Introduction
Sally Ducker
An Human [
But there arriving she is sure of bliss, and forever dwells in paradise.”, Lady Jane (1986)
Appearance
Notable Features
Long blonde hair and a slightly upturned nose is what you perhaps notice first when you meet her, alongside the uncertain smell of perfume only overpowered by the smell of sweat from the heat and the profession she works (though, most of the time she can disguise it with frequent washes and staying in the shade, ha).Personal Style
The daughter of physical laborers and now as a working woman of Never, Sally is rarely afforded the luxury of a true and proper wardrobe. Mostly she wears what she is given, slipping into almost anything with the shrug of her shoulders! But if she was given a choice!? She would prefer blues and starched whites, for though she isn’t afforded the pleasure of fashion, Sally often tries to mimic the trends with her own handiwork due to her skill of tailoring inherited from her mother. Given scraps and extra fabrics from Never’s working girls, Sally can make a quietly talented effort of making clothes from scratch. Have you seen her parading in that new dress!? There’s no way that she could have afforded that! Well…Circumstances
Currently
As misfortune rolls its heavy shadow across Never, Sally can barely escape its dark gleam. As the devil would have it, Sally Ducker has found herself in a precarious predicament and hopes to make a deal with someone who can secure her safety. For the meantime, Sally works at the Silk Rose! Come by to visit, she’s certain to entertain.Health & Capabilities
Though it is something of a luxury to enjoy sex work, Sally is fortunate enough to actully find some pleasure in her profession, though she’d rather avoid the fleas and pitfalls of working at the Silk Rose. As such, her mental health is quite steady all things concerned, and her physical wellbeing is a-okay as long as you ignore the very real danger of unwanted pregnancies and the ailments that come with such a state. All in all, she’s quite your run-of-the-mill gal, and she’d like to keep it that way.Socioeconomics
As a working prostitute, almost everything she earns goes to the brothel in the form of her lodgings, food and safety. So what excess she has in terms of her coin purse is little and barely worth accounting for. When she had received a widow’s pension during the untimely and uncertain death of her husband, she had spent the money on foolish things — things that were gone in seconds in the shape of drinks, food and luxuries. She, as is obvious at this point, is a fan of living life large and fast, rather than saving and moping like a sad spinster. At the very least, Sally does have some savings held beneath her bed in a loosened floorboard, but what she plans to do with it, she doesn’t know.Skills & Talents
As previously described, Sally has always been a dab hand at clothes. From sewing, darning and fixing to actually creating garments with her own two hands, she is quietly known as the tailor of the Silk Rose (to a certain extent, when the attention that falls upon her does not centre on her magnificent tits or what lies between her legs). Beyond that, Sally likes to claim that she is the best lay of Never within a ten mile radius, which may seem cruel to her so-called peers and friends, but a winner doesn’t back down. She can also sing, kind off, even if her voice is deeper than one would expect.Identity
Hobbies
Having worked as a seamstress now and then, and having been taught by her Mama who worked in tailoring, Sally has always nurtured the very lucky skill of darning, fixing and making clothes. In her spare time (of which is few and far between the long hours at the Silk Rose), Sally likes to create garments out of scraps and excess fabrics, she also tends to fix her fellow girls’ clothes with quick fingers and crafty hands, evolving garments from lacklustre into something special. Maybe one day she’ll grow beyond the brothel, but for the moment, Sally only sees it as a way to do something with her hands.Habits & Routines
Sally knows how to keep herself safe, it’s how she has survived for so long between New England to New Mexico. Disappearing when needed, teasing when wanted and loud when accepted, Sally knows how to treat each customer in a peculiar but desired manner. But even then, everyone makes mistakes. Lavish in her free time, Sally likes to life every day as if it was her last. From washing in stolen fragrances to drinking deep into her cups, the prostitute is known for her louder than life character, which may make her a target, all things considered.Personality
Ruthlessly ambitious in her pursuit of success, Sally isn’t exactly the best friend a girl could boast off. Traitorous for her own free will and to boast her own winning chances, she isn’t nice as one would have previously expected by looking at her. But, sometimes, to those she actually cares about, Sally can be gentle and even nurturing… alas, that side of her long since died in Missouri. Alongside such mannerisms is her constant need to make the most of life, from spending her life’s savings on an expensive bottle of whiskey or drawing danger to a knife’s edge, Sally never does things by halves.Background
History
Having lived many lives in the short time she has spent on Earth, Sally Ducker is something of a patchwork creation. Born to two textile workers in Pawtucket, Sally was nursed quietly as the only child, passed between neighbours and co-workers so her parents could continue the hard physical labour of the factories till her father lost his hand in the factory, siphoning their income and leaving the family to depend upon the steady work of his brother’s position within the United States Navy Army.Gone were the days of a found family as Sally was put into the arms of her paternal uncle and his wife as her father fell into a sticky pit of alcoholism, lingering only to give his wife two more sons — little Harry and sweet Richard “Dicky” — till he went missing, an escape plotted as some drunken venture gone wrong. With his absence, her mother moved them into the welcoming arms of her brother-in-law formally before leaving with his wife for a new life in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for the Wheeler & Wilson sewing machines factories.
