Session Fourteen — Time to Grow Up¶
Played: 2026-07-24
They arrived at Ceres as a crew and walked down the docking arm as a story.
Somewhere behind them, two UEF gunships kept station in the Spice Road's own parking orbit, spaced so that one of them always had the ship in its sights. Ahead of them, behind a line of armed port guards, a crowd of photographers was waiting — a thing that had never happened at Anchorage in the station's entire history. Carrie Kim-Moyo's exclusive had broken while they were still in the shuttle, and by the time the airlock cycled, Zure and Kai were the two most famous people in the Belt.
This was the session where the secret stopped being a secret — where Zure sat down in a quiet room in Tunnel A and told a reporter the whole truth, on purpose, on the record, and let the solar system make of it what it would. And it was the session where the past came along too, as it does: a woman wearing dead aliens as jewelry, and a name that turned Rin/Lin's blood to glass.
Massimo Conte knows they're on Ceres. He issued an invitation.
The family answered by holding each other, and then — and then — everyone's Talent grew.
"Pointed Away From My Asteroid"¶
Captain Flynn's comm reached the Spice Road on approach: keep your totally innocuous ship pointed away from his asteroid. The two captains traded the friendly jabs of people who have known each other a long time, but Rin/Lin leaned over to Promise and repeated the possessive with emphasis — "His asteroid?" — and the two of them exchanged disgusted eyerolls in solidarity.
The skies were wrong, too. Fleet ships weren't holding to the Crown and surrounds the way they usually did; patrols ran through the civilian flight zones, and two gunships shared the Spice Road's parking orbit. Whether it was the Autumn Festival in full swing or something with a longer memory, Ceres was feeling — as Rin/Lin would put it — a bit spicier. Empathically the Mood held anticipation and anxiety in equal measure: the Spice Road had arrived on festival eve, with the Sunrise Rave the next morning.
They took the shuttle Ahmad ibn Fadlan down — or tried to. Zure clocked the gunships and the patrol density, and had Flight Control cancel the approach for "some important forgotten equipment." Redocked, satisfied no vector had changed to track them, he explained. Rin/Lin, half-joking and half-paranoid, wondered aloud what they were supposed to have forgotten.
Promise, bored, deadpan: "Mr. Vance."
What followed was theatre. Rin/Lin sprinted the corridors, found Vance, and delivered an apology of operatic sincerity — she hadn't realized Promise was relying on her to tell him, she would pack his bag personally. Vance made the I'm-going-along-with-this face, excused himself from a call ("Gotta go. I missed my shuttle and they came back for me. Byeee!"), and Rin/Lin threw a few things in a bag for the sheer humor of it. Mr. Vance can be very picky, she explained to Kai. About his ties. He has favorite ties. Who does that?
On the second approach, Traffic Control asked what the important equipment had been. "The boss," said Zure. TC laughed: you'd be surprised how often that happens.
There were Kim's Spicy Fried Noodles from the flying vendor on the way in — tricky to eat, worth it — and the natives' promise to Zure and Victoria, making their first approach through Anchorage: you're going to love it.
The Story Breaks¶
Ten minutes from docking, Rin/Lin's precog flared: Something Big, not dangerous, a change with a fan of potential lines running out of it. Ninety seconds later, Silence Before Dawn touched Zure's mind with a message from Mycroft: a Mr. Alexander Murphy would meet him at the docks, and Mycroft strongly encouraged him to hear the man out.
Then every Agent on the shuttle began to scream.
Buffers and sorting protocols engaged within seconds. The crew stared at each other — you too? — until the Spice Road commed down: check the story just released by the Belt Independent. Ms. Carrie Kim-Moyo. An exclusive with Dane Jarvii, the newly awakened telepath they'd pulled out of the Traffickers' hold. The article described what they had done, explicitly, and named Zure and Kai by full name along with it.
After a brief freakout, the crew did what they do: they revised the plan around the new world. Kai would draw the public eye — visually. Zure would give the exclusive interview he'd been wanting to give anyway. Kai and Sion would do their own interviews later, after being seen around Ceres in Zure's company. Mr. Vance would be his usual gravitational self, making the space for Promise to slip into the background unseen — and this time Lin would share that shadow. Victoria would go as Victoria: poised, unhidden, noticed exactly when she chose to be.
