YEAR: 2010
CAMP: 32 [BREMEN]
ADMINISTRATOR: DR. DANIEL FANTONI
STATUS: TERMINATED - MASS SOCIAL FRACTURE
He made loud, obnoxious speeches during classes. He was only six when he figured out they didn't teach him to love Breen here. Instead, it was some guy called Karl Heinrich and he had a huge beard and a penchant for socializing. He didn't like socializing so he said Karl and his beard were pretty stupid and his mates started calling him an anarchist (it was an insult?). He questioned the dogmatic way in which they all hated The Combine, he thought dogma was bad no matter how right the wielder was and frankly the more they hated this combine the more he was fascinated with them. His buddies(?) beat him up in alleyways and threw buckets of paint on him and called him a collaborator. He waved shanks at them. They waved shanks back. His thigh received a permanent scar. He was nicknamed 'Citizen One' as a joke and sometimes they pranked him by throwing dead headcrabs at his face and laughing when he thought he was a zombie. But what really pissed them off was when he told them he believed in "God" (whatever that was). God The Just and Merciful.
Every once in a while a nice old man in a dress stopped by and Dr. Fantoni gave him a stack of papers telling him what was being taught in the camp each month. One day he told the old man how much he hated being here and that Dr. Fantoni was actually lying to him (he'd snuck into the office and read the papers) and how boring it was to learn about Jean Jaurès and Gordon Friedman and the Chinese Revolution and how much more interesting the real classes must be. The old man made a strange face then patted him on the shoulder and thanked him for being so "candid" with him (he learned what candid meant that day) and promised to save him from a "broken childhood" (he still doesn't know what means)
The next day a regiment of Combine soldiers arrived with the nice old man.
Fantoni was shot.
The children were scattered and reassigned.
Some of them disappeared completely, usually the ones he hated the most.
He was saved and he thanked God for his justice and mercy.
He learned to speak up for himself that day.
YEAR: 2020
CAMP: 53 [HELSINKI]
ADMINISTRATOR: EIJA VAISANEN, MINISTRY OF CIVIL PROTECTION
STATUS: ACTIVE
every time he spoke out of turn he received an electric shock to a limb. one time he got it in his stomach by accident and vomited on the floor (he had to stay behind to clean it up). his head was filled with combine theory and he couldn't spit it out because just opening his mouth alone was counter-behavior and he liked the adoration he got when he made himself act docile. meanwhile the theory stayed in his stomach and sizzled into his bloodstream like acid and the more he hated it the more it became a part of his thoughts. he forgot the kids once called him an anarchist but sometimes he remembered and wanted to be that kid again so bad he lashed out violently at his educators and he was so mad he really didn't care what they did to him anymore. the blank stares he was met him somehow hurt him more than the beatings. then when he came back to his senses remembered to fear again they came for him and made him regret it. they always made him regret it.
he was made to wash stalkers in damp rooms with nothing but a wet rag and walked on eggshells because the last time he made one of those things scream he had nightmares for weeks. he was made to crawl in dirty vents and optimize the subroutines of dark energy generators and couldn't stop thinking of the kid whose entire arm disappeared when there was an accident with the energy sphere. he was strapped to a chair for hours and when he was fed up with it and screamed profanities they brought in a live headcrab and held his face against its maw and taunted him with the idea of living the rest of his life as a decaying unalive conscious corpse and he burst into warm tears and screamed GLORY TO OUR BENEFACTORS (but he had to keep saying it until he meant it and he usually ran out of tears by the time he did. he really did mean it, he really wanted them to believe he meant itso he could get out of there so they knew how much he loved the combine).
he never saw the nice old man again. nobody was there to save him. god the just and merciful was god the silent and neglectful.
eventually he became vaisanen's favorite subject. he was the perfect picture of conformism(he wasn't, you can't unlearn what you learn)
he learned to bite his tongue that day
The very next day he was a citizen of The Combine.
CAMP: 32 [BREMEN]
ADMINISTRATOR: DR. DANIEL FANTONI
STATUS: TERMINATED - MASS SOCIAL FRACTURE
He made loud, obnoxious speeches during classes. He was only six when he figured out they didn't teach him to love Breen here. Instead, it was some guy called Karl Heinrich and he had a huge beard and a penchant for socializing. He didn't like socializing so he said Karl and his beard were pretty stupid and his mates started calling him an anarchist (it was an insult?). He questioned the dogmatic way in which they all hated The Combine, he thought dogma was bad no matter how right the wielder was and frankly the more they hated this combine the more he was fascinated with them. His buddies(?) beat him up in alleyways and threw buckets of paint on him and called him a collaborator. He waved shanks at them. They waved shanks back. His thigh received a permanent scar. He was nicknamed 'Citizen One' as a joke and sometimes they pranked him by throwing dead headcrabs at his face and laughing when he thought he was a zombie. But what really pissed them off was when he told them he believed in "God" (whatever that was). God The Just and Merciful.
Every once in a while a nice old man in a dress stopped by and Dr. Fantoni gave him a stack of papers telling him what was being taught in the camp each month. One day he told the old man how much he hated being here and that Dr. Fantoni was actually lying to him (he'd snuck into the office and read the papers) and how boring it was to learn about Jean Jaurès and Gordon Friedman and the Chinese Revolution and how much more interesting the real classes must be. The old man made a strange face then patted him on the shoulder and thanked him for being so "candid" with him (he learned what candid meant that day) and promised to save him from a "broken childhood" (he still doesn't know what means)
The next day a regiment of Combine soldiers arrived with the nice old man.
Fantoni was shot.
The children were scattered and reassigned.
Some of them disappeared completely, usually the ones he hated the most.
He was saved and he thanked God for his justice and mercy.
He learned to speak up for himself that day.
YEAR: 2020
CAMP: 53 [HELSINKI]
ADMINISTRATOR: EIJA VAISANEN, MINISTRY OF CIVIL PROTECTION
STATUS: ACTIVE
every time he spoke out of turn he received an electric shock to a limb. one time he got it in his stomach by accident and vomited on the floor (he had to stay behind to clean it up). his head was filled with combine theory and he couldn't spit it out because just opening his mouth alone was counter-behavior and he liked the adoration he got when he made himself act docile. meanwhile the theory stayed in his stomach and sizzled into his bloodstream like acid and the more he hated it the more it became a part of his thoughts. he forgot the kids once called him an anarchist but sometimes he remembered and wanted to be that kid again so bad he lashed out violently at his educators and he was so mad he really didn't care what they did to him anymore. the blank stares he was met him somehow hurt him more than the beatings. then when he came back to his senses remembered to fear again they came for him and made him regret it. they always made him regret it.
he was made to wash stalkers in damp rooms with nothing but a wet rag and walked on eggshells because the last time he made one of those things scream he had nightmares for weeks. he was made to crawl in dirty vents and optimize the subroutines of dark energy generators and couldn't stop thinking of the kid whose entire arm disappeared when there was an accident with the energy sphere. he was strapped to a chair for hours and when he was fed up with it and screamed profanities they brought in a live headcrab and held his face against its maw and taunted him with the idea of living the rest of his life as a decaying unalive conscious corpse and he burst into warm tears and screamed GLORY TO OUR BENEFACTORS (but he had to keep saying it until he meant it and he usually ran out of tears by the time he did. he really did mean it, he really wanted them to believe he meant it
he never saw the nice old man again. nobody was there to save him. god the just and merciful was god the silent and neglectful.
eventually he became vaisanen's favorite subject. he was the perfect picture of conformism
he learned to bite his tongue that day
The very next day he was a citizen of The Combine.
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