Brook Longshot's page

Wren slips into the group mind meld as well, though not without reservations. She mostly plays with her food, eating some but not really tasting it. Alright, well since you're being all accomadatin', how about you tell us your end game? What is it you're lookin' to accomplish? I hate the purple bellies as much as anyone for how they treated my pa', and I get no small amount of pleasure from tweakin' their noses when I can. But seems to me you're lookin' to do more than that. Or am I wrong?

"I too would like to know this, because I know the reality and I know how far the dial needs to move. Many like us, especially in the Institutes, were so busy writing the chapters of our escape that we gave little or no thought to the epilogue; now that I've lived it for a while, it's bleaker than the beacon of escape for sure."

The young man has a contemplattive look

"What does the world look like when the veil is lifted?"

"Aw hon, I was thinking coffee now and coffee later! Then we can find some clothes for this poor lost orphan boy."

"You really are a visionary Daisy. If you think about it, I'm def not poor, no longer lost, and adopted by the best people I know, so really pretty lucky all things considered. Everyone like me doesn't do so well."

"Sounds like a plan! And I do like a good dark roast! Want me ta' bring you anything back at dinner time?"

Daisy will be happy to go do a little shopping. Clothes, a home goods type place to do her usual purchases to 'tidy up' the ship. Maybe something pink for Harold's room.
And of course, anything odd or 'cool' that catches her eye.

"or ... is it possible that we could all adjourn to get coffee now, before going shopping for bit? I make better decisions when caffeinated and I haven't had real coffee in what seems like forever. I seriously need something other than a coverall tho."

Brook - I'm a little confused : you've said you left the telepathic union, but nothing about waiting waiting until Lynx had left the group (and I haven't said she has), so you're saying all this in front of her?

And, she *did* tell you about their organization, in my post dated Dec 9, 2025, 01:44 am, so why did you say they didn't tell you anything about themselves?

Maybe the point was a little nuanced, and she's your character so you are a little closer to her than we would be: unchallanged presentational information, for the most part, is what it is. With no other context, it's always going to seem to be truthful, especially if the presenter believes it. It's only when there's an interchange and a presenter is questioned about their topic that truths become either "truer" or at least contextually genuine. The main point was really to expose a little more of Brook, and his experience with this type of communication, and what he and other psychic conscripts needed to do to survive and thrive in captivity. So YES, he absolutely said all of that out loud, to everyone; she's basically becoming an extension of the team, so he would continure to be as transparent as possible.

"It also would not hurt all of us to 'meet' again. They didn't tell you the trick to these meetings: truth is relative. Relative to you, relative to them, relative to itself, and relative to knowing better."

Brook smiles ... and it's honestly disturbing.
Also disturbing: Brook is speaking, he had left the 'union' without notice or being noticed

"You'll note they also didn't tell you anything about themselves. You didn't ask, they didn't tell, no lies told. Exactly how we did it back at the Institute. Eventually we got to a point where most of us had the 'researchers' exactly where we wanted them. Was just a matter of asking the right questions, no questions, or answering the wrong questions ... with alternative facts. Yeah, that's a thing, I know. Unlikely to be in the Szun Tsu doctrines, but a thing nevertheless."

"I for one would appreciate the hospitality, and solid ground underfoot for a minute. All things considered, if I paid a grand for us to get here and meet my people, I should at least get dinner out of it, right? I also think we should all dine together; taking meals with others exposes signs of inherant intent, might not hurt us to ask in any case."

That actually makes total sense, I'll throw something up this afternoon

?

Was roughly 53 weeks ago, December 3rd of last year. Truth be told, my re-read looks kind of positive. No one said anything negative at the time, or inferred distrust descriptively either.

Cleb's post reads kind of like "an enemy of my enemy must be my friend"

oh god, good luck. type less for now, not more

Well, she did say "gather your friends" rather matter-of-factly, as if she knew there were more of you...

Yes ... yesterday morning. The pronoun switch was between the 20th and wednesday. All good. The reality is, we tipped them off that "he" was in fact "us" so there isnt really any way of knowing what they knew prior.

Brook will walk around from the back and come in the front

Sooooooo because Harold switched to plural pronouns, we don't actually know that they detected that there are others of us ... or we handed that to them, correct?

Yayyyyyy @ real world gaming!

I like it in principle, actually planning to retire in Colombia, but it's a little niche for a setting I think.

Brook can stand around in the alley out back or something, he has that kind of look.

I have a summons for the week before Thanksgiving.
Was thinking of postponing ...