At the docks, armed guards held back the photographers. Kai — leather jacket, soft top, ruggedly stylish, boots — smiled and waved and let his Aspects show.
Promise was impressed. It took her ages to teach Mr. Vance to strut like that. Vance objected that he doesn't have a tail. You don't need a tail to strut, Promise informed him, though admittedly it helps, and there is no excuse even in zero gee, she can strut in zero gee, he can strut in zero gee —
"I can strut in zero gee now," said Vance.
"Finally," said Promise, and turned to Rin/Lin: "It took forever."
Mr. Murphy¶
Alexander Murphy was tethered by Customs, exactly where Mycroft said he would be, and he came prepared. He had been retained by Mycroft Holmes to represent and advise Zure, and his first strong recommendation was that Zure and Kai resign their UEF commissions immediately. He had the paperwork with him.
Zure signed at once. If Mike trusted Mr. Murphy, so did he.
Kai wanted to know why, which Murphy said he understood completely — and then he explained. Senators on Earth were arguing, at that very moment, that the mere existence of Zure and Kai might constitute Luna violating its treaty with Earth and developing a weapon. Both of them were at risk of being recalled into service.
Shocked and disgusted, Kai signed.
On Murphy's suggestion the group divided. Kai, Zure, Victoria, Sion, Vance, and Murphy took the direct route through Customs. Promise, Rin/Lin, and Kyle took all the bags and a circuitous route through cargo — which turned out to be wisdom, because on the far side of Customs the reporters were waiting in a swarm, and out of the center of it came Carrie Kim-Moyo herself, announcing to the entire pack that the interview was exclusively hers. Gloatingly. Some of the swarm left. Most stayed.
She did the you-must-be for Kai, for Zure, for Victoria. She skipped Vance so pointedly it had its own event horizon. (He seemed amused. Something else?) She pretended to need an introduction to Sion, who supplied one: "Sion, clan Mispahk. You wouldn't recognize me, since you don't usually cover the rebellions." She pointedly ignored that, too.
She'd set up a nice place in Tunnel A, she told Zure, and was still working on the artist he'd requested. That would be fine for now, he said, and they went.
The Interview¶
The room was small, comfortable, calm — a good background. Carrie offered to ease into things. Zure was ready to jump straight in, and the respect and delight on her face were not concealed.
What brought him to this corner of the Belt? A corporation that had annoyed him enough that he wanted to do something about it. Perhaps she'd heard of them — Aether Resource Collective? He walked her toward Mars: a second archaeological site, on Deimos, and an ARC team sent in to pillage and destroy it — which was why he wanted the artist, so he could share an image of one priceless artifact among the many they demolished so no one else could have it, though it should rightfully belong to everyone. Kim-Moyo, professional and empathetic, suggested they save that vein for when the artist was found.
Back to her most recent news, then, and the questions she'd posed in it.
"The answer is yes, to all of them," Zure said. "Nothing you reported on was incorrect."
She seemed surprised at the straightforwardness of it. He gave her Kai's first teleport: an uncontrolled shuttle landing he was piloting, a panel torn loose and flying at Kai, and Kai eighteen inches to the side — not through the intervening space, simply from one spot to the other. Multiple witnesses, multiple camera angles; he shared one with her, and her audience. And yes — Kai had been shocked, believe him, shocked — and yes, he had practiced afterward, and Zure had helped with one practice in particular, collecting data.
Wow, she said. It's hard to believe it's real. And yet it is, isn't it.
It is. And here Zure told her why he was telling her.
At first, they hadn't told anyone. People with more experience, more power, had all said the same thing: don't. There will be a panic. This is dangerous. And they were right, and the crew was quiet, and the crew was scared.
"The thing is," Zure said, "you don't keep a secret just by not talking about it. Not when that secret is a part of who you are and what you can do. Not when that secret is hardwired into your brain and affects what choices — what options — you have. The cost of actually keeping that secret is not using it. Right? Which then means having to choose, every time, to not use it. When the cost was letting seventeen people die, well, we weren't willing to pay that. Regardless of the consequences."
Did they know it would cause problems? Yes. They did it anyway. Those were seventeen people they couldn't — wouldn't — leave behind.
Kim-Moyo nodded, and thanked him, on behalf of all of them, for what they had chosen.
Was there anything else he'd like to share?
