The Cooks

Jonathan Hamilton Cook
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Profile
Origin	Planet Denver, Liberty
Occupation	Smuggler
Gender	Male
Affiliation	The Outer Project
Status	Married. Unluckily
Born	January 1st, 779 A.S

Joey Phillip Cook
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Profile
Origin	Planet New London, Bretonia
Occupation	Smuggler
Gender	Male
Affiliation	The Outer Project
Status	Single. Up for grabs.
Born	January 2nd, 794 A.S

Family History: The Early Years

Not much is known about the duo known in The Project as “The Joe Brothers”. The two parachuted into the organization a few years ago, under direct recommendation of Uncle Pete himself, under the excuse of them being cousins. Over the years, the two revealed to possess a very deep relationship (being brothers, obviously), but didn’t seem to trust anyone with their personal information. However, after several attempts, the remaining members of The Outer Project managed to collect bits of history, and slowly built up a puzzle.

Jonathan Hamilton Cook was born to Samantha Hamilton Richards and Philip Brian Cook, on one cloudy day on Planet Denver. This birth presented both a blessing and a curse, for both Samantha and Philip were already on the bad side of the law, long before their children went down the same path.

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Samantha Richards and Philip Cook enjoying a quiet moment on Denver

Unbeknownst to the young Jonathan, his parents had found employment with a local Cardamine kingpin as regular drug runners. At the moment of his birth, his parent were forced to take a difficult decision: “What now?”. Having turned to smuggling out of financial desperation in the first time, they decided their children would never suffer the same fate. Taking a high-stakes bet, they filled several transports with Cardamine and gold, selling the stolen loot to one of their fences in Manhattan, before disappearing from the radar.

By the time the drug lord figured out he was double-crossed, the couple and their infant were already halfway to Bretonia. Narrowly escaping several Hacker fighters, they landed on Planet New London two months after little Jonathan was born. Using the money from the heist, they erased their former identities, and created a new life for themselves on the Bretonian capitol.

Over the next years, the family lived safely, their tracks erased, their bank accounts filled, and a nice house in the suburbs. From an early age, Jonathan wowed his parents, having learned to talk almost at the same time as he began to walk. By age 4 he could speak and write fluent Libertonian and Bretonian, and knew the basics for Kusarian and Rheinlandish. By age 6, Jonathan’s parents enrolled him in one of the most prestigious private schools in New London.

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A young Jonathan in his first year at school. He would prove to be an extremely enthusiastic student.

As the years passed, so did the worries of the past. As far as anyone was concerned, there were no Samantha Richards or Philip Cook anymore. Little Jonathan enjoyed a good run at school, where his intellect provided a gateway into more private circles. His popularity on the rise, he turned into a practical poster boy for the school, scoring nothing but straight A’s and near-perfect (sometimes perfect) exam scores. By the time he turned fifteen, yet another bundle of joy came to be. Little Joey was born, much to the contentment and happiness of everyone present. However, a few months later, this happy family took a turn for the worse.

The kingpin’s revenge nearly two decades gone, no one in the family could imagine anything bad could happen. One tragic day, though, disaster struck. During a routine trip to the center of the capitol city, Samantha and Philip’s car suffered a major engine malfunction, which, compounded with the local bad weather, amounted into a terrible accident. While Philip died immediately, Samantha managed to survive, miraculously. The damage, though, was far too much for even the best medical advances to patch up. Samantha Richards had become paralyzed from her neck down. With the father gone, and the mother incapable of taking care of the two children, the future looked bleak…

Family History: From bottom to ToP

With their mother crippled and their father dead, Jonathan and Joey were initially left in the care of New London’s foster system. For several months, the two jumped from one house to another, never staying for more than a few weeks. This would prove to be a thorn on Jonathan’s education: being forced to frequently relocate from one place to another and to take care of his baby brother (sometimes single-handedly), and with their parent’s bank accounts sealed until Jonathan turned 18, the young prodigy had to leave his private school.

