Shiva

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk Thriller)

Update: finished it and edited my last post. Lemme know if there's anything not cool in it!

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk Thriller)

I still need to do her backstory and equipment, but this is my current WIP.

Nadia Kumara

Age: 25

Gender: Female

Affiliation: Her loyalties are to the 404. Two members of the group cared for her after the death of her father and then proceeded to teach her everything she knew until she was ready to become and offical member of the group.

Appearance: Being of Ukrainian and Sri-Lankan descent, Nadia has a somewhat ambiguous appearance as far as ethnicity goes. Her hair (usually tied back into a pony-tail) is about to her waist and black. Her almond-shaped eyes are naturally a very dark brown, but thanks to her optical implants now bounce between a bright blue and neon green that glows in the dark- Playing hide and seek was somewhat difficult as a child. She stands at 5'6'' in height, and while she's not exactly what one would call toned, she has a strong and sturdy build that helps her when she decides to play with bigger guns in between working on coding.

//YOUR SOUL

PERSONAL GOAL: Vengeance and anarchy, or at least the money to make both possible. New Malacca is a place teeming with opportunities for jobs, contacts, and overall advancement to her end goal of ruining whatever corporate giant caused the death of her father. In the process she hopes to find dirt on whatever other corrupt organizations are out there as well and plunge them into chaos. Oh she doesn't want good people to suffer, but the idea of watching those who would take advantage of the poor burn brings a smile to her face.

LIKES:

• Playing games
• Modding the software in her body mods
• Hacking into government databases and screwing with them (she has a particular fondness for changing the names of their files)
• Looking for new guns to buy
• Baking
• Drinking
• Drawing in her datapad

DISLIKES:

• Corruption (go figure)
• Injustice
• Pears
• Being told she's crazy

REPUTE: To the old lady who lives across from her, Nadia is the sweet girl next door who always helps her with taking the trash out. Perhaps she's a little odd, but definitely driven and is bound for great things... whenever she gets out of this dump. The people she always has over though seem a bit sketchy.

To the assholes whose AR consoles have suddenly crashed in the midst of them harassing some kid, she's the echo in the white static of their displays telling them that they might want to check their bank accounts, right before a virtual cream pie with the words "You've been sliced(an archaic term that she started using ironically as a joke, but it eventually just became a part of her online persona)" gets hurled at them. As the cool sensation of the dessert drips down their tactile body suits, in real life all of their hardware begins to fry and die.

But to those who know her best, Nadia is someone with unending potential and drive, and perhaps just a tiny bit of mental instability. She's sweet, speaks softly, doesn't seem to ever intentionally get on anyone's bad side, always shows up with a smile on her face and baked goods in hand to share, and absolutely revels in the chaos that her mind can reign down on unsuspecting targets of the 404. It's whispered that sometimes she gets in over her head, that one day it's going to catch up to her, and that it's a shame such talent will die so young. But no one has the heart to say it to her face.

There are also whispers that if one were to try and follow her (though such a task is certainly not an easy one) they could find her playing in the deep. The whispers say that when she was younger, she found a way into this forbidden world and used to play with the ancient AIs whose subroutines had degraded to the point of madness, and that they were the ones that taught her how to dance through the virtual world- not her 404 associates.

Such rumors are surely just that though... right?

HEEL: Nadia is convinced that she cannot be stopped. She's too clever, too good for the self-righteous nobodies that the big organizations would hire to track her down, and there's no way she'll ever get caught. Of course she is quite skilled at her job but she forgets that there is always someone better. There is always someone who can catch her. To anyone else this reality is undeniable, but Nadia has convinced herself that there is no way in this or any world that she will be stopped before she's brought down whoever it was that made her father disappear.

CODE: Nadia believes in standing up for those who can't stand up for themselves, and generally helping the helpless. She helps her old neighbor clean the ratty apartment, she attacks the jackasses who pick on kids who just want to play a game, and she crushes the organizations that take advantage of those who rely on them. Nadia knows what it feels like to be totally helpless and she'll do whatever it takes to make sure no one else has to feel that way.

