About Broom
It's time to properly introduce another friend of Copper's.
This is Broom, a Syr'l from Planet Keshly'm. He and Copper met after being abducted by a race of aliens called Keinai. The whole ordeal was pretty scary for them, but Copper somehow managed to get them out of danger, scaring the Keinai off the ship. While waiting for officials to rescue them from the abandoned spaceship, Broom wanted to learn more about his new friend and rescuer. He offered to use a special skill called "Clarity," which usually involves two Syrl's hands interlocking to allow a direct view into each other's minds, revealing their true selves, their thoughts, wishes, memories, and so on -- very little is kept secret. Copper was nervous to do this, but eventually agreed. Sadly, Copper could interpret very little about Broom... but Broom got a good understanding of Copper, and immediately understood his position. Since then, he's done his best to be supportive, and promised to keep Copper's secrets to himself.
What little Copper could understand about Broom, it at least signaled to him that Broom was indeed someone he could trust. He's since felt at ease with his presence.
Since the abduction incident, Broom has had occasional contact with Copper, talking about his main hobby. He's one of the founding members of a video game enthusiast club on Keshly'm, referred to as the IntEnt Group (short for "Interactive Entertainment Group"). They've been getting their mitts on several games from Earth dating centuries back. The medium was so fascinating to them that they've made it a goal to popularize it on their world, starting with translating the old Earth games and making new consoles and controllers on which to play them.
Broom's mainly in charge of translating, but he's gotten a little skill in making a game or two of his own! Featured in the above image is his first personal project, called "Kickback." It's basically a Pong-like game presented in vector graphics, where the playfield is a full-circle. The club occasionally plays it to pass the time, but it's a basic game with little presentation; Broom hopes to make his next project, "Wally-Weely," available to the general public. A simple design of that game's eponymous entity can be seen on his tanktop.
Like most Syr'l, Broom is a very approachable and peaceful guy. He's quite interested in Copper's own artistic projects and enjoys looking at the designs he makes. That said, Broom has his own odd quirks, like the odd black mark on his antenna (similar to Copper's forehead marking) and his own sometimes clumsy nature. But among these, Broom loves his hobby and club and sometimes can't help but gush about them, which often leaves Copper confused. Because of this, Broom occasionally brings equipment to Kheji to show him the stuff he works on. Indeed, Copper finds the games very interesting, and it's led him to anticipate Broom's visits just to see what else he's been playing.
On at least one occasion, Broom even took Copper to Keshly'm to meet the rest of the IntEnt Group for a bit of a multiplayer gaming marathon. The accommodations were smaller than he's used to -- he has to crawl to get around their place -- but he had a lot of fun.
It's unknown if a real gaming scene will develop on Kheji, but Broom is pretty hopeful it can happen once the technology is more accessible there. He at least knows he's got one enthusiast open to the idea.
