#benrey doesn't know how to flirt

[catlokis-blog]

do you have any gubby scenarios i am DYING for old men in love and so far you are the only person in this fandom i have seen since 2020 have correct takes on them

(PUNCHING THE AIR IN TRIUMPH) YESSS IVE BEEN DEEMED THE QUEEN OF OLD MEN IN LOVE CONTENT

im actually writing a vampire au fic right now featuring gubby and boomer ... but i wont bring that up until its closer to completion

(right now i have it roughly a third done before i do my final edits, but note that's because i just do basic planning, rough draft, and then final draft. its a pretty simple writing process and its why i dont write chaptered fics)

since you asked for gubby specifically ill focus on them especially considering theres a lot of boomer content out there but no love for the space man and the man who loves space.

read more and a headcanon dump time. you know how it is!

bubby almost DEFINITELY made the first moves to gman. i like to think it was encouraged by coomer after bubby was like btw im polyamorus and i also cant stop thinking about gman can i go ask him out. and then coomer became #1 hypeman and would try and force them into scenarios together LMFAO

gman isnt really ever forced into anything though? luckily for bubby he DID hold interest in the bastard and would go along with coomer very unsubtly trying to have them get some one-on-one time

during tommy's birthday party bubby almost definitely started flirting with gman. something about the atmosphere making even mister money bags space god start to relax and have fun a little was when he decided to make his first moves on the guy despite having eyes for him earlier

The train incident was his first attempt to talk but we all know how often gman cameos around in half life 1... bubby almost certainly took notice of black mesa's Latest Old Man Babe

gman probably barely knew how to process being flirted with at first because he's used to being treated with fear and such, and when he does get flirted with it's usually in a way that's like "oh, you're so above me", but bubby would approach it in the way you'll approach someone at a bar

as in shitty pick-up lines and very overt "you're hot as fuck, make out with me" comments. but the phrasing is more bubby's personality than bar etiquette - he's not exactly romeo.

eventually once gman gets used to bubby flirting with him after a while though the script WILL get flipped on him. because gman is no fool. in fact he is VERY observant. half of the time he spent listening to bubby's nonsense flirting (and, occasionally getting responses he didn't know he was even capable of, like an involuntary "oh my" and a blush when he said a particularly romantic line that was probably fed to him by bubby's personal cupid, dr. coomer) he would be picking up on what made bubby a little more nervous to say, a little more hopeful in how gman would respond, and what he seemed to like to hear from dr coomer

after constant passive reception of bubby's moves on him he'll fire back onto bubby with everything he had observed up to that point. even the little comments he'd whine to benrey, coomer, and even gordon when he was willing to listen to bubby. all those offhanded whiny things like "why can't he just x already" would come BITING HIM BACK.

at the end of the encounter bubby is probably rendered speechless and gman toys with him a little more through baby's first kiss from a god. he and coomer would have their own little mini celebration about this later

( and, a little bonus, despite coomer's encouragement, bubby would never actually ask gman out. he's very stubborn on waiting to be confessed to instead, which is why it took so long for him to get with coomer after literal years of flirting. gman ended up learning this too and had to research how the hell you ask someone out since he had literally never had to do that before - he was usually getting asked out and rejecting people because they were doing it for some kind of personal benefit / he doesn't have much interest in dating randoms in the first place. )

#I WENT OFF HERE. SORRY #cats thoughts #gubby #gman #dr coomer #bubby #just a bit of boomer not putting it in maintags #hlvrai #cats asks #half life vr ai #half life vr but the ai is self aware #gman coolatta #i probably wont write this specific scenario because i have a lot of other projects going on right now #but if anyone else wants to... please to the lord above tag me

[can-i-see-your-passport-please]

i also think gordon doesn't know how too flirt, like he has to read, like and google "how to flirt", hes very affectionate, but definitely doesn't how to flirt for the life for his life (benrey (and.. maybe tommy. my autism speaking) was weirded out because he thought he was already maybe getting signs, and tommy would, probably be kinda confused on the change of behavior)

DFKJNDSAKJFKJNDSKJFNKJDSN DUMBEST MAN ALIVE SOMEONE HELP HIM

#benrey doesn't think gordon's terrible attempts at flirting are actual flirting or weird he just thinks ''hohoho time to be silly'' #they need to be silly all the time #asks #hlvrai #frenreylatta #🔫I’M GOING FUCKING NUTS [gordon freeman]

[ghostlyplacetobe]

Someone sent me this after i told them i was Diego IRL

Translation:

Doesn't know how to flirt

"I brought you some rocks"

When its night time they get all weird and start tossing and turning and sniffing you like a dinosaur.

Loves to drink coffee every morning.

"When i become the EMPEROR of Manhattan we won't be in need of anything"

Seems cold and insensitive but actually cries that they miss their mom sometimes.

May be a big shot but remembers their humble origins

"What do you think about the name Giorno?"

Their favorite movie is Jurassic Park and has a dinasour toy collection.

Loves books and horses.

Dislikes cowboy novels because they say they are common and vulgar like a guy named "Zeppeli"

Heheheheheh, you are diego irl bro just like how I’m benrey irl

#ask #thegirlever

[timetakeover]

❝No. No. God, no.❞ Gordon's prosthetic hand pinches the bridge of his nose, smudging his glasses in the process. ❝I have had it with alien bullshit. Up to here,❞ Hand moves to gesture near his head. ❝you hear me? Here. I'm done.❞

The glare he gives is intense, and maybe not entirely justified given he barely knows them and is probably coming across as a bit racist. Species-ist? Whatever. He doesn't have a good track record with aliens. The myriad assholes from Xen were out to kill everyone, and then there was the fucked up fiasco with Benrey. Honestly the only somewhat decent alien has been Mr. Coolatta. So yeah, this prick can take that ominous attitude and shove it.

