#firecooking

@firecooking sent a parcel and writes: Happy 10 years

That is all

OH DUDE…… the lore isnt done at all (god forbid you get a history person into tugs bc i start trawling every website, article, book, and newspaper trying to base this off of real life) but this is what i have so far. just a general tw for ppl btw in the tags

cpt. star

name is ezekiel ‘zeke’ starmont iii, born and raised in the bigg city, and just like the others two ezekiel starmonts, he was expected to lead the business just like how his father and grandfather did.

he was raised around the docks and though not thoroughly educated, cpt. star had a insane amount of apprenticeships and work experience as a longshoreman. he’s fluent in maritime law, and even more fluent in politics. he even worked with capt. zero at another company before the baton was passed over to him.

the company itself has a very strong moral compass, because it was founded in a time where politics weren’t so cutthroat. so when money got tight, cpt. star was forced to adapt. since the company never allows its tugs to carry anything illegal, that is what made them respected by the authorities, and also feared by the criminal enterprises in bigg city. star tug & marine knew how to keep their hands clean, even if their intentions were not.

HOWEVER…. that does not mean he is a great guy. not really a great guy at all. he’s not cruel, but he’s definitely mean. he picks on some of his tugs and is vehemently anti union (i think this from was a scrapped story called strike i can’t remember)

something i really want to emphasize in this au is that both star tug and marine and zero marine deal with corruption, just different types of corruption if that makes sense. star tug influences contracts, pressures unions, gets shorter inspection times, etc. they always somehow gets around the red tape other companies can’t. they are too embedded in the history of bigg city to go kaput, and that’s why they have the power they have.

cpt zero.

nobody is really sure of cpt. zero’s legal name, or where he even came from. some people said he came over from the old world, which country though? nobody knows. the ledger says cpt. zero, so that’s what everyone calls him.

he originally worked for another tug company and worked briefly alongside cpt. star. (they have lore i swear i just don’t know how to handle it yet) cpt. zero would often do things ‘under the table’ (aka smuggling) for local criminals and gangs which eventually either had him caught and fired or gave him a criminal record you choose LOL

eventually, zero marine was founded. by the time the volstead act was passed, zero had started his own small, yet powerful fleet backed by all sorts of illegal money. many men that worked amongst star and zero at that previous company followed zero, because smuggling was where the money was.

his biggest benefactors are the handful of mobs in bigg city. he probably speaks a dozen different languages too. zero marine in my lore makes most of its money solely because the volstead act exists. however, even after the volstead act was repealed captain zero’s ‘shadier’ contracts def are where the income is. no liner contract will ever beat the money made from smuggling. drugs hidden in coal bunkers, guns hidden in crates, it all is a very serious operation, and lots of $$ is on the line. its why the z stacks freak out when something bad goes wrong— because often times it means the loss of money will have a gang or a mob boss all over their ass about it.

A little surprise and thank you for @firecooking who drew me the most wonderful surprise art of my Zip and Zorran (also Ten Cent, ish) last week.

I absolutely love his OC Zaffre and wanted to try drawing her. She was an absolute joy to draw (that's one co-operative OC!)

I noticed a common habit in the fandom: Z-Stack OCs tend to be female and are generally lesbians. Zaffre is one such OC, and I have my own, Zoanna, who is another! So, after some debating, I decided to draw them together.

So we have the delightful Zaffre - a Canadian Ocean-going tug with a bubbly personality, vs. Zoanna - the Scottish Railway tug with a much gruffer manner and the older sister of Top Hat. Zaffre is, I think, notably younger than Zoey (who Top Hat has remarked is 'pushing fifty'), but I think she's going to be just fine.

MK of all people keeps showing me episodes and I really love it! I keep reading through this blog and finding it so funny he's brought up here

The characters are fun to draw, who knows I may draw more!

MK kind of carried the blog in 2016, finding the bulk of stuff and managing to get interviews with Tony and others - so I'm glad he's helping to carry this fandom in my stead <3 he's been one of my longtime friends (even if we dont talk often - BOTHER ME ON DISCORD YOU FOOL!!!)

[ I will add it to next month's list, but I'm posting this for now to spread it. ]