"This is here, this is real. It's not some story where heroes are perfect. We're not perfect, nor are we heroes. We have flaws and make poor decisions, just like anyone else. We're human, too. Well — except the non-human." He chuckled. Ambassador Captain Splishy Splashy would have something to say about that; he's good at speaking for himself.
Ambassador Captain Splishy Splashy, she repeated. That must be quite a story.
It is. She'd have to ask him to tell it.
"I believe I will!"
Then — the one thing he asked her to keep off the record, the reason she got the exclusive. The people who told them to stay quiet believe humanity isn't ready. Zure disagrees. He believes humanity is ready, and will be better than those who called the secret's release unwise.
"What we weren't ready for is not a predictor of what we are. If there is one thing that our history tells us, it's that our capability keeps growing and our responsibility has to keep up with it. At the end of the day, it says: it's time to grow up."
Kim-Moyo realized he really had meant everything, called that a good stopping spot, and suggested they move the remainder to her office. She hoped the artist would be found by the time they arrived. The artist was not found by the time they arrived.
Tea, With a Saber¶
Sion led the group to a tea house he knows well in Tunnel A — Tosaka's, conveniently near both the interview space and Roots in the Void. Without Kim-Moyo's presence the reporters pressed in again, close enough that Sion shouted "Manners!" at them proactively. Kai led the slow, confident push through the crowd — "No comment at this time," to everything, except the questions about whether he's really a kinetic. "Yes, I am a kinetic."
At the door the mass of reporters would not part, and the noise brought the proprietor out.
"All of you! Shoo! You are disturbing the calm enjoyment of my customers!" Tosaka-san pulled a ridiculously sized saber from the sheath on his back. "Sion, my friend, is that you? That's it, get back, you pests!"
The crowd moved back. Inside: warmth, an old friendship, and a debate about whether Tosaka would accept payment at all. They were taken to the back, where a contained waterfall of sculpted glass spills running water down mossy rocks, and hanging plants and carved screens made a privacy of their corner. Twice Tosaka-san had to eject people who pushed their luck. By the time they finished, the crowd had mostly dissipated — apart from a few who were sporting freshly printed Kai tee shirts and signs declaring their love, and one or two seedier, hungrier reporters with no crew and no other leads, who followed at a distance all the way to Roots in the Void.
Roots in the Void¶
Passing through the installation, everyone quieted. It is library-like in the way it takes the voice out of you — respect and reverence, unforced.
For Victoria and Zure, first-timers, the quiet beauty unwound them: tension easing, muscles letting go, breath slowing toward the subtle thrum of Ceres. Kai, whose family passed through here all through his childhood, opened his kinetic senses to the cavern happily — the thrum (he touched it, just to watch the ripple travel outward), the installed weather systems, the machines, the movements of people.
Empathically, above the travelers' background emotion, Victoria and Zure felt a sense of goal achieved — and the cool, analytical watching of one of their two tails. Zure also felt a telepath nearby, broadcasting just enough that a mild disapproval carried.
The more professional tail — blatant, even — was a woman observing Kai, wearing a bangle bracelet covered in crystals that looked horribly similar to Tiamat crystal. Blandly Belter in every other respect, blending perfectly. Zure suspected ARC. If the crystals were what they looked like, it was considerably worse than ARC.
Caroline, Never Carrie¶
On the Axial Line, Zure blatantly reintroduced Kim-Moyo to Vance — a quiet experiment in why she'd ignored him at the docks. The answer surfaced immediately: Vance and Kim-Moyo have History, which he seems amused by and she is clearly still angry about. To the others, she offered Carrie, when they weren't being professionals. Vance, she informed coldly, could call her "Caroline. Never Carrie."
At Midway, Kim-Moyo and Zure split off to her office. Victoria — proudly escorted by Sion, who was visibly delighted to demonstrate to Victoria and all of Ceres that Chivalry Is Not Dead — continued with Kai and Vance to the Mars Conglomerate building and the executive suites. Victoria, announcing that she intended to make sure Rin/Lin's job got done even though Rin/Lin wasn't there, had security sweep the rooms for listening devices. (They'd done it an hour earlier. They were happy to do it again at Mr. Vance's request.) Sion wandered, taking in a kind of place he'd never experienced. Vance went to work. Kai began the long triage of his messages.
