Mercenary Mayhem App

[notyourrookie]

OOC INFO
Name: Zalia
Contact: zaliachimera
Other characters played here: Sam Yao
Age: 30

IC INFO
Name: Agent Washington (David)
Native, OU, or AU: OU
Canon (if applicable): Red vs Blue
Character journal used: notyourrookie
Reference (if applicable): http://rvb.wikia.com/wiki/Washington
Canon point (if applicable): Close to the end of S8, after the Meta goes over the cliff.
Personality:
During Project Freelancer, he was was a lot more trusting and upbeat, still believing that they were doing the right thing, dedicated to the cause. He came across as somewhat childish, naive and a little gullible. He made friends easily, often being treated as the younger brother of the group; often teased for his outlook on the world and his inexperience, but still supported and generally liked by the rest of the Freelancers. He repaid this by being hard working, protective and utterly dedicated to the project and his teammates. In these surroundings, it isn't surprising perhaps that he was loyal to a fault, willing to overlook the occasional oddity, the times that the Director pushed them too hard, the thoughts that there was something rotten hidden at the heart of the project. And if it he did pay attention, then it had to be for a good cause, surely? Alongside this was a feeling of gratitude and obligation; he says that the Director gave them everything, which makes him reluctant to believe Connecticut when she raises doubts.

This changed with Epsilon. The AI was already insane when it was implanted into Wash. When he was implanted into Wash, the memories and pain and hurt that went with it proved too much. Wash was left screaming and unstable himself. Even when the AI was removed, he was left unconscious for a significant amount of time, except for the brief periods when he woke up screaming. He spent a lot of time unable to tell what was real and what was Epsilon's memories, often unable to tell who he even was.

After this it is unsurprising that his personality began to change. With the people that he had trusted most either dead or having betrayed or abandoned him, and with dangerous knowledge of the Director's aims in his head, he had to change in order to survive. Paranoia kept him alive, where trust had half destroyed him. He became much colder, shoving his emotions down until he could deny that they existed, learnt how to survive through manipulation and deceit. Convincing people of his loyalty so that he could twist the knife in their back. While before Epsilon, he still had moments of sarcasm, that twisted into something much more bitter and angry. The focus of his life became revenge; revenge for Epsilon and Alpha, revenge for what had happened to him.

His sanity is questionable at times. He still retains many of Epsilon's memories and the emotions associated with them and especially with many of them being particularly intense, there are times when Wash is unable to distinguish which memories are him and which Epsilon, or even who he is supposed to be. He can at times become lost in these memories, especially after nightmares or when one crops up without warning; a dangerous effect when one needs to be in control just to stay alive. There are other effects too; Wash is prone to bouts of insomnia, periods when he avoids sleep because he will inevitably dream about Epsilon and what happened to them both. He also tends towards the self-destructive; while he isn't actively seeking to kill himself, he is willing to take more risks than are strictly necessary, putting himself into danger and not caring if he gets hurt, so long as he achieves his goals.

With everything that had happened, betrayal after betrayal, and being used as a pawn by the Director, he became obsessed with revenge and bringing down the man who had given him everything and then destroyed it. But this wasn't an irrational burst of anger; his desire for revenge made him cold, isolated, but most of all, patient. He bided his time, waiting for the right moment to destroy him, the point when it would hurt most and do the most damage.

Similarly, when he's offered a chance to clear his name, he is willing to do nearly anything to achieve that, including killing some of the people he'd worked with before, treating the Meta, the shell of one of his former friends with a certain amount of cruelty, and even stooping to abusing Doc to get information from him. He is extremely ruthless. He's lost everything, everyone has betrayed him, so why should he care about helping anyone else? However there is a certain amount of self-awareness in what he does. He knows that he is becoming a monster, and even displays genuine confusion when the Blues adopt him, not able to believe that anyone would want to help him after that.

The distance and aloofness that he used as a protective measure to hide what he knew, have become habit. When he does have to interact with people, he tends to be brusque, curt, and to the point, with a vein of cynicism. He doesn't trust you, he certainly doesn't like you and in fact, you are probably getting in his way.


Back story:
In the beginning was Project Freelancer, a covert special ops military unit working for the UNSC with the purpose of researching skilled soldiers with special armour and AI enhancements. Washington was one of these agents, the rookie in fact, the youngest, newest agent in the team. Laid-back and easygoing, Wash was the butt of a fair few jokes from the rest of the team, which he generally took in good humour. Despite this, he was the Agent who had the duty of dealing with Internal Affairs when things went wrong, suggesting that he was well trusted by both fellow agents and the structure governing the project, as well as possessing a certain amount of diplomacy. He was also one of the higher ranked Agents, consistently shown as Number 6 on the leaderboard, due to his commitment to following orders, respect for authority, and general ability to get his job done without theatrics.

