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Alyx Vance is back in the Bar, sipping a milkshake and tinkering with her Lego robot. This is nothing unusual, for her.

The "I ♥ NY" T-shirt, on the other hand, is a new addition.

[tinytag: Alyx Vance, Captain Viscen, Gordon Freeman, Jennifer Landers]

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He points at the pieces with an intrigued look on his face. "That's his brain? Shouldn't it be...I don't know, pulsing or something?"

"...he's a machine, it doesn't work that way," says Alyx with a raised eyebrow. "Do you see a lot of exposed brains in your line of work?"

"Not too often, fortunately. There's a scientist lives out at Great Bay who has a brain in a jar, though. It sort of pulses."

A pause.

"He's a smart machine, though. So he could have had a person's brain." It makes lots of sense.

Alyx's expression hardens. "Machines with human brains aren't something you'd ever want to meet. Trust me."

And he takes note of it. He hadn't meant to hit a nerve... "They retain a bit too much of the nasty human parts?"

Of course, that's probably not helping either.

"They get all of the good human parts stripped away," she says, a little more harshly than she really meant to.

It sounds like nasty business. He opts for looking at the robot instead of her. "I'm sorry." What for? Bringing it up, perhaps.

"This one will be a useful little thing, won't he, though? He's got you for a teacher."

That elicits a small smile. "Thanks. I hope so."

Have a grin back. And he's caught sight of her shirt now. "...If you don't mind me asking, what does 'N.Y.' stand for?"

"New York. It's a city in America," Alyx explains. "It doesn't exist anymore in my world, but I went there in someone else's world yesterday."

Oh! He's heard of there! "New York City! They have polish dogs, right?"

He beams at this knowledge.

"Was it exciting?"

"...they have what?"

"Er, I think that's what he called it. It's a sort of...meat tube. In a bun. With strange seasonings on top."

Have a bit of backtracking. "The rock-man named Ben gave me one. He said it was what New York City was like."

Blink.

Blink.

"Oh-kayyyy."

"Well, you went there. What's it really like?"

She has to think about how to answer that one.

"Big. And crowded. And the security sucks."

He huffs. "A big city without a proper Guard is just asking for trouble."

"See, that's what I said."

"Did they seem to have a lot of crime?"

He's morbidly curious.

"Not really, but I was able to get through a bunch of restricted areas without anyone stopping me."

"Shameful. It's enough to make you wonder how they keep order."

"They have very strict laws about carrying firearms," says Alyx flatly. "That probably helps."

A slightly confused pause.

"Weapons, I assume?"

Alyx nods and pulls out her gun so that Viscen can see it. "Like this."

"It's very small. What does it do?"