Michael Abend's Story

As usual, Phoenix was settled comfortably on her most favorite spot, which was of course, right atop the Vagus. On stormy days, tempests would threaten to rocket her off the enormous red balloon, but it was not this day. In fact, the breeze was a pleasant one with the right amount of frost in it - just the way Phoenix liked it. Though she reckoned Ryan would no doubt chastise her if he found her there. "You'll fall and land your ass right smack in the ocean," or "The blimp is already worn enough without you bouncing around on it." And so on and so forth.

Presently, Phoenix had her back against the smooth canvas, her arms behind her head with her eyes closed. One might have actually thought that she was sound asleep, but no, her ears were perfectly alert as always. The early conversations of the crew drifted up, making her wrinkle her nose in slight disapproval. Well, it was about time to join them on the main deck, lest Ryan should come knocking on her living quarters to find the "You see nothing" sign she had jokingly placed on a wall.

Swiftly, she swung herself on the makeshift 'ladder' she had secured for easy access to and fro the main deck and the balloon. It was a mere simple rope in which she slid down, her black gloves protecting her from the frictional burn. Perhaps it might have been deliberate that she chose not to put a proper ladder there instead - it took quite a bit of skill to heft oneself up, and no one wanted to use the rope down with bare hands. The top of the blimp was somewhat her little space of freedom and privacy, but Michael was often up there as well to fix the screw ups in the canvas.

"Yo Ryan," she grinned coyly at the man whilst running a hand through her wind-blown hair. It wasn't as presentable as she would have liked it to be, but she'd get that settled later. Meanwhile, Phoenix was highly aware that addressing him as 'Ryan' bugged him, and that he preferred being called Captain instead. But Phoenix thought of him more as a friend and only used that honorific occasionally, or if she simply felt like it. Of course, needless to say, she knew when respect was due as Ryan was not only her friend, but her superior.

"Morning Jeremy, nice cleaning. The deck looks almost clean enough for consumption, though I reckon Mrs. Gubbles would beg to differ." She winked at the cabin boy and chuckled, before turning her attention to Bai. The girl looked terribly sleepy, what with the continuous yawning and eye rubbing. It was hard to believe that she wasn't sleep-walking instead.

"Did something keep you awake last night? You look terrible." Phoenix studied the girl, frowning.

The all too familiar and steady mechanical sounds were all that accompanied the sleeping Michael. Now while technically he had his own cabin, Michael tended to sleep down in the heart of the ship. It truly was the heart of the ship as well, and Michael's domain. One wall covered in various gauges, lights, switches and valves only labeled in short hand for what each one were, complex to anyone who did not have a clue what they were doing. Opening his eyes slowly the soft glow of un-natural light filled his eyes. Swinging his legs off his make shift bunk, his bare feet landed on the warm metal floor. It was warm because out of the whole ship only one place was warmer, the boiler itself, and this room was very close to the boiler to allow Michael easy access for what ever purpose he saw fit. The bunk itself was Minimalistic, it was a canvas sheet stretched over a frame large enough for one person, bolted to the wall and supported by two chains.

Grabbing his clothes from off a nearby steam pipe (He liked his clothes warm in the morning). he proceed to dress himself in his normal attire, his work trousers, his heavy work boots, his protective shirt and that was it for now. No work would start until after breakfast so he left his hair in a mess as he made his way out of the gauge room, down a small corridor before heading back up to the main ship levels (the level he just came from was all mechanical).

When he came out to the main deck, he blinked as the cold air hit his face waking him up even further. Though he pre-heated clothes would stay warm for a moment or two longer. " Morning Cap'n" he said sounding rather happy for one who just woke up.
Turning his mismatched eyes to everyone else he blinked " Morning all... Have i woken up late?... i did not expect to see everyone around". There was the down side to spending so much time below deck in the ship, he could quite easily lose track of the day, not that it bothered him. The ship ran on its on time frame.

Glancing at the deck he looked up a Jeremy and chuckled " Lad you keep this bloody good work up.... i might have to give you a challenge and see if you can't clean the pipes below deck" Anyone who had ever seen the pipes below deck would know that just the sheer length of the pipe work down there meant you could never get it all clean, let alone the state its actually in.

