Dr. Coomer

"'Hello, Gordon!'""―Dr. Coomer's catchphrase.""'Look, Gordon, ropes! We can use these to traverse big pits!'""―Dr. Coomer on ropes."Dr. Harold Pontiff Coomer is the tritagonist and member of the Science Team in the Half-Life VR But The AI Is Self-Aware saga. Dr. Coomer is a kooky, eccentric man with odd mannerisms and a tendency to cut himself off, as well as spout off bizarre sentences. Dr. Coomer is voiced by Holly.

Before the incident
Dr. Coomer was an average Black Mesa scientist. He worked in the teleportation department, and may have had a hand in training the Bullsquids in the nuclear reactor that powered the facility to subsist on the radioactive sludge produced by the reactor. He may also have been involved with some sort of human replication project, as evidenced by his numerous clones that can be found in and around the Black Mesa facility, of which seem to "give him power" once slaughtered. A conscientious employee of Black Mesa, he was never without his Passport or his Black Mesa Silly Straw™. At some unspecified time in the past, he was married, possibly multiple times; unfortunately, his wife was "taken" in the divorce.

Personality
Dr. Coomer is a bubbly, charming old man with his heart in the right place most of the time, though his coding as an AI leaves him to quite often repeat basic phrases, forget simple mechanics, or speak to Gordon in manners that can only be compared to that of a tutorial NPC. When he does think for himself, his dialogue is often humorous and witty, and very often responds to questions with nonsensical answers or repetitive dialogue mentioned before.

Later in the series, Dr. Coomer becomes increasingly self-aware about his status as a video game NPC, which doesn't sit right with him at all. He becomes increasingly more traumatized after discovering that there is nothing beyond the map of Black Mesa, leading up to his eventual betrayal against Gordon, expressing desires to be pulled from the game and shown a real world outside of what he's known. After this betrayal, Dr. Coomer becomes friendly again, though with an increased knowledge on the mechanics of a video game, even going as far as to ask Gordon if any of the things they see were even real. After the end credits of Act 4, Dr. Coomer shows up for a final monologue to confront Gordon about his knowledge, seeming solemn yet hopeful, and thanking him for becoming his friend, as well as requesting that Gordon someday download their data into a hard drive and place them into future games to allow them a chance to virtually see the world.

Trivia

 * When questioned by Gordon about how many people he has killed, Dr. Coomer states that he "lost count twelve days ago!". At the time, the group had only been together for about three days.
 * He claims that he once wanted to be a boxer, but because of his "blasted ex-wife," he became a scientist instead.
 * He is overpoweringly strong, assumingly because of his cybernetic enhancements, and his training as a boxer.
 * Its also possible that defeating his clones truly does give him extra power, as he becomes more physically aggressive as the series progresses.
 * He also says that he feels everything the clones feel.
 * He's assumed to be the founder of an underground boxing ring in Black Mesa, according to him.
 * His favorite video game is "Super Punch-Out!" for the SNES, assumingly also why he wanted to be a boxer.
 * His favorite Star Wars character is Dexter Jettster.
 * Like all the other "AI-Enhanced NPCs", it's easy to tell them apart because of their animations, taken from the Garry's Mod player models.
 * He is named after Greg Coomer, the game designer and art director of Half-Life.
 * It's possible that Dr. Coomer has more than one ex-wife, as suggested by dialogue between Dr. Coomer and Bubby regarding a Vortigant. When Dr. Coomer says "They look like my ex-wife!", Bubby responds by asking "Which one?", implying that Dr. Coomer has been divorced at least twice.
 * In Act 4, as well as the likewise commentary stream, Dr. Coomer's ex-wife (or one of) is implied to be a part of the military, as one of the soldiers on the radio mentions addressing a "Cooper," which is distorted enough to also sound like Coomer.


 * Starting with Act 3, Dr. Coomer pulls Gordon with his so-called "Extendo-Arms" whenever Gordon gets stuck in a level. In reality it's just one of the crew members, usually Mike, teleporting Gordon so that he would be able to progress. This ability of Dr. Coomer's has been demonstrated several times on the streams, but most of them were cut from the videos.


 * Dr. Coomer saying "I had a wife but they took her in the divorce" was the result of Coomer's voice actor, Holly, accidently combining 2 jokes she was thinking about saying.


 * Coomer's Voice actor, Holly, has the entire wikipedia definition of a chair memorized, the sole purpose of her learning this was just to fuck with the group in discord calls.


 * Coomer's Voice actor, Holly, is transgender