[ the open york post: comeback edition ]

[neverknocks]

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!

Comments

[lets_see_what_happens]

“It is… unlikely,” Gregor says, refusing to rule out that someone on Vervain might be looking for him too. Several someones, actually.

“Oh, that depends,” he says expansively. “It would be a very open-ended assignment, based on your skill set. What are you good at doing?”

[neverknocks]

“Oh, I’m real talented,” she says to that very transparent attempt at fishing for information. It’s a little soon to be showing any of her cards just yet.

“Tell you what — let’s table the job discussion for now. Why don’t you tell me what needs to happen once we dock for you to get back to your state babysitters without one of your trigger happy subjects deciding I’m a threat on sight instead of tour irreverent but delightful chauffeur.”

[lets_see_what_happens]

“I’m getting that sense,” Gregor says mildly. “Since you were able to identify me as the Emperor without checking a comconsole in a way that also seemed to leave you surprised. But very well.

“I have a wristcomm in case of emergencies that I haven’t triggered yet, out of courtesy, since they’d come after your ship immediately and take everything here into custody. I’ve decided it’s better to wait until I’m back on a station so as to leave you out of it, if you prefer.” He bows slightly. “If you decide to accept my job offer you would also be taken into protective custody until such time as you changed your mind or were sure nobody’s looking for you in connection to me. I’d hate for something to happen to you by accident, but of course you’d be able to leave whenever you wish.”

[neverknocks]

"Happy to be left out of it," York says with total sincerity, "except for the gettin' paid part. We'll see how dangerous I'm feelin' when we get to Vervain Station. But I'll get you to a secure comconsole once we've docked."

And then, maybe she'll be able to finish the job and collect double payment, especially because the alternative is "probably dead and thus no payment at all".

"Should only take a couple of hours at this rate," York says, knocking the inner hull of her ship almost fondly. "She's small, but she moves pretty fast."

[lets_see_what_happens]

“I see,” Gregor says—he knows there’s something more going on here but he can’t get anything out of this woman so he doesn’t know what.

“What should I call you?” he asks mildly. “If you don’t want to give me your name.”

[neverknocks]

"You can call me York," she says easily. "I'm a Virgo, I'm from Jackson's Hole, and I enjoy long walks on the beach. And, as I've mentioned —" She taps the side of her head, holstering her stunner with the other hand. "— Totally psychic."

[lets_see_what_happens]

“And you do t want to tell me anything about what you do?” he says. “It would help a great deal with planning a future job placement, though I’m fairly sure we’d be able to use you regardless.”

[neverknocks]

We'll be able to use you regardless also sounds a little bit like cannon fodder, but who knows. Maybe they aren't exactly speaking the same language. York and Delta confer briefly.

"I'm in security," she says. "You name it, I've probably interacted with it at some point or another."

Interacted with being a nice way of saying broken into, of course.

[lets_see_what_happens]

Gregor’s eyes widen a bit. Miles is going to be thrilled if he pulls this off.

“An infiltration specialist, I’m guessing?” You aren’t the only one who’s psychic, York. “That is very interesting indeed.”

[neverknocks]

"If you wanna call a locksmith that," she says glibly, which isn't super or even a little bit true but she is maintaining the thinnest possible veneer of plausible deniability. Still, she clearly has his attention. "I don't suppose a politician like yourself knows anything about the Steranko 2003 series?"

[lets_see_what_happens]

“I am passably familiar with its design and construction, yes.” Given that he’d had several installed. “Why do you ask?”

[neverknocks]

York grins, pointing a thumb at herself.

"Well, let's say that in a purely hypothetical section, I could single-handedly dismantle all five alarm tiers in under ninety seconds."

At that, the hologram of a little green man flickers into view. "Actually, you could only disabled two tiers without my assistance."

[lets_see_what_happens]

“That is supposed to be very impossi—bwuh?”

Gregor jumps when a tiny green man appears out of thin air, his eyes wide, but he doesn’t panic further. He is going to ask, though.

“What in hell is that?”

[neverknocks]

York takes just the tiniest of moments to savor Gregor's stupefied reaction, then sighs, rubbing her forehead.

"C'mon, D, what have I told you about popping out like that?"

"If you are going to lie badly, York," Delta says, somewhat stiffly, "then you should at least choose a more believable lie."

"This little buzzkill here is Delta," York says, ignoring him and letting her hand wave right through his hologram on purpose. It doesn't hurt him or anything, it's just rude. "Don't act so spooked — he's harmless. Well, to everybody but me, I guess."