QUIRKS: She always has a baked good of some kind on her. Always. Nadia adores baking as it's the only thing she remembers really doing with her mother, and anyone who knows her is aware that if they come within ten feet of her they will be offered a cookie, cupcake, bagel, tart, or whatever else she might have made that particular day. It's so far past the point of just being a hobby. Thanks to this little quirk, Nadia always seems to smell faintly of vanilla or cinnamon- her favorite spice. She also has the habit of speaking in a sing-song voice whenever she's panicked (i.e. We're all gonna die~~~)

//YOUR PAST

Nadia grew up in West Bengal Port. Her mom kept up a job as a warehouse worker and provided for their family while her father worked from home doing odd jobs as a hacker. When Nadia was older she learned that not only was her father a hacker, but that he worked with the notorious 404. Her parents had done their best to keep this information from her. Unfortunately for them Nadia was a rather bright child that was too observant for her own good, and the random bits of coding and hacking that her father taught had been enough for her to figure out what he was doing when she was about seven years old. It might have helped that her father had been a little bit careless that day, but Nadia would never admit to that.

Her mother died in a freak accident when working in the lower levels of a warehouse. It flooded and she, along with fifteen other workers, drowned before help could get to them. This all could have been avoided if the people in charge had paid any attention to the multiple complaints from the workers, but they didn't, and the families of the deceased paid dearly for it. The corporation didn't pay a god damn thing. This was the first thing that jump-started Nadia's hatred of large corporations.

With one parent gone Nadia's father decided that she needed to learn how to protect herself should anything happen to him, and so he started taking her to a friend's house to train the young girl how to shoot. She was about ten or eleven at the time. She grew rather fond of their weekly visits to the man and his wife (who she later found out were also members of the 404) and soon began to refer to them as "uncle" and "auntie." Life continued in this little rhythm until Nadia was thirteen.

One day she came home from spending the day with her friends to find their apartment completely empty. Her fathers equipment, their furniture, her toys, clothes, even the dishes were gone. All that was left was what was in a small compartment hidden in the wall, which contained a few of the guns her father had owned. Other than that it had been wiped clean and Nadia's father was no where to be seen. She stayed their for a bit, waiting for her father to come home. Hoping and praying with every fiber of her being that he'd come home. But he never did, and eventually she contacted auntie and uncle.

Nothing was ever found out about the location of her father. Some said that he had simply abandoned her, finding it too difficult to care for the teenager without her mother around, but Nadia knew that was impossible. He was the man who taught her to draw, who took care of her before himself after the woman they both loved dearly vanished from their lives. The man that never forgot any birthday, holiday, or important date. Who listened when she ranted about the stupidest things that no adult would rightly care about. He loved her, and he never would have left her. The only thing that made sense to Nadia was that he must have been tracked down, and that one of the corporations he'd been working on exposing had killed him. That had to be what happened.

When she recovered enough from her grief Nadia immediately started training with the adults that had now adopted her and began the process of becoming a member of the 404, determined to one day find out what had happened to her father and to exact revenge on the guilty party.

After developing a bit of a reputation in the deep ocean that is the web, she caught wind of a job going down that would be paying a generous sum of money and figured she could use that money to help fund her cause. She immediately jumped on it.

//YOUR PERSON

ATTRIBUTES:

• Hacking
• Decent shot with a blaster
• Baking

BODY MODS:

Augmented cybernetic armware with integrated computer paneling:
Both of her arms are completely made of cybernetic material. They enhance her upper body strength and also double as a portable computer, as she has personalized the data panels in her arms to connect with her personal gear. With it she can always access all of her files at any time and work anywhere- and if she gets caught she can quickly wipe all of the drives remotely.

