Tomzen - Blog Posts

Happy Valentine's day people! You get some Tomzen

Merry (late) Christmas and Happy new year to everyone!! Have some Tomzen to celebrate

Tomzen brain worms are going crazy

A lil work in progress :)

(Sneaky edit: no I'm not finishing it. I slept on it and now I hate it)

WC: 1515

Ships included: Tomzen, Frenrey in background, old men in background

@inkzectz idk if I should continue this, but here's a free trial of university professor x military recruiter. i opened the wiki so much i've learned so much. Forzen is canonly stupid, stubborn, and a compulsive liar

-Story begin-

Professor Tommy Coolatta, early as he normally is, watches as the new recruiter starts setting up his table by the entrance.  The previous one, a young man called Corporal Shepherd or something like that, got called back to the frontlines.  The new one is dressed in full military gear, something most of the students have probably never seen before.  His face has a nasty scar running over the left side of his face, and there’s a notable gap where his left eye should have been.  He notices Tommy staring and pulls an eyepatch over his eye, shooting the professor a glare.  Tommy, ever the oblivious one, decides to greet the man.

“Hello!”  Tommy smiles at the recruiter, holding his box of papers aside so the man can see him better.  “What’s your name?”

“Forzen.”  The man grunts, unfolding a chair and setting it by his little stand.  He takes a deep breath and stands up straight, looking Tommy in the eye.  He’s a little shorter than Tommy, although Tommy is abnormally tall.

“Well, hello Forzen!  I’m Dr Tommy Coolatta.  I take it that you’re the new recruiter here?”

Forzen sighs and glances away.  “...yeah.”

“Uhm…”  Tommy trails off, his smile turning a bit more awkward.  It’s hard to talk to somebody who doesn’t really respond.  “What, uh, squad are you part of?”

“Team-S Nice.  I’m the only one in it.”

“Oh, that’s cool!  You must be highly skilled to be in your own team.  Your boss must think highly of you.  What rank are you?”

“O-5.”  Forzen pauses.  “I’m a, uh, sergeant.”

“Alright!  I teach Biotechnological engineering in room 404, if you ever want to chat.”  Tommy waves.  “See you later, Sergeant Forzen of Team-S Nice!”

As Tommy walks away, he reflects on the conversation.  That was weird, wasn’t it?  What does “Team-S” even mean?  And what kind of name is Forzen?

He bumps into Professor Jason Bubby, who snarls out a curse.  Bubby had been holding a cup of hot coffee, and was now trying to get said coffee out of his shirt.  Tommy quickly apologizes and moves away.  Bubby didn’t like anyone, but that’s okay.  He’s going to retire soon.  Tommy still kind of liked the man, in a weird way.  Yeah, Bubby is rude and has very few redeeming qualities, but he’s a very efficient professor.  He’s so friendly with his husband, Dr Harold Coomer, that it gave Tommy whiplash the first time he saw them together.  Bubby lights up whenever he talks about Dr Coomer, even if the subject is gruesome.  Like that time Bubby went into detail about how Dr Coomer needed a colon replacement, and how Dr Coomer uses Biotech legs and forearms.

Tommy shows his school ID to the guard at the door, who lets him in with a disinterested hello (what was his name again?  Barrey?  Bourey?  Oh, right, Barney.  Officer Calhoun).  Tommy gives Officer Calhoun a quiet hello back, then waves as he sees another guard following a fellow science professor.

“Hello, Mr Freeman!”  Tommy calls over.  “Hello, Officer Benrey.”

Professor Gordon Freeman and Officer Benji Reymond wave back, calling a greeting.  Everybody shortens Benji Reymond’s name to Benrey, the first three letters of his first and last name smushed together.  Gordon, despite having a PhD, preferred going by Mr Freeman over Dr Freeman.  He says Dr Freeman makes him feel old, which he’s not, he’s only 27.  Benrey… well, nobody knows exactly how old he is, or if he’s human.  He doesn’t really act human sometimes.  Dr Coomer is 69, and potentially has minor dementia.  Bubby doesn’t tell anyone his age, sarcastically saying a very wrong answer when he’s asked, such as 6, 420, and newborn.  Tommy thinks that he’s about 60 or so.

