Portfolio: Cousin Crow's Custom Crafts

This portfolio originally appeared in Jump Point 9.10.
When Cousin Crow’s Custom Crafts opened its new flagship store on Orison in 2949, the event was so massive that the Providence platform registered a record-setting number of controlled bursts to maintain its proper altitude. People packed the store and overflowed up the stairs in both directions, overrunning the Crusader Discovery Center and Covalex store. Crusader Security considered ending the raucous event early but worried about how the already rambunctious crowd might react. As culture reporter Sabastien Frost remarked, “Half of Lo spent their life savings to attend this thing, and they aren’t leaving until all the booze is gone.”

The store was built out of a series of old repair bays that had formerly been used to maintain Crusader’s fleet of cargo haulers. The open design allows customers to see ship customization in action. Yet for the opening extravaganza, these repair bays held classic ships, or pieces of them that showcased Cousin Crow’s most famous mods and paints. “Each ship you see is part of my story. Part of what got me here,” recounted Nampo Vasko, or as he’s known under his more popular moniker ‘Cousin Crow,’ before pointing to a small piece of the first Kraken Privateer, “For example, that’s the ship that made all this possible.” The shop features a triptych of vibrant graffiti-style murals that pay homage to Vasko’s home neighborhood of North Block in New Junction. Designed by friend and frequent collaborator ‘Tufo’ Donato, the murals are meant as both a reflection of where Cousin Crow started and a reminder that no matter how much his life has changed, a part of him remains the same kid from the wrong side of New Junction.

LO DOWN
Born in New Junction (Lo, Corel system) in 2883, Nampo Vasko spent his days raising hell with friends instead of working on his Equivalency. He would later state that his primary education came from the smuggling runs his mother took him on. Seeking to pay off the debts accrued from her gambling addiction, Nampo’s mother would frequently sneak contraband in and out of New Junction. Nampo’s role on these trips would be to provide a cover story and act as a distraction if any authorities paid their ship unwanted attention.

When Nampo was twelve, his mother suffered her biggest loss wagering on the Murray Cup. In order to pay her debt, she agreed to “loan” Nampo to a local Banu criminal souli. The Banu put him to work on a wide variety of tasks, but Nampo fell in love with stripping ships for parts. It was through this work that Nampo would acquire the first ship he ever attempted to repair himself. That 2894 Cutlass was featured prominently at the opening event, with a sign describing it as “the ship that made Cousin Crow fall in love with ships.” Even after helping pay off his mother’s debt, Nampo became a regular at the Banu chopshop and grew more and more entangled with New Junction’s criminal underworld. Nampo continued to work on ships and absorbed the Banu philosophy that no design was sacred, and everything could be improved to look or work better. He created ship liveries for fake companies, modified internal layouts to build smuggler’s holds, and more. Yet as Nampo grew, so did his ambitions. Seeing the amount of credits smugglers made compared to chopshop workers, Nampo assembled a group of friends and stole a Constellation. Under Nampo’s direction, the group reworked it into a smuggling ship and used his underworld connections to do small runs. A replica of that Connie’s smuggler’s hold was on display at the opening and described as “his first failed design” for not properly concealing contraband. In 2905, Advocacy, operating on an anonymous tip, arrested Nampo and his crew for smuggling and sent them all to a rehabilitation facility.

BECOMING COUSIN CROW
Nampo found prison life both excruciatingly mundane and terribly dangerous. As his friends fell into gangs, Nampo instead used his boisterous and affable personality to survive. His jet-black hair and ability to float between groups earned him the nickname Cousin Crow, “cousin” being slang at that facility for someone who could be trusted. After hard work earned him an early release, Nampo returned to his North Block neighborhood. He scraped together credits by doing ship repairs and modifications for people he met through connections made in prison. Since they all knew him as Cousin Crow, he went with the name when opening a small ship customization shop in 2924.

Cousin Crow’s Custom Crafts grew into a North Block sanctuary where folks could hang out safely. Though he stayed on the straight-and-narrow, Cousin Crow happily and expertly tricked out ships to be as audacious or inconspicuous as their owner desired. Often he hired friends fresh out of prison or looking to leave the outlaw life to work at his shop. The most notable being ‘Tufo’ Donato, who would go on to design some of the company’s most famous liveries and the graffitistyle murals currently adorning the Orison store.

The original shop’s reputation slowly spread and attracted customers from outside the Corel system. Cousin Crow’s big break came in 2942 after partnering with a luxury tourline company to modify an old Genesis Starliner into the ultimate party ship. A massive marketing campaign saturated spectrum with images of the starliner and made Cousin Crow’s a name in ship conversion circles across the empire. A piece of that party ship was also on display at the store opening described with the ad campaign’s infamous tagline, “So much fun, it shouldn’t be legal.”

