Alrighty folks, I prefer to dive right into a story instead of giving nine pages of exposition. The fabric concealing the world will unravel as it is explored and I will give information as requested if it is applicable to your character. :3

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June 4
Aboard the Dawn Falcon, outside of Vexotia


Though the sun had just barely gotten over the horizon, sending dancing rays across the sparkling sand, it was already blisteringly hot. Seventeen year old Ardis Winfall stood on the top of the sand ship the Dawn Falcon, painstakingly cleaning sand from a damaged wind turbine. He shielded his icy eyes as he peered up at a sky so blue it made them smart sharply, wishing desperately for a cloud or two. When his force of will didn't cause any blessings of shade to materialize the lanky boy sighed, wiped his brow and returned to his work. Another half hour of swift work left the broken turbine free of sand for the moment. Instead of heading below he sat at the edge of the ship. It wasn't a view most would admire, but the ingenuity of people never ceased to amaze him, and thus he watched the scene ahead of him in awe.

The expanse of Vexotia, the only known city in this vast desert, stretched out to the North. Between the ship and the thick smooth stone walls of the city sprawled the slums. Slapped together shanties and pieced together scrap houses crowded thin streets where all manner of people went about their daily life. He pulled his tinted goggles down over his eyes to cut back the glare and grinned as more of the world came into view. Women haggling over various goods, men trading scrap parts, children slipping through the crowd probably picking pockets and cutting purse strings as they went. Suddenly he remembered that he was supposed to be informing the engineer of the ship that the turbine was clean and needed to get a parts list from her since he had promised to get the parts himself. No doubt she would want to try to improve it while she was fixing...

He slipped down the trap door from the top of the ship into the hallway that led past his quarters and ended in the control room. He walked into the room that housed the steering mechanisms of the ship and knocked the toe of his boot against the trap door leading down to the navigator's quarters. “Sully, you in?” he called and listened for a few moments, waiting for an answer. When he received none he whirled and headed back into the hallway. With Sully gone he contemplated his choices of people to drag into the city with him.

Going through the options of the various crew he went to their quarters, getting more frustrated with every empty room. What a boring concept, going alone into the city. Lucas was his last thought but when he found the man already drinking heavily in the otherwise empty galley he was forced to accept that no one was around to go with him. This also meant he'd have no help carrying the items he went to retrieve. His mood already darkening he headed down to the workshop on the bottom deck of the ship next to the engine room.

He knew Engie would be busy. She always was when they were docked at Vexotia. He could understand why she avoided the city and the ship was easier to work on without the desert winds driving sand against you and with the parts readily available if needed. He knocked on the door but let himself in without waiting for an answer. “Engie, I'm finished clearing that turbine, do you need to look it over again or do you have a parts list ready for me?”

"Ah, hi there Ardis!" Elly called back, "I'll head on up and take a look at it. I doubt it needs anything special, but it's always good to take a look."

She handed him a parchment with a small list on it, "These should be more than enough to restock on spare parts, though I can't help but think that perhaps adding an internal gear variation would help prevent sand from building up and messing with the turbine's core. Eh, I'll think on it more later." She stretched towards one side, lifting her arms above her head and tilting a bit.

“I already know what you're going to say... but would you like to go to the city with me?” Ardis awaited her answer while looking around the room, always impressed with the vast array of gadgetry she had scattered about. There was almost no free space in her room, with piles of small gadgets and parts scattered in neat piles. He also was impressed with her ability to sleep in the room next to the engine, then again he supposed that it was likely her lullaby. 

Elly smiled, "I appreciate the offer, but I'm going to stay and take a look at that turbine. Also have been working on that." She flicked a hand over her shoulder, indicating her desk. On it seemed to be a metallic vambrace, surprisingly big, perhaps sized for a hand twice as big as hers. "I doubt it'll be that useful when it's finished, but I do like to tinker."

She scratched her cheek with a finger while she thought, double checking things over in her mind, "Perhaps some more parchment as well, I like writing them down. That's about everything I think. Do take care while you're out."