“Hey Tommy!”  Gordon calls, walking over.  “Did you see the new recruiter?”

“I did, yeah!  I met Sergeant Forzen just a moment ago.  Do you think he’ll be around for the whole semester?”

“Yeah.”  Benrey leans against their partner.  He grins, smiling with a mouthful of sharpened teeth.  “He had to fill out a form saying how long he planned on staying, since he requested room and board.”

“He looks kind of like you.”  Tommy notes, peering under Benrey’s helmet.

“Huh?  What’d you mean?  I don’t look anything like him.”  Benrey blinks slowly.  Benrey has always looked a bit sickly with his grayish skin and yellow-tinted eyes.  That shade over his eyes… Tommy had assumed that it was because of his helmet, but his helmet is tucked under his arm at the moment.  His hair looks like the color at the bottom of a bottomless pit, matching the shadow over his eyes.  Tommy supposes he shouldn’t judge Benrey.  After all, he isn’t exactly fully human either.

“I mean, he sounds like you and kind of acts like you.”  Tommy corrects himself.  If this were a game, Benrey and Forzen would probably have the same voice actor.

“That doesn’t mean anything though?”  Benrey stares at Tommy.  “I- uh, does he have his, uh… passport?”

“WHAT.”  Gordon butts in, his mouth dropping open.  “Why would he have his passport??”

“It’s a, uh, rule.  Gotta have your passport.”  That was true, actually.  All staff members needed to bring their passport.  It’s a new rule.  Good thing Tommy brought his, although it seems that Gordon didn’t.

“Why the F-”

Tommy leaves them to their bickering, instead choosing to continue his way to room 404.  It’s upstairs, in one of the smallest classrooms.  The dean had told Tommy that he didn’t need a bigger room, because of how niche his class is.  Tommy passes Bubby’s class, already starting to fill up, then Gordon’s class (which only has a sleep-deprived looking young adult drawing at one of the tables).  He goes up the stairs, pausing only to grab a soda from the vending machine.  He greets former students as he passes them.

After Tommy’s class, he heads for the library.  He needs to print out some papers, and that’s the most convenient place.  Yeah, he could go to the computer lab, but that’s in the furthest building.  The library is just one building over, in the English department.  He waves hello to Forzen again just as a snowflake hits his nose.  The forecast had called for snow, but Tommy had hoped it wouldn’t start until 3, when his classes ended.

“Hello, Sergeant Forzen of Team-S Nice!”  Tommy calls over.  Forzen wrinkles his nose at Tommy, evidently not pleased by the name.

“What.”  Forzen spits out.  The sleep-deprived young adult looks up at the sound from where they were scanning over the papers that Forzen had laid out.  Tommy doesn’t recognize them.

“Aren’t you cold?”  Tommy stops by the stand.  He’s not exactly sure what to do.  Should he smile?  Say something more?  He settles for putting his hands in his pockets.

“Why do you care?”  Forzen gives Tommy a nasty look.  The young adult looks trapped, like they really want to leave but they don’t want to be rude.

“Because I’m a nice person.”  Tommy shoots back at Forzen, turning his attention to the young adult.  “Hello!  I haven’t seen you before.  I’m Dr Tommy Coolatta.  Are you a freshman?”

“I, uhm.  Yes…?  I’m… I go by a lot of names.  Maybe Fae?  No.  Uhm…”

Tommy takes pity on the young adult.  “How about Sam?”

“Oh, that works!”  Sam lights up.  Forzen scoffs.

“That’s the worst name I’ve ever heard.”

“Nobody asked you.”  Sam snaps, then immediately makes a face of regret.  They quickly excuse themself and hurry off, heading for the dorms.  Poor Sam.

“Why are you such an a-”  Tommy whips his head to Forzen.

“UGH, so annoying.”  Forzen interrupts.  Tommy pauses, mouth half-open.  He sputters out a few offended sounds as Forzen gets to his feet.  Forzen’s spine makes a popping noise, which Forzen pauses and grumbles about.  Tommy watches, flabbergasted, as Forzen casually strolls away.  Forzen pauses for a moment.