Not long after, Drake executives invited him to visit their headquarters on Magnus. There they showed Cousin Crow plans for their first capital ship and offered him a chance to make an exclusive livery for the launch. Cousin Crow countered with an even bolder idea. Over the years, many of his clients had hired him to convert their ship’s holds into Banu-like marketplaces. Rather than have to do an after-market retrofit, how much better would it be if he could work with Drake directly? The executives loved the idea and soon the Kraken Privateer was born, sealing Cousin Crow’s reputation as one of the premier conversion shops in the UEE.

Soon, Cousin Crow found himself successful beyond his wildest dreams and with more credits than he could ever spend. He became a connoisseur of high-end street fashion, a generous patron of his favorite artists, and a classic ship collector. He also poured credits into his business by drastically expanding his shop in North Block and hiring friends and family at sky-high salaries to curb any lingering temptations to running afoul of the law.

In 2944, following his recent success and his earlier impressive “party ship” starliner conversion, Crusader Industries reached out to Cousin Crow to see if he was interested in overseeing its engineering team responsible for converting branded starliners to customer specifications. As part of the deal, Cousin Crow negotiated for a flagship store on one of Orison’s most heavily trafficked platforms.

From wild child to wildly successful entrepreneur, Cousin Crow has become a beloved hero to North Block residents for achieving success without turning his back on where it all began. A feat he achieved by adapting to any situation and seeing the potential for change in himself, other people, and most importantly ships.

Dieses Portfolio erschien ursprünglich in Jump Point 9.10.
Als Cousin Crow's Custom Crafts im Jahr 2949 seinen neuen Flagship-Store auf Orison eröffnete, war das Ereignis so gewaltig, dass die Providence-Plattform eine rekordverdächtige Anzahl kontrollierter Sprünge registrierte, um die richtige Höhe zu halten. Die Menschen strömten in beide Richtungen die Treppen hinauf und überrannten das Crusader Discovery Center und das Covalex-Geschäft. Der Sicherheitsdienst von Crusader erwog, die lärmende Veranstaltung vorzeitig zu beenden, machte sich aber Sorgen, wie die ohnehin schon ausgelassene Menge reagieren würde. Wie der Kulturreporter Sabastien Frost bemerkte: "Die Hälfte von Lo hat ihre Ersparnisse ausgegeben, um an dieser Veranstaltung teilzunehmen, und sie gehen erst, wenn der ganze Schnaps weg ist."

Der Laden wurde aus einer Reihe von alten Reparaturhallen gebaut, die früher zur Wartung der Frachtschiffe von Crusader genutzt wurden. Das offene Design ermöglicht es den Kunden, die Schiffsanpassung in Aktion zu sehen. Bei der Eröffnung waren in diesen Reparaturhallen klassische Schiffe oder Teile davon ausgestellt, die Cousin Crows berühmteste Modifikationen und Anstriche zeigten. "Jedes Schiff, das Sie sehen, ist Teil meiner Geschichte. Ein Teil dessen, was mich hierher gebracht hat", erzählte Nampo Vasko, oder wie er unter seinem bekannteren Namen 'Cousin Crow' bekannt ist, bevor er auf ein kleines Stück des ersten Kraken Privateer zeigte, "Das ist zum Beispiel das Schiff, das all das hier möglich gemacht hat." Der Laden ist mit einem Triptychon aus lebhaften Wandbildern im Graffiti-Stil geschmückt, die eine Hommage an Vaskos Heimatviertel North Block in New Junction darstellen. Die von seinem Freund und häufigen Mitarbeiter 'Tufo' Donato entworfenen Wandbilder sollen sowohl die Anfänge von Cousin Crow widerspiegeln als auch daran erinnern, dass, egal wie sehr sich sein Leben verändert hat, ein Teil von ihm immer noch derselbe Junge von der falschen Seite von New Junction ist.

LO DOWN
Nampo Vasko wurde 2883 in New Junction (Lo, Corel-System) geboren und verbrachte seine Tage damit, mit seinen Freunden die Hölle heiß zu machen, anstatt an seiner Gleichwertigkeit zu arbeiten. Später stellte er fest, dass er seine Grundausbildung durch die Schmuggelfahrten seiner Mutter erhielt. Um die durch ihre Spielsucht angehäuften Schulden zu begleichen, schmuggelte Nampos Mutter häufig Schmuggelware in und aus New Junction. Nampos Rolle bei diesen Fahrten bestand darin, eine Tarngeschichte zu liefern und als Ablenkung zu fungieren, falls die Behörden unerwünscht auf ihr Schiff aufmerksam wurden.

