Objects In Space: A Sci-Fi Ensemble
Hey, you! Do you like RPs? Do you like space RPs? Do you like western-esque space RPs? Well, you're in luck buddy. I am proud to present you Objects In Space, a sci-fi western that owes its creation to a Cowboy Bebop marathon and a love of all things Firefly. Sit back, relax and, while you're there, put down a character sheet. You might just find yourself a tiny bit surprised with this one.
Introduction:
Let's face it, Earth was never going to stand up on its own forever. Everything was too crowded, too messy. The people needed to stretch their legs and move onto greater lands, to discover and to settle down. What the people needed was change, which was just what they found. Of course, just as every cloud has got its silver lining, every white shirt has got its stain - or at least that's what my old man used to say. Long gone now, of course. To think, he was only ninety-three when he went. Doctors said he could have had a good thirty more years in him if he'd just stopped all the booze.
Oh, right, I'm going off point. Anyway, those Earth lot had to move off their old planet. Things back then weren't as good as they are now, but they managed to adapt other planets to fit their needs. They used the tools they had, that's another thing my old man used to say. If only he'd have stopped the drinki-- I mean, uh, they had to adapt. Did we cover that bit? We did? What about the revolts and the vote that was passed to allow all planets to have separate laws?
Right. Long story short, us humans settled down on some other planets. Then people got the bright idea to explore the galaxy and be like that Columbus guy, y'know? The one that discovered England or somewhere. Anyways, we spread out even more. Before we knew it, folks were establishing their own planets and making their own laws. Something that was illegal on one planet was legal on another, so anyone with the right amount of money could do whatever they damn well pleased. The old government figured they couldn't keep a leash on everyone, so they re-legalised bounty hunting. Before you can say "internal combustion engine", every government-controlled planet could put a bounty out on anyone they wanted. And that, my friends, is how we find ourselves in this big old mess we call "civilisation".
Notes:
You will play members of the "WaxWing", a crew of rather unsuccessful bounty hunters who work within the confines of universal law. Throughout the RP you will find yourselves chasing a number of different targets, all of which you'll have to catch if you want to keep food on the table. Whether or not our heroes will succeed or not may not be up to us, however.
Everyone in the crew knows each other. Whether you like, talk to or generally care for any your crew mates on the other hand is completely up to you. Just assume that everyone knows what you're called. Think of the WaxWing like Cheers: where everyone knows your name.
The RP is heavily influenced by, and therefore contains a lot of the elements of, space westerns such as Firefly, Cowboy Bebop and basically every scene in Star Wars that had Han Solo. As such, expect a lot of space lasers, flying spaceships and corrupt governments. Fun!
The bounties the crew will chase will be played by real players, with the bounty being changed every time a chapter ends. If you want to be a bounty opposed to a crew member, PM me directly instead of asking in the thread - that way, we can keep the crew applications and the bounty applications separate. Genius, I say!
The Crew
The Bounties
Name: Elliott "Ellery" Brown
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Appearance: Standing at just under six-foot, Ellery would seem short compared to the rest of his crewmates. However, his constant 5 o'clock shadow beard and his knack for always packing heat wherever he travels doesn't allow for much mockery. In fact, you could almost say that if he sorted out his disheveled brown hair, washed a lot more, put on some decent clothes, shaved more often and just generally stopped frowning so goddamn much... well, he could almost be perceived as good-looking.
Background: Ellery was raised on a small planet, outside of any real contact with authorities. His parents instilled him with a strong sense of self-reliance and hate for all things lawful, as well as their own version of right from wrong. Why exactly he ever left his home planet isn't clear, but Ellery quickly fell into a life of crime. However, he quickly changed his life around when he accepted an under-the-table deal with the police forces on Mars and started fresh. At the young age of twenty-two, he used what little funds he had to purchase a second-hand spacecraft - pre-named the "WaxWing" by its previous owners. Since then, Ellery has travelled the universe taking in crew members and hunting bounties. However he got his nickname is unknown.
Role on the WaxWing: "Gee, I dunno'. I suppose you could say I kind of lead the flock. I'm not their leader or anything, I just point them in the right direction now and again."
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Appearance: Standing at just under six-foot, Ellery would seem short compared to the rest of his crewmates. However, his constant 5 o'clock shadow beard and his knack for always packing heat wherever he travels doesn't allow for much mockery. In fact, you could almost say that if he sorted out his disheveled brown hair, washed a lot more, put on some decent clothes, shaved more often and just generally stopped frowning so goddamn much... well, he could almost be perceived as good-looking.
Background: Ellery was raised on a small planet, outside of any real contact with authorities. His parents instilled him with a strong sense of self-reliance and hate for all things lawful, as well as their own version of right from wrong. Why exactly he ever left his home planet isn't clear, but Ellery quickly fell into a life of crime. However, he quickly changed his life around when he accepted an under-the-table deal with the police forces on Mars and started fresh. At the young age of twenty-two, he used what little funds he had to purchase a second-hand spacecraft - pre-named the "WaxWing" by its previous owners. Since then, Ellery has travelled the universe taking in crew members and hunting bounties. However he got his nickname is unknown.
Role on the WaxWing: "Gee, I dunno'. I suppose you could say I kind of lead the flock. I'm not their leader or anything, I just point them in the right direction now and again."