Intergrated Brain Chip:
In her head there is a tiny, pea sized chip that acts as a communication, search engine, and entertainment device. When she's on the go and doesn't have time to manually mess with the data panels on her arms, she can simply interface with her brain chip and continue her work from there while she's on the go.

Cybernetic optical implants:
These are mostly for the aesthetic. Nadia has two cybernetic eyes that phase from a bright blue to bright neon green, and while they do allow her to visually see what's on her data panels without actually looking at them, their main function is just to be cool.

EQUIPMENT:
SAR 9 Semi Auto Pistols: Aries and Eris
A matching pair of pistols that are small enough to be concealed fairly easily but still pack a punch. She always keeps them on her for self defense purposes, and generally doesn't use them unless she has to. While Nadia is very much willing to shoot someone she prefers to hack into their personal files and ruin their lives as opposed to just outright shooting them. Unfortunately that isn't always an option, so she keeps Aries and Eris on her for that purpose (as well as a couple extra rounds of ammo). She also has a collection of guns at home (including a non-functional ancient old fashioned rifle that her dad kept around as a family heirloom) that she keeps hidden in the wall beside her bed. She doesn't necessarily intend on shooting someone, but they're there if she needs them and its also just a hobby of hers to collect them.

C3GD Encrypted Storage Chip:
In case she should ever have to delete her files on the fly, Nadia took the precaution of having backups stored in an external hard drive of her own design that cannot be accessed unless actually inserted into a database. It is hidden in her left boot so that should she ever be captured, it can easily be kicked off and (hopefully) only found by the very few people that know it exist. On the other hand if she should simply be on the run and have to delete her files she'll still have all of her research without having to worry about someone accessing what she was working on.

Food Preservative Container:
It's what she carries her usual plethora of baked goods in.

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk Thriller)

I'm considering a nice hacker type character. Computer in the brain, built in screen into the arm to type code into, all that jazz. Spends all her time exploring the Deep as much as she can.

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk RP)

Oh ho ho you have garnered my interest

The Consortium

Just as the captain finished her little internal monologue she was bombarded by several people. Barney had come up and started rattling on about something to do with the engine, and somewhere through the confusing mess that was Barney's speech pattern she was able to grasp that he'd improved them in some way and had an idea of how to improve something else, but before she could respond he started shouting at one of the pixies and went over there- evidently to teach it how to properly get high. Well that was a force for chaos.

"Thanks, Barney, she said simply. There wasn't really time to say anything more before her quartermaster was there, and he was followed closely by their resident genasi. The big rock seemed to be a bit flustered and eager to make a good impression, and Dihala would be lying if she said she didn't find it at least somewhat endearing.

"Thank you, Valyrim," she replied to the quartermaster before turning back to the genasi. "I'm glad you're excited. I am too, and thank you for informing me about the supplies. You're doing a great job-"

She was cut off by the slightly faint call of "captain!"
Oh no.

Prancing her way to the upper deck was none other than their navigator, who like everyone else, came straight for her and started rattling off about something or another. Evidently they needed to set sail, and the... The council of planks was in agreement... Oh boy. There had been many times in her life when Dihala had felt like she'd gone mad, but none of them quite compared to the feeling of hearing Fel speak and then realizing she was actually going to listen to what this nutcase said they should do. And why, might you ask? Because somehow she had proven that this stupid acorn theory worked. And now apparently there was a council of planks. It really felt like something out of a child's imagination, but she supposed that for right now, she'd just have to deal with it.

"... Right. Uh... Let's hold off on the wine for now. We'll have some with dinner. No, you didn't miss a meeting, everyone is just doing their jobs and informing me when they finish them. Speaking of which..." Dihala peeled her hands from the dryad and then made her way up to the helm of the ship. Excitement was electrifying the air, and it seemed like the whole ship was feeling it. This would be the crew's maiden voyage together. It was a special moment in time and Dihala hoped that they would all remember it fondly for a long time, no matter what adventures awaited them.