Ardis smiled at her predictable answer and nodded. Looking over the list he frowned. “These lists seem to get longer every time you make one, Engie. Is my dear Falcon falling apart that quickly?” he shook his head and patted the wall as he headed towards the door. “Still not a clue about that flying ship...” he slipped out the door muttering irritably to himself.

Assembling the list of items requested took him longer than he had expected and by the time he was on his way back to the ship the sun was slipping down and the temperature was already dropping. He wasn't sure which he preferred, the day's heat or the night's chill. Both were pleasant and familiar to him in their own ways. As the temperature dropped however he wished he had brought his desert jacket.

When he arrived back to the ship after dropping off his pack heavy with the requested parts and a promissory note saying the rest would be delivered tomorrow to Engie he headed to the galley, hoping his stomach didn't growl in front of Maggie and give away that he had forgotten to eat that day.

Vexotia. Despite being the only true city in the vast expanse of the desert that was the world, it wasn’t a spot that Sully Star-Eyes would ever have put in the top five of his “interesting places to see” list. Sure, the city and the slums that sprawled around it offered more than a modicum of sanctuary from the often brutal sands, the market places were possibly the most reliable places for sandship crews to find the supplies and sundries they might need to sustain them for their next voyage over the dunes, and, if one was looking for conversation and companionship aside from those folks one considered crew-mates, this was certainly the place to find it. Regardless of what it had to offer, though, Sully was never anxious for The Dawn Falcon to port in, here, and, usually, more than ready to leave the place behind even before he steered Ardis’ ship into sight of the city.

For one thing, Vexotia was just too crowded for his liking. The slums seemed always to be elbow to elbow people, pressing much closer to one another than was comfortable for a man who had spent all the years he could remember aboard one ship or another, and had become accustomed to the personal space afforded to him as a result of living among a handful of people as opposed to a city full. He’d never been called “mutie,” “freak,” or “geek” by his crewmates, either… well, not in a long time, anyway, and never since he’d come aboard the Falcon… but, here in Vexotia, there was a noticeable disdain for folks that were as “uniquely affected” by the desert as Sullivan O’Shea. The very traits that made him valuable out there on the shifting sands made him somehow less than human here… And, on top of all of that, it was entirely too bright, here!

Of course, when the sun broke over the horizon, the whole world was subject to the intense glare of its blistering rays but, when the sun set out there amidst the dunes, Sully could turn off the lights and take off, at least one pair of the onyx-lensed goggles that he perpetually wore, and get a look at the world without filters. In the city, though, there were always lights burning somewhere… cook fires, torches, and oil lamps flickered and danced like tiny suns in the nighted slums, and, from the city itself came the eye-stabbing glare of gaslights and the explosively painful brilliance of those that were powered by electricity. The only escape from it, Sully had learned over the years, was to visit Vexotia only when absolutely necessary, and get in and out as quickly as possible when that necessity presented itself.

It was just such a necessity that found Sully navigating the Vexotian markets, today, in fact. The Falcon had taken a bit of a drubbing from the desert on this last cruise and, as such, the need for spare and replacement parts for a damaged turbine and other systems (not to mention the dwindling stockpiles in Maggie’s pantry) had given “Captain Kid” all the reason he had needed to have Sully plot a course for the lone city. So, thanks to artful navigation (if he did say so, himself), The Dawn Falcon wheeled in to Vexotia’s docks just before sunrise. Just in time, the navigator had thought, then, for him to be able to beat the dawn’s first rays into his cabin and blissfully sleep away the hours until dusk.

No such luck, though.

He had finished sealing the light out of his tiny cabin beneath the wheelhouse, had slung himself comfortably in his hammock, and had taken off his goggles, at last, when there came a quick rat-a-tat-tat! at his hatch…

Maggie’s spoon, Sully knew as he opened his eyes in the dark and blinked up at the latch he had forgotten to slip, Did I eat today?
“Sully,” Mags’ voice called out after another rapping of the spoon, “You’re not sleepin’ yet, are you?”

