Gavin Malkin

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=The Pilot=
Gavin's early history immediately following the Vannai invasion up to joining the Phoenix Collective is not known and tends to be downplayed by the pilot himself as unimportant. By his own words, he was active as a pilot following the second-wave awakening, hearing the initial call to arms from Armor Corps in 2014, but choosing to ignore it instead and write the group off as doomed to fail, striking out on his own at anyone and everything within reach. He eventually came to work for the Phoenix Collective out of Chicago at some point following the Bright Offensive, working largely alone and taking part in aggressive deployments that saw him fighting all over the world against both alien-controlled humans and other groups.
Two years after the invasion began, that same group he initially laughed off actually did wind up saving the world with the destruction of the alien base in the Middle East. He would come to work for the Armor Corps directly about a year later, undergoing a brief evaluation before suddenly being invited to storm the Vannai mothership, and work frequent contracts for them afterwards based off his adequate performance on said mission.
His humiliating loss against the former leader of the vampire clan in late 2018 and said loss' publication to the internet heavily damaged his reputation, leading to him relying on his membership with Fireteam Vertex to find good-paying work, especially after his follow-up attack caused an international incident that lead to him being blacklisted by several higher-profile clients. As Vertex's renown continued to grow and attract ever more high profile members and clients, however, Gavin's past failures continued to weigh him down, and he eventually realized he was quietly being left behind. Opting to quit rather than be fired, he simply allowed obscurity to finally claim him, and silently left the team to return to what independent work he could find from his new home in New Zealand.
Gavin's departure from the Phoenix Collective and from Fireteam Vertex left him with fresh spell of self-doubt and angst. The line of fear that he had lost his edge as a pilot and would have to return to a civilian life was constantly on his mind during this time, and a period that should have been spent deepening his relationship with Othinus was instead spent picking fights with Albrecht Ryman to vent his frustration. This dangerous state of mind, not unlike that which had possessed him during the Sighisoara Incident, would be tapped into by an old mercenary acquaintance of Gavin's by the name of Reyna Hoshi. A practiced manipulator, Reyna would use Gavin's fears to force him to assist her in her mission to kill the last Chosen AI. As an unaffiliated pilot, Gavin accompanied Reyna and her assistant Shi Nanashi to Quebec. Gavin was eventually apprehended by the The Knights of Montreal and brought to meet their leader, Michael Garcon. After sustaining grievous injury at Garcon's hands, the pilot realized that he had been foolish in letting his overwhelming need for validation as a pilot control him, and that he now wanted nothing more than to be with and protect someone he cared about. Turning the tables on Garcon, Gavin killed the "prince" and, with Reyna's subtle help, eliminated the rest of the Knights. However, Reyna would continue to use Gavin as her scapegoat in what would retroactively become known as the Montreal Border Incident. Gavin would very narrowly avoid a quick execution thanks to Shi, who, in an effort to convince both herself and Reyna that Reyna wasn't a completely morally bankrupt human being, persuaded the mercenary to argue for a better fate for Gavin. Afterwards, Gavin would be brought to Lenn's atelier for healing and would receive a cybernetic eye from Ryman and Monk to replace the one he lost to Garcon. The incident itself was buried and forgotten, and Gavin was allowed to return home with a fresh appreciation for the peace he had earned for himself.
Reyna would, several months later, contact Gavin again for assistance in rescuing Shi, who had been kidnapped by a Mexican cartel. Although the job was well outside of his lane and Gavin had no reason to trust that Reyna wasn't trying to get him killed again, Reyna would argue that this job was fully official and legiminate, and there was no possibility of doublecrossing, with the added benefit of possibly getting Gavin back on track as a respected pilot. Gavin eventually relented and was temporarily reinstated as a Phoenix Collective mercenary. 
Reyna led the charge into the cartel boss' home, unflinchingly killing everyone in her way until the two encountered a mysterious man identifying himself as Trekhglazyy Pauk. Pauk allowed the crime boss' Rybot to attempt to eliminate the two invaders, but to his surprise, Reyna and Gavin would defeat the machine, albeit with Gavin left once again horribly injured as a result. Reyna would attempt to face Pauk on her own, but was easily outmatched by the highly trained and cybernetically-enhanced hitman. As Pauk slowly killed Reyna, Gavin would drag himself to the confrontation and shoot Pauk from behind, saving Reyna and settling the score between the two pilots.
