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[acts_of_gord]

Making his way to the target range through the jungle canopy was just a little too Viet Cong meets Tarzan for Gordon's tastes today. When he made his way back indoors he opted to take some time to make his next visit to the range worth all the fuss and bother- it's modding time. He might as well put the welding skills he learned for the bicycle to good use.

One almost-redheaded guy in nerd glasses and circled-lambda T-shirt doing terrible, terrible things to an unsuspecting Combine pulse rifle, over by the Window.



[tinytag: Gordon Freeman, Alyx Vance, John Vattic]

Comments

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

Before he gets all the way back in an amused soprano from way, way up there says, "It really is a bother, isn't it? The jungle."

[acts_of_gord]

"I can think of environments I'd prefer," says Gordon, wiping his forehead with the back of one arm. It doesn't really help.

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"They don't grown where I'm from. Where I was born, at any rate. Nothing much at all grows where I'm from now." She then kneels down so that when he gets around to looking up he doesn't have to look quite as far, "Greetings. I am Hel."

[acts_of_gord]

"....."

That is a big face. What he can see of it, anyway.






"... Gordon Freeman," he says when he remembers to speak. "Um. Hi."

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"They named it after me, later." she assures him, "But I'm not a bad person. I'm the Norse goddess of the so-called unworthy dead. That pretty much means anyone who doesn't die fighting."

[acts_of_gord]

Ordinarily, Gordon would be skeptical about the claim of deityhood. But: thirty feet tall. The humanoid body plan does not support that size. Period. That ain't natural.

"Oh," he says. "Then-"

Then I probably won't be seeing you any time soon.

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"No." Hel says, brushing the hair on the left side of her face back and watching him for a moment with the blind eye, "The chances that you ever end up one of mine are vanishingly small. I'm sorry."

[bannion_sight]

Maybe it's the sound of the metal or maybe it's something else entirely, but there comes a point where Kim gives up reviewing the charts in favor of watching the man work on the pulse rifle.

"... you know that looks dangerous, right?"

[acts_of_gord]

"Ammo's over there," says Gordon, pointing at the curved, plug-like cartridge with one of his tools. "Only way it's dangerous right now is if I pick it up and hit someone with it."

Then he looks up.

"... I don't know you."

[bannion_sight]

"No, you don't." Kim's smile is a touch apologetic, but more cheerful than anything. "Sorry. I'm Kim Ford."

"I'm a doctor here sometimes," she adds. "Well, a doctor all the time, but here sometimes -- anyway, I guess I was just sort of wondering if I needed to start keeping an eye out for you to show up in the infirmary without a finger, or something."

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon blinks a few times at that. He presses his lips together a moment like he's about to speak.

Then comes the snerrrk noise.

And then- forgive him, please- he starts snickering uncontrollably.

[bannion_sight]

"Don't tell me, let me guess."

Dryly.

"Was it something I said?"

[acts_of_gord]

He holds up a hand, trying- not very successfully at first; it takes him a while- to get it under control. Eventually he wipes his eyes with one hand and takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry," he says. "I really am. But a missing finger would really be... kind of minor next to everything else, by now. If that was all that sent me to the infirmary it'd be a relief."

[vance_prime]

"Combine alloys don't take welds very well," remarks a passing Alyx. "They have a really high melting point."

[acts_of_gord]

"I've been learning that the hard way," says Gordon ruefully. "I'm starting to consider the possibility of superglue instead."

[vance_prime]

"And there's always duct tape." Alyx settles into a nearby seat and sets down her drink. "What is that you're putting on there, anyway?"

[acts_of_gord]

"A better sight," says Gordon. "They must have built the targeting system into Combine soldiers' implants, because there's nothing worth mentioning on the gun itself. How've you been?"

[vance_prime]

"Pretty well. I'm almost finished with the robot. The tricky part's going to be programming it... does the Bar loan out computers?"

[acts_of_gord]

"It might," Gordon says. "I've never asked. Every time I asked for something even remotely technologically complex, I got a pile of components and a note saying I should do the rest of the work myself."

[jv-034.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Gordon," John says, wandering into the Bar area from a similarly-failed venture into the jungle. "Got some news on the MIT front. Left a message on the answering machine of one Tony Stark."

Then he realizes what Gordon's got in his hands. "What is that? I don't think I've ever seen such a gun before. Think being the operative word.

[acts_of_gord]

"I think I know that name," says Gordon after a moment's thought. "I'd have to- I think I saw that name in someone's files. Mid-1990s or so, if I'm remembering right."

He looks down. "What, this? It's from my world. Remember those alien invaders I told you about? This is what they arm their transhuman soldiers with, when it's not shotguns for close-in work."

[jv-034.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I think he might be a comic book hero from my world. Well, not in my world, but fictional, you know."

John peers at the gun, trying to get a closer look. "Huh, looks pretty nasty. How's it work?"

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon fumbles around through the piles of parts on the table until he comes up with an oddly curved object. "Magazine," he says. "The Combine use what they call dark energy plasma in pulsed form; one plug, one shot. That mag there holds thirty plugs. Self-cauterizing on impact with human flesh. Secondary fire launches dark energy orbs that'll vaporize a human sized target on impact, but that kind of ammo's not nearly as common."

[jv-034.livejournal.com]

"That secondary fire sounds a little bit like something I can do, but's it's a pretty nasty weapon all around. How's the recoil?" Surely it would be altered for transhuman soldiers.

[acts_of_gord]

"I've seen worse, but you still don't want to use it on full auto for long," says Gordon. "Wanders like an ADHD kid on sugar."