Name: James "Streak" Allan
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Appearance: Looking at James, or Streak, or Allan, you'd think he'd be in the guts of the ship, tinkering and getting his hands dirty. Truth of the matter; most times you will, but only if he's not behind the controls of a ship. His hair's pretty much uncontrollable, being tucked away under a bandana, or cap or the likes, but when not kept in control it's pretty much a mini afro. His clothes are a collection of vivid colours, a bright purple shirt with wonky symbol on it and tough-n-tattered almost white jeans now. He usually sports a gunbelt or something around his waist, like in the old vids how the cowboys used to wear 'em.
Background: James likes to think of himself as an honourable man, although his past would want you to believe something else entirely. He grew up on the collective breadbasket of the galaxy, a planet that's pretty much all one big farm. His ambitions were greater though, and he plead and worked his way into the local Institute of Law. Obviously, one needed to be eighteen and on his birthday James got enrolled in it. Six months later, he was thrown out of it. He took a small aircraft for an 'off hour practice run' which he hoped no one would notice. They failed to not notice the flaming crater not 5 kilometres away from the institute. James was punished and eventually was incarcerated. His parents weren't able to take responsibility for him anymore, since they moved off planet after his enrolment, so he was pretty much on his own. In prison, however, he heard a lot of fun facts. One of these was that bounty hunters were out there, rolling around in cash. Also; there was going to be a breakout.
James was running up front when the other inmates started the riot and busted out of the prison, stealing one of the ships that were able to travel outer orbit. Several of the inmates were with him, and they formed a 'crew' with this term used loosely.
Eventually James found the Waxwing, after losing the entire crew and ship to an ambush set up by a backstabber. By then he'd been hunted all over, and was wanted in more than a few systems. Laying low on a new ship seemed only the cleverest of ideas.
Role on the WaxWing: "I'm not a pilot. Hell, I'm not even the pilot. I'm the best goddamn pilot you'll ever see."
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Appearance: Looking at James, or Streak, or Allan, you'd think he'd be in the guts of the ship, tinkering and getting his hands dirty. Truth of the matter; most times you will, but only if he's not behind the controls of a ship. His hair's pretty much uncontrollable, being tucked away under a bandana, or cap or the likes, but when not kept in control it's pretty much a mini afro. His clothes are a collection of vivid colours, a bright purple shirt with wonky symbol on it and tough-n-tattered almost white jeans now. He usually sports a gunbelt or something around his waist, like in the old vids how the cowboys used to wear 'em.
Background: James likes to think of himself as an honourable man, although his past would want you to believe something else entirely. He grew up on the collective breadbasket of the galaxy, a planet that's pretty much all one big farm. His ambitions were greater though, and he plead and worked his way into the local Institute of Law. Obviously, one needed to be eighteen and on his birthday James got enrolled in it. Six months later, he was thrown out of it. He took a small aircraft for an 'off hour practice run' which he hoped no one would notice. They failed to not notice the flaming crater not 5 kilometres away from the institute. James was punished and eventually was incarcerated. His parents weren't able to take responsibility for him anymore, since they moved off planet after his enrolment, so he was pretty much on his own. In prison, however, he heard a lot of fun facts. One of these was that bounty hunters were out there, rolling around in cash. Also; there was going to be a breakout.
James was running up front when the other inmates started the riot and busted out of the prison, stealing one of the ships that were able to travel outer orbit. Several of the inmates were with him, and they formed a 'crew' with this term used loosely.
Eventually James found the Waxwing, after losing the entire crew and ship to an ambush set up by a backstabber. By then he'd been hunted all over, and was wanted in more than a few systems. Laying low on a new ship seemed only the cleverest of ideas.
Role on the WaxWing: "I'm not a pilot. Hell, I'm not even the pilot. I'm the best goddamn pilot you'll ever see."
Name: Randa Mae
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Appearance: Standing at a little over 5ft Randa has the pale complexion of a person who has spent the majority of life living on a drift colony. She likes to keep her dark brown hair short and roughly cut so it wont snag on anything as she works and perches a pair of cheap welders goggles upon it to protect her pale grey eyes from the sun. Ingrained ore dust, acid burns and small scratches mar her caucasian toned skin and a healthy amount of dirt has managed to build up under her nails.
Randa Mae tends wears a succession of stained and ragged tank tops with a pair of torn and patched jeans. When working in confined spaces she'll wear a leather vest and chaps over the top to prevent the clothes catching or degrading further. Her footwear of choice is surplus army boots.
Background: Manda was born on a drift colony by the name of Dead Stop, A ramshackle void station pieced together with mining platforms, derelict ships and hollowed out asteroids.
Life was hard on the station; industrial accidents from the mining of asteroids or working on the re fueling rigs, turf wars between rival work crews or the criminal enterprises that ran the stations many vices. Hell even getting enough to eat was a challenge some days.
The kids had the worst of it, expected to clamber through the ducts or inside machinery to unclog them or hauling cargo from place to place. On Dead Stop you worked or you starved.
Graduating from the role of 'duct rat' when her arms got too big to fit inside broken mining equipment she graduated to working on the conveyers sorting the ore from the spoils in the dark dust chokes depths of the station before being conscripted into one of the crews that worked out in the void connecting cables to chosen asteroids in order to drag them closer to the station so the valuable minerals could be obtained. It was dangerous work where a stray shard rock or a snapped cable could rip a whole in your suit and vent all your air.