“Je ne t'aime pas, même si tu as un beau visage.”  Forzen shoots over his shoulder.

“What does that mean?”  Tommy, despite being fluent in multiple languages including Latin and Ancient Greek, never learned French.  He’s the leading edge in Musica Orationis, or as it’s commonly known at Black Mesa University, “Sweet Voice”.  Benrey often spoke with the strange musical bubbles.  Tommy had used some of the alien DNA the biology department had to make Sunkist, and Sunkist ended up speaking in only Sweet Voice.  This led to the idea that Sweet Voice isn’t actually a language at all, but is instead biological.

Forzen, of course, only flips Tommy off and continues walking.

@inkzectz seems like something you'd like

forzen/tomzen nation can you hear me

The grand hall echoes with the ticking of thousands, maybe millions, of golden clocks.  Glowing eyes watch Forzen from every angle, watching from between the gears of the clocks or in the shadows of the entity sitting on the throne.  The hands of the clock reach out for Forzen.  Shadows reach towards the entity crowned in light.  It’s made of darkness, something that has never seen the stars.

Tommy as Forzen knows him is just a man with odd eyes.  He’d called it scleral icterus, but Dr Freeman, the man in the mixology department, said that it wasn’t.

Now, the entity speaks, and truth molds itself to its words.  Time is guided by its hand, raised in punishment.  The gentle hand of it reaches out to Forzen, pulling him closer.  Eyes once yellow now see through any lie told.  Forzen wants to throw up, to tear out his brain, to wipe any memory of it from his mind.  Forzen wants to kneel before it, to worship it, to stand in its presence until Time finds him.  This must be God.  This must be the Devil.

The entity looks humanoid.  The entity bears no resemblance to anything, living or dead.  The entity loves Forzen.  The entity wants him dead.  The entity has no face.  The entity has the most beautiful face Forzen can imagine.

The man’s life melts away in the presence of this deity, this mind-bending entity.  He has no purpose but to serve it.  He’s always served it.  Whatever it desires, the man will do.  Hands that once were brown reach out, begging to touch the entity for even a brief moment.  Hands that shine with gears and liquid gold fall back upon the entity looking upon the man.  The only thing in this void of ticking and watching is the entity and the man.  He sees through the entity’s eyes, how puny his body is.  How pathetic he is, to think such a beautiful thing would ever want him.  How kind the beast is, to desire his slavery.

They’re part of everything.  They can see through Time’s lies, they can see the world as it should be, they can see what never was.  They don’t want to separate from themselves.  They want to get their freedom back.

The man staggers away from the entity.  It peers down at them.  The man is sick.  The man is lovestruck.  The man is running away.  The man stays still.  The man needs to escape.  The man needs to join the entity again.

Doctor Hayden Bubby laughs as the prone man fights, twitching on the ground.

Professor “Coomer” points his gun at Dr Bubby.

Mr Darnold wants to scream at the two.

Officer Benji Reymond watches as anarchy breaks.

The man is dead.  The man holds a gun to the entity.

Forzen won.  Tommy lays in a growing pool of his own ichor.  Yellow tinted eyes look up at Forzen with a mix of disbelief and sorrow.  A burned hand reaches up to touch the hole in his chest, the hand coming away stained with gold.

“...Tommy?”  Forzen rasps out, dropping to his knees.  He tosses his gun aside in favor of holding his friend close.  Forzen feels numb as he watches ichor drip onto the tiles.

“It’s okay, Mr Forzen!”  Tommy smiles weakly, reaching up to pat his friend’s face.  Gold is smeared across Forzen’s cheek where Tommy touched him.  The military man breaks.

“I-I didn’t mean to!  I, I just thought…”  Forzen’s face feels hot as tears drip down to mix with the ichor.  He holds Tommy close, knowing there’s nothing he can do.  He’s seen too many good men and women die to be fooled.

“It’s okay.”  Tommy repeats.  “You didn’t know.  You never knew.”

As Tommy goes limp, Forzen screams.  He screams until his voice cracks, then screams more.  He calls for whoever made fate to kill him too.  He weeps until his voice is lost as well.  There’s no coming back this time.  The entity known as Tommy isn’t coming back.