"There aren't a ton of perks to this gig day-to-day, other than a great team, but, the diversity of destinations can't be beat. We've gone to some cool places."

"I must have missed something too; like was that guy already compromised? Did we just need to cut off his finger and take it to his place and use his computer to decrypt this or something? A solid grand just to find out the drunk guy has an appointment seems crazy to me."

Brook thinks for a minute

"So we've lost days and days and days trying to find soeone to try to make this decryption happen, and then make it happen. How solid do we think this lead is now that it's ice cold? They told this guy to meet them somewhere ... and days later there are no detectable plans they can find that he's coming? We better hope that's his normal MO."

"Good faith is in short supply, thank you for coming back to give us an update."

Arabella shrugs as if to say, 'As you with.'

She pulls out her share of the platinums.

Wren is definitely NOT prudish or afraid to cut loose! Just gotta ask her nice is all, and maybe buy the drinks!

If Brook is in for a grand at this point, it might be time for someone to actually buy him a drink ...

"How will I know that you'll follow thru? Also, I prefer my reputation to stay word-of-mouth, there are rumors that the Alliance has access to even the darkest corners of the infosphere, and I wouldn't want my name to show up there. But, I can knock off 100 PP if it'll help."

Brook smiles.
It's clearly his"you don't know I'm a psychic" smile.
He also pulls a mega stick out of his shirt pocket.

"Here's the thing: I've been tipped way way less for doing a LOT more, and let's just say I'm not a registered "companion" by any stretch. Take the grand, we'll live. Fun story though, I won this in a Tall Card tournament. Went all-in; told my opponent that I just wanted a grand and some alone time with them. Wow. All I meant was that I thought we could have lunch ..."

Another smile, quite different from the first.

"So yeah, word-of-mouth, we've got you covered. Did you want to work here or do we need to go with you to protect our data and our investment?"

We knew you were looking for a way to spend all your money so we came up with this. :)

Honestly I thought Brook would have spent it all on tequila by now... :)

He keeps tip toeing because you are all so prudent and/or afraid to let loose ;)

Given that there's nothing else to spend money on, Brook could certainly just pay the hacker. What are we buying for a thousand dollars? He's going to hack a data file for us? That we have no idea what the contents are?

There are currently FIVE

Brook was not in the room, so he cannot have an opinion/vote; but he does trust Arabella's intuition.

In the TV show (and maybe the movie? - I can't remember), River was so messed up personality-wise that she couldn't make intelligent choices to use her powers. She really only shined during combat, when she became a killing machine. And I don't think any non-Alliance people that came in contact with her realized she was psychic.

Ummm...I just went to your profile to see what Powers you have, so I could suggest situations where you could use them safely, but the profile is a complete blank. Please let me know what Powers you have, so we can talk about it...

And, your argument about a law-breaking hacker even talking to the Alliance about anything makes sense. So go ahead and try reading her mind if you wish.

Def not where my head is at in any way. Feel like I should peel back the layers that don't work and make Brook useful and conforming so that he's playable. We can retain fixing the thermostat ... and move forward from there. Having $1900 is useless, there's nothing to buy. Having powers is useless, there's no way to use them.

I'll figure something out.
We can chat about it and then I'll build a profile again.

Brook - even if you were hiding, she would at least know there's a psychic on board, and if she were so inclined to curry favor with the Alliance (or was actively working with them), she could just tell them that and let them sort it out. It's *very* risky letting any strangers know you're psychic in any way...

Brook - even if you were hiding, she would at least know there's a psychic on board, and if she were so inclined to curry favor with the Alliance (or was actively working with them), she could just tell them that and let them sort it out. It's *very* risky letting any strangers know you're psychic in any way...

With love, it's starting, well, past starting, to feel like an utter and complete no win / no play scenario with the psychic thing. Like I've actually watched the material, and I get that there was a guy who was pretty obsessed with catching River, but all of these people are pretty fringey. So sure, yeah, maybe, the lady with the garbage reputation could say something, sure ... but we can also look at real life here. The "let's not get involved" mentality eclipses a LOTfor people, and it's a little hard for me to see this crappy no-account hacker suddenly standing up straight, acting like a real person, showing up at a police station as if, taking her deep breath and saying "I present myself to report that whilst in the course of negotiating an extremely inappropriate and dubious business activity, a PSYCHIC scanned my mind and violated my psyche!"

So I get it, I really do.
Brook doesn't need to be in the scene.
I'll go watch Serenity again ...

Brook can try, but be aware she'll know you're reading her mind unless you get a Raise on your Focus roll, and so she'll know you're a psychic...

