Name: Arne Magnusson

Gender: Male, straight

Age/DOB: 50s/1960-ish

Origin: Repurposed Earth, Seattle Washington (ironic, he was gone from Seattle about the same time that Gordon would be graduating High School)

Family: Deceased, unkonwn; however, Melissa has (in his words 'extremely inappropriately') offered to mix and match his potent genetics with others in the hopes of producing naturally-occurring Vortal abilities. However inappropriate this might be, he has certainly taken her up on that offer because he is very interested in showing off how good his genes really are. In the end, he has two 'children', Matilda and Brand, both of them spliced with more than just Mel or another woman, including a dead kid, and that is a bit creepy to him.

Other: While he does have a strongly stand-offish nature, Arne is still able to have 'friends' among the personnel of Black Mesa, counting Mars among them though he does put up with 'a lot of her guff'. Of note, though, many Vortigaunts admire him, perhaps due to his untapped Vortal potential. They seem to respect him and emulate some of his mannerisms when they're working with him.

Height: 5'11

Weight: 240, bulky, somewhat out of shape, but used to being on his feet

Hair: Greying and slightly balding brown

Eyes: Strongly blue, with heavily peaked and slightly bushy eyebrows, puffy eye lids due to long work hours and staring at screens

Appearance: fair skin mottled with age spots a bit, wrinkles, and 'laugh' lines that are absolutely not because of laughing. Doesn't allow himself to have even stubble, and keeps his hair and nails preened. He does however often have grease stains and the results of actual work appearing on his clothing and hands - he cleans up directly after any 'incident' with spilling or splashes. He wears his ID card, one of his keepsakes of what he calls 'a better, bygone era'. Typically wearing a lab coat over a Black Mesa standard 'why do we have to wear these ties', and slacks. He is hardly ever found in anything less than this, and never in any form of disarray.

Image Credits: Half Life/Valve / tektek

Genetic Abilities: gleaned from Melissa's incessant Vortal puzzle-stare analysis (as he will most certainly not allow her to kiss him or whatever she does normally when stealing people's genes for closer examination); his genes show none of the negative tags which would disallow Icarus processing, and that itself is something that is worth having. His Vortessence is extremely strong, though latent and likely not any form that could change anything but his own composition. He has according to Melissa, "a slight digestive disorder, and a 30% chance to develop diabetes, and a vitamin deficiency common to those in Black Mesa, good hairline but some pattern baldness; excellent eyesight even into later years, bone structure is excellent, suitable for Icarus." Powers would likely include physical durability and strength, as Melissa would pair him up with herself or Kitty and throw in Donald, all known for their regenerative or resistance abilities. Notably Vortigaunts adore him for some reason, and he appreciates their contributions in kind.
Icarus Processing: none, he is too old for the process to have a positive effect. If it had been done while he was younger, it would have pushed his Vortal powers to a strong level, and helped mitigate weight gain and other physical properties. His offspring however will be ideally suited to it, see above.
Skills or Profession: As a scientist and engineer, Arne is top-notch (to hear him say it) (it's still true though). He has very strong research and reference skill, is meticulous in his documentation of any activity, and knows his way around a library both physical and digital. He has very good advanced math skills, and is known to do calculations in his head without the use of tools. He is a tinkerer and develops functional devices, knows how to use both a CAD program as well as manually drawing up blueprints for items. His specialty is rocketry, and he has engineered numerous devices that help propel, stabilize, or protect these rockets. He is also quite adept at explosives, logically following any given rocket failure - the next best thing is to focus the explosions where they'll do the most good. Arne can utilize computer systems of virtually any 'generation' - he is good with punch-cards as well as virtual reality.
Personality: Unlike his academic and engineering skills, his people-oriented abilities leave quite a bit to be desired, as no one actually likes him very much, and he doesn't give a lot of praise even when it's appropriate. He is exacting, picky, grumpy, demanding, and aggressive. Protective to a strong degree over any activity, location, or project, Arne has been known to shout or bark out orders with or without anyone listening. Many of the rebels and refugees simply give him a wide berth, and whenever they must deal with him close up, they keep their mouth in check. Thankfully even though he tends to be an explosive personality, pun intended, Arne is quite able to back his blustery words up with sound science and engineering talent. It is hard to humble him, and harder to get him to be embarrassed or flustered - both of those things have been done repeatedly by Mars, as she enjoys poking the bear and seeing what makes him blush or angry. The exception to this social inhibition is with a few of the Vortigaunts, Uriah specifically, who is his right-hand man.
Events or History: Though he doesn't often brag about his school years, possibly due to 'nerdy bullying', Arne was a top-notch student in all ways except ones which demanded physical interaction or, worse, getting close to people emotionally. He wasn't from the same area as the Freeman... people, so he'd never actually encountered Winslow or Clio before leaving to pursue his engineering degrees at Cal Tech. As his experiences relied on multiple types of sciences, he mastered them all (literally, he has Masters degrees in numerous subjects as indicated above) and often goes out of his way to prove that. He was working at Black Mesa in the late 1980s, bouncing between departments - their rocketry and propulsion labs, Lambda, and Anomalous Materials, as well as ballistics (with Mars) and others. He was senior-tenured in most of them, but tended to be passed over for direct roles among them, mostly because by the time Lane became the full time Human Resources manager (among other things) he distinctly did not want Arne in a position of any amount of power over other science teams. Arne still doesn't actually know that, there will likely be hell to pay if he finds out.

