Sky City

[scotland]

Sky City

High in the clouds, hidden from prying eyes and technology is the hidden city of the sky pirates. This city has never been seen or captured by anyone who doesn’t belong to the city and never will, for any who have caught a glimpse of it will never find it in the same place again. The reason for this is the main island part of the city was equipped with engines by the original sky pirates that found it and can propel itself through the air at the same speeds as a normal sky ship.

Another interesting fact about this city is any who have seen it and describe it always describe something different. How does that happen? As the island travels and finds more, smaller islands floating aimlessly, the pirates in charge debate about picking it up. When it has been decided that they do want the new island, they maneuver the city near it and capture it with ropes and pulley’s - eventually putting in metal bridges and stairways to make it more permanent. Once in a while, the pirates also decide to let an island go - many random bits of city ruins can be found floating around because of it.

There really is no rhyme or reason to the city - what may have been a dock island could be gone the next time you return and a bigger one, or a smaller one could replace it somewhere else. Living quarters and inns pop up on any island and move to another when the old one is abandoned. Which is why, when you come to dock, there will always be someone there to meet your crew with a current city map.

To find this moving island, someone who is part of the city already must recommend your captain as being trustworthy enough to be given the tracking device. This device is set up above a world map and sends a little pen light along the surface that pinpoints where the City is at all times - betray the Sky City’s trust, and you will find this device exploding with force enough to destroy the room it is kept in.

[Gov. Chloe Boone]

SIGNIFICANT NPCS:

Name: Governor Chloe Belle Boone
Country of Origin: It does not matter—I’m a citizen of the Sky City now.
Gender Female. Is that a problem?
Age: 28
Height: 175.26 cm. (5’9”) in heels
Weight: 63.57 kg. (140 lbs.)

It takes a woman of iron to garner any kind of authority in the world, and in the society of Sky Pirates, the Sky City Governor is an exemplary example. Slim as a willow and sharp as a whip, Gov. Boone cuts an impressive and unquestionably feminine figure—while she may be rather ‘humbly’ endowed with upper assets, her bustle more than makes up for the lack. Her hands and fingers are long with delicate looking digits, and clearly well cared for if rather pale. Her hair is a soft sable, fine to the touch, divided in the middle into two sets of bangs with the remainder tied back into a loose bun at the nape of her neck. Her face has noble, almost fae-like features, with stormy gray eyes and pale rose lips.

As the daughter of a renowned arms-dealing merchant, Chloe was firmly instructed from an early age in the value of appearances; the power of poise formed the leading doctrine of her social experiences. As such, Boone is immaculate in the composition of her wardrobe, stocking up on anything that brings out her finer and more dangerous qualities, including several gun holsters within ready reach. She makes a point of being visibly armed with two top-of-the-line hand-guns, keeping at least one in plain view during all negotiations. Chloe is a precision shot, with speed that few can match. The clothes make the Governor, and there is more than one kind of armor.

As a rule, Chloe’s gubernatorial attire generally consists of sleek collared blouses and suit-jackets at top, long pinstriped pants tucked into suede buccaneer boots with solid wooden heels and large cuffs at the bottom, and all sorts of odds and ends to add to the look of cool Victorian professionalism, including but not limited to: her signature opal necklace (with matching chain-ball earrings), a fob pocket-watch, a handkerchief in the breast pocket, smooth leather gloves, the occasional hair accessory, and a pair of thin-frame silver spectacles.

Chloe does not actually need the glasses, being blessed with almost hawkish vision, but deliberately wears them when conducting business to invoke the sense of sharp calculation that only a pair of lenses and carefully applied makeup can provide a woman. A master of stoicism in politics and economics, the most people tend to get from Chloe if they’re lucky is a small slip of a half-smile, though more often than not they encounter a coolly smooth expression that gives away very little true intention.

When at leisure or in the company of Tinker, Gov. Boone is more than happy to shed the reading-glasses and unwind, however slightly, and reveal her true face. Her passion is in literature and the theatre, a possible homage to her mother’s legacy, and she appreciates any conversation with a literary bent. She calls Tinker ‘Puck’ as a reference to the fairy in Shakespeare’s work, and in return allows him to call her ‘Belle’. Tinker is possibly the closest thing Chloe has to a friend, but he is enough.

Crew member of: The Sky City
Status: Acting Governor of the Sky City
Pet: Hm…Well, there’s Puck, but as to which of us is the pet…-amused smile-
Crest: The Emblem of Sky City

History:

Born to an upper-class family consisting of a retired French actress and the heir of an enterprising British weapons-and-armory company, Chloe was bred in an atmosphere of opportunity and fortune. Even with the missus’ later death, the child lacked for little, having the company of a maid, Alice, who became in order surrogate mother, best friend, and then lover. She was instructed in business by her father, who hoped to keep her as a secretary, and taught the use of a gun. She chafed under the lack of recognition inspired by her sex, but was ultimately content as she grew older. It was only when her father found out about her love for Alice and terminated the maid’s contract that their relationship soured.