For three months she worked on the 'rock crews', Three months with the threat of suit breaches and getting flung out into nothingness by malfunctioning suit thrusters looming over her. But for the first time in her life she had seen the stars and that sparked a need that settled deep within her bones. The need to get away and to seek out the stars and a better life.
It was nearly a year later when she finally got her chance while the colony was moving between asteroid belts. All the rock crews had been re-tasked to connect the pipes up to the massive ships that collected the processed ore and to work the refuelling stations for ships that visited the station.
So it was that Randa was part of a crew working on one of the refuelling rigs when the WaxWing made a pit stop. Seizing her chance to leave the living hell she'd been born into she slipped away and stowed aboard the WaxWing, hiding herself in the ducts and conduits till the ship had left Dead Stop. Revealing herself to the crew she begged them not to take her back and offered her services as a general dogsbody in payment.
Role on the WaxWing: "What me? Well I do the dishes and mop the floor; that sorta stuff yah ken? Sometimes I go out in the void, Y'know salvage? Otherwise I just help everyone else best I can. That's me really, extra hands".
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Appearance: Standing at a little over 5ft Randa has the pale complexion of a person who has spent the majority of life living on a drift colony. She likes to keep her dark brown hair short and roughly cut so it wont snag on anything as she works and perches a pair of cheap welders goggles upon it to protect her pale grey eyes from the sun. Ingrained ore dust, acid burns and small scratches mar her caucasian toned skin and a healthy amount of dirt has managed to build up under her nails.
Randa Mae tends wears a succession of stained and ragged tank tops with a pair of torn and patched jeans. When working in confined spaces she'll wear a leather vest and chaps over the top to prevent the clothes catching or degrading further. Her footwear of choice is surplus army boots.
Background: Manda was born on a drift colony by the name of Dead Stop, A ramshackle void station pieced together with mining platforms, derelict ships and hollowed out asteroids.
Life was hard on the station; industrial accidents from the mining of asteroids or working on the re fueling rigs, turf wars between rival work crews or the criminal enterprises that ran the stations many vices. Hell even getting enough to eat was a challenge some days.
The kids had the worst of it, expected to clamber through the ducts or inside machinery to unclog them or hauling cargo from place to place. On Dead Stop you worked or you starved.
Graduating from the role of 'duct rat' when her arms got too big to fit inside broken mining equipment she graduated to working on the conveyers sorting the ore from the spoils in the dark dust chokes depths of the station before being conscripted into one of the crews that worked out in the void connecting cables to chosen asteroids in order to drag them closer to the station so the valuable minerals could be obtained. It was dangerous work where a stray shard rock or a snapped cable could rip a whole in your suit and vent all your air.
For three months she worked on the 'rock crews', Three months with the threat of suit breaches and getting flung out into nothingness by malfunctioning suit thrusters looming over her. But for the first time in her life she had seen the stars and that sparked a need that settled deep within her bones. The need to get away and to seek out the stars and a better life.
It was nearly a year later when she finally got her chance while the colony was moving between asteroid belts. All the rock crews had been re-tasked to connect the pipes up to the massive ships that collected the processed ore and to work the refuelling stations for ships that visited the station.
So it was that Randa was part of a crew working on one of the refuelling rigs when the WaxWing made a pit stop. Seizing her chance to leave the living hell she'd been born into she slipped away and stowed aboard the WaxWing, hiding herself in the ducts and conduits till the ship had left Dead Stop. Revealing herself to the crew she begged them not to take her back and offered her services as a general dogsbody in payment.
Role on the WaxWing: "What me? Well I do the dishes and mop the floor; that sorta stuff yah ken? Sometimes I go out in the void, Y'know salvage? Otherwise I just help everyone else best I can. That's me really, extra hands".
Name: Mirie Holden
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Appearance: Mirie stands at about 5'8". She's slender, but not in a way that makes her look unhealthy. Her hair is dark brown, slightly wavy, and shoulder-length. Her eyes are hazel-colored, though she occasionally wears differently colored contacts. Mirie tends to wear makeup a lot as well, using it to either accent certain features of her face or make herself seem older or younger. Her clothes are typically dark, loose-fitting, and they all have hidden pockets sewn where she conceals her daggers for easy retrieval. All of her clothes are hand-made.
Background: Mirie grew up on a small planet called Dunmar, known for its production of high-quality textiles and extravagant plays. Mirie's father was a playwright and thus she grew up into a rather wealthy family. Her parents started her in acting school when she was young. Mirie grew up learning how to apply her own makeup and eventually make her own clothes, as well as learning how to take on different personalities as her roles called for them.
When Mirie turned 20, she decided to take a break from her life in acting and went down a completely different path--assassinations. While Dunmar isn't exactly a crime-laden planet, it does have its fair share of people wanting other people dead. In the market for something more exciting than life on the stage, Mirie sold herself as a lone merc to various people and used her acting skills to easily take down their targets. After about 4 years, following one of her targets led her to find the owner of the Waxwing. Unable to resist the call of hunting bounties on a ship, Mirie joined the crew.
