ReConsideration 1819

Interval 18.0 – note the year. Wilson's adventure through the Enclave, where I get to describe in loving detail the place as it's been kept up for a few years after everyone leaves. This is 2 years before the arrival of Ulathoi, but things are gearing up, and the Mystery wants things wrapped up before that time. Loose ends are a specialty of Wilson's…. making them, that is. Wrapping them up is another matter entirely. HEHE! The "phallic, flesh-colored thing" is an unused monster from HL1's pile of them, "mister friendly" is its name… and yes, it's meant to be an ambulatory penis looking thing with tentacles and whatnot. Really, Valve, really? Yes, really – in Raising the Bar this creature is described as one that Gabe Newell actually thought was pretty funny. The Gonarch winds up being the more or less obscene creature that made it into the game, but this one still has models and animations, and is frequently used by HL1 modders to spice things up a little. There are raccoons around, Wilson, they're just smart enough not to be seen by the penis. Wilson's relationship with food is mentioned again. Like Martin's thoughts as he fell into the Coolant Shaft, Wilson absently assigns food-values to things that aren't food-like. And yes, he has a tailor, and yes, that's where he got the Mystery to go to get his new suit of black and red. If it had been more up to him, Wilson would have set the guy up with a whole set of suits, ties to match his eyes, in aqua and turquoise, not just red or violet… Wilson is such a clothes whore. "Meat lockers weren't his favorite places" – in both HL1 and Fear 3 you go through meat and food freezers. In Fear 3 it's far, far worse… Yes, there are people hanging in there. And parts. Meaty parts. Note that at this time, he's met some of the EC kids, and shows off to them when need be. His comparison to the hungry, lean kids at the EC is important: as when Mars gives out some food to the younger trio of kids, the older generation is used to eating more food than those kids had really ever been brought up with, let alone had at this point. They'd never grow fat on the headcrab stew, really. Hoyle's casual theft of thoughts is important to note here, he's really, really bored and lonely. He will reach out to anyone's mind, for a little entertainment. As we now see, Wallace Breen's ego has gotten the better of him and he's enjoying making conversation with himself at a rapid pace. Visually this wouldn't be much, but Vortally it's stunning. Like a time-lapse picture of a freeway at night, with blurred headlights and taillights, no single car visible. Breen is in all 4 bodies, at all times. "He never stops… just keeps going" is said in that deadpan weird distracted manner, similar to the man in the train station at the beginning of HL2, "they're always arriving but they never leave, and they're always full but you never see anyone get on", he mutters, obviously off in his own world regarding the trains and their passengers. Hoyle's distracted and distant comment is like that. Hoyle having a full complement of skill downloads comes up a little later. It does seem a bit unusual for him to have such a thing, but then his clone storage area is filled with surprises. Mention of Miss Silver again – and yes, the implication is that Breen started fucking himself, he really is that vain. Also the idea that Wilson got too occupied with other duties and events to kill off these two is notable. He really is behind on his beating quota.