"Lads!" she called out, getting everyone's attention. "Stow the gangplank, hoist the sails, and weigh anchor. We're about to be on our way."

She spoke a little quieter, but still projected her voice a bit towards their quartermaster. "Do make sure none of the pixies get caught in a rope, please. We don't need another incident with chief Boom Boom."

Veritas Lux Mea

Captain Maria Thorne

---

"Be nice, Ansgar," Maria told the engineer. She was about to continue when the "tin man" himself walked in and asked her where their new pilot was.
"You'll probably find her in engineering. It's down the hall on the other side of the cargo bay."

"Great! Thanks. Er, captain." The big android turned to go and then turned around again, holding a finger up.
"She uh... mostly fixed my arm as you can see - so I'll head back down to the cargo bay when I'm done and help clean up the mess as I promised. Are those crates stacked in any particular order, by the way?"

"They're labeled into groups for specific clients. Assuming the labels are all still attached, it shouldn't be too hard to sort them into those groups again."

"Great! I'll go ahead and start moving those then."
This time he turned around and actually left the room in search of the cyborg.

Persephone

---

Persephone was, as the captain predicted, in the engine room appearing to be fiddling with different dials and settings on a projected screen. If she noticed Cyrus approaching, it didn't register on her face. She seemed to be very deep in thought. Furrowed eyebrows and a frown were what adorned her frankly depressed looking face, and she didn't look up when he approached.

"Knock knock," came the android's synthesized voice in the doorway as he entered engineering. He invited himself a seat on the floor against the nearby wall.
"You ran off before I could thank you."

Perse jumped a bit at the sudden intrusion, but quickly smiled when she saw who it was and straightened her posture somewhat.
"Oh, hi there. Don't mention it. Just don't overwork your gears until I can sit you down at a proper computer and fix your coding. I'll even update your data banks with what's happened in the last three hundred years for your people."

"Oh, hah... My brain doesn't work like that. It's basically the same as yours! I can't just plug information into it. Man though if I could... wouldn't that be something? I could learn every language imaginable! Oh and I'd be a genius at math. Imagine!"
He chortled at the idea.
"But no, I had to spend the normal number of years struggling through school just like everybody else. Man, those were the days... I liked my college classes! Well, more than getting shot at on battlefronts anyway."

Her eyebrows rose. Was it possible that mess of coding in his system had been... Intentional?
"Humans create odd things..." she muttered.
"That's very odd. I mean not that I'm complaining, I like different things, but it's... Yeah. Odd. So you learn the same way that humans do? That seems a bit inefficient."

"Oh it is, but apparently some of my predecessors became like mad geniuses and super-intellectual-criminal-dudes and since we don't exactly have killswitches... you can imagine why that was a bad thing. So, we all have these noggins," he balled one hand in a fist and tapped the side of his head, "and some kind of morality processor. I'm not sure how that works but it somehow randomly generates the kind of personality each of us gets and it somehow linked to thought processes and a doohicky that does something with moods and - honestly I don't have the slightest idea how it all works but, yeah. So that's why my brain looks so complicated to you. Because it is. About as complicated as yours. Or the average human, anyway. It's kind of ingenious if you think about it. It'd be a lot simpler to give me the mastermind brain."

"Honestly," She agreed. "To me it looks like pure chaos up there, which I suppose is on brand for a brain. Mine can certainly get pretty chaotic."
She turned back to the screen, talking as she plotted their course towards the glao port the captain had told her about.
"I'm glad you're doing well though. I imagine the captain will put you to work in no time. She seems uh... Very... How do I put this delicately... Nah it's not coming to me. But she seems like she is- INDUSTRIOUS! That's the word I was looking for!"

"Industrious huh? Well I suppose the boss lady would have to be to run a rig like this. Are we really in space? What a time to be alive... You know, do you have any idea why this place looks so wrecked? When I er... woke up, it seemed like disaster had just struck."

