User:Gatzby

Personality
"Ordinary" is what Jay would call himself - he'll laugh at something funny, cry at something sad, etc, etc. While a bit hesitant with first introductions, he's one to warm up quickly to folks and can be quite open after those awkward moments too. Jay likes to think of himself as a dependable Skyrate. While still a rookie, he gets whatever job he's given done - he knows when to fight, when to run, doesn't bite off more than he can chew, and when the odds are against him, has so far been able to come out on top.

Skills
Being a flight manual bookworm in his younger years left Jay with a good deal of knowledge when it came to piloting a number of aircrafts; and so long as the controls are similar in ones that he never read up on, he'll figure things out quickly enough. When it comes to piloting or switching up planes on the fly for different kinds of jobs, Jay can easily adapt to the occassion.

Having lived on a farm half his life, Jay naturally picked up skills of the old family trade as well. He has a head for numbers thanks to his father, does exceptionally well when it comes to pricing on agricultural goods, and picked up a few tricks as far as packaging and handling go. A loader once joked about how Jay could probably hide a rainforest in the cockpit with him after seeing the job he once did with saddling up a Nomad.

He can also make a mean vegetable stew.

Appearance
Hair: Auburn

Eyes: Gold

Age: 18

Height: 5'11"

Weight: 145 lbs.

Jay is your average orange tabby. While a bit thin, he is healthy nonetheless. His usual attire consists of a simple T-shirt and slacks in a variety of colors. The only thing consistent in his dress is the brown leather jacket with a matching pair of boots, red scarf, and "lucky" goggles that his family gave him before leaving to Flight School.

Acquaintances
So far, Jay only has his adoptive family, which he writes to periodically.

History
Jay lived a quiet farm life on Steppe. His parents were ordinary farmers - strict, realistic, and near pessimistic about their way of living, but good people regardless. Like most children his age, he dreamt of flying when he grew up. The sooner the better - getting off those chunks of rock was a hope everybody had honestly. When not working, he was often chasing after planes that flew overhead, begging to go for a ride. Of course, nobody turned around to make that dream come true. His parents disapproved of the behavior too, often telling him, "Get your head out of the clouds and back in the fields where it belongs." Flying was something beyond them. They'd always be just a simple bunch of farmers until the skyland fell - simply growing crops for trade with the other lands. That was their lot in life.

Jay came to despise it; and against his parents' wishes, he never gave up on his dreams of flying. The day that dream started becoming a reality wasn't a pleasant one at all though. It happened when he was ten-years-old. Jay had been outside tending to crops when a small group of airplanes - specifically a Mastiff, Valkyrie, and Kittyhawk. The kitten stood in awe while watching them swerve, loop, dive, and roll over Steppe; but it wasn't until the Kittyhawk was shredded by fire from the Mastiff that he realized it wasn't an air show. It was a dogfight. To make matters worse, the Kittyhawk (or what was left of it) was careening right for the farm.

He made sure to never forget that day. It showed him the harsher side of his dreams, made them real, and gave him a glimpse of what he would face as a skyrate should he fail. He didn't know if the culprits were ever captured, or even if they were still alive. He was never told what possessed pirates to come so close to a skyland and cause that kind of damage. It was theorized to be cargo, but whatever that was had been destroyed in the crash. All Jay knew was that skyrates had both taken his parents from him, and given him the opportunity he needed to live as something more than a farmer. While a nightmare like that would have made most abandon their such a dream, Jay never gave up. After the accident, he was adopted by a kind family that lived closer to Steppe's airport; and was even taken out to watch the aircraft come and go from time to time. When he became a regular sight, some of the staff took interest, offering him manuals and bits of scrap he could learn from.

