project-mary-bell-township

[project-mary-bell-township]

Is she talking about the de-

A sudden burst of static drowns out the rest of Ethel’s sentence.

Alright, alright, Ash, I won’t!

I’m sorry… some of my… colleagues, let’s call them, get touchy when I say certain things… they’re considerably more… rational, than I am, so I suppose I should take their advice more often.

~Œ

We're never rational! So it's ok. We just gotta...do the thing

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

BeINGs UnDER The SIgN oF ThE ReD WHEeL… yOUr InClUDeRs… My CuTTeRs, mY ScRaPpers… LiKe US BuT nOt LiKE uS… DeCIdERs oF OuR fAte… YOU DoN’T NeeD To WoRRY aBOUt THeM… THEy LEfT Us A LoNG TiME AgO… WE’rE pIeCES oF NoBoDY’s MaCHINe… ExCepT MaYbe DoCtOR GSFFNBO…

SHaLl we get going?

Oh...yeah, ok, let's go.

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

Oh, you Won’T have to do anything difficult! Just, push some buttons HeRE AND THERE, then ThROw a SWiTCH at the end… I’d go myself, but THe REd WhEEL pEoPLE MaDe SUrE I cOULD’T Go THEre… ThAT ArEA wAs MeANT FoR SOmEone ElsE ONCe… bUt I ThINK… iF TheRE ReALLy IS someone guiding you…. It’ll let you in. I know it…

Alright!

Oh, before I go, uh...who are the red wheel people?

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

Oh… OH yEs… it’s EnTiRELY ReASONAble for… it TO hAVe ENdeD UP hErE… AFTER EvERYthIng was rearraNGED…

She pauses for a moment.

I think I know how we can tRacK IT down… A ViTaL OBJEcT LIKe ThaT OUGHt tO HAVE A STrONg signal… if you can just help me turn on the communications system, then maybe we can FiND IT…

I'll try and help...I'm not really good with computers.

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

Maybe we can ask her about the turnwheel we need to activate the Engine Room?

~Œ

Oops! I forgot!

Have you seen the...the turn wheel for the engine room?

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

Oh nO… I… suPpOse you CaMe HeRE sEEkinG an EScAPe? UnFoRtunately… the coRRosiOn is… still pReSEnT HEre…

Yeah...but, the person helping me said there would be a switch here or something?

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

OH… that SoUNDs TERRIblE… I mYSelF WAs NEVEr ALLoWEd to leave THiS PlACe… I havE BEEn LIkE THiS SINcE I WAs LeFT HErE by thE… ThE ReD wHEeL PeOPLe… ThE CoRROSiOn TRIEd tO breAk mE, but YouR father HeLpED me suRviVe, and… there is OnLY SO MuCH BREAkinG you can dO to SOMeTHing THaT never got to function… the QuEstion THEn BeCOMeS… WHaT brings you ALL THe wAy OuT hEre, if LEaVING yOUr ToWN is SO DAnGERouS…?

...people died.

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

…of all the things I expected down here, another person like you was not one of them. Looks like she’s pretty badly affected, and she certainly has her eccentricities, but… it’s not like she’s trying to hurt us… it also seems like she might have known your father before… all this went down.

~Œ

YeS! Me and yoUR OLD MAN… We go WAY BACK… I’m TERRiBLy soRRY about his condition… and what is this… ‘ToWN’… you speak oF? I’Ts ONLy THis COMMUNIcaTIonS CEnTRe DOWn here… your father told me about the other places… oFFICES, LaBs, cLIFFs, FLOAtinG ISLAnds… but never a TOWn… haVE thingS CHangED, SINce HE LasT CAMe?

Yeah. A lot.

Things got all scary, and we couldn't leave there. Well, I mean, we could, but we all knew it was dangerous. One of my friends, he uh, he left bounds when the world was normal and it made him kinda...messed up. So none of us tries to leave town for a realllly long time except maybe dad. Then Sunshine did, so, yeah! Angel could leave the whole time but he never did. He's really sad and it kinda scares me, he's not usually like that!

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

It’s nice to meet you, BoNES… No… he hasn’t been for a LOng WHILE, HE hasn’T… too busy to check on poor ParEIdoliA NOWaDAYS, BIg responsIBIlities, HE has… yOu MAY KNOW him as… ZFTG… or MAYbe Not… HE wasn’T MaDE TO tell you HIs NaME… much like I WAS made to tell YOU MINe. YOU… YoU LOOk like THE MANAger… YoU TwO ReLATED, BY ANY ChANCE… hE onCe TOld ME he HaD a CHIld…

Uhhh, I guess my dad could fit, but he wouldn't abandon anyone. He's just really sick, like everyone except Sunshine. He's, uh, one of the people in town.

