#no thoughts brain empty only hlvrai

[crechurechaos]

hlvrai brainworms are returning at an alarming rate 👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️

[ssawboness]

do tell about Percy and the ghost they are haunted by

GAH i'm so glad you asked!!!

tw/cw under the cut: cannibalism, murder, talk of paranoia and delusion, etc. it all reads as much edgier than i intend it to be, but i can assure you the rest of the universe that i've placed the two in is MUCH less serious than this.

for anyone that doesn't know, this is percy! they're nineteen years old and was a medical student throughout the years leading up to their untimely but ultimately deserved death. they're my tf2 medicsona, and most of the other characters involved with them are also mercsonas to some degree, besides (most of) team bastille. the floating thing depicted as coming out of the lettering is kenneth, kenny for short, their first victim and ex-roomie turned poltergeist.

i developed a week-long hyperfixation on cannibalism and its cons, alongside associated diseases, and in that dark period of my interests, the temporary stain on god's green earth that we now all know and love to be percy emerged from the depths.

to put things simply, percy is a cannibal. they're deeply delusional, stemming from severe trauma and other unnamed mental issues, and their incessant desire to consume humane flesh and organs alike stems from a paranoia harbored deep within their brain since early childhood: as human lives are so short and the last caches of australium were emptied out just before they were born, they've deluded themself into thinking that the only way to keep themselves going... is to consume human hearts.

their paranoia festered strongly in their later teenage years, as the stress of coming of age was getting to them, and dorm life in college was just as lonely as they'd expected it to be when they entered. much to their chagrin, they and their roommate didn't get along, only exchanging a few words every morning or asking where something went, effectively isolating them even further. this drove them to their breaking point, and they finally snapped, committing their first murder; the scar on their face, accompanied by permanent nerve damage and an even more permanent ghost roomie, was the result of a fierce struggle. it was thoroughly planned; had they been caught for it, they would have been charged for first degree murder in a polite open-and-shut case. however, they weren't, for... obvious plot armor reasons.

kenneth, having been diagnosed with creutzfeldt-jakob disease only a month before being murdered, could only laugh from the grave as percy consumed his brain and as a result contracted kuru.

following the canon chronological string of events, percy doesn't live long after the symptoms start showing. maybe they die in just a month, maybe it takes five years of haunting for the illness to finally begin to fester and take control of their brain. who knows? it's all convenient for comedic timing.

backstory aside, let's talk about kenneth and percy's dynamic. before that, however, i should mention that i cannot see them being in a romantic relationship, unhealthy or not, to any degree. if you want to interpret it that way, sure! but just know they have no romantic chemistry because they genuinely hate each other and also i am smiting you where you stand.

after showing my boyfriend the concept art i'd done of my scoutsona whilst at work, his immediate thought was that of a comparison between percy and benrey from hlvrai. he's not entirely wrong, but i only realized the similarities a moment too late, so it's too late to change it i suppose. this was also before i'd decided that all my mercsonas' character roles would be correlated to each other in one way or another, for, again, comedic effect.

kenneth was also kind of fucked up, but instead of dissecting animals and eating them, he just hung out with other guys and got stoned when he didn't have to attend a lecture. he never saw much point in life, being a by-the-books historical nihilist, so he sought to enjoy himself as much as he could before it came to a close, which was much sooner than he'd have expected it to be.

this being said, what would be his motivations for staying back on an earth that never treated him kindly instead of sleeping for all of eternity, or better yet, playing checkers with whatever god was in whatever afterlife he was destined to go to?

the answer? spite.

being a ghost and all that, bystanders can't see kenneth, so he strives to make percy look as utterly insane as possible in public: yanking his hair, loudly singing in his ear, or just generally being a nuisance. he floats around being a cunt all day, but once percy dies, he'll probably be left alone. maybe not the best choice for your all-of-eternity afterlife vacay, but he'll find a way to make it work.

thank you again for the ask! i'll expand on the rest of the less gritty aspects of the team bastille universe lore if prompted.