Exactly one year later, Jay was headed to the farm he once lived on to visit the memorial he build there for his parents. To his surprise, there was another visitor already there - a middle-aged warthog with a flight jacket. After a small discussion, he introduced himself as Raoul Jakobs, the skyrate who had crashed into the house a year ago. After the incident, his license had been revoked for bringing the fight so close to civilization. What was left of his plane dismantled to be used for parts at the airport. To add to Jay's surprise, Raoul said he'd noticed him over the past year - specifically when it came to his interest of planes and flying. After that, the two spent future days talking, the warthog eventually giving the kitten all the lessons he could while on the ground. On his fifteenth birthday, Raoul spoke to Jay's foster parents, and it was resolved that they should enroll the boy in Flight School.

With all he knew combined with his ambition, passing F.S. was a breeze. What to do with himself afterward though...that was a problem. He wasn't sure yet. His dream had been to fly. He was living it. The question was where would the skies would take him in life. Would he soar the like all those skyrates he watched growing up, or come crashing down as those like Raoul did?

Current Situation
With Second Wind to fly and a few good friends and crewmates to help him, Jay has reopened New Borders and been much busier, having to make up for lost time on the ground. Most of the time, he works with receiving and distributing jobs; but those he feels can't be taken by his employees, he flies himself...or just does so for the heck of it. Even if he is supposed to be a CEO and managing things where it's probably safer, he enjoys field work too much.

Family
Thomas Long: Feline. Biological father, 29. Deceased.

Daisy Long: Feline. Biological mother, 25. Deceased.

Wilson Gatzby: Feline. Foster father, 35

Myrtle Gatzby: Badger. Foster mother, 32.

Raoul Jakobs: Warthog. Godfather, 34

Crew


M.J. (called this for short since she prefers being addressed by her clan name over her real name) is a Desert Nomad, and the first crewmate hired by Jay - or rather she hired Jay as her captain. Seeing a fresh Independent and as she put it, "having nothing better to do.", she forcefully recruited herself to be the tabby's mechanic. However, it was far from voluntary. Jay's wallet suffered from the sudden partnership; but thanks to smarts when it came to trade, he bounced back at the end of his next flight - just in time for her first paycheck.

As one could guess from their first meeting, M.J. is a brash woman who takes what she wants and won't take no for an answer. That's not to say she won't give as good as she gets. While Jay initially regretted the "decision" to hire her, she's taught him quite a bit about salvaging and a number of quick fixes that can be made with a pack of bubblegum and some spraypaint to even the worst of holes and tears.

M.J. is presently in a coma, having taken a bullet (literally) for Jay when one of their worser clients thought them to be too much of a liability. She is retired to a hospital bed in Goldenrod until the day she wakes up.

Planes
Angels (Kittyhawk)

While he finds it odd to be using the same model of aircraft that turned his life upside-down, Jay couldn't argue with the specs of the Kittyhawk after being handed a manual to read. The moment he was able to afford one himself, he traded out his old Nomad immediately for what he felt was more reliable to a fledgling skyrate.

Angels II (Mk-ii)

Another something that brought memories back to Jay. The MK-II was something both he fell in love with. While Myung-Ja boasted she'd seen better in Sharif, even she had to admit it was something reliable to pilot around the inner skylands; and she was more than shocked when Jay managed to down a Leviathan they were unlucky enough to encounter in a trip to Arcadia.

Second Wind (Kittyhawk)

After events left him with his planes trashed and business down the drain, Jay found himself grounded on the R&P's skylet while trying to make ends meet. It wasn't long before Raoul sent him a present - his godfather had a stroke of luck while passing by the scrapyard one day. He managed to spot an uncovered bit of his old Kittyhawk in the rubble...or what was left of it. It had been dismantled after all, but what the airport crew deemed unusable, they junked. For somebody needing to build from scratch though, it was the perfect thing to do so with.

So it was shipped to Jay to do so, and the cat named it Second Wind, which was just what it gave him and his business.

Wing - No Borders
No Borders is an Independent organization founded with the goal of maintaining safe communications between the skylands - be it for factions or for the citizens under them. From deliveries to pirate hunting, they get the job done for whoever can pay the bill. (And sometimes those who can't.)

Founder:


 * Jay Gatzby

Members:


 * Dazzi
 * Honeko