When one of her father’s company ships was attacked by sky pirates, Chloe managed to hold her own via the use of her handguns, negotiating equable terms with the opposite ship’s captain. She was kidnapped into the Sky City, where she met Tinker, and began a strange sort of friendship. As she grew more and more accustomed to the idea of a ‘pirate society’, Chloe began setting shop as a permanent member of the City, disavowing herself of her old life and taking on the granted mantle of ‘Governor’. The power of the position very well accommodates the pride of Miss Boone, and she continues to run the City to the best of her ability, taking the advice of the Tinker, who first considered her an equal and gave her the title.

Allegiance: Wing or wind, fall or fly, part of the Sky until the day I die.

Color: Gainsboro

[The Tinker]

Name: Cody “Tinker” “Puck” Robbins
Country of Origin: Been here fer as long as I ken. Dunno where I broke off from, though.
Gender Male, ye gob for brains.
Age: Early twenties, or thereabouts, but age ain’t everythin’ now is’t?
Height: 165 cm. (5’5”) Laugh all ye want while I’m bustin’ yer ribs.
Weight: 49.89 kg. (110 lbs) not countin’ the metal fixin’s. Addin’ me arm and leg, I’m closer to 72.57 kg. (160 lbs).

Appearance:

A small, dark, and swarthy looking fellow, people don’t often notice Tinker until he makes himself known, usually in the most abrupt manner possible. He doesn’t walk so much as amble, darting about with all the urgency of an escaped convict. The young Nation’s face is a strange and startling mixture of old and young, all square jaw, button nose, and pointed chin, with one shifty frosty-sky-colored eye almost always narrowed in distrust. His raggedly cut ash brown hair is already peppered with silver, clustering at the temples and sweeping back. It is not a bad-looking face, even if it’s constantly smeared in oil and grime and more than a little scruffy around the jaw, but it is a harsh and harried one. Tinker’s expressions are rarely absent of just the slightest trace of mania or suspicion, his rare smiles and laughter more barking mad than joyful.

The long lost right eye has been replaced by a mechanical one, eternally wide with brilliant orange iris. Depending on how much light Tinker thinks he needs for either illumination or intimidation, the iris responds by opening the aperture, glinting brighter; the pupil itself becomes an amber-tinted flashlight in particularly dark places. A fair trade-off for shot depth perception. This prominent bodily modification is the most readily seen, but far from the last--after a traumatic incident in his relatively recent past, Tinker has seen fit to replace his right arm and left leg with complex prosthetics.

In addition to being able to change his right fingers into various appliance tips, the arm also serves as a convenient compartment for screws and small parts, while pieces of the leg itself can be taken off and utilized for additional tools. Given how often the ambidextrous inventor can be found tinkering around with gadgets, the benefit to being his own walking toolbox is obvious. The added bonus of having a permanent set of bronze knuckles and a solid metal toe enables him to be a fierce close quarters opponent should that prove necessary. That said Tinker prefers allowing his machinations, a power pistol, and an electrolyzed knife do his fighting for him.

Due to the burden of his attachments, Tinker has necessarily built some muscle and bulk over the years, though his height inhibits him from being a conventionally intimidating man. This appears to suit Tinker well enough most times, as he relies on lowered guards to get the best shots in. His clothing is generally utilitarian, preferably easily washed on the blue moons he bothers. On occasions when he wants to be seen, Tinker goes for the bronze, adopting flashy fashions for the most dramatic effect. He is rather partial to diesel- and steam-punk with a pirate lent.

Pet: Out of the vast array of mechanical marvels Tinker regularly constructs, the pirate Nation’s robotic pride and joy is a finely crafted and flamboyantly colored mechanical parrot that can be found regularly adorning one of his shoulders. Capable of both voice and video recording, the fondly named “Cracker Jack” also acts as an elaborately made memorandum and messenger for Tinker, allowing easy communication between him and his Governor on those occasions where wireless glitches out. Jack is also prone to interjecting sound bits for conversational emphasis.
Crest: A bronze key with a gear head and dragonfly wings.

Personality:

To say that Tinker is a private person is an understatement. Introverted to the point of almost certain misanthropy, the inventor does not like being made to socialize unless it is on his own terms, and even then he has a bad reputation for sullenness and abrupt mood swings. Shifty at the core, Robbins will rarely make eye-contact with others unless it’s strictly necessary, and when it is he has an unsettling tendency to stare. He absolutely loathes being touched when he isn’t expecting it, jerking away from physical contact as though it burns him. Tinker generally does not trust people, even and especially his own citizens—he makes little effort to hide this.

That said, though, Tinker does love his people, deeply, and is highly protective and possessive of those either living within “his” city or flying in allegiance with it. Because he is far better suited to securing the island’s physical defense, Tinker will take pains to ensure that every sky-pirate that calls his city “home” will find safe harbor there, so long as they do not betray him. As to those who are not true to the City, there’s a short walk and a long drop awaiting them, and Tinker can always tell when a pirate is going to go rogue.

Whenever he is not monitoring his acting Governor from behind the scenes, Robbins can generally be found tinkering away in either his workshop or in the depths of the island, muttering to himself and his many creations. A fiercely intelligent man raised in isolation, Tinker generally disavows himself of social trapping, judging people independent of conventional stereotypes and valuing the content of their character based on their actions. A rationalist to the core and obsessed with self-improvement, Robbins spurns ignorance within himself and seeks to annihilate it at every opportunity. He certainly won’t make a surface judgment on another for a reason as superficial as gender, skin-color, or ethnicity.