When her father’s body was found washed up on the riverbed of the Long Island Sound, Sally’s mother was formally announced as a widow. Sally had been only six, but if she remembered anything it is the ornate pain and constant weeping of her mother. Within years, if to secure some security and future for herself and her children, Jane Ducker marries an Irishman working on the construction of St. Augustine’s Cathedral named Aidan O’Neil. Four years later, when the Cathedral finally takes shape, Aidan moves his new family to the state of New York where Sally welcomes a new brother named Sean. But there is no such thing as a Happy Ever After.
Her stepfather offered too much attention, gave too many leering stares and inappropriate touches by the time she turned thirteen, Sally decided (in a lifelong headstrong trait that would lead her to her eventual fate) to leave. With a band of ambitious friends made on the playground of New York, Sally hitched a ride to Pennsylvania, getting work as a seamstress now and then in order to afford rent and food. But even then, such a boring existence was never meant for her, so she exchanged her tailoring skills for a free ride out West.
The year was 1872 and the journey was long, arduous and taken only because not one of the members of the group could afford an actual train ticket. But there remained one glimmering light in the form of a sweet young man named Benjamin “Benny” Mandeville. In that sweet, chaste adolescent kind of love, Sally and Benny promised to marry as soon as they reached California — the days passed quickly with him, and Sally actually imagined herself as happy. Or, as happy as she could be till Benny caught and died of complications related to that awful streak of pneumonia as they passed into Missouri. The loss killed that dear innocence within, and in a plan to escape the route that would forever be haunted by the tender Benny, Sally sought the attention of a young man who worked for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway — Alexander “Al” Pickett.
On the surface, they made quite the handsome couple. Within months they were engaged and as his devoted fiancé she followed him to Topeka, Kansas, where they performed that known act of a happy ideal. He taught her how to shoot, how to defend herself and put on a show… She darned his socks and kept his home clean — she happily made his friends into her own, and with his grand paycheck and her wide smile, they were but the envy of the town. Or so, it began that way.
Before long, behind closed doors, Al shares Sally out to his friends and comrades at the Railway Union. A strained, shamed affair that Sally forces herself to overlook for the sake of opportunity and to remain picture perfect. But her compliance barely means her acceptance.
The night before her eighteenth birthday, their neighbours report a mass of noise accumulating at the residence of the young couple. It is said that a man sought to take advantage of Al’s fiance, forcing them to defend themselves in an intrusion gone wrong. Sally is reported to have told the police (who had turned up to find two young men strewn across the floor with Sally covered head-to-toe in blood) that Al had gone to defend them in the bedroom, that the two men had shot one another in a showdown of desire and love. Taken in by an elderly neighbour, Sally was bathed and cared for as the legal matters of Al’s pension was taken into effect. With dead parents and not a sibling in sight, Sally was afforded just enough to mean a new life for herself and her troubles. If her neighbour suspected foul play, or something more sinister, she didn’t comment.
Taking a life is not the faint hearted, and with her soul stained black Sally sought to redeem herself and her greedy ambition by curating a new life in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Working as a barmaid, trading tricks of her body for money or other such luxuries, Sally forced her fears and darker memories aside. With Benny, Al and her stepfather long gone, she could be reborn, couldn’t she?
But even with Al and his friends dead and buried, the railway lays tracks into Las Vegas, bringing alongside the smell of steel and fire the lawful agents of the Union seeking the truth of the matter of their old peer, Mr Pickett. Fearful for what she had done, and what they would wish to do to her in turn, Sally joins a bunch of outlaws who seek their own redemption in Never, riding on the back of one of their steeds as they roll into town hoping for freedom, a new horizon and perhaps new life.
The Silk Rose, a lower class and less than spectacular brothel, gives her lodgings and a job to earn her keep. But it was never to be the end goal! At any rate, Sally believes her dreams lay high above and far from the gritty undercovers of that home she has been given — though her ambition faltered from time to time, no one could have claimed that Sally was a bum.
But she’s had enough of the customers who sometimes skip on payments, or those threadbare blankets offered by the madame. What she wants is a life of ease, luxury afforded to the quality of her body. Why settle for any less?