"Oh, right! You have no idea what's going on."
Persephone had forgotten about this little detail. Between everything that had happened that day, filling in poor Cyrus had fallen through the cracks a bit, but thankfully she could rectify that situation now.
"Basically, pirates. I'm not a member of this crew, I was flying in the little fighter you saw in the cargo hold when I heard these guys about to fight over the comm waves, and decided to help out. Scared off the pirates, some of them boarded, they're now in the custody of the captain, and somehow in all of that something happened and woke you up."

"Huh. Wow. We have pirates in the future? Space pirates, no less. Pirates back on Earth were more interested in bootlegging movies or illegally downloading MP3s..."

"MP-what? You know, nevermind. I'm not sure I wanna know. But yes pirates exist. The crew seems to have takedn quite a hit too. Lost their pilot."

"MP3s. You know, songs? Wait - are there no MP3s in the future?? How am I supposed to listen to music now???"

"I don't even know what an MP3 is," She replied, giving him a weird look. "Was it type of file or something? I know humans used to use files to store their data. Terribly outdated system, really. No one downloads things anymore. Data is automatically transferred to ships and the computers on board, so unless you have a super secret server where you keep everything hidden, there's just... No need to download anything."

"Yeah, MP3s are sound files, but WAV is better. Just, MP3s are more common - or used to be..."
He looked slightly dejected that he wouldn't be able to use MP3 players.
Then, he looked confused.
"Wait that's impossible. You can't just transmit data to computers without the data being in some kind of file format. Do you mean to tell me you guys transmit everything in raw binary? Do you know how long that would take? Me neither but the point is it has to be in some kind of package for it to transmit efficiently... Right? I mean I'm not great with computers or anything but that's kinda why we have files in the first place...?"

"They're... Not what you understand to be files. It's kind of a mix between binary and files? Keep in mind that this math is thousands of years ahead of your own technology- no offense. It's just a fact."

"I - yeah okay whatever. Can I still listen to music?"

"Yes, you can still listen to music."

"Great! Well, the boss lady needs me to help sort out the mess in the cargo hold. After that I might get a sandwich. I'll see you around, doc. Take it easy." He stood up, picking dirt off his shoulder, and gave her a little wave before ducking out of engineering.

Captain Maria Thorne

---

As the android skittered out of the room Maria sat on one of the empty medical beds, elbows on her knees, face in her hands. Her voice was somewhat muffled as it came through.

"I don't know exactly why the android came to life, but something in the fight woke him up. Push comes to shove I'll shoot him if he causes trouble. He's an antique, so I can't imagine he has any employers to be a spy for anymore. Not to mention he can help clean up and take one more thing off of our plate. As for the pink ithlo, she's a pilot, and she saved our asses. In case you're unaware, our pilot is dead now, Teg is hurt badly, and so is Kev. 42% of my crew is out of commission. So if you don't mind, I'm going to take all the help I can get to get to the damned port and deliver this cursed cargo."

The captain's voice wasn't aggressive, just exhausted. She was doing her best to keep running because the gods knew they didn't need the captain out of commission as well, but at the moment she was simply answering and running on autopilot. She didn't pay much attention to what was going on. Kai rushed off somewhere then breezed through again, and she heard some voices talking. The only thing she registered was "I need a drink."

"Yeah, me too, Teg," she replied.

...

Wait a second.

"Teg?" The captain bolted up from her seat, jostled out of her dazed state by the realization that their mercenary was conscious, and flew over to the woman's bedside. "By the gods... Are you alright? We thought you were dead! Doctor what's her status?"

Forsaken

---

After confirming their meeting location with the dramatic one, Cinder had gone outside to catch Ulliess up on what was going on and what arrangements were to be made. Instead of her dear dragon she was greeted by the sight of none other than Val, who had scampered off at some point during their meetings. To do something shift no doubt.

Having said her closing statement, Cinder withdrew from the conversation and went over to her dragon. "I have some errands to run. Do try not to get arrested while I'm gone."

