Holly: Mara Ellison
The narrator/protagonist of Oakpodcast. Holly is an autistic 32-year-old hacker and Marine who wakes up with no papers, money, or health insurance in America. Using the burner smartphone she woke up with, she records distress calls for her team—or anyone else who can help her.
- Berserk Button
- Broken Bird: After what happened at the holiday party, she's been a mess.
- Death Faked for You: Willard does this for Holly, supposedly for her benefit, but perhaps not...
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Lawful Neutral: She doesn't want to be, but she has a hard time getting past her neuroses about breaking rules. - Military Brat: Oak and Holly are both military brats.
- Starting a New Life: What Holly and Oak plan to do after wrapping up their final missions and getting out of the Marines.
- Stealth Expert: For all Holly's flaws and issues, when she goes dark, she goes completely dark. As she explains in Transmissions 4 and 5, essentially the main reason the military can continue tracking her at all is because she allows them to.
- The Smart Guy
Oak
Holly's partner, the field leader of Yule Team.
- Berserk Button: Holly.
- Cunning Linguist: And how.
- Home by Christmas: Or the playoffs. Not so much, as it turns out.
- Military Brat: Oak and Holly are both military brats.
- Sympathetic Murderer: "An attempted one, anyway." After a few minutes of eavesdropping on General Willard, it's not hard to support Oak's crime.
- The Lancer: Although General Willard is in charge, Oak is the headstrong field leader for Yule Team. The two clash fairly often, and one such clash is the premise for the entire series.
- The Strategist: Oak does a fair amount of this in the field, but on a very small scale and only when SHTF.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Mostly.
Brigadier General Thomas Willard
Recently promoted to general, Willard is the former commanding officer overseeing Yule Team.
- Affably Evil: He truly considers himself a good person. Although he can be an arrogant ass, his kindness/generosity/mentorship toward Holly and others is not necessarily just a façade.
- Asshole Victim: Oak tried to kill Willard, but Willard is a complete jerk who probably deserved it.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Willard to his offspring.
- Gaslighting: Holly. Constantly. Likely other characters as well.
- The Proud Elite: He's an arrogant douche who's quick to call Holly irrational or ridiculous when she expresses emotion.
- The Strategist: As with most generals, Willard's primary job is the big picture military strategy work. After his recent promotion to brigadier general, he's phasing out most of his oversight of the small black ops teams altogether.
- Unpopular Popular Character: None of the main characters seems to like him much in-universe anymore, but he's a definite fan favorite.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Outside of his closest circle, Willard is incredibly well-respected.