While normally a close-knit team, things started to go wrong after one bad mission. When trying to comfort Connecticut after the mission, she brushed off his concern, pointing out how the Director was pitting the Freelancers against each other using the leaderboard rankings. Wash didn’t quite get it. Why would they even do that?

Later, a conversation with Agent North was interrupted by the news of a training session. Agents York, Maine and Wyoming were facing off against an unannounced new agent: Texas. Wash joined the other Freelancers in time to see their teammates get pounded by Texas. To Wash’s horror, things took a nastier turn when Maine and Wyoming began to use live ammo instead of practice rounds in an attempt to take out Texas, which led to York being seriously injured. Concerned for his friend, Wash rushed down to the training room to help. He confronted the Director of the project, trying to explain that Maine and Wyoming hadn’t been following protocol and had been using live ammo, only to be shouted down by the Director; the enemy on the battlefield would not use pretend ammo or follow protocol. This shook Wash a little, especially when it was pointed out to him that the live ammo was probably given to Maine and Wyoming by the Director himself.

There wasn’t much time to dwell on this however with an important new mission to be run; retrieving a sarcophagus. Wash was assigned to A-team, along with Carolina and Maine, and was supposed to be acting as the team’s locksmith to get them into the building. That changed however when York returned, claiming to be able to return to duty after his injury. Wash voiced his concerns about York’s condition, but was assured by Carolina and York that he would be fine.

After breaking into the building, they were confronted with an array of alien technology (and Wash takes the time to compliment Maine on the brute shot which is a good look for him). Wash found the sarcophagus and helped Carolina to set it up to use a pulley lift to send it to the top of the building for extraction- using Maine as a counterweight. Wash almost felt sorry for the goons that tried to take Maine out. Almost.

Unfortunately their attempt did not go unnoticed, and Wash and Carolina were confronted by a flamethrower wielding soldier. Wash attempted to take him out using a fuel rod cannon, but was unable to, leaving Carolina to defeat the man. Wash escaped with her to the top of the building where they regrouped with York and Texas, only to be surrounded by the enemy insurrectionists. Ready for a fight, they were rescued by the Freelancer ship firing a cannon at their location, causing the building to start to collapse. While falling, Wash managed to land on the sarcophagus and prevent it from being recaptured by shooting down the pursuit until he could be retrieved.

Following the mission, Wash encountered Connecticut sending a message to someone. Despite finding it suspicious though, after being told to mind his own business by Connecticut, he didn’t choose to turn in that information.
Although the mission was a success, it was not without its casualties. Maine had been shot in the throat, unable to speak.

At some point after this mission, Agent York received Delta, one of the first of the experimental AI, who Wash seemed to have known enough for Delta to pick up some of his humour.

Sent to infiltrate an Insurrectionist base, Wash and the other Freelancers were forced to enter via jetpack, with stern warnings to Wash not to overuse it in case he ended up like Georgia, a former Freelancer. Worried by this, Wash tried to get them to tell him what had happened to Georgia, but was only told that it was too awful to tell him, leaving him nervous and just a bit paranoid.

They all managed to get safely into the hangar, immediately coming under attack. While the other Freelancers fought, Wash attempted to access a computer module to discover where the leader of the Insurrection was located. It didn’t quite go to plan, when he inadvertently switched off the gravity in the hangar. That proved to be something of a boon though, as this allowed the Freelancers to make use of their better weaponry and skills to take out the enemy. Even so, Wash was nearly crushed by a falling car (Warthog) because vehicles really hate him.

They lost contact with Connecticut during the mission, and were forced to leave the facility via jetpack once more. However, on their way back to the ship, the Insurrectionists detonated a nuke in the minefield. While the others managed to reach the Pelican safely, Wash was too slow, caught outside with the blast approaching. He was only saved, in a rather embarrassing way, by Carolina attaching a grappling hook to his codpiece and dragging him into the pelican.

Arriving back on their ship, it became obvious that Connecticut had betrayed them, never returning with them. While they knew this, it went mainly unmentioned, even by Wash, as he attempted to carry on with life as normal.

But nothing really was normal. More Agents had been implanted with AIs, including North Dakota, implanted with Theta. Theta was introduced to Wash, who was fascinated by the AI and attempted to encourage it to be more open with the Freelancers. Despite Theta’s child-like nature though, a test undertaken by North proved that Theta was a valuable piece of tech when it came to combat. During this time, Maine had recovered enough to return to duty, and was implanted with Sigma, Carolina’s AI, in order to help him to communicate. Wash’s later admission that he finds Sigma creepy, and ability to communicate with Maine/The Meta without problems despite his ruined throat, suggest that Wash wouldn’t have found this necessary, and may have driven a wedge in their friendship, with Sigma leaving Wash uneasy.