Als Nampo zwölf Jahre alt war, erlitt seine Mutter ihren größten Verlust beim Wetten auf den Murray Cup. Um ihre Schulden zu begleichen, erklärte sie sich bereit, Nampo an einen lokalen Banu-Verbrechersouli "auszuleihen". Die Banu ließen ihn für eine Vielzahl von Aufgaben arbeiten, aber Nampo verliebte sich in das Ausschlachten von Schiffen. Durch diese Arbeit erwarb Nampo das erste Schiff, das er jemals selbst zu reparieren versuchte. Diese 2894 Cutlass war bei der Eröffnungsveranstaltung prominent vertreten und wurde auf einem Schild als "das Schiff, das Cousin Crow dazu brachte, sich in Schiffe zu verlieben" beschrieben. Selbst nachdem er geholfen hatte, die Schulden seiner Mutter zu begleichen, wurde Nampo Stammgast im Banu Chopshop und verstrickte sich immer mehr in die kriminelle Unterwelt von New Junction. Nampo arbeitete weiter an Schiffen und übernahm die Banu-Philosophie, dass kein Design heilig ist und alles verbessert werden kann, damit es besser aussieht oder funktioniert. Er entwarf Schiffsbemalungen für gefälschte Unternehmen, veränderte die Innenaufteilung, um Schmugglerräume zu bauen, und vieles mehr. Doch als Nampo wuchs, wuchsen auch seine Ambitionen. Als er sah, wie viel Credits Schmuggler im Vergleich zu den Arbeitern in der Werkstatt verdienten, stellte Nampo eine Gruppe von Freunden zusammen und stahl eine Constellation. Unter Nampos Leitung baute die Gruppe das Schiff zu einem Schmuggelschiff um und nutzte seine Verbindungen zur Unterwelt, um kleine Stückzahlen zu produzieren. Ein Nachbau des Schmugglerraums der Connie war bei der Eröffnung zu sehen und wurde als "sein erster misslungener Entwurf" bezeichnet, weil er die Schmuggelware nicht richtig versteckt hatte. Im Jahr 2905 verhaftete Advocacy aufgrund eines anonymen Hinweises Nampo und seine Crew wegen Schmuggels und schickte sie alle in eine Rehabilitationseinrichtung.

COUSIN CROW WERDEN
Nampo fand das Leben im Gefängnis sowohl entsetzlich alltäglich als auch furchtbar gefährlich. Während seine Freunde in Banden gerieten, nutzte Nampo seine ungestüme und freundliche Persönlichkeit, um zu überleben. Sein pechschwarzes Haar und seine Fähigkeit, sich zwischen den Gruppen zu bewegen, brachten ihm den Spitznamen Cousin Crow ein, wobei "Cousin" in dieser Einrichtung ein Slangbegriff für jemanden ist, dem man vertrauen kann. Nachdem er sich durch harte Arbeit eine vorzeitige Entlassung verdient hatte, kehrte Nampo in sein Viertel North Block zurück. Er kratzte Kredite zusammen, indem er Schiffsreparaturen und -umbauten für Leute durchführte, die er durch seine Verbindungen im Gefängnis kennengelernt hatte. Da sie ihn alle als Cousin Crow kannten, nahm er diesen Namen an, als er 2924 eine kleine Werkstatt für Schiffsanpassungen eröffnete.

Cousin Crow's Custom Crafts entwickelte sich zu einem Zufluchtsort im Nordblock, an dem sich die Leute sicher aufhalten konnten. Obwohl er sich an die Regeln hielt, baute Cousin Crow gerne und fachmännisch Schiffe so um, dass sie so verwegen oder unauffällig waren, wie ihr Besitzer es wünschte. Oft heuerte er Freunde an, die frisch aus dem Gefängnis kamen oder das Leben als Gesetzloser hinter sich lassen wollten, um in seinem Laden zu arbeiten. Der bekannteste von ihnen war 'Tufo' Donato, der später einige der berühmtesten Bemalungen des Unternehmens und die Graffiti-Wandgemälde entwarf, die heute den Orison-Laden schmücken.