"You need not worry about me, my dear friend. I have already acquired what passes for valuables here," Val replied with equal snark.

"However, if the lady allows it, perhaps she could tell me where she is going after her errands?" Val said, her very elven pronunciation of the word "errands" implying a great conspiracy.

Cinder sighed. She really didn't want to tell this fae descended devil where they were going, but she supposed it would be better to keep an eye on Val as opposed to just letting her run free. Not to mention she'd find her anyway. Might as well make it convenient. "Garrick Estate in one hour."

She needed to replenish some of her food supplies and it seemed like now would be the only chance to do it. Faint wanted to meet up in an hour at the Garrick Estate, so she had a bit of time to kill and it seemed like as good of an opportunity as any to just.. Go and hide from Val. It would also give the Genasi a bit of time to regain her composure before having to see her new teammates again. She'd never admit it, but she was a little embarrassed by her outburst towards the kobold (no matter how much he deserved it) and wanted to try and make a different impression on the others. She wasn't exactly known for her unending patience but if they were going to have to work together then she should at least try to be somewhat friendly with them. That was going to be very difficult to do with Val around egging her on at every moment, but she'd still try nonetheless.

---

An hour later Cinder walked up to the Garrick Estate. It had towering stucco walls, two entrances, and on the inside there was a variety of gardens and animals that only the rich and powerful could afford to posses. Their patron was well off indeed. Cinder paid more attention to the number of entrances however. Either they sneaked in and out of one of them without the guards noticing (and with the no doubt struggling Mrs. Garrick they would have surely been spotted), or they'd come in a different way. A secret entrance perhaps? Rich people did seem to have a fondness for hidden passage ways to carry out their indiscretions without any peering eyes. It was entirely possible the culprits discovered one of these and took her out that way. Or they could have flown with dragons, but then wouldn't there be tracks where the dragons landed? Perhaps they landed on the roof so as not to leave as much of a trace. But it had taken place in the middle of the day, and surely someone would have seen dragons sitting on top of the Garrick's home.

There were too many theories and not enough evidence. Cinder was eager to begin investigating, but a little voice in her head said that she should be polite and wait for Faint to show up before doing so. If she hadn't given herself the earlier pep-talk about being more cooperative with her teammates then she would have ignored it, but alas, this time she'd listen. Cinder began to look around those in the crowd to see if she could spot the woman in question.

The Consortium

The Consortium

She had been waiting over a decade for this. Ever since she'd heard tales of The Consortium Dihala had known that this was what she wanted; to be in command of ship, crew at her side, the wind at their backs. There was no telling how many things she'd stolen, lies that had been told, hearts broken, and money that had been spent on this endeavor, but it had all been worth it.

One of the informants had come to her about two months ago telling her about a ship that was coming to port in Shyllshara and would be vulnerable. It was perfect. A frigate in good condition, new solar sails, and a crew prone to drunken parties where they would be incapacitated. It would be hers as long as she could pull off the feat of stealing it. And so Dihala began to plan her heist of stealing what was then called "The Sky's Siren," and before long the plan was set in motion. Dihala would board the ship as a passenger, posing as a tourist wanting to see the ancient ruins of Shyllshara, wait until they were on the planet and the crew got drunk, and then steal the ship right out from under their noses. It was fool-proof! Or at least that's what she thought. What the good captain hadn't planned on was a dryad aboard the crew taking a liking to her and starting to follow her around like a puppy. Honestly, who got attached to tieflings like that? At any rate the Dryad had caught Dihala in the midst of her heist, and she'd been forced to lie on the spot. She told a story about how this ship (which was brand new) had been in her family for generations, and that these horrible pirates (merchants) had stolen it from them many years ago (brand new ship), and she'd been tracking them down ever since. If they could work together, Dihala would offer her a place on her crew and they'd sail the stars exploring together (she was going to drop her off on the first moon they reached).