Wash was definitely curious about the AIs though. He seemed to have been relatively close to Delta, since York blames some of Delta’s behaviour as Wash rubbing off on him, and Delta is definitely comfortable enough to tease Wash. While eating snacks (inside his helmet thanks to Delta’s teasing) Wash got involved with a conversation with York and North which brought up the subject of the Alpha, the AI which the others called ‘creator’, as well as the AI’s anxiety, constantly thinking about the Alpha.

The next big mission came when Connecticut was finally located, working with the Insurrectionists at a shipyard. The Freelancers were sent in to deal with them and to capture Connecticut’s equipment at any cost. The battle seemed to be going well for them, with Wash able to make use of his armour enhancement; an EMP, in order to take out several vehicles before they could be used against them. Working alongside York, Wash was able to take out a number of Insurrectionist soldiers, however one in particular caused issues; the soldier who had shot Maine in the throat. He was able to nearly blow Wash up with a rocket launcher, however Wash survived and working with York, he was able to disarm the man. When he proved to still be a threat, Wash was the one to call in the backup that he had been entrusted with; activating a drop pod containing Agent Maine, who promptly entered the battle.

While watching Maine take out the Insurrectionists with extreme prejudice, Wash and York were confronted by Sigma, Maine’s AI, wishing to speak with Delta, despite protocol dictating that the AIs were not allowed to speak to each other. Wash admitted to York that he found Sigma creepy. If he were human, he would be untrustworthy.

While the battle did not entirely go their way, and Connecticut seemingly escaped again, they did well enough that Wash was scheduled for implantation with an AI; either Eta, or Iota, along with South Dakota. It’s likely that this was met with enthusiasm, considering Wash’s desire to be a good soldier and do well for his team and the Director, who he considers had given them everything.

However things did not go to plan. Carolina, angry about discovering that Texas already had an AI, demanded that she be given both Eta and Iota, pushing Wash and South down the list. While Wash was disappointed, he accepted the change, naively trusting that the Director had their best interests at heart. Besides, as he explained to South, he was quickly put back on the roster to receive another AI: Epsilon. It wasn’t the best thing to say, as his words drove South into a jealous rage, prompting York to berate Wash for opening his mouth and making things worse, much to Wash’s embarrassment.

Wash was present when Carolina woke from her implantation and immediately demanded a match with Texas. While both of the women set up and readied themselves, all that Wash could do was watch and hope that neither of them would be killed; not a certain thing considering their anger towards each other. Things never got that far however. The Director heard of the match, and when he saw that Texas was fighting, called out the name ‘Allison’. For some reason, that caused all of the AIs to go berserk, screaming out for Allison, and driving their Freelancers into fits of pain from the strength of their reactions. Quite a terrifying experience.

It was one that Wash would soon become intimately familiar with. Despite grumblings that that event meant they would have to stop implanting AIs, a few days later he was taken in for implantation with the Epsilon AI. As soon as it connected with his brain, he was assaulted by images, visions, memories. Allison, everything led back to her! He experienced everything as the Epsilon AI, half mad, killed itself inside his head, leaving him with the tangled memories of everything that it had experienced. This left him unstable; he was wracked with pain and attacked medical personnel before he could be sedated. The last thing that he heard was the Director wanting to know what he’d heard.

He drifted in and out of consciousness for several days, possibly a couple of weeks, while his mind attempted to repair the damage done, and the memories settled in his head. When he did finally regain consciousness, he was met with North and South Dakota who explained that the AI implantations had been stopped because of what happened (much to South’s displeasure). He also found out that while he’d been out of it, Texas and York had apparently gone rogue, and that the Epsilon AI had been removed. Just then, an alarm on the ship went off, signalling an attempted break in. Both North and South left him there

During later seasons, we discover that Epsilon had been the memory of the Alpha AI, fragmented from the Alpha in order to retain its sanity while being tortured and broken apart by the Director; forced through scenarios that it could only ever fail, and being blamed for the deaths of those that it couldn’t save. The Alpha itself was created from the mind of the Director himself, Leonard Church. Wash was left with all of the memories that made up the Alpha; including memories of Allison, the Director’s wife, Carolina’s mother. Although I’m taking him from when he wakes up, it’s useful to know that after this, Wash is abandoned by the other Freelancers (some escape, some are killed), declared insane and unfit for duty due to the damage done to his mind, and probably interrogated by the Director to find out what he knows. He carries this information about the Alpha around with him for years, slowly planning revenge and becoming bitter, jaded and with a definite disregard for his own safety, possibly bordering on suicidal.

Sample: https://mercenarymayhem.dreamwidth.org/2241.html?thread=460737#cmt460737