Der Ruf des ursprünglichen Ladens verbreitete sich langsam und zog Kunden von außerhalb des Corel-Systems an. Der große Durchbruch gelang Cousin Crow im Jahr 2942, nachdem er sich mit einem luxuriösen Touristikunternehmen zusammengetan hatte, um einen alten Genesis Starliner in das ultimative Partyschiff umzubauen. Eine massive Marketingkampagne überschwemmte das Spektrum mit Bildern des Starliners und machte Cousin Crow's zu einem Namen in Schiffsumbaukreisen im ganzen Imperium. Ein Stück dieses Partyschiffs war auch bei der Geschäftseröffnung ausgestellt, beschrieben mit dem berüchtigten Slogan der Werbekampagne: "So viel Spaß, dass es nicht legal sein sollte."

Kurze Zeit später luden ihn die Drake-Führungskräfte ein, ihr Hauptquartier auf Magnus zu besuchen. Dort zeigten sie Cousin Crow die Pläne für ihr erstes großes Schiff und boten ihm an, eine exklusive Lackierung für den Stapellauf zu entwerfen. Cousin Crow konterte mit einer noch kühneren Idee. Im Laufe der Jahre hatten ihn viele seiner Kunden beauftragt, die Laderäume ihrer Schiffe in Banu-ähnliche Marktplätze zu verwandeln. Wie viel besser wäre es, wenn er direkt mit Drake zusammenarbeiten könnte, anstatt eine Nachrüstung vornehmen zu müssen? Die Führungskräfte waren von der Idee begeistert und schon bald war der Kraken Privateer geboren, der den Ruf von Cousin Crow als einer der besten Umbauläden in der UEE besiegelte.

Schon bald war Cousin Crow erfolgreicher als in seinen kühnsten Träumen und hatte mehr Geld, als er jemals ausgeben konnte. Er wurde zu einem Kenner hochwertiger Straßenmode, einem großzügigen Mäzen seiner Lieblingskünstler und einem Sammler klassischer Schiffe. Außerdem steckte er Credits in sein Geschäft, indem er seinen Laden im North Block drastisch vergrößerte und Freunde und Familienmitglieder mit himmelhohen Gehältern einstellte, um jegliche Versuchung, mit dem Gesetz in Konflikt zu geraten, zu unterbinden.

Im Jahr 2944, nach seinem jüngsten Erfolg und dem beeindruckenden Umbau seines "Partyschiffs", wandte sich Crusader Industries an Cousin Crow, um ihn zu fragen, ob er daran interessiert sei, das Ingenieurteam zu leiten, das für den Umbau von Marken-Starlinern nach Kundenwünschen zuständig ist. Als Teil des Geschäfts verhandelte Cousin Crow über einen Flagshipstore auf einer der am stärksten frequentierten Plattformen von Orison.

Cousin Crow hat sich vom wilden Kind zum erfolgreichen Unternehmer entwickelt und ist bei den Bewohnern des North Blocks zu einem beliebten Helden geworden, weil er erfolgreich war, ohne dem Ort den Rücken zu kehren, an dem alles begann. Eine Leistung, die er vollbrachte, indem er sich an jede Situation anpasste und das Potenzial für Veränderungen bei sich selbst, anderen Menschen und vor allem bei Schiffen erkannte.

This portfolio originally appeared in Jump Point 9.10.
When Cousin Crow’s Custom Crafts opened its new flagship store on Orison in 2949, the event was so massive that the Providence platform registered a record-setting number of controlled bursts to maintain its proper altitude. People packed the store and overflowed up the stairs in both directions, overrunning the Crusader Discovery Center and Covalex store. Crusader Security considered ending the raucous event early but worried about how the already rambunctious crowd might react. As culture reporter Sabastien Frost remarked, “Half of Lo spent their life savings to attend this thing, and they aren’t leaving until all the booze is gone.”

The store was built out of a series of old repair bays that had formerly been used to maintain Crusader’s fleet of cargo haulers. The open design allows customers to see ship customization in action. Yet for the opening extravaganza, these repair bays held classic ships, or pieces of them that showcased Cousin Crow’s most famous mods and paints. “Each ship you see is part of my story. Part of what got me here,” recounted Nampo Vasko, or as he’s known under his more popular moniker ‘Cousin Crow,’ before pointing to a small piece of the first Kraken Privateer, “For example, that’s the ship that made all this possible.” The shop features a triptych of vibrant graffiti-style murals that pay homage to Vasko’s home neighborhood of North Block in New Junction. Designed by friend and frequent collaborator ‘Tufo’ Donato, the murals are meant as both a reflection of where Cousin Crow started and a reminder that no matter how much his life has changed, a part of him remains the same kid from the wrong side of New Junction.

