Ethan Lawson

**Ethan Lawson** (b. *Noah Blake LéCoultre*), was the older brother of May Lawson.

While never physically appearing, he plays a large role posthumously in the events of Of Cigarettes & Copulation. Ethan's actions and subsequent murder are the catalysts of his sister's murder spree and the subsequent 2018 New York City Crisis, which was a campaign orchestrated by his sister, Jacob Delsin, detective Chuck Garland, private investigator Lyla Painter, the Hades Legion Motorcycle Club, East Village Vice Kings street gang and the anarchist hacker syndicate uD0gs to topple the Sacchitello Crime Family, culminating in a domestic terrorist attack upon the Stansfield Building and the exposure of Stansfield Industries various illegal activities and vast political corruption.

## Biography

### Early Life

**Ethan Lawson** (b. *Noah Blake LéCoultre*), was born in Syracuse, New York and much like his sister, had spent a large portion of his life in poverty when their father ran off during the 2001 financial crisis. As the son of a neglectful and frequently hot-tempered mother, Noah grew to become a surrogate parental figure to his younger sister Maria, who she would often turn to for comfort and protection when upset or the focus of their mother's outbursts.

At the age of seventeen, Noah had decided it in their best interests to run away from home, taking Maria along with him, the two snuck out of the house after their mother had left for work and caught a late-night train to New York City using tickets that Noah had been saving up for several months to buy, they began their new and unforgivingly harsh lives living on the cold streets, taking up the aliases of May & Ethan Lawson.

Over the next half-a-decade, the pair would typically crash on couches and find occupancy in one of the overcrowded homeless centers of the big city. Ethan worked odd jobs in construction and elsewhere that would hire him under-the-table since he had no legal identification under his new alias.

### Working for Stansfield

A stroke of luck hit the siblings on March 7th, 2016, when the nineteen-year-old Ethan had finally able to secure an under-the-table but extremely high pay wage job, being hired for $20/hr under special detail by Stansfield Industries. Little did he know, that his contract was directly tied to the illegal and inhumane dealings between the largely influential-yet-secretive Sacchitello Crime Family and the unknown "M" firm. Over the next year and a half, Ethan would be responsible for hosting several local "support groups" for struggling addicts, alcoholics and homeless, where (unbeknownst to Ethan) the attendees were often monitored, kidnapped and trafficked to an upstate facility where they were subject to the experimentation of a highly classified military bioweapon and a newly developed drug with similar intended outcomes, that would cause extreme levels of agitation, paranoia, hallucinations and irreversible brain damage to those involved.

While 'M' sought out potential government and military applications for an anti-personnel weapon that could destabilize international world powers and insurgent militias by turning them on one another, Michael Sacchitello used their test subjects to his own local political advantage. On several occasions, releasing an exposed subject into a low-income colored community, where they would almost immediately lash out violently, usually against their sought-after loved ones. Sacchitello was able to use this to skew crime statistics to his own agenda, using his financial influence in both local liberal and conservative public media as well as independent far-right media to direct public opinion against immigrant communities and opposition far-left union organizations. This also benefitted Stansfield and several large real estate firms with the approval of demolition and gentrification of neighborhoods that were seen as potentially high-value. Then, with the assistance of police lieutenant Weston Harringfield, who would frequently drop missing person cases, cover-up investigations into these violent crimes, and give false public testimonials; Sacchitello was able to use the police as a way of more strictly monitoring, enforcing and oppressing in areas that were of contention between himself and the Hades Legion Motorcycle Club or the East Village Vice Kings, often using plants within the aforementioned gangs to avoid violent conflict and swing disputes in his favor.

Ethan, while in the dark as to the true nature of his position and of his employers, had become aware fairly quickly of the disappearances, and while struggling with the morality of the situation, soldiered on, pouring all the money he earned into providing for his sister, finally being able to afford her an apartment and gifting her with a refurbished Volkswagen bus for her 19th birthday. In turn, he also took caution that nobody he worked with was aware of his sister's existence, the one exception to the rule being Logan Benson, an extremely close friend who would become romantically-involved and later engaged to May.

### Investigating Stansfield and Death

However, over the course of the following year, Ethan's guilt caught up to him and he reached out to Lyla Painter, a private investigator to look into the disappearances, but she was ultimately unable to find any leads. Thus, Ethan resolved to go deeper into the rabbit hole himself, reaching out to his employers and requesting to be shown what he had been a part of, Ethan's commitment was noted, but his loyalty was easily doubted, nevertheless, Ethan managed to catch glimpse of a transit itinerary which he memorized and stealthily followed to an abandoned warehouse, capturing footage of several armed men loading and securing people onto a truck and transporting them to a well-secured facility.

Ethan considered this enough to blow the whistle on the company and warrant a full-blown investigation into their activities and he returned to his apartment with the intent of sending the files to Lyla through email before he was intruded upon by several police officers, who falsely arrested him on suspicion of terrorism. His effort was not in vain though, as a six-second remnant of the video was intercepted and recovered by the hacker group uD0gs due to his usage of an unprotected public network to upload the video file.

Taken in cuffs to the local station and harassed by several officers on Harringfield's payroll, Ethan was faced with the very real understanding of the scope of Stansfield Industries corruption, yet, still resolved to expose them, while the officers threatened to doctor evidence on Ethan of being an extremist terrorist who planned to bomb Times Square, he was dismissed shortly thereafter by Harringfield himself. In the weeks afterward, Ethan became disturbingly paranoid and began driving to the facility every day in hopes of witnessing more incriminating behavior.

## Death & Legacy

On the night of February 5th, 2018, Ethan was confronted at his apartment by a friend who had managed to escape from the facility and sought refuge, explaining the nature of the experiments the others had been subjected to. Ethan reached out on a phone call to Logan Benson, explaining the weight of his discovery and his plan to expose what he had found to the public, confiding in Logan to take care of May should he disappear. Logan, however, would betray him almost immediately, reaching out to Sachitello with the information, who in-turned hired Vincent Akiyama to dispose of him.

Ethan and Sarah were fired upon by Akiyama almost immediately after leaving the apartment to meet with Lyla in person and record Sarah's testimony. Sarah was mortally injured by the second shot attempting to shield him. Ethan, panicked, made his way to a nearby phone booth and made a final call to his sister, attempting to apologize for his actions and explain his situation. He was shot mid-call by Akiyama, with a sniper round that entered the back of his head and exiting through his throat, killing him almost immediately, traumatizing May for the rest of her life.

## Appearances

* Nihilist Apathy
	+ *One Cold Night* (mentioned only)
* Of Cigarettes & Copulation (mentioned only)
* Nihilist Apathy
	+ *Saudade* (indirectly mentioned)
* Holmes (mentioned only)

## Relationships

Family
* Bethany LéCoultre - Mother
* May Lawson - Sister
* Noah Miller - Nephew

Friends
* Sarah Hamilton  † - Friend
* Lyla Painter - Ally

Enemies
* Michael Sacchitello † - Enemy
* Weston Harringfield - Enemy
* Logan Benson † - Close Friend turned Enemy
* Vincent Akiyama † - Killer

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