#memory ans

One of the many shapes of bullquid

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but like i was wondering, what is inside that friggin thing??? it poops out babies and thats.. woog.. weird heugh

It's unknown how many individuals exist within this group, and how their life cycle works, as it's been observed that they, through live birth, produce headcrab. An idea is a sort of 'hive', however it's clear that there is not a mutual reliance, as no adult headcrab has been seen around 'The Gonarch', and clearly survive on their own.

The Gonarch is shown to either be outwardly territorial or have a strong maternal instinct. Seeing as how it shows aggression to most other fauna around it, rather than fauna that would be dangerous to it, also furthers the question.

The Gonarch is known to burrow to a degree, digging just enough to camouflage in the ground, rising to either attack prey or defend territory/offspring.

It's difficult to tell how it detects those around it, vibrations is one idea that was originally brought up, however, there's very minimal evidence to support this, especially as a primary sense. Not only is it fully lifted off the ground, but all points of contact are small and through some material similar to keratin. As opposed to clear sensory organs with good contact, and some evidence of a sensitive sensory organ. Feel free to ask further questions :]

A bit of an update from my last post on them

Houdneye varied in size, shape, and color especially ! So keep that in mind

What are your thoughts on headcrabs based on climates? :0c (For example, headcrabs with fur that are found in the northerner regions near the Borealis?)

I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to respond! But hey here I am, got to it! On the topic of the Borealis: Feel free to skip to the art

I do think it would be unlikely for headcrabs to be specifically built for that area, I unfortunately didn't make it to the Borealis, memories on what I was told about it are fuzzy, I could see if Kleiner knows, however I can't be certain he remembers much either.

I do think it's likely they could be there, since headcrabs are so wide spread, I'm sure some found a way. Just again, I'm not sure realistically that they would look super different from your 'classic' headcrab, as the drastic changes seen in other headcrabs in such a short time span was due to the combine. I can't rule out that the Combine wouldn't have fucked around there, though. I do know their main focus was civilization, which is why I'm unsure they would be very different.

I'd like to note, I yes, technically could look up stuff about the Borealis, speculation, easter eggs, whatever, see if anything seems to match up, However; I've not felt in the mindset to, much of the information I assume to be in Portal two, and White Forest, And parts of those two, namely the latter, is something I'm not prepared to think deeply on quite yet! Just one of those things that's going to take me personally a while. Nala is much more familiar with Portal 2, and has played through both games, but it's been a couple years, and I have asked them not to talk too much on some key points with it.

Hopefully at some point I can get you more stuff on that place !

On a lighter note: Some speculative Headcrabs!

I wanted polar opposites For the left, the original thought had been along the lines of what headcrabs may have looked like in north America, around where the resonance cascade was, given, they had a good 3-4 decades.

The headcrab to the right is just another fun illustration of that whole 'fuzzy headcrab' concept people seem to like!

Do you have any insight into the big green claw thingies? Also, are they all one creature or like a nest of several?? (If this has been asked before I am so sorry for the repeat 😅)

I'm guessing you meant these? I hope, In the game these are called Tentacles, I'm pretty sure I called them Xen serpents though, I could absolutely be wrong, my memory around this one is a bit fuzzy. I believe I've gotten to a clearer point though! Enough to talk about it that is. They seem related in some form; to Xen trees, I could be wrong but they felt and looked fairly similar, at the least they're structured similarly both biologically and physiologically. Not only do they respond to similar senses, however react surprisingly similarly.

I know the Xen trees aren't just a 'younger' form of these, I can rule that out with a couple things: First and foremost, I believe I saw the beginnings of these guys, however I can confirm by talking with Alyx that she saw these in multiple different stages. However why just leave it at that. These tentacles, or serpents, grew in small clusters, and while Xen trees absolutely tended to grow in groups, they were not attached to each other, they just reproduced close by, and that's as far as it would seem to go. Groups of fungi are different from one big branching fungi. Xen trees could tell location and size through vibration and potentially extremely primitive eyes, while with these serpents you could see them having more pin-hole eyes, think similar to nautilus, though a bit different in shape. Plus they responded to sound as well --yes I tested it, yes I'm a tad insane, Sometimes you're a funky physicist with near nothing to lose but also everything to lose, and decide to fuck around and find out with alien fauna- whether or not there's a backup plan, let alone thoughts to back up the impulse, I'd say can you blame me but- the answer is a bit evident--

On the topic of that, the cluster in sector D seemed- disoriented? They were the first I came across, and some of the largest, excluding Xen. They seemed a bit wobbly looking back, and had a mild delay, to be fair they're built for a thick atmosphere, and- not- being surrounded with metal of all things, which can be a bit jarring in both vibration and echo. How the fuck they even survived that long I have no idea.

Also here's a baby, going off translucency, rather than color. Reminded me of young headcrabs, though I know both are *very* much not related, another comparison would be slings/spiderlings, or spiders after molt; a bit soft in comparison, though these were not squishy by any means, just not rock hard.

Absolutely! I'd like to note that both very much were, however I'd say these guys went through the most drastic changes, the sheer amount of melanin--or an equivalent--  is fascinating to me. At first glance they look akin to poison headcrabs; even though they were vastly different.

They would often be found just as where poison would; darker, more- sewer like areas, I'll put it.

I don't know if it's a form of mimicry, I think they just went down different lanes to come to a similar path. As this sort of build is near perfect fit for finding unsuspecting prey in this particular environment. As almost all headcrabs are very much ambush predators.

Even just as last night I'd make a couple changes to how I drew these, including the other. I remembered the headcrab to the left having barbs, but couldn't remember if they grew up or down, I'm near certain they grew up, and notched inward, which I drew the opposite on the post.

Unlike poison headcrabs, these were much more shrill, and had a distinct difference in vocal patterns.

Fun fact: in most cases I can handle being around tame headcrabs, however I have- one variant(?) Species(?) Of headcrab that I still can hardly handle in some situations, including playing the game. That being poison headcrabs. There's a list of things I'm yet to be - fairly recovered from. Some moments worse than others in this.

One odd thing about these critters was the lack of hairs/whiskers(?) For lack of labels. Poison headcrabs are known to have these quill like fibers on their legs, and smaller coarser fibers near the mouth.

They didn't nearly overrun everything like poison headcrabs, or even classic and fast headcrabs. Being much more scarce, however still notable, and still very much behaving as an invasive species.