That was kind of why I wanted to take the temperature of the group; seems like we could have Brook on the other side of a wall too, so that even if she thought someone read her mind, she wouldn't neccesarily know who.

I almost feel like it's time for Brook to break out the Mind Reading ...

Really loving SF2E; it's really brought the best of PF2 into Starfinder. So many smart choices in there. Can't wait for more material.

Power came on by noon on Monday, so not too bad. I'm more comfortable in hot weather than most. The heat dome did make for good stargazing conditions that allowed me to get some good astrophotos. I also played a PFS game at a local gaming store, first one since before COVID.

Believe it or not I am headed into public for gaming as we speak (type). I am going to head to a gaming store where I should be able to attend one of my VTT games and not have to be constructioned out of my mind here at home.

A reno AND a full scale building project outside are a lot to try to deal with at the same time. Hope to sleep in bed tonight too ...

Fingers crossed clebstch! I will finish Brook's upgrades today. He needs to finish becoming a reader ...

I'll never be 100% again, but I get to a point were I can live with it.

I just have to be aware that I cannot use my back as much as when I was younger. :(

Much like the recent MRI results of my shoulder :(

"Let's see what Wren picked up from that guy in the bar. I'm worried we are being shadowed and that makes me nervous."

"I'm working on that, trying to expand my senses. There were times at the Institute that I had a broader set of abilities; what the urban myths call a 'reader' - I'm not quite where I want to be yet, but I'm getting there."

Brook paid for about 5 upfront ... he's tasted a few things, probably drank only 2 of them

Working on it, it's a beast this time. Will use some of my isolation time to get caught all the way up, including finsihing brook's advancement. I feel like Mind Reading could help us ... and possibly expose Brook's need for ethical mentoring.

Team - it might not be until this weekend that I am anywhere near 100% again. Went to a Celebration of Life this past weekend ... and now have COVID again :(

So, who's definitely going? Sounds like Wren and Daisy for sure, maybe Harold. Brook?

Apologies for not botting, but Brook will always try to do a social thing that normal people do

"Arabella, would you please come with us? I read in an article about drinking that there are drinks that are made out of both coffee AND alcohol; those are probably some of the best drinks in the whole universe. If we find one, I will buy it for you and then you can tell me some more philosophy stuff so that I can be peaceful, or something. Please?

"Tequila--and I speak from experience here--is a bad messenger. You send it to your stomach and it ends up in your head."

"That is a great wisdom, ma'am. I bet Master Tzu taught you that!"

"So we can all go!? This could be fun! We could try another high-calorie non-nutritious adult beverage like tequila."

Brook still has a bunch of money too. What is there to spend it on?

I will have Brook advanced soon, and it would certainly be interesting for there to be another psychic.

Do we think it's time for Brook to become demonstrably psychic?
Telekinetic? Psychic Bolts or something?

I think Brook throws up a little bit in his mouth ...

Brook will follow along after the ladies to address any maintenance issues that might need to be looked at.

What's Arabella's and Brook's opinions about taking on the passengers or not?

Brook knows that the greatest illusion of Alliance service is convincing oneself that they might matter; this is what makes all Alliance servants dangerous too. They believe they are doing something more than surviving.

That said, Brook also knows that money you never earn is money you will for sure never spend; the bigger problem being that Alliance types will use 'real' money (paper notes or credit) versus hard coin, so his bigger concern is laundering what they will be paid.

Are we looking for a positive connection to the alliance (maybe neutral)?

Wren nods.

Brook also nods

"I don't disagree with leaving, but the note is a valuable anchor to our truth here. There is going to be another planet with other psychics and I would like to be able to hold in my thoughts that we have already been discovered by other psychics, and been deemed worthy of at least living. I think it might be helpful in the process of convincing another group to make a different decision and actually agreeing to work with us."

"This is also at least part of our mission, and we've accomplished it. That note is the only proof we have to give, to non readers anyway. Our patron could certainly send another team here given that we'll let them know they're here. We do need to let them know by the way."

Harold sputters awake, and looks quickly around.

What the hell, I was back in the war, and now I am here.

If anyone is looking, his hands are looking for a heavy rifle.

"and I was reliving some formative decisions I made at the 'Institute'"

"Well. I think we found the folks we was lookin' for. Guess we should burn that note and head on outta here."

"or we could NOT burn the note, let them learn that we aren't their stooges even if they want to play us again on the next planet."

That will be perfect, I'm about 80-85% where I want to be.