Interval 18.1 – Mapes and his fat ass appear again, note the date on this. Things are really rolling for Armacham, and for himself. Over time, obviously, his habits will have to change. But for the moment, he's sitting pretty (ugh) and living large (ugh again). I definitely see him as a nasty, obnoxious, self-centered brown noser. He's very capable in his skills, certainly. He's definitely better at the spy equipment and programming than anyone else in his 'department' if they could be said to have one any more. He's still a womanizing jerk. He still wears bright print shirts and huge jeans, with a "Read The Fucking Manual" rtfm belt buckle. The state of the world and its food production is very important to see evolving, or more accurately devolving. We're used to a huge amount of food production and so was he. But now there isn't any. Farms washed away in Portal Storms, untamed natural disasters, superfires and floods, power outages and the like, all cause the nation's heartland to simply vanish. It might even become the Great Plains again. The honey bee thing is important to realize: bees and other pollinators only evolved after flowering plants did, and that was reasonably recently in terms of epochs. Their delicate systems are already, in real life, being destroyed by fungus and stress, and if the pollinators we rely upon for our food are dying out now, in reality, how bad would they be off if they were suddenly swept up in Portal Storms to boot? *wonders if there's a whole bunch of bee hives found on other realities now, being zapped away like the Vorts were zapped here*. The fact that dairy cows would fester is from my one science teacher in high school. He was quite fond of showing us the horrible things that could go wrong with nature, once we fuck with it. Cows tripping over their udders because there's no one to milk them is one fine image. Black Angus cattle that have been bred to be so tasty – but so stupid that they don't know to graze where there's grass and have to be led by hand there. The guy had a strange artifact: a football shaped object, which we learned as we passed it around, was a metal can of beans that had botulism infecting it. Ahh what fun. "Sometimes, he dreamed about cheese" – that's from a rebel's dialog in HL2, on occasion you'll hear one of the stray folks in the Follow Freeman and other urban areas say such things. Mapes could actually have saved Humanity, he really could. But… no. I imagine that there was a company making Cheezee Poos that made those other "badly spelled name" consumable products. Looting areas is something that's common in games taking place in urban and post-apocalyptic settings. Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3, those kinds of games are a lot of fun to let loose and think "where would I keep x and y". The idea of the Lambda graffiti is from any given HL game. Most prominently in HL2 and episode 2 as they indicate a stash of equipment or a safe area. However, the "winged V" is Project Perseus, and is basically the same logo as seen on the Replica soldiers uniforms, and Paxton's Fear 3 outfit. It could easily be mistaken for any other kind of gang logo. It isn't. Mapes knows this. Now, note that this happens years before Gods and Monsters, so be aware: Mapes has been watching. Not all his camera installations and spy equipment makes it through to even the arrival of Ulathoi, but he knows the kids are out there. He knows the Replicas are out there. Watch out.

Interval 18.2 – Another significant jump into the future, post-planning but pre-going… Because of complications. Adrian's take on things at Black Mesa allow him to reflect on his own life a little before jumping back in. "Misery could only call itself company for so long" I like that line. That the Pantheon is inherently busier and more active than the normies is to be expected. The kids never grew out of the whole 'scavenging for things' idea, most of them were, after all, born to it and raised after the Events by each other. They know only this struggle. It's likely that Shep and Barney play darts at the same little bar that Barney and Gordon did before. Renee's infertility and the fact that other women were also sterilized in the Suppression Fields is important to note: even though she's capable of having sex and whatever else, her body is physically incapable of hosting a baby. They cannot be used as surrogates, only the ones which haven't been Suppressed can do that. Barney's old girlfriend is a reference to Blue Shift's "get flowers for Lauren" note, in his locker. Shep's observation that Kleiner may be a powder-keg waiting to blow is my own – I've always thought that beneath that slightly bumbling, adorable exterior rests a dangerous man. That Kleiner sits immediately on being instructed, but others don't, I liked. Magnusson's egobloat gets deflated a bit here. Like everything else in the scientific world, even their plans to head to Europe are a work in progress until actually finished. Sometimes it takes a non-scientific mind to work something out, like the simplicity of 'doing everything once you're there'. Of course, in a few weeks, all that planning changes radically once more.

