Thinking. I agree w all the headcanons that gordon is JUST as much as a victim/character in HLVRAI as everyone else 100% and everything IS genuinely real to him as the protagonist(controlled/thought up by a player) but I also think that, aside from being a blank slate that got projected onto and now has to deal with that, his only actual job programmed into him was immersion.

Which is why he reacts so badly when shit goes weird