[bees-aus]

HLVRAI ROLESWAP AU

[ Main tag: #SWAP AU ]

Roleswap AU is just like it sounds- an AU where everyone's roles are switched! However, what causes this AU to stand out from the rest is that roles may be swapped... but species and personality, in most cases, are not! In this AU, Gordon + Benrey are swapped, G-Man and Tommy are swapped, Coomer and Bubby are swapped, Forzen and Darnold, and Joshua and Josh (who works at Gamestop) are swapped!

Gordon Freeman

[ he/him ] [ Reference image ]

Gordon is a college dropout who had a dream of becoming a scientist, but really couldn’t handle it. In some cruel twist of irony, he ends up with a job at Black Mesa… as a security guard. It had great benefits and you didn’t really seem to do anything, so… why not? Sure, he’s a little bitter, but it’s steady, easy, has decent wages, and he at least gets to hang out around scientists. And at least he’s forced to keep up a workout regimen, which is probably the biggest thing he has going for his mental health. Also streams games in his free time. He’d been working there for quite a while when he suddenly got shifted to a different division- something about a big project needing heavier guarding. That’s when he met Benrey- who he thought was fishy as hell. And maybe he was excited to actually be able to do something once in this damn job. Of course, shit immediately goes wrong. Despite everything going to shit- Gordon is sure that his bosses will pull through and fix everything, so he does his best to try and do his job and make sure Benrey doesnt go anywhere he’s not supposed to. Benrey proceeds to completely ignore him, and use his inhuman powers to completely thwart every attempt Gordon makes to make the man listen. Ends up unwillingly becoming the final boss because of Tommy’s thwarting, and hes to be killed by science team, and then manually saved by Gman, Benrey and Tommy.

Benrey

[ they/them + he/him ] [ Reference image ]

Just like canon, Benrey is very much not human and a pain in Gordon’s ass. He’s the head test subject for all of the Xen projects, since his inhuman status prevents him from being killed or injured by most radiation and xen lifeforms that would kill humans. Doesn’t really care about his job, but Tommy roped him into it and he owes him one. Plus, the pay is decent to get things for his son, Joshua- who definitely takes after his dad. When the game starts, he starts playing it for funsies. However, it becomes a lot less fun when he realizes the game is becoming all too real. He hadn't worried about his arm getting cut off- not until it didn't grow back, due to it being a scripted event. Not only that, but Tommy lets him know that when the game ends... they all might die. So he helps bounce ideas off Tommy of how to stop it- with some consequences. They end up causing Gordon to be roped into being the final boss, and has to save him with Tommy and G-Man's help.

Joshua

[ he/him + ??? ] [ reference image ] 

Just like Benrey, Joshua isn’t human- and appears even moreso, since the kid has no interest in trying to appear human. Which Benrey at least tries, for his coworkers sake. About 6-8 mentally, his physical age isn’t really disclosed. He’s currently in his “molting phase”, as Benrey calls it; causing him to shed everywhere and try and itch himself on everything. As well as chewing. And hissing. And clawing the furniture. Despite that, they’re surprisingly well behaved when prompted, and listen to Benrey… decently well. Has an interest in Gordon, though that interest seems to half be trying to chew on all of Gordon’s clothes. Mainly watches Westerns at home or hangs out with Tommy or G-Man while Benrey is working. Has a strange love for cowboys. Calls Benrey “Bany” or “beedee”, Gordon “Hoofs”, Tommy “Eggs”, Gman “Chicken”, Coomer “Murphy”, and Bubby “Packy” as their main nicknames. Can’t read, but is a master Heavenly Sword player, amongst other games. Loves Minecraft in particular.