Role on the Waxwing: "Not all bounties can be brought down just by going in guns akimbo. If a certain situation calls for it, I can disguise myself to get close to the target and stick them with a knife before they see it coming. I can wield a pistol too, but blades are more my thing. I'm also the one the others turn to if they need their clothes repaired. Clothes are important, mates--don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Appearance: Mirie stands at about 5'8". She's slender, but not in a way that makes her look unhealthy. Her hair is dark brown, slightly wavy, and shoulder-length. Her eyes are hazel-colored, though she occasionally wears differently colored contacts. Mirie tends to wear makeup a lot as well, using it to either accent certain features of her face or make herself seem older or younger. Her clothes are typically dark, loose-fitting, and they all have hidden pockets sewn where she conceals her daggers for easy retrieval. All of her clothes are hand-made.
Background: Mirie grew up on a small planet called Dunmar, known for its production of high-quality textiles and extravagant plays. Mirie's father was a playwright and thus she grew up into a rather wealthy family. Her parents started her in acting school when she was young. Mirie grew up learning how to apply her own makeup and eventually make her own clothes, as well as learning how to take on different personalities as her roles called for them.
When Mirie turned 20, she decided to take a break from her life in acting and went down a completely different path--assassinations. While Dunmar isn't exactly a crime-laden planet, it does have its fair share of people wanting other people dead. In the market for something more exciting than life on the stage, Mirie sold herself as a lone merc to various people and used her acting skills to easily take down their targets. After about 4 years, following one of her targets led her to find the owner of the Waxwing. Unable to resist the call of hunting bounties on a ship, Mirie joined the crew.
Role on the Waxwing: "Not all bounties can be brought down just by going in guns akimbo. If a certain situation calls for it, I can disguise myself to get close to the target and stick them with a knife before they see it coming. I can wield a pistol too, but blades are more my thing. I'm also the one the others turn to if they need their clothes repaired. Clothes are important, mates--don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
Name: Erin Day
Age: 20 ESY (Earth Standard Years)
Appearance: 5'9 and thin as a rake, Erin has straggly medium-brown hair, blue-gray eyes and a pale, angular face. She wears her hair with one side tucked behind her ear, letting the other side hang low. Erin wears faded but fitting aquamarine synth-cotton jeans and a deep brown leather jacket zipped up to the neck. She keeps herself as clean as the lifestyle allows, making sure her hands are clean and her nails well-kept, her hair hair is an exception to this rule in that it always seems dirty even right after it has been washed.
Background: Born into wealth on a lonely but decadent retirement-for-the-rich planet far away from any other inhabited worlds, Erin was raised by her family and cooed over by the childless adults from the other ten thousand kilometer squared estates, Erin grew up being treated as if she was effectively the centre of the world. She tried not to take advantage of the fact though, because she knew that wasn't how a lady was supposed to act, but whenever she asked for something, she got it. She grew tired of material possessions in her early teens, feeling them dull and uninteresting, instead deciding she wanted to experience as much as possible. Her parents and the neighbourhood watch society forbade her from going off planet for fear she become "corrupted" by the outside world. She was allowed whatever else she wanted, and so she spent her time learning to drive various vehicles, mastering as many forms of transport as they could, showing a knack for water-speeders, even though they were little more than an engine and a seat that hovered an inch or so above the waves.
She waited and waited for another ship to came by, masquerading as a happy young lady until on her seventeenth birthday, as if by some birthday miracle, a Class 3, low-engined Pilgrim Six-Oh-Eight Cruiser consisting of spare parts, duct tape and string, held together by sheer luck and force of will by the pilot called in its approach, and landed on the off-shore landing pad sixty kilometres east at three-thirty in the morning, a whole eight hours before standard sunrise. Erin grabbed the bag she had packed and repacked a thousand times over the past three years, and hopped on a water-speeder built for two, using the advantage of its bigger engine to go faster, and reached the platform at four in the morning across rough seas. She snuck aboard, convinced the pilot to take her with him by showing an extensive knowledge of the console, which was really a cannibalised mess of gyrocopters, boats, short-stop shuttles and the odd spaceship or two, and waited three weeks while he had his holiday with the crew. The night she was due to leave, she said her goodnights to her mother and father, using her regular, well mannered and ladylike tone before slipping out through her window with her bag, and back across to the platform using a smaller craft she had brought back in tow behind the two-seater speeder, and boarded the ship after the initial checks by the planet's under-worked and out of practice travel authorities. She helped the captain of the vessel pilot the old girl to the nearest station, before she checked the bounty listings. Sure enough, the name of Captain Crichton was on the list for kidnapping/murder with a tidy reward for bringing him back "semi-intact". She looked on the dock listings and found one ship named WaxWing listed as a bounty vessel. Erin gave a tip to the hunters about the easy capture, and waited patiently.
The crew of hunters turned up to collect their bounty, but, as is the nature of seedy captains who are willing to take pretty young ladies aboard because they weren't wearing a particularly long skirt during the initial meeting, he wasn't too keen on the idea of being turned in. His crew either fled or perished along with the WaxWing's co-pilot, and Crichton himself found his leg with two new ventilation holes, before he was bound, gagged and thrown into the holding cell. Unable to get out of port without assistance, the cocky pilot who knew how to get the engine turning at a ridiculous rate but couldn't get it out of the parking bay because the handbrake was left on was forced to accept her help to get them planetside and to get the bird down too. She hung back with the ship, hoping to whatever gods there might be out in this backwater end of the crapheel 'verse that they didn't give a description of the girl he "kidnapped". As luck would have it, they did, but sadly, Ellery decided that she had been lost somewhere out there, and the new girl with a distinctive accent who looked a lot like the two concerned parents must be a coincidence. Since that day, Erin has been bringing the WaxWing through the tight spots and crevices where Streak would have destroyed them all.