Interval 18.3 – note the date. Another of the Mystery's constructed realms. This one is basically a storage house, 8 vats and some machinery in a room at the end of a long corridor. Not much to see here. However, like his games of chess, and Wilson's home, you can learn things about the Mystery by his own constructs. They use the same color scheme a lot: graphite and black, with a diffuse light from above. Visually this is very similar to the Combine's halls in the Citadel in HL2. Whether that's on purpose or not, who knows. "There had only ever been three conscious people in this place before now": himself, Wilson, and Melissa. Even when he wasn't Human, the Mystery's constructs would resemble things like this, he gears himself toward biological entities. And here we have our first appearance of Cave Johnson since he vanished way back in Interval 1.1. Cave is not sane, by any stretch of the imagination. And in the 13 odd years since the Events, he's probably gotten more crazy. We don't yet know where he was, or quite what he was doing. His indication that he was tromping around the universe with that crazy-girl Alma is all we get. The Mystery saying to rest is a nod at his speech at the start of HL2, "and no one is more deserving of a rest", to Gordon upon waking him up. Straightening his tie and clutching his briefcase come up a few times, with the Mystery. They're affected, but they're habit. Old, old habits. "Part of the fun of punching buttons, after all, was finding out what they did". Reminding me only of DeeDee in Dexter's Lab, "what does this button do?"  Dropping party favors from the ceiling is something from Portal 2, a "surprise" that GLaDOS has for Chell as she's wandering through the test labs. "Motor control issues, mr Johnson?" Is kind of a Matrix nod, when Agent Smith has cornered Thomas Anderson and has sealed his mouth so he can't speak. As the Mystery can pretty much fuck with people's brains, we see it in action here. Cave being able to slowly whittle his way out of that grip is important. Cave's dialog here is from Portal 2, the "burn your house down, with the lemons!" speech. Whether Cave remembers the Mystery is an important question: sometimes, he didn't. Being dead would do that for you. Recall that this Cave is still a download of a brain scan, into a new cloned body. It is not necessarily the same Cave that knew the Mystery, but for all intents and purposes he does have all the right memories. When I mention the Mystery "being" Keenan Lane, it's of note. As other people would have known him, he put on that name and that affectation. To those who've met him since being Lane, the mere idea of using that name is ridiculous – almost as ridiculous as it would be for him to answer to it. But you'll see as time goes on, and with his interactions (actually it would have been before this interval's time/date stamp) who would have called him that, and why. He can still adopt this persona, even now. He built it to last, anyway. "For Science!" YAY! Aperture being a shower curtain company is part of the back-story and history of the place, in the game and outside in fringe materials. By this point I've played Portal 2 (since I didn't get the chance earlier) so some references to it and its history are put in. Cave as the "insane founder" is fun. He really is a nutter. Whenever the Mystery says that, I can hear his episode 1 speech, he pronounces the th sound very specifically. Cave does remember Lane, that's for sure. And their ages start to become important. "Why, why?" Another of Cave's brilliant lines of dialog, "Aperture Science doesn't ask why, it asks why not!" At this point too, he's more affected by the actual Portal 2 game version than the leaked Perot-type. The dynamic evolution of Cave's escapes and the Mystery's captures reflects all other forms of interaction. When bug spray doesn't kill that one roach with a resistance, better start making better bug spray? Doing that, you'll only make a super-roach in the long run. Start stomping. Cave having tried to poison Navy officials is in the less official Aperture timeline released long before the Portal 2 game came out. Much of it was rendered non-canon by the events in the game itself, however some of them are useful here. When the Mystery says that Cave was useful as a tracking device, he's only partially right: they could track the pair a bit, but only if they were within this dimension. Outside of it, where they spent a lot of their time, no one knew where exactly they would be. "It only responds to my hand" is true mostly, though Melissa would be able to operate these systems as well, if she were there. Obviously, the Mystery isn't interested in telling Cave about his fetching female assistant. Also his humor at this point is what Cave is more used to. As a dynamic duo of comedy, Cave and the Mystery are very well suited. As I mention, their sense of humor is often the one large overlapping point they share, even if they're both radically different in most other respects. Allowing Cave to baby-sit given what happens in the next Intervals is an amusing aside. And yes, second-worst, as Alma is the worst. The Mystery is in fact alluding to putting Cave into GLADOS's old cores and systems, but does think twice about just doing it. That there is a key point that only makes sense for him as a character to do, once the next Intervals have been read. Otherwise he would have just done it and let things go. Cave's thoughts on choosing flesh, as well as the Mystery's response, are of note. "Stop being so easily read, Cave", obviously the Mystery does feel more comfortable around Cave than he lets on earlier. They are old friends. In the months since the upcoming Interval's events, Wilson has been practicing. And Cave thinking on fighting Wilson over his boots is amusing. "That's what she said" old joke, still funny. Speaking of comedy, the Mystery's timing is everything here. He's quite conscious of that fact. "Melissa's rules" comes up again, hehe.