LO DOWN
Born in New Junction (Lo, Corel system) in 2883, Nampo Vasko spent his days raising hell with friends instead of working on his Equivalency. He would later state that his primary education came from the smuggling runs his mother took him on. Seeking to pay off the debts accrued from her gambling addiction, Nampo’s mother would frequently sneak contraband in and out of New Junction. Nampo’s role on these trips would be to provide a cover story and act as a distraction if any authorities paid their ship unwanted attention.

When Nampo was twelve, his mother suffered her biggest loss wagering on the Murray Cup. In order to pay her debt, she agreed to “loan” Nampo to a local Banu criminal souli. The Banu put him to work on a wide variety of tasks, but Nampo fell in love with stripping ships for parts. It was through this work that Nampo would acquire the first ship he ever attempted to repair himself. That 2894 Cutlass was featured prominently at the opening event, with a sign describing it as “the ship that made Cousin Crow fall in love with ships.” Even after helping pay off his mother’s debt, Nampo became a regular at the Banu chopshop and grew more and more entangled with New Junction’s criminal underworld. Nampo continued to work on ships and absorbed the Banu philosophy that no design was sacred, and everything could be improved to look or work better. He created ship liveries for fake companies, modified internal layouts to build smuggler’s holds, and more. Yet as Nampo grew, so did his ambitions. Seeing the amount of credits smugglers made compared to chopshop workers, Nampo assembled a group of friends and stole a Constellation. Under Nampo’s direction, the group reworked it into a smuggling ship and used his underworld connections to do small runs. A replica of that Connie’s smuggler’s hold was on display at the opening and described as “his first failed design” for not properly concealing contraband. In 2905, Advocacy, operating on an anonymous tip, arrested Nampo and his crew for smuggling and sent them all to a rehabilitation facility.

BECOMING COUSIN CROW
Nampo found prison life both excruciatingly mundane and terribly dangerous. As his friends fell into gangs, Nampo instead used his boisterous and affable personality to survive. His jet-black hair and ability to float between groups earned him the nickname Cousin Crow, “cousin” being slang at that facility for someone who could be trusted. After hard work earned him an early release, Nampo returned to his North Block neighborhood. He scraped together credits by doing ship repairs and modifications for people he met through connections made in prison. Since they all knew him as Cousin Crow, he went with the name when opening a small ship customization shop in 2924.

Cousin Crow’s Custom Crafts grew into a North Block sanctuary where folks could hang out safely. Though he stayed on the straight-and-narrow, Cousin Crow happily and expertly tricked out ships to be as audacious or inconspicuous as their owner desired. Often he hired friends fresh out of prison or looking to leave the outlaw life to work at his shop. The most notable being ‘Tufo’ Donato, who would go on to design some of the company’s most famous liveries and the graffitistyle murals currently adorning the Orison store.

The original shop’s reputation slowly spread and attracted customers from outside the Corel system. Cousin Crow’s big break came in 2942 after partnering with a luxury tourline company to modify an old Genesis Starliner into the ultimate party ship. A massive marketing campaign saturated spectrum with images of the starliner and made Cousin Crow’s a name in ship conversion circles across the empire. A piece of that party ship was also on display at the store opening described with the ad campaign’s infamous tagline, “So much fun, it shouldn’t be legal.”

Not long after, Drake executives invited him to visit their headquarters on Magnus. There they showed Cousin Crow plans for their first capital ship and offered him a chance to make an exclusive livery for the launch. Cousin Crow countered with an even bolder idea. Over the years, many of his clients had hired him to convert their ship’s holds into Banu-like marketplaces. Rather than have to do an after-market retrofit, how much better would it be if he could work with Drake directly? The executives loved the idea and soon the Kraken Privateer was born, sealing Cousin Crow’s reputation as one of the premier conversion shops in the UEE.

Soon, Cousin Crow found himself successful beyond his wildest dreams and with more credits than he could ever spend. He became a connoisseur of high-end street fashion, a generous patron of his favorite artists, and a classic ship collector. He also poured credits into his business by drastically expanding his shop in North Block and hiring friends and family at sky-high salaries to curb any lingering temptations to running afoul of the law.

In 2944, following his recent success and his earlier impressive “party ship” starliner conversion, Crusader Industries reached out to Cousin Crow to see if he was interested in overseeing its engineering team responsible for converting branded starliners to customer specifications. As part of the deal, Cousin Crow negotiated for a flagship store on one of Orison’s most heavily trafficked platforms.

From wild child to wildly successful entrepreneur, Cousin Crow has become a beloved hero to North Block residents for achieving success without turning his back on where it all began. A feat he achieved by adapting to any situation and seeing the potential for change in himself, other people, and most importantly ships.