Role on the Waxwing: "Streak's the guy who actually gets the old bird where she's going, but the fool couldn't land her for toffee. It's a miracle he can actually get us pointed in the right direction when we're going. Of course, while he's jetting us around the place, I'm the one who'll take over when we go planetside, gliding through the little details and finery. I'll also high-tail the crew out of messes if they need me to, as long as they don't all try to fit onto one Toad again. Idiots."
Age: 20 ESY (Earth Standard Years)
Appearance: 5'9 and thin as a rake, Erin has straggly medium-brown hair, blue-gray eyes and a pale, angular face. She wears her hair with one side tucked behind her ear, letting the other side hang low. Erin wears faded but fitting aquamarine synth-cotton jeans and a deep brown leather jacket zipped up to the neck. She keeps herself as clean as the lifestyle allows, making sure her hands are clean and her nails well-kept, her hair hair is an exception to this rule in that it always seems dirty even right after it has been washed.
Background: Born into wealth on a lonely but decadent retirement-for-the-rich planet far away from any other inhabited worlds, Erin was raised by her family and cooed over by the childless adults from the other ten thousand kilometer squared estates, Erin grew up being treated as if she was effectively the centre of the world. She tried not to take advantage of the fact though, because she knew that wasn't how a lady was supposed to act, but whenever she asked for something, she got it. She grew tired of material possessions in her early teens, feeling them dull and uninteresting, instead deciding she wanted to experience as much as possible. Her parents and the neighbourhood watch society forbade her from going off planet for fear she become "corrupted" by the outside world. She was allowed whatever else she wanted, and so she spent her time learning to drive various vehicles, mastering as many forms of transport as they could, showing a knack for water-speeders, even though they were little more than an engine and a seat that hovered an inch or so above the waves.
She waited and waited for another ship to came by, masquerading as a happy young lady until on her seventeenth birthday, as if by some birthday miracle, a Class 3, low-engined Pilgrim Six-Oh-Eight Cruiser consisting of spare parts, duct tape and string, held together by sheer luck and force of will by the pilot called in its approach, and landed on the off-shore landing pad sixty kilometres east at three-thirty in the morning, a whole eight hours before standard sunrise. Erin grabbed the bag she had packed and repacked a thousand times over the past three years, and hopped on a water-speeder built for two, using the advantage of its bigger engine to go faster, and reached the platform at four in the morning across rough seas. She snuck aboard, convinced the pilot to take her with him by showing an extensive knowledge of the console, which was really a cannibalised mess of gyrocopters, boats, short-stop shuttles and the odd spaceship or two, and waited three weeks while he had his holiday with the crew. The night she was due to leave, she said her goodnights to her mother and father, using her regular, well mannered and ladylike tone before slipping out through her window with her bag, and back across to the platform using a smaller craft she had brought back in tow behind the two-seater speeder, and boarded the ship after the initial checks by the planet's under-worked and out of practice travel authorities. She helped the captain of the vessel pilot the old girl to the nearest station, before she checked the bounty listings. Sure enough, the name of Captain Crichton was on the list for kidnapping/murder with a tidy reward for bringing him back "semi-intact". She looked on the dock listings and found one ship named WaxWing listed as a bounty vessel. Erin gave a tip to the hunters about the easy capture, and waited patiently.
The crew of hunters turned up to collect their bounty, but, as is the nature of seedy captains who are willing to take pretty young ladies aboard because they weren't wearing a particularly long skirt during the initial meeting, he wasn't too keen on the idea of being turned in. His crew either fled or perished along with the WaxWing's co-pilot, and Crichton himself found his leg with two new ventilation holes, before he was bound, gagged and thrown into the holding cell. Unable to get out of port without assistance, the cocky pilot who knew how to get the engine turning at a ridiculous rate but couldn't get it out of the parking bay because the handbrake was left on was forced to accept her help to get them planetside and to get the bird down too. She hung back with the ship, hoping to whatever gods there might be out in this backwater end of the crapheel 'verse that they didn't give a description of the girl he "kidnapped". As luck would have it, they did, but sadly, Ellery decided that she had been lost somewhere out there, and the new girl with a distinctive accent who looked a lot like the two concerned parents must be a coincidence. Since that day, Erin has been bringing the WaxWing through the tight spots and crevices where Streak would have destroyed them all.
Role on the Waxwing: "Streak's the guy who actually gets the old bird where she's going, but the fool couldn't land her for toffee. It's a miracle he can actually get us pointed in the right direction when we're going. Of course, while he's jetting us around the place, I'm the one who'll take over when we go planetside, gliding through the little details and finery. I'll also high-tail the crew out of messes if they need me to, as long as they don't all try to fit onto one Toad again. Idiots."
Name: Juniper Lara Kage
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Appearance: With a mix of Caucasian and Japanese genes making up her skin tone, Juniper is around 5'7" tall, and is of average weight for her age. She has dark green eyes and chocolate-brown hair, which would normally reach down to her waist if Juniper didn't have it tied back at the base of her skull, which she usually does.
