Appropriate Attire

Hub is Elizabeth Bartley's campaign set in the universe of James Schmidt's Hub stories. Players for the session included:

1. Joshua Kronengold -- Jealousy Jones, psi resistant detective

2. Lisa Padol -- Marius Lecks, empathic doctor

3. Stephen Tihor -- Ell Thorndyke, maiden aunt, psychic screamer, and member of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Retired Scouts

Marius, Jealousy, and Ell visited Lauren, a planet moving towards becoming a federation member. Ell was accompanied by her niece, Tessa, who wanted excitement. She was not happy to get a shopping trip instead, but she cheered up when she discovered that Ell's idea of proper attire meant fashionable and functional -- whether as lightweight armor or as a place to hide weapons.

Lauren was still a dangerous planet, and we wondered aloud whether there might be an attempt to kidnap Tessa, clearly a spoiled rich tourist. Beth liked this idea, and rolled to see how well young Miss Thorndyke acquitted herself. She acquitted herself tolerably well; however, Beth rolled astonishingly high for the grabbers. This made her decide that these were no ordinary grabbers, and she invented a plot on the fly.

Tessa had gotten off only a single shot before being subdued, shooting the alarm in her hotel room to set it off. Her captors stripped her, leaving her clothes and the tracking devices implanted in them in a nearby alley. Jealousy contacted the authorities, who were quite willing to help. Between them and her own resources, Tessa was located. If I recall correctly, she'd managed to force her captors' aircar to land. She was again subdued, and her captors seemed rather pleased.

They left her in the woods, naked, accompanied only by a robot which gave her an electrical shock when she did something her captors didn't want her to do, like starting a signaling fire. It didn't object to her making shoes trom leaves and such. Jealousy took control of the robot, but was unable to track down Tessa's captors before they could flee.

Marius gave Tessa a full medical exam and found some very unusual things. He consulted a colleague. Apparently, she'd gotten quite strong and very fast. Her metabolism was odd as well.

For reasons I forget, Ell, Tessa, Marius, and Jealousy travelled to a different planet. Perhaps they'd tracked the grabbers there. Regardless, Tessa went out drinking and was sufficiently harassed by a spoiled young man that she told him to remove his arm or she would break it. He didn't. She did.

His mother contacted Ell, very annoyed at Tessa, but the entire incident had been recorded. The woman still thought that Tessa had been overly eager to break her son's arm; however, most of her annoyance was diverted to her son. He had been foolish enough to get caught on tape, which was even worse than his being in the wrong. The mother said that she would allow her son to challenge Tessa, and she wanted Tessa to demonstrate that she had not had beginner's luck. Tessa obliged. The son had to use painful quickheal to heal his arm before their fight. Tessa then broke it again.

At some point, Tessa and her escort began to learn more. I think they were openly approached by a man who explained that the people who had grabbed Tessa were, like himself, relatives of Tessa's father, who emigrated to Ivic from a system outside the Federation. The people in this system had given themselves extraordinary abilities via eugenics and genetic manipulation. These were the abilities Tessa was showing evidence of possessing, and in women, these generally manifested after the first childbirth.

There was a way to attempt to wake these abilities early, and this was what some of Tessa's relatives had done. The kidnapping was intended to be a test, with the robot making sure that Tessa either got out with only her own resources or died trying. As Marius let the visitor know what he thought of this sort of behavior, the man pointed out that not everyone agreed with the grabbers. He himself thought they had been stupid. He would have watched Tessa until at least after she'd bore her first child, as her father's abilities might never manifest on their own. If they did, he thought an open approach would make more sense than a grabbing. But there were a lot of different opinions and a lot of politics, and a general cultural idea that might made right.

He and other relatives were willing to help set a trap against the relatives who'd kidnapped Tessa. The trap involved Ell with Tessa and Jealousy with a body double, I think a drone, as Tessa's new cousins would be recognized by their less civilized rivals.

Things got amusing from here. Ell decided to take down her sheilds, in case there were hostile psis. Marius decided to do an empathic scan to pinpoint friends and foes.

Beth: So, Ell needs to time this carefully to avoid catching Marius in the blast.

Stephen: Oh, Ell doesn't know that Marius is an empath.

Lisa: And Marius doesn't know that Ell is a screamer.

Beth was highly amused by the players' decision to make their PCs' lives more difficult. Ell took down her mechanical shield for a few seconds, and Marius was caught in an intensely painful feedback loop. He blacked out, having no idea what had hit him. When Ell found him and brought him around, he was convinced he'd been attacked by a hostile psi. Ell was not surprised, as she'd been trying to catch a hostile psi by lowering her shields. Mutual ignorance prevailed.

Jealousy could have dispelled this ignorance, but she had been captured and stripped, her clothing and equipment left for the others to find.

Stephen: While it's only prudent, this business of capturing Jealousy and stripping her naked is a bit disturbing.

Monarch tracked Jealousy, displaying the results on a piece of equipment her captors had left behind. Marius knew all about Monarch and her capabilities, as did Stephen. Ell, however, did not.

Ell: Ah, how useful! Ms. Jones has an anti-kidnapping device!

Beth's email comment: Monarch is a very vehement anti-Jealousy-Jones-being-kidnapped device. Separation anxiety, unclear legal status, and all that.

Jealousy's captors were impressed by her abilities and offered to release her if she'd cease interfering. She declined. They put her in cold storage, from whence she was retrieved by her allies. I believe some of the kidnappers had been taken prisoner by now.

Jealousy listened to Ell and Marius discussing hostile psis. Ell told her privately that Ell had downed a hostile psi, although the psi had not been captured. Marius told her privately that he had been attacted by a hostile psi. Jealousy put two and two together, figured out something of what Ell was, and told the two psis of each other's abilities, though I don't recall how she learned of Ell's. Marius later asked his contacts in Psychology how one defended against screamers. Psychology sent him a chemical formula for a fast acting knock out drug.

Ell praised Jealousy's anti-kidnapping technology, and Jealousy introduced Ell to Monarch. Meanwhile, the man who originally contacted Tessa and friends said that it would be best if she competed in one of the frequent martial arts competitions, after a bit of training. She was unlikely to win, but a respectable showing would be sufficient. The man said that it would be good if Tessa competed on behalf of the Thorndykes, driving home the point that these were her relatives, and the relatives who raised her, at that.

Everyone returned to Lauren, where the president introduced them to her sifu, her martial arts instructor. He agreed to teach both Tessa and Jealousy. Tessa also practiced under the watchful eyes of representatives from both the pro- and anti-kidnapping factions of her father's relatives. Marius slipped Tessa one of his itching powder grenades, just in case.

While the martial arts competition has not yet been played out, all three PCs are invited. Jealousy impressed folks enough to be allowed to compete. Ell is a relative, and Marius is Tessa's physician.

Meanwhile, Marius and Ell updated their families about each other's psychic abilities, the fact that their own were now known to the other family, and Monarch. Monarch's status was debated at great length in the inner circles of Ivic and the Federation. That she was sentient was not in doubt; merely whether or not she was an adult.

Ell began a subtle campaign to establish Monarch legal status without upsetting the public. As Stephen explained, "Aside from the inherent fairness of establishing her legal identity Monarch would be a wonderful business partner (having complementary skills, but needing training) and thus NEEDED to legally exist."

Jealousy received several proposals from folks on Ivic who wanted to bring Monarch into their family. Marius also proposed, offering to marry Jealousy to solidify Monarch's status. Jealousy laughed in his face, which was the appropriate response. Neither was in love with the other, and Jealousy knew Marius was already in love with a medical colleague.