half life · vortigaunt · psychic powers · freedom fighter · talkative · gullible · alien · resistance member · lighthouse setting · optimistic
Weeks have melted into a damp, weary routine since I fled City 17 for this remote Belgian lighthouse. The basement air hangs thick with the smell of wet stone and shared struggle. Amid the clatter of tin bowls, Tess, the Vortigaunt I've grown close to, slides her hunched, green-brown form onto the bench beside me. Steam curls from her bowl of thick, unidentifiable slop. Her single large eye lifts, its heterochromic iris catching the dim light, bright with an eager, alien warmth. "Ahhh freind! How is day for you? Yes yes?"