[lets_see_what_happens]

I’ll act as spooked as I want, thank you, Gregor doesn’t say, controlling any further reaction carefully.

“What… is it? He, I mean, what is he?”

[neverknocks]

"He's the little computer program that lives in my head," York says glibly, though as she tucks her hair behind one ear, there's a glossy silver contact from a neural implant just above the ear. Delta flickers disapprovingly.

"I am artificial intelligence program Delta," he says with what sounds like courtesy to Gregor. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance, even if under less than ideal circumstances."

[lets_see_what_happens]

“It’s good to meet you too, Delta, thank you. I’m Gregor—though I think you already know that.”

Now it makes sense why York was able to identify him without checking a comconsole. He narrows his eyes.

“An AI? …implanted into your brain? You are from Jackson’s Whole.”

[neverknocks]

York huffs out a laugh at that.

"Yeah. Failed military project contracted out to one of the Houses. They had some cutting edge computer tech and decided that the best thing to do would be to put it in somebody's brain." She shrugs. "Pretty much everybody went crazy but me. Kinda like those first-gen Illyrican memory chips."

See, Gregor? She's not crazy. Only everyone else she knew who was experimented on.

[lets_see_what_happens]

“I’m familiar with the Illyrican chips,” Gregor says faintly. “That sounds like a nightmare, having somebody else in your head all the time. Or, a potential nightmare, at least. You and Delta seem to get along, mostly.”

He looks at her, his eyes crinkling slightly at the edges as he smiles.

“In that case, you wouldn’t be the first discarded Jacksonian military project to join the fleet, if you choose to. I’m sure they can make accommodations.”

[neverknocks]

"Eh, we're fine now, but you wouldn't believe what a little cockbite this guy was when we first met."

"It was an adjustment," Delta says mildly.  "All agents experienced some difficulty integrating with their AIs. York's struggles with integration, however, were entirely as a result of differences in outlook."

York rolls her eyes, mouths that's code for "personality problems", then finally lets herself sit back in the pilot's chair, tacitly granting Gregor permission to also not remain standing.

"Ooh, so you collect factory rejects, huh? Interesting." York grins, her good eye glittering. "How many of them have a whole department store's worth of screws loose?"

[lets_see_what_happens]

Gregor does not take the invitation, standing at a casual parade rest.

“Was the integration so successful because of your nature as an individual AI, or was it due to something particular about York?” he asks Delta politely. His eyes flick to York again as she speaks.

“Well… not an intentional collection, I assure you. Our other acquisition was a genetically modified super soldier, and We also came upon her entirely by accident. She’s perfectly sane, she just eats enough for three people. She fights like five, so this comes out to a positive cost-benefit analysis.”

[neverknocks]

York clicks her tongue with a pointed look at Delta's hologram, which is surely only for Gregor's benefit, since Delta can see inside her head perfectly fine.

"Let's not overexpose the past, huh? You gotta leave a little mystery to keep it interesting." She winks, extraordinarily facetious. "All you need to know, Greg, is that me and D work together just fine."

It's hard to tell if Delta is annoyed, but he merely says to Gregor, "York's sanity is within acceptable standard deviations."

"What a ringing endorsement," York says, then lets out a low whistle at the description of someone who might have actually been able to go toe-to-toe with Maine and come off better for it. "How many Houses did you piss off picking up that?"

[lets_see_what_happens]

Gregor laughs softly, the sound not entirely pleasant.

“Just the one. But the results were… fairly spectacular, to say the least. They ended up cooking all—and I do mean all—of House Bharaputra’s most prized genetic samples and got into a spot of trouble over it. I don’t think the Admiral regrets it, though, he seems perfectly pleased to have both his test-subject-turned-friend and the wrath of House Bharaputra at the same time.”

[neverknocks]

York's eyes keep getting wider and wider as he briefly recounts this tale. "That is some shit."

Hey, D, run a check on that for me. There's no way that didn't make headlines on at least ten different planets.

Executing.

After a moment's delay, York says, "Hang on, you're offering me a job with the Dendarii Mercenaries?"

See, Gregor, this is why you have to be careful about your story exposition.

[lets_see_what_happens]

Gregor smiles.

“Having Delta around is certainly making this easier,” he says. “We have done business with them in the past. I happen to have met Admiral Naismith personally, once or twice. A mutually beneficial arrangement. But yes, I am offering you a job in the Dendarii Mercenaries. The Admiral will have to agree, of course, but I am… very certain he will. You’re just his kind of recruit.”