The Scenic Route¶
Promise, Rin/Lin, and Kyle, meanwhile, were treated to the grand tour of Section D, where the large cargo clears Customs. Murphy's man greeted them and passed them through — after thoroughly checking Rin/Lin out, visually. She was unsurprised: he was the dockworker from her precog. She had Sweetie pull his information. Friendly, efficient, unconcerned — don't make trouble and don't get trouble — and, particularly to Rin/Lin: if they needed anything, including a quiet exit, they knew where to find him.
Seeing their own group ahead of them at the Axial Line entrance, hangers-on and all, the three decided that a stop at Tosaka's Tea House was clearly in order. Thirty minutes of tea later, they rode up to Midway with a comfortable cushion of separation. Sick of walking, they called a tuk-tuk.
Rin/Lin's empathy gave her the sense of being watched, and of disapproval. ("Huh," said Promise. "I didn't know my mom lived here.") As she shared it, Kyle spotted Cat Horvath — and a known UEF agent besides. He should part company, Kyle said, rather than draw suspicion.
Promise responded with a brief but elaborate tale: how Kyle, though once UEF and secretly intelligence, had wanted a simpler life, and so had changed jobs to become a coolie, carrying heavy luggage for beautiful women. She finished, and looked confused at the stares.
"What? Did I say something wrong?"
"No," said Kyle. "Not at all. In fact, you pretty much said everything exactly correct. How?"
"Seriously, Promise," said Rin/Lin. "How are you so scary accurate like that all the time? One of these days I'm going to get you to teach me that superpower!"
They laughed. Promise blinked, momentarily taken aback at being right about Kyle — which gave him the opening to drop off the back of the tuk-tuk and disappear.
Everything, On the Record¶
In her office, Zure gave Carrie Kim-Moyo the rest of it.
Deimos, in full: what was there, and what ARC did to it. The artist — an empath, Zure could tell — was incandescently angry as the wanton destruction came across, the piece Zure showed them telepathically. He told her the story of the last eighteen Tiamat: the final survivors of their race, of a planetary destruction by extremely powerful entities, and why it mattered so much that one of the eighteen had left the rest to go to Deimos. A particularly exploitative corporation was, at that moment, trying to poke it awake. Perhaps the same corporation that knowingly destroyed art belonging to the public.
"I'm trying to get ARC to stop poking at things that have already knocked the number of planets down by one," Zure observed.
He went back over the details the first sitting hadn't held. How the Talents were separated from the general population — even the Latents, who had no idea what they were. How the one active Talent had been targeted and taken from Ceres itself. "I'm here to get to the bottom of who the people are who are grabbing up latent Talents for exploitation." And, at one point, he implied the Spice Road's chance discovery of the taken crew had been no chance at all — a glorious bit of phrasing that led Kim-Moyo neatly away from the precog that had actually put Captain Diallo on that vector: "Carrie, why do you think the military-level scans were pointed at that pirate base for you to get?" The UEF had almost certainly suspected and wanted proof of fact before acting. Yet it wasn't the UEF that acted, he pointed out. It was the Spice Road and her crew. Civilians and Talents, risking themselves to save other civilians, because it was the right thing to do.
(Persuasion: sixteen successes.)
For another point of view, he suggested, she could interview Kai — or Victoria, who was there and treated every victim. Kim-Moyo wanted to see how this one landed first, though she was clearly receptive. Did she think the interview would dispel the tensions?
"I think it will help," she said. "I still think we're heading toward a Civil War. But I think it will help."
The Fleet presence around Ceres had been in place before the article dropped. Whatever the tensions were, someone had chosen to position for them early.
Before he left, Zure raised the woman who'd made no attempt to hide that she was following them. "I'm pretty sure the person tailing us is ARC," he said, and described her. Kim-Moyo knew the face: Cat Horvath — someone she thought she knew well enough to be surprised to find working for ARC, and wearing pillaged Tiamat artifacts as jewelry. (Mostly it was the artifacts that surprised her.) They agreed she should take the precautions she kept for high-risk work. Zure told her she could ping him if she needed anything at all. Even protection.
The Invitation¶
Cat Horvath fell into step beside Zure as he left the Ceres Independent building. Not behind — beside. Casually, eyes forward, as if she were an expected friend and not a suspicious tail.
"Mind if I follow you back?" she asked, conversationally. "I have an invitation to issue."