Sure, I ate… Had those dates a few hours ago… some olives and cheese… sometime.
“Yeah, Mags,” he answered, “I’m sleepin’ and dreamin’ and I already ate… I had some dates earlier, remember? You brought ‘em to me and said, ‘here Sully, eat these, you’re lookin’ peekid” and I said, ‘what’s peekid’, and you said ‘just eat the dates and drive the boat Sully,’ and I said ‘okay there, Mama Bear,’ and you said…”

“Sullivan O’Shea!” Mags’ voice took on that stern tone that made him wince…there was no need for one, strong whack with the spoon, either, aside from effect, “You are not sleeping! And if you’re not doing anything else, either, why don’t you come to the market with me? I could use the extra hands, and I’ll go whirly-gizmo gawking with you afterwards.”

“Gyros,” Sully could help but chuckle over his sigh as he reached for his goggles, “they’re called gyros, Mags.” He pulled the goggles down over his glittering eyes and rolled himself out of the hammock, still chuckling. It wasn’t like Maggie really cared what the real names of the gizmos and gadgets that Sully liked to shop for were, and it didn’t really matter how often she was corrected, either; to her, they were all whirly-gizmos. None of that mattered to Sully, though; Mags’ could call things whirly-gizmos and thing-a-ma-doodles all she wanted and Sully would still be happy to have her along while he sought them out in the markets. It was always better than going by himself. “Come on in,” he called as he tugged his boots back on, “the hatch is unlocked and I’m mostly dressed.

Hey! Do ya think we’ll be able to get some pomegranates this time? I like those things… annoying as all hell to peel and pull the seeds out of but soooo worth it, you know? And what about some meat? Think we can get some meat and maybe have kebabs sometime, soon? I was thinkin’ about kebabs just the other day and…”

“Are you going to talk, Sully,” Mags’ giggled as the hatch opened and flooded Sully’s cabin with light, “or are you going to get your stuff and come with me?”

Even behind the protective lenses of the goggles, Sully squinted his eyes almost shut to filter out the light when he grinned up at Mags; “Probably both, Mama Bear…”

There was no probably to it… Sully kept talking even as he finished getting ready for their trip into the market…continued prattling on, sometimes to himself, as he jandered along beside the exceedingly tall woman into the slums… and was still talking as Maggie came close to ticking off the last few items remaining on her list…

“Holy Hannah,” the gangly navigator exclaimed as they wove their way through a cluster of stalls in the market and he spotted a vendor hawking not only a good supply of current tech but, also, what looked like a fairly decent assortment of pre-des knick-knacks. “Hey, Mags,” he beamed, not realizing that he’d absently started to wander towards the booth already, “do ya think we can come back this way when we’re done with the groceries?”

Elly breathed a small sigh of relief as Ardis left. She knew he always offered out of courtesy but was worried he'd press the issue some day, and she really did not want to go. She scratched at her head as she chuckled sheepishly. Thankfully, doing what she did, she always did have things to do while the ship was docked. It was about the only real safe time to look over everything. And she did mean everything.

Walking over to her desk, she quickly fitted the vambrace she was working on to her left wrist. Might as well try this gizmo out while she was up on top. After putting on her gloves, and taking off her glasses, putting those in a pocket, she skipped out of her small room, closing the door behind her, and made her way upwards. As she went up, she fondly rubbed a hand along the wall. The Falcon was definitely the best home she ever had, and she wanted to keep her at her best.

Elly made a pit stop at one of the supply rooms, stuffing a bunch of spare parts she guessed would be needed in a crate and hauling it with her. Finally, she reached the turbine, still exposed outside of the hull where Ardis left it.

"Let's see what we have here, girl." Elly murmurred softly, putting her glasses back on and sliding a fingertip along the outer casing as she started her examination.

It didn't take long for Elly to find the source of the problem, after almost dismantling the entire turbine.

"Wow, I knew sand got in annoying places, but I didn't fully anticipate that it could build up this much in the internal gear relay." She murmurred, "Just look at these gears, completely worn down. So where does the sand get in...?"