Much to her surprise, the dryad believed her and kept believing her. Even after she let it slip that she was actually a pirate herself. She believed the next lie too. And the next... And the next. Wow, this dryad really had no street smarts. Well, long story short, Dihala started feeling really guilty about lying to this incredibly innocent creature, and decided not to abandon her on the first moon they reached for fear of her not surviving. Not to mention she actually turned out to be a really good navigator? Who knew acorns made such reliable guides?

Finally they made it back to The Consortium base on Iyananor and Dihala began the process of making the ship "officially" hers. They forged some paperwork, had her sign it, had a professional carpenter come in and change the name on the ship to The Wayward Maiden (Dihala thought it was fitting), and there you have it! She had her very own ship to captain and run as she saw fit. All that was left was to find a crew, which wasn't exactly a struggle until it came to hiring general deckhands, powder monkeys, and the like. That's when she remembered her old favorite band of faeries and decided to have them come fill in this role.*

The rest of the crew was filled in easily enough. There were a few odd characters that tried to sign up, and it had taken quite the silver tongue to turn them away peacefully, but nevertheless she was left with what she thought to be a rather intriguing bunch. There was her quartermaster; a man by the name of Valyrim. Bit bland and to the point in her opinion, but he seemed honest enough. Ironically enough she respected that honesty. He did weird her out with talk about an angel, but eh. So what the guy was a bit off his rocker? Speaking of off their rocker, the engineer she hired was most definitely more than a little bit mad. However she'd seen some of his work, and it had been very impressive. As long as him and the pixies didn't blow anything up it would all be fine. Oh, and then there was the cook. The cook... Dihala was slightly worried the she-orc (Morag?) was going to end up murdering her one of these days, but no one had wanted to challenge her for the cook's position so Dihala had no choice. Also she made a mean hydra stew. The master gunner seemed fairly unproblematic at the very least, which was a refreshing change of pace.

Oh and of course Dihala couldn't forget their centaur medic. Seemed to have a shady and tragic past of some kind, but what else was new? Perhaps one of the more unique crew members though was some sort of... Genasi goliath? It was a very odd mix, but he was charming nonetheless. Dumb as dirt (no pun intended), but very endearing and seemed to do his job as bosun well enough. The navigator was none other than the dryad she'd picked up on Shyllshara.

So here they were. A motley crew in search of fortune and adventure with just enough brain cells between them to keep the ship running. At the moment they were all readying the ship for takeoff, and Dihala herself was pacing back and forth on deck trying to keep an eye on things and help where need be. It wasn't quite time for her to take the helm yet. They were just loading the last of their supplies, then they'd be releasing the sails and making their way out of port. She could already feel the solar winds lapping at her hair, beckoning her further into the black unknown that they called space. She had waited so long for this. They were finally going to be on their way, exploring whatever secrets the darkest reaches of the galaxy held.

*

The Faeries

War Chief Boom Boom

War Chief Boom Boom is the chieftain of the nomadic tribe of pixies that live abroad the Wayward Maiden. A giant among pixie kind, he stands at an impressive three and a half feet tall and wields a normal sized warhammer that looks like a respectable polearm in his tiny hands. He commands the ferocious band of pixie barbarians called the Joy Division. Although he views most of the crew with a barely contained disdain, Boom Boom is fanatically loyal to Captain Dihala and the mere mention of her name is enough to compel him into great feats of bravery.

The Joy Division

The Joy Division are a band of faerie dragon riding pixies that have made their home in the deepest holds of the Wayward Maiden. Mischievous, loud, and prone to great feats of violence the pixie barbarians maintain an uneasy peace with the rest of the crew based chiefly on bribery in the forms of sweets and threats of violence from Captain Dihala. In return for the minor pixie fiefdom that the Captain has allowed them to create and a regular supply of sugar, the Joy Division serve as powder monkeys and deck hands aboard the ship.

The Consortium

@Saarebas Message it to me if you would please!