Tinker takes pride in being clever, and while he is generally uninfluenced by flattery it does not change the fact that the man enjoys receiving it, especially when it’s in reference to his many mechanical marvels. As antisocial as he is, Tinker has a definite flair for the dramatic, a love of attention fueled by an inventive imagination. If he has a choice between two smart decisions, Tinker will be partial towards the one with the most style, living life as though it’s his own personal storybook and reveling in the shock waves of his actions.

Robbins takes great joy in unsettling people’s expectations, generating chaos to suit his needs. In this way, he demonstrates his actual youth, an understated aspect of his personality that is often lost in the cloud of hard rationality. It is this part of him that enjoys “talking like a pirate” even if it’s inaccurate, and it is because of this dreaming that he can place so much wonder into his creations. One of the few people who gets to see this faintly childish side on a regular basis is Governor Chloe Belle Boone, the one human whom Tinker calls friend, and their relationship is a strange mix of business associate and family. In his “Belle,” Tinker finds the best friend and caretaker he never knew he was looking for, and while this closeness sometimes scares Tinker on a deep, intuitive level, he has grown to need his Governor too dearly to be able to push her completely from his heart.

But not even the Governor is aware of Tinker’s darkest fear—fully aware that he is inhuman but unable to define what he actually is, Tinker worries over the question of his nature, wondering what exactly it means to be as connected to the island as he is, to the people who call it home. It scares him, sometimes, this indefinable difference, and it’s one of the mysteries that truly haunts him, a bad dream that keeps him up in the darkness of the night.

History:

There is no memory or explanation for how he came to be. One day, he simply was, a small young boy in the depths of a great machine, blinking awake to the song of steam blowing and gears turning. When he closed his eyes, he could feel it—all the pieces of the machine, all the bolts, nuts, and screws that held the metal sheets together, the engine that powered its flight. Beyond that, nothing but cloud and sky.

This was not what seemed strange to the boy. What was strange was the feeling within the walls, a motion like blood through veins, or air from lungs. Above and around him, the boy could sense them, almost hear them—people.

It wasn’t long before the boy was found by one of the island’s many engineers, and not long after that he was brought before the Captain. Somehow, even though he had never spoken, the boy knew how to speak, and more than that, how to understand. Unexpected as he was the boy’s brash and inquisitive innocence was charming, and the Captain immediately took a shine to the apparent orphan. It was decided that he would live with the head engineer, Robbins, where his small form would have the most use. Thus it was that Cody became the son of sky-pirates.

The boy grew with the city, working underfoot its many engineers to keep the island afloat. The boy learnt quickly, instinctively anticipating the needs of the machine, and whenever there was an error Cody was swift to correct it. In his spare time, he learnt the art of invention, creating mechanical wonders to the delight of his peers and himself. The city rose, renegades flocking towards its safe harbor, a society forming between the clouds. It was a ragtag culture, a fabric of outcasts and criminals, but to Cody they were family and home. In no time at all, the boy became a man.

The peace was not meant to last. The City, built to escape the laws of the Earth, was not without its enemies—in particular those who made it their mission to protect its skies. The plans of the World Sky Military were simple—to ground the floating fortress and roust its pirate population, hopefully with as little destruction as possible. What they got was a siege.

Ultimately, the Military failed to bring down the City, but the damage of the attack was extensive. Most of the leaders of the floating isle were either killed in battle or captured for execution. Many of the engineers were also taken in hopes that their minds could be turned to Military gain, their technology harnessed for “the greater good.” Of the few left behind, many were injured, including young Cody. The loss of two limbs, one eye, and several parents paid the price of childhood innocence—from that day forth, he hated the Military with all his heart.

As soon as the man had recovered enough he set about repairing himself—a new arm, a new leg, a new eye. It only seemed natural to adopt a new name—so it was that Cody became Tinker. Tinker became obsessed with the safety of the city, adding innovation over innovation to its machinery. Before long the island was no longer floating, but flying—constantly adrift in a sea of fog, untouchable except by those who knew how to look for it.

Tinker gave to each of those who had proven their loyalty to the City a way to find it again—devices that would explode at any sign of treachery. That those devices for locating the City also worked in reverse, allowing the City to track down her ships, was not a fact Tinker felt necessary to divulge.

Not long after the attack, Tinker managed to find the one thing he needed to keep his society together: a leader. Chloe Belle Boone was everything that the City needed—strong, smart, steady under pressure—Tinker knew from the moment he saw the young woman that the fate of his City required her at its command. She took to the job like a swan to water, and the City flourished more than it ever had under their direction. More than that, Tinker himself found in her an unexpected companion—a true friend.

As it stands, Tinker’s goals are only the advancement of the City and the safety of its citizens. To those who stand in opposition of those goals, he shall give no quarter.

Allegiance: No one alive belongs to the sky like I.

How He Lived:

Color: LightSkyBlue