She closed her eyes a moment and concentrated. Immediately, an image of the turbine assembled itself in her mind's eye. She opened her eyes, taking a look at the dismantled version, her image overlaying it. Elly frowned, motioning with her left hand and visualizing the internal core rotating and working. Then she pictured the sand, being swept in and through the turbine.

"Ah, there!" Elly pointed in mid-air, before quickly looking at the unassembled pieces and locating the corresponding part. "Yup, that would do it... It must've overheated, melting just enough for the friction with the rotating core to cause a small rupture. Guess we pushed our luck a bit too far this time. Sorry, girl."

It didn't take long for Elly to weld the fracture shut, replace the worn gears and reassemble the turbine. "There, good as new, although... if we could add a cooling system... it'd allow us to keep the turbines out longer, but that'd be tricky to pull off. The interior workings are complicated enough as it is."

"Something to add to the project list anyway." Elly nodded to herself, "I'd better check the others, just in case, but first..." She took off her glasses, putting them in her pocket and flipped a switch on her vambrace after winding up the key at the back of it. The entire outer panel unfolded, and out popped several lenses, strategically placed to make a spyglass of sorts.

Casting her arm city-ward, Elly tilted her head to look through it. Sure enough, she found what she was looking for. She shook her head.

"They just don't give up." She muttered, before sighing and folding the vambrace up.

Casting the thought aside, she pulled out her glasses, put them on, and put her hands at her hips, "On to the next turbine! Don't worry, girl, I'll make sure I do a thorough checkup for you." She grinned and quickly called for the other turbines to be extended out.

Up and at em girl Keira thought as she heard the sound of people rousing. She launched herself from her hammock landing almost gracefully and instantly went looking through her clothes humming to herself. She pulled out a couple of dresses considering wearing them into town, but with a sigh she decided she needed to look like someone who knew what she was doing and who shouldn’t be messed with so she pulled out a pair of blue jeans sliding them on. Go back over inventory, buy supplies, clean the cannons, find a party for tonight. Keira went over her list of things to do, as she donned her shirt. She opened the drawer at the bottom of her dresser and pulled out a box. Inside the box was an armband with a gun chamber nailed into the leather. Attached to the chamber was a small clip that would feed another bullet into the chamber and a string that attached to a ring. Keira slid the ring over her index finger and tied the vambrace onto her left forearm. She then loaded one bullet into the chamber and three more into the clip. She grabbed a brown cloak that ended just above her knees. Grabbed her pair of spectacles with crosshair lenses, and a cute but efficient brown hat. Checking herself in her mirror Keira nodded to herself; she was ready. She all but flung her door open as she skipped to the munitions room. The last run hadn’t been very hazardous so restock wouldn’t be too expensive.

Just need a few more crates of crank gun bullets and another couple cannonballs. Keira thought as she looked around the munitions room. I wonder if there’s any fun new weapons to hit the marketplace. Keira whirled around and skipped out of the room. She opened the hatch that led to the tube that would eject her from the ship and with a small squee slid out. It’d been over a year since Keira had joined up with the Dawn Falcon and she still thoroughly loved the slides. Though they were another reason why one shouldn’t wear dresses aboard or while leaving the Dawn Falcon.

Landing gracefully (One of the many talents Keira learned on her year and a half tour on the Falcon) Keira glanced around to get her bearings and merrily wandered into town humming to herself.

Vexotia was to Keira an anchor. In her mind the way of life that was Vexotia was a weight on the human race. People were more worried about making their way in life in this one city than they were in improving life. For example most sandship crewmen were more worried about becoming a citizen of the city, when they probably knew locations that would make excellent second cities. And if a few sandships worked together they could probably keep such a second city safe from the dangers of the desert. But as much as it weighed down the human race it was a necessary evil for anyone who wanted to survive, at least until such an alliance of sandships could put aside their petty greed and work together. Until then Keira would be forced to buy her explosives here.