Despite his two very close brushes with death, Gavin was still left with indecision on what to do with himself from here. The attack on Fort Ryman at the end of 2019 forced him into a situation that had been felt by many humans during the war as someone powerless against the might of the suits. Realizing that he had a responsibility as a pilot to actually use his suit, Gavin vowed that he would not leave the safety of himself or those he cared about in the hands of someone else, and officially rejoined the Phoenix Collective as an active mercenary.
The Great Hibernation and the commencement of the China War placed Gavin in a bind, however. While Othinus played an active role in the Armor Corps' campaign in China from Taiwan, Gavin himself was forbidden by the Armor Corps from stepping foot in the region due to not being ACC personnel. Gavin would relent to supporting Othinus from afar until the destruction of the Beng Faction due to the actions of Jeanne-Amandine Lepen just after Christmas. With the situation in China suddenly becoming incredibly dangerous and only getting worse as time went on, Gavin made the heavy decision to once again leave the Phoenix Collective and instead officially join the Armor Corps in mid February of 2020. The fact that Armor Corps would be forced out of the China War just over a week after, completely invalidating this solemn decision, can only be attributed to the man's consistent misfortune.
As a member of Armor Corps, he played an extremely minor role in AC's mission in South Africa, and while present did not participate in any combat missions.
He was a participant in Che En Lin's recruitment tournament, defeating Edgar Astorino in single combat and progressing to the semi-finals. After the event's subsequent collapse, he assisted in evacuating Che's staff from the island, and generally considers the entire incident a bizarre occurrence.
==Personality==
Contrary to what one might expect of a veteran mercenary, Gavin is brash, impulsive and emotional, specializing in using his anger and aggression as a weapon. Consequentially, he also tends to be shortsighted and a poor team player; he is a strong believer that the shortest and most direct path to victory is the only one worth taking. His rather defining trait of letting his anger control him in combat means that he does everything he can to avoid leadership roles and prefers to fight alone and without support from allies unless absolutely necessary, if only to avoid the burden of responsibility for others distracting him from getting to grips with the enemy as fast as possible.
Although he can easily be seen as thuggish in character, he's not as stupid as his actions make him out to be. His impulsive behavior is a self-forced habit, born in rebellion of a tendency to overthink things when left to his own devices; a holdover from his life before the war.
Now a part of Armor Corps, he's generally much better behaved, understanding that trouble from him means trouble for Othinus. He's become more cautious as a fighter as time has gone on, as shown by his suit's adoption of more defensive modules, but still prefers to fight without assistance.
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==Appearance==
A young man with dark hair and blue eyes. 180cm tall (what a manlet). He is most often seen wearing a g-suit and scarf when doing combat duty. When off the clock, he tends to wear casual clothing in neutral greys and powder blues, in contrast to the rust-red mecha he pilots. Originally wearing his hair short, he grew it out a while after coming to work for Armor Corps regularly.
Although no longer worn he still has his team jacket from when he was a member of Fireteam Vertex, which he still insists is "stylish and very cool" despite it staying in the closet.
==Relations & Allies==
===Armor Corps===
Albrecht Ryman/The Rymans (Mecoptera): The mutual dislike between the two (three?) is mostly a formality by this point.
Amano Shizuka (Blitzpferd): After saving her in Operation Mothership, Gavin came to feel uncharacteristically protective of the bubbly engineer despite them never being especially close otherwise. One of only two people he's torn himself away from a fight to help, he'll miss having her around more than he'll ever admit now that she's moved on to help with the Libra project. He regrets not treating her better while she was around, but is content that she'll be out of harm's way now.
Asuka Durbize (Rook): After a flaunted lack of concern for the missing pilots during Operation Sigma Oscar Sigma, Gavin appears to have managed to irritate Asuka in a rather personal way.