Why don't I recognize you, though?

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

The portal leads to a very familiar sight: a laboratory in Black Mesa, but not any of the ones Bones recognises from the game. A sign on the wall of the hallway proudly declares it to be a ‘COMMUNICATIONS CENTRE’.

You’ve finally arrived! I’ve been trying to call for help for ages, but these awful soldiers have hijacked all of my communications systems! We’re going to have to… hOLD ON… YOU… YOU ARENT SUPpOSED TO bE IN heRE!! HAHAHAHA!! Nobody is, unless yOUR’e the MAnAger…

A shrill, almost cartoonish feminine voice breaks the silence, echoing from behind the door… sometimes it distorts, dropping in pitch like a toy phone running out of battery.

I suppose I shOULd INTROduce myself… since you’re new here….

A woman… well, a life-sized, Barbie-doll-like approximation of a woman, with proportions just bordering on artificial and exaggerated, staggers out of a door on the left. She has black… hair, that seems to be comprised of the very same black stuff that flows from all those affected by the decay. It drips from her plastic ball-joins, from the eye of the half-mask that obscures the right side of her face, from her eerily smiling mouth, and from the gash on her neck. Her white lab-coat bears a nametag that reads ‘JUDY’, but with a massive black ‘X’ scrawled over the ‘U’.

You CAN CAll me… ParaDOLia. It’s not the NAME THE ManAGer callED ME… BUT new friends CALL FOR A NeW NaME, I SUPPOSE… HAHAHAaHaaHaahah…

Great! There's another person here! Hi! My name's Upnnz Bones!

Is everything bad here too? I don't even recognize you, or anywhere here...we're trying to save the town...

Anyways, uh...who's the manager? Are they here?

#canon #bones/tommy #hh #the scrambled name us just tommy udung a caesar ciphet #*cipher #btw

[project-mary-bell-township]

I guess the [FILTER ERROR] could be through one of these portals… wait, why can’t I say [FILTER ERROR]? I understand why not you, but I’m not even on your side of the… alright. The turnwheel could be through one of these portals. Want to try one?

~Œ

Yep!

*Bones heads through a portal to his right.*

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

The front door leads to a single square chamber, dimly lit by some flickering old lightbulbs. One wall is full of buttons and dials in every colour imaginable, and hundreds of lights, none of them lit. All of the machinery is silent, save for the faint crackle of two orbs of energy in the opposite wall: portals. The massive pipe itself seems to be suspended in mid-air, linked to a smaller metal cylinder. There is an inscription on it: ‘VALVE’. There is no valve.

Huh! Guess we need to find the va...the va...the turnwheel! I'll start looking!

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

If it’s gonna be anywhere, it probably is. The thing is… we’re really not supposed to be in there. We need to be prepared for anything… considering all of you have been stuck in that town for [DATA EXPUNGED] knows how long, the one among you who usually goes in there probably hasn’t been for a very long time, not since they probably used it to rebuild the old maps into the town… I know I’m not supposed to be doing anything reckless, but… let’s go.

~Œ

It's ok! Dad started teaching me how to uh...do stuff. I can do it.

*Bones rushes towards the building.*

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

If my visual input is not completely broken yet… then that’s none other than the Engine Room. The very origins of the foundation upon which your world, and many others related to it, were built. It was created as a demonstration of your reality’s capabilities once, and I’ve heard only a select few beings are ever allowed inside, those who manage the story of your world… I never thought I’d see it up close…

~Œ

So the switch thing must be in there!

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

I know it must be difficult, seeing… all those things, again, but we have to keep going.

The windows of an isolated building begin to glow in the distance. It looks like a factory, or some other industrial structure, with a great metal pipe towering over the rest of it. Along with the nearest wire, several other wires from all over the void disappear into its grey walls…

…woah….

~Œ

Is that...

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

…Bones, I think what you’re passing through is the world’s internal memory! Anything the program wants to keep a note of: which triggers were pulled, where objects are located, possibly even undeleted autosaves and data from other timelines may be stored here!

~Œ

Ohhhh ok, that would make sense.

Ohhhhhhhhhh...bad memory.

#canon #bones/tommy #hh

[project-mary-bell-township]

I guess we follow the wire and try and find the map. Odd for anything at all… physical to be this deep in reality at all, but I think you and the others know more than anyone that your world has its quirks….

~Œ

Well, uh...whenever I went off map before this never happened...I keep, uh...I see things I've done before!

#canon #bones/tommy #hh