Juniper can usually be seen wearing a plain long-sleeved shirt - usually blue or azure in colour - as well as long pants, black work gloves and heavy boots. The belt she normally uses to hold the tools of her trade has been altered to accommodate a pistol holster on her left hip. Just in case.
Background: Born on the industrial world Stormfall to a pair of engineers who ran a fairly large service station to repair vehicles and small starships, Juniper grew up with a wrench in one hand and a screwdriver in the other. From an early age she was helping her parents with repairing or upgrading machines in addition to schooling and socialising with her small circle of friends. As the years progressed she was occasionally entrusted with performing the work herself, and soon she became just as much a part of the shop's crew as either of her parents.
When Juniper was around 23 years of age, Ellery Brown and a couple of people from his crew came into the place looking to replace a few parts that had been ruined, presumably in a firefight. Juniper quickly supplied them with better components and helped to actually perform the repairs to the ship Ellery had brought in. Seeing the potential the technician had, and noting there was a distinct lack of chief engineer aboard the WaxWing, Ellery offered her a job aboard the ship. Juniper jumped at the chance to see what life was like on other worlds, dealing with different laws and customs, and after a brief discussion with her parents, made a new home for herself aboard the WaxWing.
Role on the WaxWing: "I keep the place running nice and smooth. If it's broken, I fix it. And sometimes if something's not broken, I give it a touch-up anyways. Oh, and I'm a damn good shot with a pistol or rifle."
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Appearance: With a mix of Caucasian and Japanese genes making up her skin tone, Juniper is around 5'7" tall, and is of average weight for her age. She has dark green eyes and chocolate-brown hair, which would normally reach down to her waist if Juniper didn't have it tied back at the base of her skull, which she usually does.
Juniper can usually be seen wearing a plain long-sleeved shirt - usually blue or azure in colour - as well as long pants, black work gloves and heavy boots. The belt she normally uses to hold the tools of her trade has been altered to accommodate a pistol holster on her left hip. Just in case.
Background: Born on the industrial world Stormfall to a pair of engineers who ran a fairly large service station to repair vehicles and small starships, Juniper grew up with a wrench in one hand and a screwdriver in the other. From an early age she was helping her parents with repairing or upgrading machines in addition to schooling and socialising with her small circle of friends. As the years progressed she was occasionally entrusted with performing the work herself, and soon she became just as much a part of the shop's crew as either of her parents.
When Juniper was around 23 years of age, Ellery Brown and a couple of people from his crew came into the place looking to replace a few parts that had been ruined, presumably in a firefight. Juniper quickly supplied them with better components and helped to actually perform the repairs to the ship Ellery had brought in. Seeing the potential the technician had, and noting there was a distinct lack of chief engineer aboard the WaxWing, Ellery offered her a job aboard the ship. Juniper jumped at the chance to see what life was like on other worlds, dealing with different laws and customs, and after a brief discussion with her parents, made a new home for herself aboard the WaxWing.
Role on the WaxWing: "I keep the place running nice and smooth. If it's broken, I fix it. And sometimes if something's not broken, I give it a touch-up anyways. Oh, and I'm a damn good shot with a pistol or rifle."
Name: Julia "Jewels" Fleury
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Appearance: An amazon compared to most ladies in the galaxy, Jewels stands at 6'2", which makes her straight armpit-length amber-colored hair seem even longer. If anyone looked up, they'd see she has deep blue eyes, although people might be more interested in the rubies she has dangling from her Caucasian-toned ears. She's pretty slender for someone her size, but it suits her hobby.
She usually spotted wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans, a beat up pair of black sneakers, a red bandanna used to keep her hair out of the way while cooking, and a bright green emerald pendant.
Background: Jewels was born into a family on the poor side of Acqus-Two, one of the families often farmed for cheap labor by the rich parts of the planet. Her parents both worked for families on the other side, and they were worked hard. They barely earned enough to keep Julia and her siblings fed, and they weren't able to be home very often. As the oldest of four, Julia had to look after the others, learning how to cook and clean since her mom was doing that for the others. After a few years, her parents still weren't getting anywhere at all, no extra money, no extra time off, so Julia decided it was time to even the score.
She started heading over to the rich parts of the planet, saying she was going on a school trip, but she was really doing was casing some of the mansions in the area. When she was home she would practice on meager locks, making sure she could get them off quickly and easily. After enough time, she felt confident enough to go after some of the homes, and she found out that she really needed of prepared all that hard. The rich of Acqus-Two were so sure that they had the system locked down, that they never bothered to install anything major on their houses, and for Julia it was a buffet. On her first night, she got a nice haul of jewelry and cash and used it to pick up some more tools from a guy she knew. Over the next few years, she would periodically hit up some houses every few months or so, and use the profits from pawn shop sales to get her family some decent food, some nice clothes, basically everything she thought her parents had earned from the rich folks but never were given. Her parents wondered where the money was coming from but she told them she had just gotten a part time job.
