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[infailtration]

OOC INFO;

NAME: Ana
AGE: 30
CONTACT: cuddlebug or PM
CHARACTERS IN GAME: n/a

IC INFO;

CHARACTER NAME: York (previously known as Agent New York, Foxtrot 12, headcanon name Josh Lansing)
AGE: unknown, mid-20s?
CANON Red vs Blue
CANON POINT Out of Mind, part 5 (as he jumps into the teleporter)
HISTORY: wikia

PERSONALITY: York is the most casual, most social, and by far friendliest member of Project Freelancer. From the start he comes across as very laid-back, with an uncanny ability to maintain his chill in super high-stress situations. He's always the one to try and defuse tension, imploring friends and foes alike to calm down. Even when absolutely everything is going wrong, York doesn't get worked up. He'll just make a snarky comment to express his displeasure (or yell "I don't wanna do this!" while leaping off a collapsing skyscraper) and adapt, coming up with a solution on the fly. And if that one doesn't work either, well, try try again. He prefers to have a plan, but is more than capable of improvising when the situation demands it. The other characters joke that York is more lucky than he is good at his job as an infiltrator, but if you look closely you see that York is actually incredibly observant and far more intelligent than he first appears. He just doesn't really play that up.

The thing is, despite being genuinely friendly and well-intentioned, York is not the best communicator and has a tendency to miss the mark getting his meaning across. Being smart doesn't mean he's especially eloquent. He's naturally chatty and talks a bit too much, and his jokes are sometimes inappropriate to the mood and fall flat, or his teasing will come off a bit sharper than he meant it to. He's honest (and a shit liar as well) and not particularly tactful, a combination that doesn't earn him points. Expressing concern for his teammates can sound like he feels he knows best, so when he actually has something important to say they tend to brush him off. The exception is North, who can articulate York's thoughts better than York himself -- often he'll be searching for how to phrase something and North will just finish his sentence, knowing exactly what his friend was trying to say. No one else seems to really "get" him in that way, though. For the most part York is well-liked, but gets along with everyone mostly thanks to his easy demeanor and the fact that it's so obvious how much he cares for his team. He also seemingly lets things roll off him for the sake of keeping the peace -- there's enough conflict among the Freelancers already, sometimes to the point that it compromises missions and Agents' safety, so he's not going to add to that in the moment. But underneath, York has questions of his own.

York is a naturally curious person, a critical thinker that often philosophizes about their situation and questions the motives behind what they're being told to do. Ultimately they're all here to win the war, yes, but Freelancer keeps nearly everything a secret. The true purpose of the leaderboard, the origin of the AIs, and even seemingly vital details like mission objectives (who are we attacking? what's in the package we're stealing? is the Alpha a myth?) are all classified and this bothers York a great deal.

He's on the right track, too. At the point where York is really questioning and starting to doubt, he's been given an AI to help him run his armor enhancements and compensate for his blind side. In fact he's one of the first to get an AI, and the Freelancers learn that these are not full AI but fragments. They aren't told what that means exactly, just that each one is a specific trait and they've been matched with Agents based on personality. York's AI is designated Delta, and as the embodiment of logic he's rather uptight and robotic, with no understanding of humor and a strict adherence to protocol. He and York butt heads constantly at first, but then start to rub off on each other. York breaks protocol all the time, often for Delta's benefit, letting him chat with the other AI. Their arguing over proper courses of action evolves into gentler bickering and finally good natured suggestions, and over time Delta develops a sense of humor a lot like York's, dry and teasing. But Delta's origin will remain a secret awhile longer.

Part of York's digging for answers is due to the fact that he has such a strong moral compass. He expresses to North in a private moment that he fears they might not be the good guys after all -- he doesn't want to doubt the Project but he has a deep and driving need to be doing the right thing, and pretty early on he can see signs that things just don't add up. Things omitted, or the way they're scolded for asking even simple questions, and Delta's murmurs inside his head. These are all little red flags that inform his decision to trust that the data CT left for Tex is the actual truth and defect, despite his intense loyalty to his teammates. Despite how difficult it is for him to go against Carolina.

See, that need to do the right thing really bites York in the ass sometimes. First he tried to keep Tex from being hurt in the three-on-one training fight where he, Maine, and Wyoming were getting their asses thoroughly kicked. The other men repeatedly ignored his attempts to get the three of them to work as a team to beat her, instead resorting to using live ammo, and it cost him his left eye. Then he suspects that joining Freelancer to save humanity was probably a mistake, as they're wrapped up in some shady bullshit that isn't even war-adjacent anymore, and it's likely the people they're killing aren't bad guys. By the time Tex comes to him with the truth about the Project, learning about the torture of the Alpha AI is the final straw. It turns out the Alpha was not a myth, he was essentially a person that they tortured over and over again to split his personality into the fragments now living in the Agents' heads, some of which are causing serious problems. York needs to tilt the scales back, and so attacks the ship with Tex to try and free the Alpha... and this costs him Carolina. He isn't able to convince her to join them, but can't bring himself to hurt her, either. York loves Carolina intensely. Over the past two seasons we've seen him watch over her as she trains through the night, mother hen her before battles to make sure she's going to be okay, and remain at her sickbed for days straight holding her hand when she suffers a neural overload. His refusal to hurt her results in her knocking him out and when the dust settles, as far as York knows, Carolina is dead.