Interval 19.0 – The start of chess pieces as chapter titles is of faint note. Now it's Refugee City, in the time stamp, but I should probably change that the last couple based on the years. We originally met Chris way back in Belly of the Beast. He serves as a proper physician now, eagerly doing what he was trained for, and enjoying the fact that of all the Paragon students with such subliminal training, his is useful. Since the Medusa was actually built below a more conventional hospital, Chris's books can be scavenged even just by hunting through the upstairs rubble. He's still just barely 20, quite young, and far too young to be considered by Outlanders as 'experienced', though he has more experience than they'd ever realize. The current world's state of the medical field is what would confound Chris the most. He can't believe that such things happen – take those pills! Get that surgery! Foolish, he thinks. The water supply at Black Mesa would indeed be dwindling – the Combine have been starting to siphon off the water, it's not being reintroduced (remember Martin thinking on it way back in that same Interval where we meet Chris?) so when it does fall, it's important to collect as much of it as possible. Perhaps they'll eventually figure out how to move it with Portals. Not sure whether Rufus will make another appearance, but he's basically one of those "have a medkit" guys from HL2. Again I need to check against the original game, whether it's Sheckley or Griggs who is the medic model. Melissa's labor isn't actually that long given how long some I read about were, but if I changed the number of hours (from 32 to say, 62) that would throw off other sections a little too much, and I don't want to do that. It technically is more like 62 hours, given that other interval portion. It's been 32 hours since Melissa entered the birthing room, how's that? These difficulties that Chris and Paxton discuss continue to be a problem for all the Origin women, really. Each one might have a different issue to face. The mention of Jill and Rex's children is important: we've already seen that second child spewing her lunch back at Rex. Sandy's abilities have been working overtime. As Chris describes, once labor begins, it's a matter of dwindling resources for the baby to endure. She'll need to breathe, and in order to do that, she'll have to have air. And now we see why Melissa's regeneration, this 'virgin birth', is a downside. I'd been considering this birth for quite some time, before having written it. It's a pretty horrific thing. And unfortunately Paxton's thought, his worry that this would be normal for Melissa, is true. But they'll just have to deal with that when the time comes. The baby becoming self-aware is something that is unique even among the Pantheon – normally, children don't even really, truly become aware of themselves for years after birth. They are aware of their bodies, but their self is another matter. However, this child is very, very different indeed. Mentions of Melissa's 'surprise' to the group heading to Europe is made here. We'll get to that. Also mention of Alyx's capture, the fact that it'd been more than once, and how she gets into danger the way Paxton would, kind of alludes to the fact that Alyx does in fact get captured in HL2. Paxton's confidence or lack thereof in bringing Melissa through the barrier is clear, also that the Mystery and she are working on something together. It's that surprise, or at least… one of them. Sandy saying "don't you swear at her" is amusing to note: everyone does believe that anything Mel says in Vort is swearing. The arrival of Wilson and the Mystery is partially Mel's doing, mostly the Mystery wanting to check up and noting that things aren't okay. More about that later. Yes, all of what happens next is Melissa's idea, she's both desperate and highly scientifically minded. The images of hospital rooms, birthing, and that eerie feeling of nightmare quality are from Fear. And in Fear 2, some of Armacham's nasty surgical areas are shown. In one of the non-canon F1 expansions, we actually travel through a whole hospital. In HL2e1 there is also a hospital. At numerous points in Fear 1 we have flashbacks to Alma's birth of the boys. It's also in those scenes that the phrase "I've tried to forget, I've tried so hard to forget" occurs, and while that specific line isn't said here, it could be, by Mel or Wilson. Gloveless fingers, important note. Wilson arrived without really being dressed for success. The sounds of rending flesh apart are actually quite gruesome, I don't recommend it. So yes, Wilson has to remove his granddaughter the hard way from Mel. Melissa knows her limits, she knows what she's asked of him, he just isn't sure he's ready. But that doesn't matter. The demands she's made on him will be discussed shortly. Sandy is affected by this birth rather more profoundly than she lets on, we don't know what she's said to Melissa when she leaves the room. It's "don't ever make me see this again". Wilson's reaction is stronger than anyone expected, though he himself knew this was what would happen once Mel asked him to do it. Raccoon-like scrubbing of Wilson's hands… Wilson's eyes would in fact normally give off that glow, that powerful reflection of what lay inside him, but it literally went out, his eyes were just eyes as he's scrubbing that blood from his hands.