She had gotten so comfortable on her little trips to the well-off sector that she got careless on her last time out. As she was making her way back out of the mansion, she thought she had made a clean break yet again. However, she looked back and saw one of the old crones looking right at her as she escaped. The next day, a warrant was issued for a very tall girl with long hair and Julia knew she was in trouble. She went home and hid all the ill-gotten gains she had yet to fence, burying them deep underneath the old playhouse that her father built for her before he had to go working for the older folk. She left a note for her family, directed mostly to her oldest sibling, Mindy, saying she was ready to take charge, and that she had to find her own destiny. She headed for the spaceship docks and applied for any of the outgoing ships that would be willing to hire her. Ellery's was the first she got a yes on. She left everything in her old life behind, save for the earrings and pendant she got from her first ever heist, kept as a reminder to return one day, when the heat was down, and when she was sure she had a better life for her family. She's been on the ship ever sense, although she worries about the bountied people they hunt down. Wondering if you might be on one of these bounty lists your friends are checking off tends to do that. No one else on the ship knows her as anything other than the kitchen girl, but still, the thought lingers.
Role on the WaxWing: "Well, I'm the only chef who can make Ellery's supplies taste anywhere near good, so I do that."
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Appearance: An amazon compared to most ladies in the galaxy, Jewels stands at 6'2", which makes her straight armpit-length amber-colored hair seem even longer. If anyone looked up, they'd see she has deep blue eyes, although people might be more interested in the rubies she has dangling from her Caucasian-toned ears. She's pretty slender for someone her size, but it suits her hobby.
She usually spotted wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans, a beat up pair of black sneakers, a red bandanna used to keep her hair out of the way while cooking, and a bright green emerald pendant.
Background: Jewels was born into a family on the poor side of Acqus-Two, one of the families often farmed for cheap labor by the rich parts of the planet. Her parents both worked for families on the other side, and they were worked hard. They barely earned enough to keep Julia and her siblings fed, and they weren't able to be home very often. As the oldest of four, Julia had to look after the others, learning how to cook and clean since her mom was doing that for the others. After a few years, her parents still weren't getting anywhere at all, no extra money, no extra time off, so Julia decided it was time to even the score.
She started heading over to the rich parts of the planet, saying she was going on a school trip, but she was really doing was casing some of the mansions in the area. When she was home she would practice on meager locks, making sure she could get them off quickly and easily. After enough time, she felt confident enough to go after some of the homes, and she found out that she really needed of prepared all that hard. The rich of Acqus-Two were so sure that they had the system locked down, that they never bothered to install anything major on their houses, and for Julia it was a buffet. On her first night, she got a nice haul of jewelry and cash and used it to pick up some more tools from a guy she knew. Over the next few years, she would periodically hit up some houses every few months or so, and use the profits from pawn shop sales to get her family some decent food, some nice clothes, basically everything she thought her parents had earned from the rich folks but never were given. Her parents wondered where the money was coming from but she told them she had just gotten a part time job.
She had gotten so comfortable on her little trips to the well-off sector that she got careless on her last time out. As she was making her way back out of the mansion, she thought she had made a clean break yet again. However, she looked back and saw one of the old crones looking right at her as she escaped. The next day, a warrant was issued for a very tall girl with long hair and Julia knew she was in trouble. She went home and hid all the ill-gotten gains she had yet to fence, burying them deep underneath the old playhouse that her father built for her before he had to go working for the older folk. She left a note for her family, directed mostly to her oldest sibling, Mindy, saying she was ready to take charge, and that she had to find her own destiny. She headed for the spaceship docks and applied for any of the outgoing ships that would be willing to hire her. Ellery's was the first she got a yes on. She left everything in her old life behind, save for the earrings and pendant she got from her first ever heist, kept as a reminder to return one day, when the heat was down, and when she was sure she had a better life for her family. She's been on the ship ever sense, although she worries about the bountied people they hunt down. Wondering if you might be on one of these bounty lists your friends are checking off tends to do that. No one else on the ship knows her as anything other than the kitchen girl, but still, the thought lingers.
Role on the WaxWing: "Well, I'm the only chef who can make Ellery's supplies taste anywhere near good, so I do that."
Name: Leonidas 'Leo' Enseno
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Appearance: Leonidas stands 6'1" tall with a build that is balanced and well toned. His brown hair is usually not too long and nicely compliments his meticulously tanned olive toned skin. Leonidas has a classically handsome, beautiful even, face and usually he takes every effort for the rest of him to match that level of attractiveness. Leonidas has deep brown eyes. Of course all of this is rather dependent on Leonidas not wearing one of his many disguises.
Leonidas, more than the others, has no set common clothing. Instead he often takes items from his rather extensive wardrobe, often dressing for effect rather then practicality and favoring bright colors. He also always has at least one place (often many more) where he can conceal his weapon of choice; a hold out pistol/dart launcher.
Background: Leonidas is a native of Tradus Prime, a small temperate world near the core where the rich rule with velvet gloved fists. Many planets, stations, and intergalactic corporations have at least some controlling interest located on 'The Diamond Planet' or at least owe them a lot of money.
Leonidas was lucky enough to be born among the upper echelons. With a wealthy family everything was provided to him that could give him comfort. However, wealth did not mean peace by any standards. Tradus Prime is also known as 'the world of diamond daggers' for a good reason. Even as a child every day was filled with meetings, parties, political maneuvering, assassination attempts, spies, thieves, and agents in a massive system spanning web of plots, schemes, and intrigue.
Leonidas's father was quite good at playing the game though and prospered quite well. Unfortunately, someone else was better. When Leonidas was 22 years old his entire family was defrauded and his father was executed under false pretenses. Leonidas, as the only child was 'benevolently' exonerated and allowed to go free though everything he had was gained by the plotters.
