sunchime | [ the open york post: comeback edition ]

hello welcome to the very specific genderbent au york i have been playing for like 15 years this is the only york i play now

Agent York // Natalie van der Haast (AU)
AGENT YORK - AU INFO
Name: Natalie van der Haast
Background: Grew up in south Jersey with three older brothers, a piano teacher for a mom, and an auto mechanic for a dad. Comfortable upbringing, though she got into her fair share of trouble growing up. May or may not have joined Project Freelancer as an alternative to other punitive measures in response to some questionable things she may or may not have done with classified information as a soldier.

LOOKING FOR...
Gen: Action (I LOVE to write action/fight scenes), AI drama (gotta have it), mystery and plot intrigue, h/c as long as it's also kinda funny. Missions and heist shit. I love heist shit soooo much I can't get enough of it
Ships: My main ship interests are Wash, Carolina, and Maine, but I can be sold on most York ships. finger guns
I also love a stupid drama triangle, especially when one of them has been dead for a while

I'm down for both shippy stuff and gen threads and I'm down for smut. Feel free to throw down a top level with whatever your heart desires, but here are some prompts to help get the ideas goin'

CANON POINTS
Project Freelancer: Pretty much any canon point in here is golden. Great for actiony missions and AI drama. And also of course the high concentration of pure Freelancer drama.
Post-Freelancer/Out of Mind: That (mumbles)-year period when she's out planet-hopping looking in search of Carolina until she meets her untimely demise at the hands of Wyoming. that ass hole
Recovery One: Yeah yeah York is dead at this point but hey. What if she wasn't

YORK LIVES AUS
The staple of every York player. Here are some of my favorite scenarios to work from but I am ALWAYS down to try new things
Out of Mind/Recovery One: Wash (or someone else!) gets to York before she fully kicks it and patches her back up. And then it's unfinished business time (of both the Carolina and/or Maine variety). Or Freelancer Drama: Electric Boogaloo.
Chorus (option A): York goes to prison for Freelancer Crimes instead of dying and winds up on the Tartarus. Now she's working with Felix and Locus to take out Wash and Carolina. Bonus AI brain trauma from having Delta removed. Freelancer drama cubed.
Chorus (option B): By whatever bulllshit means, York is brought back to life on Chorus somehow. It's been a while since I watched the Chorus trilogy but isn't there something funky with portals in those seasons? idk it's not important. It's RVB anything is possible. The point is: opportunity for really really rich Freelancer drama when your dead friend for whom you've grieved is suddenly back in your life. Also York and Tucker are funny

MISC AUS/PROMPTS
AI Swap: York draws the short straw and gets Epsilon instead of Delta. Things go about as well for her as they did for Wash in canon, but differently bad. Who's here for some hardcore dissociation. Optionally: York is Recovery One.
Ejection Trauma: York loses Delta for one reason or another (AI recall during Project Freelancer. The Meta gets to Delta but she survives. Some other third thing. Take your pick) and transitioning to being alone in your own head is really fucking hard. Who's here for even more hardcore dissociation
Texting: who needs a log when you could do a tfln
Setting Swap: Project Freelancer is very easy to AU into other settings. Like soooo easy. Hit me up I love Project Freelancer setting AUs.

Feel free to hit me up at

runawayballista for plotting!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"How?" All other things aside, this plan does seem kind of insane to York. It would be a massive fucking understatement to say that something's not right with Carollina, but she's not in much of a position to talk. "You get yourself sent to some backwater planet, and, what, spend all your time monitoring secure channels? And if you do hear something, you might be worlds away from him. You just gonna go AWOL? And how do you know you're even gonna get to him before he disappears again?"

Carolina doesn't appreciate York's skepticism. She doesn't appreciate York's opinion in general, not since she defected and literally brought the Mother of Invention to its knees.

"I will get him," Carolina pulls further away. "Now excuse me, I'm going to drink until I forget this entire conversation."

Maybe not the nicest thing to say, but she has a plan and she's sticking to it.

No. No, no, no — she can't let Carolina walk away, not now, not even if it's pissing Carolina off, because better here and angry than gone. York tries to school her scattered thoughts into some kind of order, licking at dry lips as she latches onto the only other angle she can think of.

"Carolina, wait — there's another option." York knows she sounds desperate, that she must look desperate, but shit, it's because she is. "We could go after the Director together — no trying to get at him from the side, no waiting for a chance. Just end it now. I could help you." She manages a crooked smile, no longer sure what'll only push Carolina away, but she has to try. She has to keep trying. "We used to make a pretty good team."

An idea is taking shape in her disordered mind. She never could pull this off herself, and obviously neither could Carolina, or she wouldn't be here. But if the two of them could track down the Director, if they can find out where he's been keeping all those recovered AIs, then maybe York might stand a chance at getting back what she lost, too.

Carolina pauses at the suggestion that they work together. She turns so York can at least see her profile in the relative dark of the hallway. She's listening, at the least. She's stopped moving away for now.

"End it now?" Carolina asks with a measure of skepticism. "The two of us?"

She believed in herself enough to get the job done but York? Carolina had seen little more than a failed attempt to strip wires. Who was to say she was up to the task.

York can't take her eyes off Carolina's face, like she's etching that profile into her frayed memory, like she's afraid Carolina will disappear if she looks away.

"Yeah," she breathes. "You wanna take out the Director, right? Well, I'm not exactly his biggest fan, either. Wouldn't exactly mind making sure he shuffles off this mortal coil."

It's true that she's not particularly motivated by revenge alone, and that she's just been trying to escape for good, but things have changed. Carolina is here, and maybe — maybe York will have a chance to make her mind whole again if they succeed. Maybe they can find a way to stay together after, somehow. Maybe York can find a way to make Carolina want to stay.

"Look," she says, rubbing her hands over her face, slick with sweat, trying to smooth away stray hairs. "I know I don't look like I'm in great shape right now. Six months ago, I got shot and left for dead. And then somebody pulled D right out of my head and took my healing unit and I got left for dead again." Which lines up pretty well with when York was reported as KIA by Command. "Been kind of a rough recovery on my own, not gonna lie. But I haven't tapped out yet."

York moves a half-step closer, like she's afraid Carolina will spook and sprint away at the slightest wrong movement. "I've been monitoring secure channels for a while now, too, trying to find out, and I collected a fair bit of information while I was at it. If we compare notes, make a plan, work together — you won't have to wait for a chance." She'll have to really scrape her mind to recover some of that information, but it'll be worth the migraine. "And who knows Freelancer security protocols better than me, huh?"

[ the open york post: comeback edition ]

she's literally doing the lord's work

sorry for the delay!

no apologies needed! always happy to wait for your carolina tags <3

<3 and again but life has finally calmed down!

yay for life calming down! <3