@inkzectz here's a poorly made tomzen angst fic because I've hit block in the longer, fluffier one

HL:VRAI hcs because I'm writing a fanfic and struggling

Every single one of the science team isn’t fully human.  Dr Coomer has Power Legs™, “Bubby” is an experiment, Benrey is an eldritch deity or otherwise powerful being, and Gordon Freeman is the Player.  Tommy Coolatta is no exception.  The adopted son of a being who can manipulate time and change the past and present?  Of course his father gave him some abilities, as Tommy can see through time itself, referencing “previous runs”.  I firmly believe that there’s something about Black Mesa that draws in the odd and inhuman.  The only person that I would classify as fully human is Forzen, although he shares Benrey’s ability to possess other bodies similar to his own.  Considering how Forzen references things that none of the other characters know yet, there is a possibility that he and Benrey are still in contact, despite no longer liking each other.

As Tommy has likely been in or around Black Mesa most of his life, he wouldn’t understand that most people don’t have supernatural abilities.  As such, he brings up what happened in the “last run”, confusing any normal humans around him.  The scientists he works with know that Tommy just does that sometimes, and if they bring it up then that government guy will take them aside and make them disappear.

Tommy is rich.  He is in the upper class.  He makes at least 200k a year, if not more.  Forzen likely grew up poor, because no rich person would join the military willingly.  The US Marines, which is what Forzen is part of, pay less than half of what Tommy makes.  Because Forzen is likely legally dead, and thus can no longer make any money, he moves in with Tommy.  Tommy lives in his own house, of course, although his father worries about him enough that he might as well live there too.

Forzen is a very rude man, as well as a liar.  He is not shown to have tremendous intelligence.  There is a high possibility that he is related in some way to Benrey, as he is fully capable of returning after death without anyone noticing it.  This is an ability specific to Benrey (and Forzen), as each time “Bubby”, Coomer, or Tommy dies, their return to life is either noted (if on screen) or given an explanation (if off screen).  This is separate to their death, as Benrey’s death is almost always acknowledged.  Forzen, however, has never had his death acknowledged, other than after he disappears for the last time, as Benrey says that he killed Forzen.  Forzen shows a very low interest in remaining alive, indicating that he may be severely depressed.  Due to his desire to graduate, it is indicated that Forzen is in his twenties, although there is still a possibility that he is older or younger.

Tommy’s abilities can appear in ways that he doesn’t notice, such as moving out of the way just in time to avoid danger.  This implies that although Tommy is aware that he can see alternate timelines, he is unaware of his other abilities.  Of the science team, Gordon Freeman dies the least, followed by Tommy.  Tommy is a level 1 autistic man, which means he is fully capable of functioning without help.  He is unable to understand more complex questions without an explanation, and frequently takes jokes as the truth.  He also drinks a, frankly, concerning amount of caffeine with noticeable side effects.  These include confusion, increased thirst, and nervousness.

This combination provides multiple fanfiction ideas, including but not limited to:

A misunderstanding between Forzen and Tommy, where Forzen lies, saying that he hates Tommy.  Tommy is heartbroken.

Tommy goes to the hospital for caffeine overdose, which he should’ve done much earlier.  Forzen panics.

Tommy rambles about how he made Sunkist.  Forzen has a gay panic.  Alt, Forzen does one of those military obstacle courses, and Tommy has a gay realization.

Classic A fell first, B fell harder.

Angst, including Forzen opening up and crying on Tommy’s shoulder about what he did as a Marine.

Fluff, including Forzen and Tommy playing a rpg together (I recommend Sun Haven or SDV!)

The classic enemies to lovers, in which Forzen does his best to finish his job, despite being legally dead.  Tommy, due to his inhuman abilities that he is unaware about, avoids every trap.  (Either 18+ if you want to make this angst (Edit: for gore. No sex), or PG for cartoon violence)

Legally required “there was only one bed” troupe.  This must be fully PG, because Tommy doesn’t know about sex.

Classic au switcheroo.  Tommy is the big bad now.  Forzen is the Player.  Cue heartbreak and angst as Forzen has to kill Tommy.

As always, feel free to add more!