Pvt. Luke Jamison

Personality

Luke is a pretty down-to-earth guy. He's in the Mojave in the middle of a war where his side is undersupplied and undermanned. He understands just how bleak his situation is... but oddly seems to enjoy it...? Don't get him wrong, he knows objectively this shit sucks, but he's able to stay oddly positive in the face of it. However bad his situation is, he's able to be authentically himself in a way he never was in Vault City. And that's worth suffering for. Even dying for: Luke has no grandiose dreams of surviving this war with the Legion. He assumes he'll be killed one day and is dedicated to living like this is true. He loves nothing more than cracking open a cold one with the boys and telling jokes and stories through the night.

That's not to say he's irresponsible; far from it, actually. While he signed up for the army for personal reasons, the more he's learned about Caesar's Legion the more dedicated he's become to destroying them. That means doing his work to the best of his ability, spurred on by the companionship he's built with his peers. His lighthearted personality and penchant for jokes also disguises just how clever he really is: don't underestimate him, or he'll clear you out in a game of caravan.

That being said... you're lucky to really learn a thing about him. He puts a lot of stock in privacy, espescially regarding his past before joining the NCR. Most people in the Mojave don't really care where you come from, but Luke is even more tight-lipped than most. While he's a friendly man, he tends to keep others at arms-length. He'll grab drinks with you on the weekend, but he's not the person to turn to with your problems. This is partically because of his fear of being outed as transgender-- he left for the Mojave specifically to avoid anyone knowing him, after all-- but also partially because he is so laissez faire with his own life. He isn't keen on his death being some tragedy: maybe get a round in his name and curse him for taking all your caps in caravan, and that's enough. This is his grand vision for himself: as the memory of a decent guy who died too soon. He hasn't bothered planning for anything else.

Strengths

Luke is, overall, a good soldier. He's dedicated, hardworking, and patient. He's a good shot, preferring a rifle to other weapons. He's quick on his feet, both literally and figuratively; speedy and clever, a fun combination for a soldier to be. He's also courageous, willing to jump into danger to defend the others around him.

Weaknesses

While relatively charismatic and personable, Luke is terrible with any relationship deeper than a friendly accquantenship. He does not talk about or express his own problems, and he's certainly not going to deal with anyone else's. His courage comes from a lack of self-preservation, which can make him incredibly reckless and inadvertently put others into danger. Despite being a good soldier, his respect for authority is situational: he's often much too casual with his superiors, and is willing to disobey them if he feels it's the best course of action. Perhaps his biggest issue is how short-sighted he is: he lives in the moment, never planning for the future or even considering it more than he has to. He sees no happy future. He sees no end to the war. There's nothing but today, and maybe tomorrow if he's lucky.

Childhood

Luke was born as a girl to a family of Vault City citizens. He was the second child to his family: his sister is three years older. Life as a citizen of Vault City was luxurious: he attended school from kindergarten up through high school, ate the finest food in the West, and always had his cuts and bruises cleaned up and kissed by his mother. But living such a life necessitated acting the way those luxuries demanded: he was endlessly schooled in how to act proper and have perfect manners. His life was dominated by making sure there was no dust on his shoes and eating with the correct fork. He was never allowed to play with the boys his age, his mother insisting a little girl like him shouldn't be so rowdy as them.

Despite all its upsides, the pressure of this life was very hard on Luke. Nothing ever felt right to him: he was putting on an act, an ill-fitting mask of an upper class woman that laughed at the right jokes and wore the right clothes and always smiled. But he knew it wasn't right. Even before he could understand what being transgender was, he always tried to gravitate towards men, earning him a label of boy-crazy. He snuck out of the home, though there wasn't much to do in the city himself. Though he was clearly smart, he let his grades suffer. His parents were often frustrated with his behavior. Had they not worked hard enough to raise a good girl?

Leaving Paradise

Things were much the same as he grew into an adult. He had no need to work-- and his middling grades made getting a job at the lift office unlikely, even if he had wanted that-- so he spent his days helping out at home. Ever-looming over him was the concept of the computer choosing a man for him to marry and have children with. It had already happened to his older sister: though she had been delighted to raise a family and been paired with a decent man, realizing that this was a future he might be pushed into made him sick to his stomach. As a young adult he was able to finally slip away from Vault City and into the Courtyard. There he was able to get his first taste of freedom, however limited. He took up smoking and drinking with the outsiders and slaves there, finding them much better company than the people he had grown up around. It was here that he finally began to understand himself: offhandedly, an outsider he was drinking with said he acted like a man in a woman's body, and that finally made the peices of his life fall into place. He cried at home that night, both relieved to understand why everything felt so wrong and afraid at what this meant for his future.

He didn't have much time to make a choice. On his 21st birthday, it was announced that a suitable match had been found for him, and his engagement was set for the next week. Following that, he would be sent to the auto-doc to concieve a child. When he heard the news, he had to bolt to the bathroom and throw up. Though his family reassured him that this was good and that he should be excited, he knew he couldn't let this happen to him. He would rather die. And that's how a plan sprung to mind. Only a couple days later he was gone. He had stolen some of his family's money and fled Vault City to meet a man he had heard about from the outsiders: one who had an auto-doc he could program at will. No one in Vault City ever heard from him again.

He was able to use the money he stole to persuade the man into letting Luke use his auto-doc. With it, he was able to convincingly change his body into that of a man's: top surgery, implants that would steadily produce tesosterone, voice changes, fat redistribution... He stepped out a day later as a completely different person than he went in. He used the rest of his caps to rest up for a couple days before finding an NCR building and enlisting for the army under his new name: Luke Jamison.

The Mojave

Following a few months of basic training, he was officially assigned to the Mojave. He was the only one on the trainride there to actually be glad to be going to the Mojave. He had wanted a chance to start over, and boy was he getting it! There was no chance in hell anyone who had been to Vault City would abandon that kind of life to go to the middle of nowhere-- besides him, of course-- which meant no one would ever have the chance to know who he had been before.

He was first stationed at Bitter Springs, tasked with assisting the refugees there and defending the camp. This was fine by him: despite how bleak and unglamorous the station was, it was definitely never boring. The overwhelming stress and trauma from both soldiers and refugees alike meant that tensions flared up frequently, and he was often one to help diffuse situations and clean up after messes. He had a good reputation down there for listening to the refugees and being quite personable.

He was only at Bitter Springs for a couple of months, though, before he was transferred to Camp Forlorn Hope. Once again, he was the only one being transferred that didn't mind this decision. It was here that he met Lieutenant Holly Mason: a loud and foul-mouthed but friendly woman frustrated that her application to the Rangers wasn't going through. They had a deal deal of respect for each other, and struck up a friendship in their time together. This was the closest Luke had been to someone... basically in his entire life. Though he was low-key about it, he really liked Holly and valued what they had.

Of course, friendship is a dangerous thing to have in a warzone. Following an ambush on a relatively simple mission they were on, the NCR soldiers were beaten back, with the Legion (specifically, Centurion Lupus, a figure in and of himself) taking Holly captive. Luke was both devastated and furious. He blamed himself for not being able to protect his friend. He swore that he would kill Lupus and bring Holly back safe, no matter what it took...