She easily picked her way through the marketplace. She was like a fish in a well known coral. There was two things that Keira loved to do: shop and make things go boom. Keira had discussed buying the restocks with Ardis last night over dinner and he’d given her what she estimated the cost would be.

“Finnegan, old friend.” Keira called out as she entered the blacksmith’s shop. Keira had joined the Falcon a year and a half ago as simply a deckhand. She’d been assigned to the munitions because of her extensive knowledge on firearms. Knowledge gleaned from her dad. After a tragic incident in which the previous weapons master of the Falcon had passed away Ardis asked Keira, who was then the youngest person in munitions, to take the position. She’d gladly accepted, and only a short while after that Ardis had introduced Keira to Finnegan. Finnegan was commissioned to make the special shells needed for the crank guns, and he was a well kept secret. The crank guns hat lined the Falcon’s sides were revolutionary. They were quite possibly the fastest guns in Vexotia. The single bullet may not do much damage to the underside of a sandship but the concentration of bullets made them a force more than a match for the heaviest of guns. As such there was more than one sandship that had tried to copy the make and one of the things that made the crank gun unique was it’s ammunition. So to keep everyone guessing as to how Ardis got his hands on the unique shells Keira also commissioned Finnegan to make her .45 shells.

“Welcome Keira of the Falcon.” Finnegan said wiping his hands and face on a towel. “What can I do for you?” Finnegan was a brick house of a man. He stood well into 6 foot and his well chiseled arms together probably had more mass and weight to them than Keira had in her entire body. He kept a well trimmed goatee and short hair. The short hair was probably necessary considering his proximity to the forge Keira mused.

“I need some more ammo.” Keira said handing the list to Finnegan. “We should be in port for a day or so to resupply. If you could send a runner to let me know when it’s done I would dearly appreciate it.”

“Sure thing.” Finnegan responded taking the list. “Not as much as usual guess that means you’ve been doing some smooth sailing. I can have these done by tomorrow I reckon.”

“Thanks Finnegan you’re the best.” Keira said with a smile. She gave him a quick hug and then disappeared out the door. Time to go browsing!

Kamina awoke with a start, and for a split second couldn't remember where he was. Then the memories of the past 8 months came flooding back to him. Laying back down, he smiled to himself as he recounted all the surgeries that've been successful by his hand. Kamina still found it amazing how easy it was people hurt themselves out in that Wasteland of a Desert. Yawning, he rolled onto the floor and jumped up to grab his clothes; Black slacks, a Tan shirt, his favourite Doctor's Coat and his infamous, Beaked Mask.

Wandering through the hold he stepped out of the way of some engineers running bye. Elly must be in need of parts if they're being sent out enmass... It still amazes me she hasn't been to my office yet, odd girl she is. Finally at his first destination Kamina slipped into the galley and snuck out a slice of bread and small hunk of cheese. Hopefully Mama-Bear doesn't miss these, but I'd rather not wait for lunch. Walking up the stairs onto the main deck Kamina stretched and let out another yawn as the sun hit his masked face. OI Ardis! I'm heading out to resupply, I'll be back and forth so stop me if you need anything! With that he stepped onto the gangplank and wandered into the slums he used to call home.

God's, this place is just as bad as when I left, the old man still better be here. Kamina walked with ease through the crowds as he worked his way deeper into the slums. After half an hour, he finally made it to his destination, The Greasy Cog. One of the filthiest bars in the slums, but also the best place to find strong alcohol used by those fancy doctors in the city. Holding his breath as he entered, Kamina was still met with the stench of dried vomit, cheap food, and booze. Trying not to gag as he walked up to the counter he locked eyes with the old man behind the counter. Hey Doc, long time no see. Here for the usual? Kamina nodded, not wanting to speak in the case he might lose his breakfast. As he pulled out his money the old mad walked into the back room, two minutes later he walked back out with 3 unlabelled boxes. Placing the money on the counter, Kamina lifted the boxes and turned to the door. Once I get these back to the Dawn Falcon I can go look for some more leather straps and blades. Kamina smiled as he exited the bar and made his way back to the ship.