Tommy Coolatta

[ any pronouns ] [ reference image pending ]

Tommy is the son and successor to one of the more influential interdimensional buisnessmen, G-Man. When his father decided he was done, Tommy stepped up to the plate and took over the business willingly for several reasons- including simple pursuit of knowledge. He met Benrey long even before he took over the business, which is why he trusted him to help him with his project and appointed him to Xen experimentation- with pay, of course. He became self-aware when the "game" started, and though he tried not to interfere much, he got scared when he realized that when the game ended... they might all go with it. So, he decided to confide in Benrey- as they'd been friends for a long time; before Tommy had even taken over his fathers' position. Together they came up with a plan to try and delete the final boss- and it was this that caused Gordon to glitch and take over the role.

G-Man

[ he/him + xe/xem ]

After his son decided he was ready to take over the family business, G-Man decided to retire. He'd never really had time to simply... not do anything before. So he decided to indulge and start learning about more specifics instead of being involved with everything in a broad sense. One of his personal projects was creating a pet for himself- the "perfect" cat, a black oriental shorthair named La Croix. Though he claims she's perfect, she's... well, completley evil. But don't tell him that. Anyway, one day Tommy called him up and asked him for a favor- a client wanted Black Mesa to develop portaling technology to Xen, and he didn't really have to time to teach the humans. So, begrudgingly as a favor to his son, he posed as a scientist hired by Black Mesa to help fund and lead the research team. Much to his chagrin, that also involves working with Benrey, who he never really cared for. When all hell breaks lose, he's forced to accompany the rest of the team through the game for Tommy's sake- and because he actually decently likes the Coomer and Bubby fellows.

Dr. Coomer

[ he/him ]

Coomer is on of Black Mesa's experiments on creating the perfect security and scientist hybrid- if they could just have one person in both roles, it would be so much easier! Unfortunately, their testing didn't go so well. He's the most successful of his batch- and successful he is! He's got the brains of a scientist and the brawns of... well, certainly a lot more than your average security guard. Plus the psychokinesis. Really, he's the perfect package... if only they could properly replicate him. They decided to place him in the Xen department due to his multi functional abilities, and the fact that he got along rather well with the lead scientist there- G-man. Also, he's the only one who can really keep Bubby in check.

Bubby

[ they/them + he/him ]

Another one of Black Mesa's experiments- this time, in cybernetics. He was originally purposed to be withstanding of Xen atmosphere and basically work as a living space probe, but the idea was quickly scrapped. Still, they had a perfectly good brain, so... they simply stuck him in the scientist department instead. Though he's rather small and frail, he's by no means any less dangerous. A good portion of his body is advanced tech; a whole arsenal of tools store and hidden away in his body. Like a living swiss army knife of doom. Some of these features include giant, insectoid blade legs, a mini flamethrower, lasers, science tools... you get the gist.

Darnold

[ he/him ]

Darnold was Gordon's roomate back in college. Though he wanted to graduate in mixology- when Gordon dropped out, he got a new roommate, and things started to go south from there. Long story short, he decided to join the military for help with college and getting his degree. Unfortunately, Darnold is not a brave man. He did not want to be on this mission. He doesn't know why he ever even thought of this. This was a horrible idea. Oh fuck, oh no- But it's a bit too late now, once he's separated from the rest of his squad in an alien infested laboratory. When he finally meets the rest of science team, he quickly surrenders and dips out- but unfortunately, gets taken hostage by an evil cat named La Croix. Once G-Man manages to calm his pet, he books it, escaping the facility, quitting the military. Fortunately for him, Black Mesa's hush money (that Tommy provided, of course) was more than enough to let him get any degree he wants.

Forzen

[ he/him ]

When Darnold and Gordon both dropped out of college... Forzen was the one who decided to pick up the open dorm, and also the empty spot in Darnold's mixology class. Turns out, he was pretty damn good at that. Good enough that he decided that's what he wanted to do instead of join the military- fuck those guys. He went on to get a full, successful degree, and get hired as the official Black Mesa Mixologist. Though he's still a huge, buff, brute-looking man- he passionately works making his elixirs (all of which are lovingly named after beyblades, of course). He's pretty annoyed when a bunch of weirdos come knocking on his department, but he obliges because he has the perfect elixir to test on whatever the one-armed dude is- though they all quickly leave after a pretty heated discussion about TF2.