With no one to care for them, the two descended into a steep spiral which was only broken when a local mob ringleader took notice of Jonathan as he managed to defraud several bar patrons in New London in a blackjack game, without anyone else noticing. With Jonathan tasting his first fruits of illegal labor, his baby brother in a small chair besides him, the ringleader approached the duo and offered them protection, in exchange for Jonathan becoming his protégé. With no one else to turn to, a sixteen-year-old Jonathan agreed to the deal.

Over the coming months, he learned the tricks of the trade from his mentor and associates, ranging from simple racketeering to overt military action, becoming a competent fighter pilot, and a somewhat successful smuggler. However, behind the scenes, a savior was coming to help the two estranged children.

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Peter Brimstone, founder of The Project, and distant relative of the Cooks, during his “younger” years

Unknown to the two (and indeed to Samantha), Peter Brimstone had been following the family ever since they left Liberty space (basically because the ripped-off druglord was his biggest customer and he wanted some compensation). Watching from a distance as the family’s history unfurled, he became interested in young Jonathan’s capabilities in the realm of the less-than-legal. As such, when Jonathan turned 18 (and little Joey turned 3), Brimstone appeared before their mother and offered to take the boys under his wing, while also offering to pay for her social care. With no more options in sight (and knowing what kind of business Brimstone ran), Samantha Cook agreed, and the two were separated from the mob boss as the cost of several good lives. And many more bad ones.

Over the course of the following years, Jonathan proceeded with his education, eventually finding himself in Cambridge University, where he would attain his MDs. For Joey, however, the story could not be more different. While Jonathan all but isolated himself from the rest of world in order to complete his studies, Joey was mentored by Peter Brimstone himself in the age-old art of smuggling. Whether this was what screwed him up or not is not sure, but Joey was never a normal child. Alternating between depressive states and extreme euphoria, Joey was diagnosed with an early onset of schizophrenia the same year Jonathan finished his last degree. A veritable crusade ensued, as Jonathan began tapping into his family’s reserves in order to find a cure for his brother, his protective instinct still fiery, even after the several years of separation. Eventually, an experimental medication, straight out of the ExoGeni research labs was the answer.

Though it was far from a cure, it allowed Joey to remain more in control of himself, though the deranged inner persona still surfaced every once in a while. Still, it let Joey act as a normal person most of the time, which was still necessary: despite the medical condition, he had proven to be an amazing smuggler: perhaps it was a slight paranoia, perhaps an innate fondness for detail, Joey was able to remember every stop of every route, knew all the correct shortcuts and hideouts, and knew just what to say to whoever was listening: to provide for a quick escape. And he hadn’t even hit puberty (for obvious reasons, he wasn’t the one flying).

After graduation, Jonathan was offered a permanent position in The Project. Out of necessity (and a sense of obligation towards his brother, who had grown quite fond of ToP), Jonathan accepted. A new chapter had began.

Several years passed. The Project had found itself a new home in an abandoned Barge, and Jonathan found employment as the leader (and only member, truthfully) of the ToP Public Relations and Transportation Department (in essence, damage control of the rash and abrasive attitude of Peter Brimstone), and Joey had found employment as an independent smuggler, helping the Project whenever necessary. Due to Jonathan’s unique mind, he was also present in almost every negotiation made by the Project. It was on one of these business meetings that Jonathan met his current wife, Jessica Milano. From the moment she pointed a gun at Jonathan’s head after believing herself ripped off (and rightfully so), Jonathan fell in love with her. Two years later (and much intense, gun-toting courtship later), the two were running of a chapel on Planet Los Angeles, Peter Brimstone farting and his brother Joey crying his hearth out.

Buying back his parent’s old house (their mother having died of medical complications a few years back), Jonathan considered settling down. However, after a small run-in with the local law enforcement (involving several hundred metric tons of stolen gold ore and Cardamine ripped off from several underlords), Jonathan and his wife were forced to run for their lives to the only place that always welcomed them: the Slum City.

Personal stance

Faction	Relationship
The Outer Project	Allied
Omicron Supply Industries	Friendly
People who lead to profit	Friendly
Pennyless Well-Wishers	Neutral
People who prevent profit	Unfriendly
People who cause losses	Unfriendly
Nomads - only if needed	At War