Filled with a desire for revenge Leonidas disappeared and began preparing his own plot. It took a full year for Leonidas to gain a new ID and infiltrate the home of the plotters; lying, acting, and improving his skills to win their trust. However, when he as finally done he sprung his trap and those he had targeted now found themselves without a penny or friend in the entire galaxy.
Leonidas had done what he had set out to do, but also discovered something new. There had been a perverse kind of thrill in the cat and mouse game that he had played with his lies and deception. Leonidas still had nothing to go back to so he became a con man, using his personality, looks, and deception to trick the rich out of their money and valuables.
Leonidas continued for about four years and amassed a small fortune before that law caught up with him. When it did, the law took the form of a young bounty hunter named Elliott Brown, the first person to ever break Leonidas's cover and find him. The pair tousled and Leonidas was able to get a bit of an upper hand thanks to his martial arts skills, a hold over from his tutoring as a child. However, it was then that Elliot discovered a dark secret of Leonidas's: despite his years of illegal activity, he had never killed a person and couldn't bring himself to do it.
Elliot eventually brought Leonidas in and claimed the bounty. However, Leonidas still knew how to play the system and was only in jail for about 5 years before being released.
It was shortly after that Leonidas appeared before Elliot with a single request: To join the WaxWing and have a job hunting bounties. But what is Leonidas's real angle? He claims to be hooked on the new thrill, but he is difficult to read and could always have some ulterior motive...
Role on the WaxWing: "Now see, bounties are a bit like rats in several ways. Trust me, it makes sense. Now one way is that they always are the most dangerous when backed up in a corner. Me? See I get them long before they're anywhere near that corner, when they aren't even ready. They don't even see me coming. See if those people [the other crew members] are the cats that chase the rats, then that would make me the poison that kills from within. (and yes ladies, I'm a very tasty poison)"
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Appearance: Leonidas stands 6'1" tall with a build that is balanced and well toned. His brown hair is usually not too long and nicely compliments his meticulously tanned olive toned skin. Leonidas has a classically handsome, beautiful even, face and usually he takes every effort for the rest of him to match that level of attractiveness. Leonidas has deep brown eyes. Of course all of this is rather dependent on Leonidas not wearing one of his many disguises.
Leonidas, more than the others, has no set common clothing. Instead he often takes items from his rather extensive wardrobe, often dressing for effect rather then practicality and favoring bright colors. He also always has at least one place (often many more) where he can conceal his weapon of choice; a hold out pistol/dart launcher.
Background: Leonidas is a native of Tradus Prime, a small temperate world near the core where the rich rule with velvet gloved fists. Many planets, stations, and intergalactic corporations have at least some controlling interest located on 'The Diamond Planet' or at least owe them a lot of money.
Leonidas was lucky enough to be born among the upper echelons. With a wealthy family everything was provided to him that could give him comfort. However, wealth did not mean peace by any standards. Tradus Prime is also known as 'the world of diamond daggers' for a good reason. Even as a child every day was filled with meetings, parties, political maneuvering, assassination attempts, spies, thieves, and agents in a massive system spanning web of plots, schemes, and intrigue.
Leonidas's father was quite good at playing the game though and prospered quite well. Unfortunately, someone else was better. When Leonidas was 22 years old his entire family was defrauded and his father was executed under false pretenses. Leonidas, as the only child was 'benevolently' exonerated and allowed to go free though everything he had was gained by the plotters.
Filled with a desire for revenge Leonidas disappeared and began preparing his own plot. It took a full year for Leonidas to gain a new ID and infiltrate the home of the plotters; lying, acting, and improving his skills to win their trust. However, when he as finally done he sprung his trap and those he had targeted now found themselves without a penny or friend in the entire galaxy.
Leonidas had done what he had set out to do, but also discovered something new. There had been a perverse kind of thrill in the cat and mouse game that he had played with his lies and deception. Leonidas still had nothing to go back to so he became a con man, using his personality, looks, and deception to trick the rich out of their money and valuables.
Leonidas continued for about four years and amassed a small fortune before that law caught up with him. When it did, the law took the form of a young bounty hunter named Elliott Brown, the first person to ever break Leonidas's cover and find him. The pair tousled and Leonidas was able to get a bit of an upper hand thanks to his martial arts skills, a hold over from his tutoring as a child. However, it was then that Elliot discovered a dark secret of Leonidas's: despite his years of illegal activity, he had never killed a person and couldn't bring himself to do it.
Elliot eventually brought Leonidas in and claimed the bounty. However, Leonidas still knew how to play the system and was only in jail for about 5 years before being released.
It was shortly after that Leonidas appeared before Elliot with a single request: To join the WaxWing and have a job hunting bounties. But what is Leonidas's real angle? He claims to be hooked on the new thrill, but he is difficult to read and could always have some ulterior motive...
Role on the WaxWing: "Now see, bounties are a bit like rats in several ways. Trust me, it makes sense. Now one way is that they always are the most dangerous when backed up in a corner. Me? See I get them long before they're anywhere near that corner, when they aren't even ready. They don't even see me coming. See if those people [the other crew members] are the cats that chase the rats, then that would make me the poison that kills from within. (and yes ladies, I'm a very tasty poison)"
The Bounties
Chapter 1 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/362.283554.11181778]