Ryan looked around at the crew, each and everyone of them said good morning and went about their tasks. The new boy Jeremy was already working away hard at cleaning the ship and he approved. The boy spoke to him and he nodded curtly. Out of habit with his other members he gave his hair a fond scruff.
Pheonix had called him Ryan again and he tried his best to not show he was irked, There was something about the word captain that sounded so much better to him. He moved his hands to his pockets and gave her a bit of a warning glare. He didnt bother picking a fight with her about it as he knew it was a useless endeavour. Ms. Gubbles emerged from the bottom deck as well and he greeted her with a warm smile. "I'm starving." He told her as he walked past the cook giving her a friendly wink. "We having pancakes today? I want pancakes." He knew such a thing was impossible to have on the ship with their current supplies but he wanted to bug her anyways.

---

Bai laughed as Jeremy explained how he got his jacket in detail and stuffed her hands in it's pockets. "C'mon, Jeremy I asked you if it was expensive, not for your life story!" She snickered, her blue eyes going back and fourth watching him scrub the deck.

"If you don't mind my saying so, you look as though you're not quite awake yet."

Her eyes looked up to him as he began wandering off still cleaning. "I don't know what you mean," she began, yawning into her hand, "I'm as awake as anyone else here." She grinned and placed her hands on her hips, "don't worry about me, newbie, I'll be fine after I get some food in my stomach." She looked down at her shoes, wishing she was back in her bed, despite what she said to Jeremy.
"By the way, I think my cabin's due for a good scrubbing soon." Bai smacked him on the back playfully and winked. She heard boots on the deck and grinned wider, Phoenix was awake! Bai always liked Phoenix, she was always so interesting and strong and pretty.

"Morning, Phoenix!" She called, rubbing her eye with one hand and waving to the fiery haired girl with the other. She watched as she greeted everyone else, then turned to Bai with a frown.

"Did something keep you awake last night? You look terrible."

"Gee thanks." The blond girl muttered, rolling her eyes, "how about a 'good morning, Bai' or a 'how are you, Bai'?" She was still smiling all the same, "I'm fine, don't worry, the sun's just been waking me up prematurely lately, that's all. I might get something to cover my windows at the next stop." Soon after, both Michael and Ms. Gubbles joined the group, both greeting everyone and then going off into other conversations. Bai chose to gravitate over to Maria after she heard the word 'breakfast'.

"Ah! Ms. Gubbles I am so so hungry!" She sang, throwing her arms around the older woman, then let go and followed Ryan towards the kitchen. "By the way Captain, when are we landing next?"

Phoenix Estrielle

"I'm going to finish this up before coming down for breakfast, would you be so kind as to save some for me miss Gubbles?"

"Nope, I don't think there will be a need for that. Jeremy can have my breakfast - I'm not hungry," Phoenix said, which was in a way quite out of the ordinary. It was a given that Phoenix was a huge-eater and had a large appetite. She only owed it to her high metabolism, else she would have been a hippo by now. And in any case, life in her current circumstances did not allow for much slacking or lazing off. As much as it was generally known that ships flying the same flag would not attack each other, there were always those found to be crossing the boundaries. The term 'Skypirates' was a mere word to label groups of wanderers - but others took on its literal meaning. Well, not that they followed the rules of the skies religiously either...

"And, as to where we shall be landing next, it would most probably be the island Pandros. Right Captain?" she stressed on the word, lips pressed into a smile. "Ever heard of it before?" she asked, the question directed more towards the others. "I went there once actually, but I can't guarantee how much time has changed that place as it has done to many others."

Briskly, she made her way to the helm of the Vagus and proceeded to extract a map from its protective transparent casing. Not much of a point in putting a fragile (and absolutely important) piece of paper to suffer the wrath of the forces of Nature, was it? Needless to say, the map was still exposed to frequent wear and tear, so there was another spare copy tucked away safely in Phoenix's cabin. It would not do to forget that maps were highly valuable essentials as they were hard to recreate and produce, and it so happened that the spare copy was also a stolen one - courtesy of Phoenix.

"I'm no navigator, but based on the fact that we've been flying for ten days since leaving the last island, which is over here," she pointed her finger on a tiny green blotch on the map. "Plus taking into the account of recent stormy weather blowing us off-course," she narrowed her brows in concentration. "Three days of bad weather, I think. So that makes a good twelve hours before the next touch down over here." She traced the finger slightly down towards the left, before tapping on yet another green area. Interestingly, that particular one had a little red dot on it.

"The island Pandros - home to volcanic hills, twisted black trees and perhaps a little forest or two here and there. I think there's a small fishing village as well, but who knows, they all might have been wiped out by obsidian scorpions," she gazed at the crew, waiting patiently for their reactions with a smile twitching at the corner of her lips.