Dragon

Name: Quarry
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: large 12' shoulder / 40' l / 70' ws
Colors: red-brown, tan fades on body and limbs, reversing coloration on wing armor; golden brown speckling on brown wing sails; white belly and tail scales, facial markings; black horns, tail spikes, claws, and tongue, brilliant gold eyes
Features: four legs, two wings, taloned feet with very large claws, four toes on all limbs; 4-fingered webbed wings with massive claws on each digit, plus an elbow-spike for stability, as well as thumb claws at wrist. Heavy armor scales on upper body, limbs, and tail, smoother hide on belly and neck, flexible head, neck, and body fin, rump to tail spikes, *notably lacks a poison barbed tail of Sand dragon type, also seems to have lost a foredigit as his kin have 5 toes on the front. Stubby face with horn over nostrils, four horns on head two small in front of external ears and two more backswept.
Powers: Verbal speech (human tongues, dragon), empathy only with bond; Winged flight, very strong but for short periods (as he is extremely hefty), can lift a massive amount of weight without straining, but cannot hold this up for long. He needs a lot of space to take off and to land, though you don't usually see where he's done either of them, as his powers over the rubble below will 'fix' whatever he's knocked over or put gouges into.
Can produce fire breath and has a mastery over localized heat as well as sand - his personal ability is known as 'quicksand', with both mud and sand power behind him genetically he can reduce loose stone or rocks, soil, or buildings, to rubble in moments basically by shouting at it. His fire breath comes in a short, powerful burst that is more physical than pyrokinetic, and he can use this to tunnel or break through thin stone. He can also sense through sand and heavy mud, of use in the desert to locate resources. His bite is venomous, his tongue can deliver a painfully stinging blow that will fester if not washed clean quickly. Though he doesn't show this ability off, he can tolerate full immersion in toxic waste, and possibly even consume it with no ill effects. He'd rather change its consistency and let someone else reduce the radiation so it is harmless to anyone else.
Parentage: Unknown, is likely a first generation hybrid of Sand and Mud types.
Origin: Wings of Fire dragon adopted from moonshimmer981@deviantart, lines by Joy Ang; Unrelated to others from that universe who are here.
Other Info: Though he is already 'too old' to bond traditionally, Arne and Quarry make a superb team, and to hear Magnusson go on about him, Quarry is absolutely the best dragon ever, anywhere. Quarry agrees, quietly, though is in no way as arrogant as his human companion. Quarry is the first "person" that Arne simply accepts as an equal - an extension of his own abilities, a way to see in multiple places at once, there is no end to the uses that Quarry has to an engineer like Arne, and Quarry believes that his human companion is likewise gifted. After all, a massive dragon like himself cannot squeeze into the little spaces that some can in order to root around or discover things. And Quarry prefers to help build rather than just wade through a place and destroy it with his mass or his power. With Arne to help guide him, Quarry is able to prepare areas for habitation, or even attack the Combine on their own ground, leaving almost no sign of having been there.