Interval 19.1 – The overriding theme in the Fear series is that of "Family". I know I've seen other fans interpretations of what Paxton would be like with his child in his arms. And once more, this isn't the canon Paxton from the games any longer. This one is not like that which we see at the 'dark' ending of Fear 3: bent on raising his half-sibling but only after eating his mother's body. There's something wrong with that Paxton. This one, everything is new, this is a challenge that he's certainly up for. He dealt to have this challenge, after all. This baby isn't as physically 'strong' as other children in Origin become, 'healthy' though, that's definitely the right word. Paxton's exactly as lost as any other father, but he does eventually have the bonus of being able to tap into his daughter's mind. "He wasn't okay with it. I don't know why" – Melissa really, honestly doesn't understand why Wilson would be so averse to what she asked him to do. Genuinely. Paxton puts it into words a little later on here. The fact that Paxton observes Wilson would up and vanish to avoid talking about this issue is absolutely true: they dodge a lot. The Mystery is very, very concerned about Wilson. However, still at this point, he doesn't quite know how to deal with it. None of them do. Like I mentioned earlier, all three of these men have to learn to deal with fatherhood from this point on. Each of them, in their own different ways. Because Wilson and Paxton can share their minds 'instantly', that's what Wilson has done here. Simply opened his memories up and started dumping them out by the bucket onto Paxton. Psychologically, Wilson is a mess. Wilson is very tall, and actually of the three of them, Paxton is actually the shortest. He's also built slightly different from the other two, a bit more compact. Wilson's inadvertent rape of the women that he's been with, and their subsequent deaths, is something he's been holding in for years. He tries to keep himself from doing it, tries to distract himself, but in the long run he was given plenty of ELLs and never did pick up that girl he bought. Ah, a memory from Paxton-the-boy. They've both known this grief. Wilson was never a nice guy, though he's tried to make up for that over time. He really, honestly doesn't know what to do with himself sometimes. He was insane for a while. He'd thought that he was better. This birth didn't help him any in that regard. In comparing himself yet again to his sons, Wilson can see how little he stacks up, and he hates that fact. Could, should, would, didn't, that theme finally comes back. Those gloveless hands also make another appearance, when I do make note of them it's to reinforce certain ideas. He wore them to remind himself of the blood on them. That mention of Wilson's first time with Mel, and then Pax's, it should be noted that Melissa wasn't just throwing herself around. As she made Paxton keenly aware of in that discussion the year before, he doesn't have any say about who she has sex with. And above and beyond that, she was made for Wilson, and she knew it. Unfortunately, Wade's idea of how best to solve the issue of Wilson's strength wasn't remarkably good. Mel should have been made invulnerable, not regenerative. She'd still get torn apart with his true strength, and that, sadly, is what Wilson wanted to avoid. "So come on, Lady Macbeth", heheh. They really, really are their own Shakespearean Dysfunctional Family. The Mystery's relationship to his sort-of-granddaughter is important here, and discussed shortly. Also, the baby's reactions to Paxton being smacked are awesome, consistent, and a source of endless amusement for everyone involved.