Hanai Brooks (Tail Gear): Where others pin Hanai as manipulative, Gavin both lacks access to the rumours pervading the watercoolers at ACHQ or the self-awareness to partake of this opinion, siding with the capricious shapeshifter during a certain dispute and continuing to give her the benefit of the doubt in other matters.
Mark Wolfe (Silver Knight): Gavin dislikes Mark for being successful, powerful, popular and well-liked, and sees the hero of ACC as being gratingly self-righteous. Their personal gripes with one another reached a new level after Mark recently overstepped his authority as an AC officer and confronted and apprehended Gavin in the middle of an odd job, firmly shifting Gavin's opinion of him from dislike to hatred. Nonetheless he actually kind of forgot about him after AC began scrubbing the pilot's presence from their propaganda.
===Armor Corps Military Police===
Belphegor (Belphegor): Gavin can attribute his familiarity with Ryman's monstrous "son" to a brief encounter during his attack on Sighisoara, which Gavin would later assume was Ryman's attempt at finishing him off after wiping out the vampires. Although that version of Belphegor is not the one currently controlling the body, the distinction is lost on Gavin, and despite claiming to be decidedly not superstitious, he's the only one that seems to be pushing for others to avoid conversing with it.
===The Engineers===
Tommy Wilder (Carrier Prime): Although Gavin has had some interactions with the leader of TE prior, the events of Operation Mountain Rush showing hints of the lengths Tommy is willing to go to gain more alien technology has lead to him considering the friendly mad scientist in a more suspicious light. After beating the shit out of Tommy's kid brother, it's unlikely they'll ever get along any better than they currently do. 
He was ambivalent to the man's reported disappearance, but was vaguely aware enough of the situation in Japan to conclude he probably deserved whatever actually wound up happening to him.
Editi Eadrom (Carrier Prime's AI): Though Editi's supposed emotional instability and shocking disregard for moral boundaries are often joked about, Gavin's never seemed to take them seriously, or, at least, as a threat. This is mostly due to their direct interactions being rather limited. 
He considers her reported disappearance a bit suspicious, however, if half of the horrible things she was rumored to be behind turned out to be true, he would hope that her disappearance was as permanent as it was well-deserved.
Ellis Castelli (Malicious Compliance): An individual that Gavin developed an immediate and intense dislike for as of their first meeting. 
He was indifferent to the man's reported death.
===Hanse Behörde===
Lyn Wong (Hai-ko): Although having only just met, he considers her more pleasant company than she gives herself credit for, perhaps seeing a kindred spirit in a self-loathing outsider.
===Moqaddas===
Alvilda Elofsdottir (Valkyrie): Gavin knew "Moqaddas' Iron Maiden" first as the mission commander for Operation Mothership and the one signing his paychecks. Hearing that she was in fact a beautiful woman, he mistook Othinus for her upon their first meeting and attributed her seven foot tall spiky death machine form as the drone. In time they've gotten to know each other better, especially given Gavin's relationship with Othinus being what it is now. He's come to appreciate her willingness to act as emotional support and voice of reason for her friends and has concluded that beneath her hard metal exterior and stern warrior reputation is a gentle person who still wants to be treated as a woman. 
He was actually very glad for Alvilda's retirement after coming to understand the trials she went through during her active career with ACC, and, with Othinus, is still able to see her on a regular basis.
Henry Locke (Heretic): Although Alvilda's student is a far more reserved individual than Gavin is, they seem to get along fine, and could even be friends with more regular contact.
Othinus (Valkyrie)'s AI: After enduring an embarrassing case of mistaken identity, Gavin slowly came to regard the smug construct in an increasingly romantic light over the course of a year, with some encouragement from Carcer. Not wholly comfortable with the idea, however, he staunchly and rather unsuccessfully denied any accusations of harboring a weird crush on her until finally being pushed into a fit of jealously when confronted with the possibility of someone else courting her. Despite him suffering a series of humiliations afterwards, Othinus would eventually confront him directly, leading to him finally accepting his own feelings for her. Gavin's biggest concerns these days revolve around what he can do to keep her happy with him while adjusting to a world and society that no longer has a need for warriors like himself the way it used to. For the latter at least, he knows it's a world he can face as long as Othinus is by his side in it.