Following the crash of the Mother of Invention and the failure of their attack, York is forced to go on the run. If they catch him he's done, and they'll take Delta. It means splitting up from his known-to-be-alive friends and leaving Wash in the med bay, but he needs to go into hiding. For someone as social as York, this is pretty sucky, but he does still have Delta. Only Delta. The AI is now literally all of York's "human" contact, the only being in the galaxy he can trust, and he becomes his dearest friend and confidant. Delta listens to his stories and goes beyond the supposed limits of his programming, trying to better understand York's emotions. Some of these conversations are recorded as log entries in which York is sentimental and melancholy but still tries to be funny (he discusses which terrible pick up lines he would use on Carolina if she were somehow alive and they crossed paths again) and Delta's questions help guide York as he struggles to cope with his guilt and grief, and to resolve the fact that his stubborn hope that Carolina is out there somewhere is actually a reluctance to move on. For all that they didn't get along at the start this pair would now -- and in fact do -- give up their lives for each other. York continues running to protect his little buddy, despite it meaning that he is otherwise alone and has to resort to mild criminal acts like petty theft and break ins to survive. And when York is fatally wounded, Delta chooses to stay with him to ease his pain as he passes, despite their belief that if the AI is still in the implant when York dies he will be destroyed.

At this canon point, York is at first glance the same easygoing, super chill, joke cracking guy... but underneath he's struggling with a lot. There's something kind of world-weary in his voice, a bitterness about his situation that's settled into resignation that this is just how it is. He doesn't have the will or energy to be angry, and knows that it wouldn't change anything, but there's a heavy weight on him these days that he has no choice but to bear alone. He wonders if maybe he'd acted sooner, or been better at getting through to Carolina, or just fought harder, things could have gone better for everyone. It's not his fault that Freelancer went down in flames, he just wishes he'd pulled more of his friends from the fire. These days he also consults Delta on every decision he makes: if he should trust Tex in the first place when she comes to him for help, and whether or not to actually provide that help. The two no longer clash or disregard each other's advice, all their choices are made together. Ultimately, it's not that their enemy is planning something terrible that sways them. They decide the chance for some payback is worth the risks... the ultimate sign that York is burnt out on doing the right thing. He still has that desire to be the good guy, but just because his compass is pointing in the right direction doesn't mean he'll walk that way. Or at all, he's very tired and would like a vacation. Looks like he's not going to get one...

CANON POWERS: York is a normal human, albeit one with exceptional fighting prowess. He's top of the leaderboard his entire time as a Freelancer and is skilled with a wide variety of weapons, proficient in hand to hand combat, handles a vehicle exceptionally well in combat on a crowded freeway, is their infiltration specialist and can pick everything from traditional to holographic locks, can identify a wide range of tech at a glance and apparently defuse bombs, and knows his way around a jetpack. He's not a pilot, though.

OTHER: The loss of Delta (though I'm going with the gentlest possible interpretation here and he will not be experiencing the typical neurological damage that comes from traumatic ejection) is going to change York's demeanor quite a bit. Delta has been sharing his mind for years and since leaving the Project, was his only friend. The two affected each other greatly both in terms of personality and altering York's cognition... the influence of Delta's logic tempered York and lent him confidence, and the constant stream of information (situation analysis, probability calculations, and sensory input that allowed York to know what was happening on his left side) is going to be extremely difficult for his mind to compensate for. Now that he only has his own judgment in a given situation, he'll struggle to choose what to do and as a result may hesitate from uncertainty or swing the other way and become reckless without Delta to advise him. He will also finally have to learn to deal with being blind on his left side, and will probably be jumpy/easily startled when people approach on his left. On a purely emotional level, he'll feel very alone in his own head and will become even more talkative with others, seeking out company as much as possible. With the given explanation that Delta was "left behind" but there being no one around for him to have jumped into, York will probably assume he's just gone and will go through the stages of grief for his friend.

GAME INFO;

MAGIC ABILITY: Phase Shift - York can alter his own molecular vibration to pass through solid objects himself or, with a touch, affect the tangibility of a (1) solid object or (2) person so that (1) others can pass through or (2) he can phase someone else through the solid matter. The shift is only in effect for as long as he is contact with the object or person. Limitations - He can only use this ability for a total of ten minutes a day. If altering only himself, he will also pass through all matter -- for example, if he is trying to get through a wall on the second floor of a building, he would have to use the ability only while stepping through, otherwise he would fall through the floor on the other side. This will take a lot of practice. (The only exception is the ground itself, unless there's a basement/cave/etc underneath him, because falling through a planet doesn't sound funny.) If using his ability on the wall directly so other people can pass this obviously does not apply, but the affected area is limited to a maximum diameter of six feet. He can only ever affect one object or person at a time. In sustained combat, he would have to time the shifts well to avoid hits without burning through his time limit.

ANY WEAPONS/MAGICAL ITEMS?: Does his armor count as a weapon on its own? If so, his armor! If not, toss on his battle rifle and a modest amount of ammo. Super un-magical.
ANY PETS?: n/a

SAMPLE;

LINKED SAMPLE: (1) Vex, (2) North, (3) Futaba, (4) Anode

Note that some of these tags lightly feature Delta, who will not be present in game. This will change York's mindset a bit, as noted in "other" above.