Interval 19.2 – Revisiting an old area, an old era, and collecting up some stray folk for the upcoming Intervals. I wanted to get each of the game's main characters re-involved a bit, so here we find Chell in a moment after GLADOS has been done in and things at the Center are rolling once more. The ELLs are not treated the same way by the adults as they are by the kids, and they much prefer how those children act. The idea of "taking apart and putting together" is more than just about Chell, in Portal 2 one of the things Cave's pre-recorded voice tells us is that if there are any tumors or whatever, Aperture would be happy to 'scoop them out' and make you good as new. Better, hell you should be paying them! "Do not look directly at the operational end of the device" is from the same speech which "do not immerse the device in liquid, even partially" comes from, in Portal 1. I'd wonder how a portal gun would work in reality, since you operate it with the left and right mouse buttons in the game. Obviously a pair of triggers would be needed. The idea that each gun had to have its own set of colors/wavelengths to operate on is also important, and kind of meta-game. Before they announced Portal 2 and its cooperative mode, people were begging for a multiplayer version of it. However, in working on that very idea, Valve found it to be far less fun than people really expected it to be. A co-op mode was developed in which two players have guns, and must work together using each other's portals – and to distinguish those portals each one has to know which they're using: orange or red, blue or violet. I figure the entire spectrum is represented by those guns that are in use in this EC. A brief mention of Martin and his electric teleportation: it does have an effect on the wires and lines, slowly but surely wearing them down. He prefers fiber-optics, for information, but he can only travel through electric-based conduction. And though Martin might forget to eat in this era, he does become a very good cook later on, probably because the kids will eventually force him outside and to places where he can't just siphon off electricity. Adell's gun is mentioned here, what happened to her is very much like one of the traps found in the Resident Evil movie, the laser grid that basically 'cubes' up the inhabitants of that room. Chell's personality in Portal 2's comic is described as "tenacious" to an extreme that was absurd. I thought about this, and realized that this represents the player in a way that the other two games (Fear and HL) only touch on. While you're playing Pointman or Gordon, you're expected to muddle through, to finish things up, but supply the personality for this blank-slate yourself. However, with Chell, the personality is actually reflective of how a PLAYER plays a game: we buy and play these things to finish them, not just to wander around in them. There will be no failure here, and Chell singularly represents that idea in a less-than-abstract manner. The ELLs names, mentioned very early on by a mad Rattmann, are pretty much ell with a prefix. Myrell and Joyell are a reference to my mom, Myrl Joy. Others I just stuck in whatever sounded good. Dr Finney's name is from my friend Josh Finney, though he's not a doctor.  Chell is very clearly smarter than your typical ELL, or at least, she is more organized and ready to think about things. Her appearance of the orange jumpsuit being on, as opposed to folded down, is the difference between the original Portal 1 design and the newer one in Portal 2. Their supplies of Armacham tank-tops, of which Melissa is overly fond, is discussed a little. Also, even mistakes like raincoats would be useful to the kids. "Her heels had never once touched the ground" how weird must that be? I got pictures of a girl doing a Chell cosplay at one year's comic convention, and she walked like that, on her toes, with the heel-springs being only props she couldn't really put her feet down. Dedicated. One might almost say tenacious! This is in the era before Portal 2's long fall boots. I have to wonder whether they'd developed those and Valve needs to update Chell's original look, or what. Those boots are gorgeous. Too bad Chell doesn't have em in 1. "Had Chell ever been above ground" oh boy is she in for a shock when she does go outside… Hehe, and also mentioning again Paxton and his groupies, it wasn't just Mel that wanted to hear him as he spoke poetry or made orations. He had a fan club. The comparisons that Chell draws between herself and Geoff are exactly what compares them in the games themselves. Some day, perhaps Chell would learn more about those Vortigaunt words they spoke caustically. The brief mention of 'pressure' as one of our senses is based on a discussion I had with someone I think online. There are far more than "just" five senses. Balance, pressure, those are not touch. Though they're both located in the skin and in the ears, neither are they hearing. Chell does bring her little plant with her, later on.

