8 - Memory Unlocked Chapter 9 - Thinking With Portals Chapter 10 - Secrets Uncovered Chapter 11 - A Week With Androids Chapter 12 - Where the Heart Lies Chapter 13 - Where the Hearts Found Chapter 14 - Secrets of Sweetvoice Chapter 15 - Healing Beam Chapter 16 - Mourning Memory Chapter 17 - Where the Heart Heals Chapter 18 - Calm Chapter 19 - Family Found Chapter 20 - Forgiveness Epilogue (Chapter 21) - Back to Black Mesa

#xen project other notes

While Im restarting and moving all the old posts to @xen-project-side , would anyone like to see all the new chaper names?

#xen project other notes

Im restarting Xen

Now before you say anything against this, you need to listen, I have my reasons. Xen is very dear to me. Xen Project as a whole, isn't necessarily based on any media outside of hl/hlvrai, and that why its special to me because its a story I've created.

However

The story Xen originally had become completely lost to me and the blog, the more I look at it, the more I see this isn't going how I want its story to go. It started with Memory Lane.

Memory Lane, while a fun chapter, really made me lose track of what I wanted here and how I wanted it to flow. So...a restart. A fresh start with new icons and art ans better understanding of things.

The new story of Xen is set to have 21 chapters in total, this including the Epilogue and Prologue.

THIS ALL BEING SAID

Do you want me to reblog everything here onto an archive blog? Or would you mind me deleting everything on here...because I dont want to get rid of everything before getting a good opinion on it.

#xen project other notes #hlvrai #the xen project au

would restarting it be easier for you?

Maybe? My problem is that I don't have a clear good grasp on it's story anymore. I love Xen Project with my whole heart, but I can't make sense of the strings of story it has any longer. With Slimeulation and the moon au you have yet to see I have clear set out ideas for both their stories written down nicely and a specific ending to both stories. I know where I'm going with them and I love them so dearly. With Xen, while I love it just as dearly, I can't see the story clearly anymore! I just...its all scrambled and weird and I feel like things just don't click right like I want them to. Maybe its just been this year being hard on me? I don't know, but I can't make sense of Xen's story. Its meant to be a story of love and loss and family and I can't get any of that out the way I want. I feel like restarting and refreshing might actually help it in the long run, but its so much to be rid of, and I don't want to upset people, you know?

#crow chitter chatter