===Green Initiative===
Craig Williams (Edinbrother): A series of unfortunate events lead to Gavin and this GI goon nearly coming to blows in their first meeting. Although the result of a misunderstanding, its unlikely this relationship is going to improve any time soon.
"Turtle" (Turtle): Gavin watched Turtle die in a rather bizarre and simultaneously unnerving manner first-hand during Operation Mountain Rush. Not knowing him in any personal capacity, he carries no guilt over the long-time GI operative's death, but is highly suspicious that others in Armor Corps might pin the blame on him due to the circumstances of his demise.
===Green Initiative Medical Division===
Lenn Lee (Lenn): Seems like a nice enough girl. Reminds him a bit of Amano. Was pleasantly surprised to see she had gotten over her fixation with her "sister" and reverted back to what is presumably her original appearance. Was ignorant of her death when it happened and shocked to find out about the circumstances of it.
===Phoenix Collective===
Amanda Kelly (Clownfish): The only other Phoenix Collective and American Coalition member at the AC base for a long while, though Gavin never actually met her before she left to parts unknown.
Carcer Carmine (Marauder): Gavin and Carcer would form a working partnership based off a string of successful operations together that would eventually grow to become the famous Fireteam Vertex. Despite claiming to find the older mercenary's efforts to protect him from himself annoying and unwelcome, Carcer's rationality and empathy served to temper Gavin's own impetuousness and recklessness over the years, and it is in no small part thanks to him that Gavin is no longer the 'suicidal maniac' he was originally known as. Unfortunately, a combination of incidents and circumstances have caused the two to abruptly drift apart, and Gavin now makes clear efforts to avoid his former teammate.
Elena Wagner (Yuki): In the history of Fireteam Vertex, Gavin and Elena have represented two moods of the team in respect to whom Carcer would sortie with, with the two other members themselves rarely interacting with one another. Despite knowing her essentially only in passing, he knows enough from Carcer to know that behind her cool and aloof exterior, she's actually a huge dork, and it's a secret he's content to keep with him for his former teammate's sake. He hopes Elena found the news of Japan's rebellion welcome. Was saddened by her death.
Fuchs Jäger (Kirin): An extremely naive girl that tries too hard to be everyone's friend. Had no idea she was a cat the whole time.
"Loose" (Loose Sexkiller): Another merc from Chicago that Gavin has had absolutely no interaction with, save for that one time he showed up plastered at a bar. From what he's heard, the man is one hardcore motherfucker, but seems to have disappeared now, perhaps as a result of his own suicidal fighting style.
Maria Clarke (Sangria Prowler): Aside from being a very rare dark-skinned elf, Maria doesn't particularly stick out to Gavin, likely due to her meek personality. He finds her idolization of Carcer amusing, however, and does reserve some inkling of concern regarding her relationship with Buio, whom he rates as being "desperately thirsty".
Reyna Hoshi (Crying Shame): An associate from his pre-Armor Corps employment days, Gavin knows Reyna better than probably anyone still alive today, which is exactly why he doesn't trust her in the slightest. 
Shi Nanashi (Crying Shame's AI): Gavin was slow to realize that Shi was an AI, a fact that Reyna taunted him over. He disapproves of Reyna's treatment of her, but otherwise doesn't think much of the reticent girl, considering it to not be any of his business.
Stan Geraldo (Buio): An individual Gavin managed to irritate shortly after first arriving at the Armor Corps base with disparaging comments towards cyberbrains, and then insulting him directly while in the middle of a mission. After the pilot's return from his year-long virtual imprisonment and subsequent change of allegiance to the Phoenix Collective, he seems to have picked up on some kind of rivalry with Gavin, who doesn't find this the least bit flattering. Gavin has more or less forgotten about him since his sudden disappearance.
=The Suit=
==Gallery==
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Category:PACYOA: TE
Category:Heavy
Category:American Coalition
Category:Armor Corps