Interval 19.3 – take a close note of the date here. At long last I am bringing in certain characters that play roles in the Fear series. Aside from Wade, Alma and Aristide, and obviously Pax and Geoff/Pointman, there are quite a number of them that had yet to appear in the slightest, but would certainly demand roles in this story. Terry Halford is definitely one of those. As a shipping industry leader, the Halford name appears on numerous containers in the Fear 1 game setting, possibly in the other two though I can't clearly recall. But here's a guy who doesn't give two shits about the shipping industry. He's a black sheep, or in this case, a far more colorful, tie-dyed sheep. He's not a small guy, barrel-chested and homely. Terry's behaviors in Fear 2 are interesting, sometimes he's quite to the point, but others he rambles on a bit and gives cryptic information out. He's at least on a par with Norton Mapes in ability to program, probably far better given that he's a few years older, and he developed some of the physical systems that Mapes used later on. The hint that even the provisional hiring contract is 16 pages long is amusing enough, but nothing as bad as what's found in Fallout 3's "Vault tec" volumes of employee rules and regs. Terry works directly with soon-to-be-Senator Hoyle, their biotech department is his baby. Also make note of where this is taking place. While they do obviously have other facilities (named in earlier Intervals) their Seattle one is primarily dedicated to those rich-folks organ farms. The creation of clones is a difficult matter, but not so difficult that it can't be done, and done well. The party thrown by Hoyle is in 1991, just after his swearing-in as governor. It is clearly implied that he drinks quite a bit. In reviewing information online and trying to find some other fringe science-fiction fictional corporations to throw in here, wanting to make that joke the older guy says, "at least it's not Yoyodyne", I was thinking Yoyodyne as in Buckaroo Banzai, not Yoyodyne from a late 60s/early 70s science fiction novel… I'm frighteningly bad at modern-era sci fi. I had no idea that Yoyodyne wasn't just the place where, on the east coast in the 30s, a group of Red Lectroids from the 10th Dimension landed and started living… That is the company I'm referring to here, with this joke, not the other, slightly more literary version. "Another tart or piece of quiche wasn't going to kill him" no, no it won't. hehe His demise comes all too early in Fear 2, however you shouldn't worry, here he gets lucky. I don't believe that the governor of Washington state at that time actually was getting a divorce, but his dealing with cancer was well documented and something of note. Terry's random zoo factoids comes from the character in Fear 2, shortly before handing you a new weapon, telling you how hippos fight and intimidate each other, by spraying shit and fanning it with their tails. Thank you Terry, thank you for that lovely image. He notices things like the girl glancing at her family, Terry is big on details like that. The 'very noisy' party which Terry is at, is notable for the obvious reason that we also see a newly hatched Wilson Carver at it. Sampling food for the first time. Watching him in motion are all the eyes that need to be: his prime, Hoyle, Aristide, and plenty more who don't need to be. But few remember this, anyone who isn't someone important. Except maybe… Terry remembers. His assessment of Wilson and Lane first as father and son gets quickly corrected, more than just by Terry himself, when Hoyle all but outright tells him Wilson is a manufactured person. Wilson's near-obsession with food starts here. Hoyle's "tell me what you saw" is abruptly interrupted, he already knows what Terry has seen, he's watched it through his memories already. Pointing out that the ELLs are already in use in numerous markets at this party. Also, the Aperture ones in the Center don't have those barcodes, only the sales models. There are probably thousands of them in use at any given time, through the 2000s when the world ends. Camera-phones were new then. 