❝I've learned to pick my battles, and buddy you are so not one of them. However.❞ Arms cross, and sure he's not wearing the armored suit right now but he knows how to project 'intimidating'. ❝That doesn't mean I'm just gonna ignore you. You try anything suspicious, I learn you so much as think of world domination or whatever, and my team will fuck you up. Capiche?❞

//I'm sorry about him. He's got issues with aliens ^^; I don't know what the Master said/did to set Gordon off but this was in my head so I figured I'd send it. No obligation to reply if you don't vibe it, no worries ^v^

The Master rolls his eyes so hard it feels like they might fall out of his head. Humans are so finicky. He thought he’d been having fairly good success flirting with the scientist, right up until he started gloating a little too much. Usually they’re impressed by the ‘I’m an alien, I’ll take you to see the stars with me’ angle. Apparently it’s a sore spot for this one. How is he supposed to keep up? Earthlings get offended by everything.

He’s so quick to start throwing around threats; that he’s going to pick his battles unless The Master tries anything suspicious, as though the fact that an extremely powerful alien is here on Earth, in this year, scoping out more information on Black Mesa isn’t suspicious enough. He laughs at Gordon’s claims, unintimidated by the taller man’s posturing. 

“You’re gonna have some competition for that, love. The whole… good guy, arch-nemesis, spanking me if I so much as think about world domination, role is taken. Has been for about two thousand years now. I’m persistent. Always been one of my best traits. Persistent and handsome.”

#tellescope #dhawan!thread;

[spiders-in-the-city]

A more “canon-compliant” frenrey comic,, This took so long and i’m really happy with how it came out <3

Inspiration credit: link

#frenrey #canon compliant #gordon freeman #hlvrai #benrey #benrey doesn't know how to flirt #no no benrey you be NICE to the people u want to kiss #not prevent them from doing their job #sams art #i worked hard on this #please look at it

[todaytomorrowgiraff]

hello! i was scrolling thru the frenrey tag and i saw ur post abt frenrey fics and read thru some comments and i just wanted to try to clear this up bc like it could be bad? someone replied w a threat abt if ppl wrote frenrey as predatory they'd kill them, and while yeah joke threatening is rlly fucking awful especially towards ppl u don't kno, i just wanted to ask why like instead of going a bit more into it u just left the possibility that writing mlm relationships as predatory wasn't an actual issue and was just something "uncomfortable?" it's definitely uncomfortable, it's been a real issue w ppl who rn't mlm writing or making that a common trope. it's been damaging to their community. of course addressing that you don't want threats on your posts is a good thing and boundaries are good to set, i don't blame you for telling them to leave you alone about that, i just got a generally bad vibe from the rest of the reply. sorry, this was a long thing to read and i hope it doesn't mess up your day too horribly.

Ok, so I didn’t answer the person because I make a point of only debating with people who actually tries to debate with me. Why would I answer a person who only wanted their opinion heard and threatened people in the process? I’m too old for that shit. You on the other hand pose a valid question and I feel like this can be a good learning opportunity for you younger people on tumblr. 

I want to start out with that I’m saying this as a queer person who has read fanfics and been in fandoms for 20 years. And as a person who’s job it is to teach about literature and story telling structures. I’ve studied this shit.

So lets talk tropes. Most of you already know why certain tropes are harmful for certain groups. In the case of the predatory gay it’s harmful when used in main stream media because it helps paint the picture of gay and queer people as dangerous and predatory. 

So why is it different when the same tropes are used in fan fiction? Shouldn’t that also be bad? Not necessarily. Now the big difference here is context. This is something I feel lot of people who only learn about these kinds of things in online settings fail to see. When it comes to tropes in storytelling context is everything. Lets look at the context of HLVRAI fan fiction. It is written by singular people for free, not giant companies making money of stereotypes. It’s written in a community that is largely made up of queer people (honestly I’ve yet to find a cis het person in any of the servers I’m in XD). Lastly frenrey is a queer relationship which means all the fanfics written with this ship has queer representation. 

Now as you see, the context here (independent writer who writes for free in a community largely made up of queer people with only queer representation) is very different from when the same trope is featured in main stream media (Big companies making money and reaching a diverse audience and often featuring very little queer representation). The trope in the fanfic setting will not harm in the same way it would in the main stream setting. It won't teach people that queer people are predatory because the people reading it are either queer themselves or have seen enough different representations on other fanfics to know this is not the case. Therefor the trope in this context is at worse upsetting or uncomfortable for someone reading it. Which is why tags exists. 

You also have to take into consideration that fan fic writers don’t create these character, they interpret them from the source material. Benrey in the show is acting kinda predatory at times. He flirts kind of aggressively with Gordon who clearly shows it makes him uncomfortable. Now does this make HLVRAI bad because they use this trope? No, again we have to see to the context. This is a friend group (which contains several queer people) who improvises a story on the fly. The way they act is how they usually act and joke with each other. 

So if people chooses to use this aspect of Benrey’s character in their writing they’re also not just making up a predatory gay character from scratch, they’re interpreting the source material. 

I hope this little rant might help to widen the perspective for some folks of tropes in media. Just because a trope is bad in one context, doesn’t mean it is in another. You have to see the wider picture in this, it’s not a black or white issue. 

TLDR: When we consume any type of media we always have to be aware of in what context it has been made and how we consume it. Trope that are harmful in main stream media does not necessarily have to have the same harmful impact when written in fan fiction. 

#hlvrai #frenrey #fan fiction #tropes #Listen I’m a teacher so I will give a lecture if given the opportunity #let’s learn some critical thinking folks!