ReConsideration 1

Interval 1.0 – There was much research done on the music of the era, what products were in use at that point, and fashion/styles. A few websites include a top-ten listing per week so any given radio station would have been getting those chartworthy songs. My fond memories of donuts and Slurpees from 7/11 which I should change to something more akin to the Sippee Bliss product… hmm… lol rendering that idea useless. Ooh wait, Sippee Bliss probably bought out slurpees at some point after the 70s. That would be just perfect. Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific was a real hair product and I think is still available somewhere online. Sexism in the workplace was rampant and exploitable. The BATSHITT project is a little gem, I thought. The Borealis is certainly apt to cause trouble in whatever setting it is found. Very first appearance of Gman, up in the observation deck. Mention of Cave and his weird shit, note well that this Cave Johnson is based more or less on the leaked script version, which came with a doctored painting of Ross Perot – who I fondly recall as that southern-fried nutball who tried to run for president. Rather than the man found in the slightly more pleasant-looking Portal 2 paintings, this one does have those beady, bright-black eyes shown on Perot. At this point in real-world time, Portal 2 had yet to be released by several months, but I think I gave a reasonable impression of the same visuals you'd find in the game of the 70s era office and computer areas. The posters in particular, I love channeling Valve. I think it's kind of a shame that Mr. Karnes is never seen again. He and the others in the Borealis facility would have by all rights been very interesting people doing an incredibly strange job. I did get one person sending me a message that "the end of the first chapter is cut off". … No, no it isn't.

Interval 1.1 – "the memory was not of sugar", one of my favorite lines. Alma's first and last appearance for a time, she doesn't appear much in the games, so she makes only bit appearances in the story. Cave in his new body: we know he's dead, but… he's not really, really dead. The green energy ball of light behind Cave and Alma is Gman's doing. Also, it's mentioned that Alma would have found it familiar: that's because Gman has been watching her all her life. Like most strongly psychic Vortal presences, she attracts attention to herself, and that attention is what causes all of this. The waiting room chairs are meant to be older, horrid versions of those same seats mentioned in the first interval. Since a lot of the resources in each game are re-used frequently enough, it seems likely that having exactly the same couch, chairs, artwork or filing cabinets is a sure thing. When I describe any of them, it's straight from the games. Asbestos-laden ceiling panels hints at Aperture's money making ventures: salt, asbestos, shower curtains. Cave's abilities, for the record, were not things he could do in his original body. He's in a cloned, Icarus-treated new one, remember what Icarus does? Oh, you'll find out. The Borealis building's displacement in time will come back in a bit, not the building, but its remnants.

Interval 1.2 – Judith Mossman's introduction as a teacher not quite happy with her duties. Paxton's first appearance and sudden near death, and his brother's clear leadership qualities. Mention of the ELLs as 'drones', and a back-stage look at where they live. Replica soldiers inactive standing down – those are seen at different points in the Fear game, particularly of note when you've just put a bullet into Paxton's head and come out of his hallucinatory world. Leaving his bloody body behind, you see the shapes of those soldiers you've had to fight through the whole time, and they aren't moving. They're just standing there, it's very, very spooky. Mel's attempts to rouse Pax are pretty straightforward, they're telepathic, and that will continue to come up through the story. The "Shake box" rooms are much like flight simulator rides, "Star Tours" and such. Having seen just enough of what those require to move, the space they're in, and how their interiors are set up, it's easy to imagine any given room in the Enrichment Center that has Panels – those rooms can all be reworked, switched around. Geoff speaks: this is something of note, as in the next portion with Gordon – normally player characters like them are thought to be either mute or choosing not to speak, and in Geoff's case he likely just chose not to. In the games, as a child, he was certainly not the dominant one of the pair, not appearing to speak at all in the cut-scenes, even when he could have shouted, cried out or whatnot. In Repurposed, Geoff chooses to speak carefully. This is from my suspicion that the game-version children were never socialized at all, only exposed to what people and situations that Armacham and Harlan wanted them to see and do. P1 may have spoken to his 'cell mate', P2, but probably only when they thought no one was watching them through the curved glass window to their cell. Bella is the creation of Shmuck on the Fearfans forums, a useful catalyst to say the least. Also, the briefest hint that Judith knows what is in store for Melissa, but doesn't want to think about it since the world may very well kill them all before she grows up into her role. Geoff's dislike of elevators comes back a couple times – and I have to agree, I hate elevators too. They often fall, particularly in video games. It honestly surprises me that the transport elevators in Portal 1 and 2 never dropped out from under you… But in the HL series as well as the Fear series, you step into elevators at your own risk, because they do fall. GLADOS's dialog is roughly taken from parts of her speeches at the end of P1, kind of obviously she would encourage as many people as possible to die. I thought of actually quoting some of the lyrics to Still Alive, but figured there would be enough other things she'd have developed over the 15+ years around Alma to keep children on edge/sleepy. Oh and using the phrase "lab rats" in describing the ELLs was coincidental: this chapter was written months before the Lab Rat comic came out featuring Rattmann.

Interval 1.3 – Gordon Freeman at last… Essentially the introduction chapter of HL1, tweaked through Freeman's Mind. I'm exceedingly fond of Freeman's Mind. Since most of the scientists and guards actually mention you're running late, he is late to work. The contention online about whether Gordon's HEV suit has a helmet or not comes up a little here – in this world, it does not have a helmet. Also, his button-pushing glory days are in full swing! As far as the AMS and its use, I figure any device that large and that complicated would be very expensive to run. Sure, they've got a dam and produce their own power, but anything like that would suck down a tremendous amount of power. Plus, in fringe areas and in Blue Shift or Opposing Forces you hear the scientists around complaining about "those anomalous lab people" again – so this happens on a regular but infrequent rate. The mention of Eli as a religious man starts here: I think he is, certainly, a devout man. Whether he is agnostic or of a specific faith I don't know, probably just agnostic since he himself works directly with machines that can break reality down into its component parts. Anything like that might cause a weaker man to question his faith, but I think that in Eli is a very strong, stable conviction. It actually makes me feel better knowing that he is both a scientist and a devout man. His discussions with the Gman are mentioned a little here and elsewhere. The color orange is very important in any Black Mesa setting. Yes, Gordon speaks. Mention of the women, Green and Cross. The dialog in the AMS area is straight from the first levels of HL1, without alteration. Also, there are only so many words that mean 'sideways'. That word came up numerous times before I decided to change a couple of them. When the Borealis appeared and then vanished as Alma blasted at it, the world moved sideways. Xen's weirdness is glimpsed a couple times before Gordon actually goes there purposefully, hm, I'd have to wonder if Paxton was trying to drag him there to help.