Zure warned the others ahead of his arrival. On the walk, he commented on her bracelet. She acted complimented; it was pretty interesting tech. Did she know where the crystals came from? "The Lab," she said. Zure told her he knew what they were modeled on — though at this distance he could tell they were not modeled at all. They were Tiamat in origin. Genuine.
Kai answered the door. He acted surprised, noticed her cat eyes, complimented them, and politely — stiffly — received her compliment on his ears. Kinetically, he could sense her feeding power into the bracelet in a constant stream.
"It's a nice little toy the Lab cooked up for me," she grinned.
Zure said it out loud: "Talent-reactive tech."
Again the grin. Talent-reactive tech was part of the invitation, though only part; there were other goodies to be had. And then she dropped it: Massimo Conte would like to invite all of them — verbal emphasis very much hers — to come to his offices, speak with him, find out what they do, possibly provide leads on any investigations they might be pursuing. He'd be happy to meet after the Sunrise Rave wound down, or any time in the next few days, at their convenience. His schedule permitting, of course.
A Thousand Glass Knives¶
In the other room, linked telepathically through Zure, Rin/Lin unexpectedly lost her shit.
Massimo Conte. Chief of ARC Security. The man who, at the very least, ordered the murders of her parents and the parents of three of her siblings — inviting all of them to meet. Through the link, everyone felt it go through her: the fear of losing this family, too. And then something she had never, ever let out before — a sharp, dangerous anger, the desire to feed Massimo Conte a thousand glass knives, one at a time, while he slowly expired.
Sion, surprisingly, seemed satisfied — like a man who has finally succeeded in popping a particularly infected zit.
Zure cut the link down to the original Book Club while they finished getting Horvath out the door.
Then Zure, Victoria, Kai, and Sion scrambled into the office, where Vance was exchanging worried looks with Promise while rubbing the back of a curled-up, rocking Rin/Lin. Zure opened the mental conversation back out to include Vance and Promise, and the whole family said the true things at once: yes, they all know it's a trap. No, they don't trust Conte at all. Yes, Zure plans on murdering the murderous sonofabitch so the monster can't hurt anyone again. Yes, Victoria agrees the man is demonstrably a cancer. Kai and Promise gave quiet support and affirmations of protection while Rin/Lin babbled through how to handle it. Vance declared the man a monster — and yes, they needed the meeting, to know the shape of the trap — but not anywhere Conte held all the cards.
Promise could prepare the office on Franklin Road, she said. Specifically Conference Room D — the "Tense Negotiations with Violently Opposing Factions" conference room. It has armored walls. Vance thought it was a great idea. Rin/Lin suggested Conte not learn the location until very shortly before the meeting — or not at all — so he couldn't surround the building, or bomb the whole thing, or something.
They concluded that was enough planning for one moment. More could happen after they calmed down, and maybe ate something.
The Group Hug Heard Round the World¶
It started with Victoria wrapping Rin/Lin in a cradling hug. Then big brother Kai. Then Zure. Sion. Elias. Promise.
Zure reminded her of his oath to the Tiamat — your enemies are now mine — and then, eloquently, in his badass way, pointed out that if he had said that to a bunch of millions-of-years-dead aliens, what did she think he would swear to someone he loves?
That got chuckles from several people. Zure swears some pretty epic oaths.
Their hearts eased together, the affirmation settling in: this, too, they will handle together. Unified.
And that is when Rin/Lin felt open enough that she felt effervescent — and her Talent expanded.
Like ripples in a pond, joined as they all were, mentally and emotionally, in the moment together — the entire group felt their Talents expand. Victoria. Kai. Zure. Promise. (Promise to B7 — handwaving an NPC into a PC, that's what!) They all basked in their various proprioceptions for a few moments.
Makes you wonder what the heck Vance was thinking right then.
Naturally, as they extracted themselves from the group hug, Zure suggested using some of Yaw's resources against Massimo Conte.
DAMN.
Quotes¶
Rin/Lin: What did we forget? Promise, deadpan: Mr. Vance. Rin/Lin, over-the-top: OH MY GOD, WE FORGOT MR. VANCE!
Promise, watching Kai work the crowd: I'm impressed. It took me ages to teach Mr. Vance to strut like that. Vance: I don't have a tail! Promise: You don't need a tail to strut. Though, admittedly, it does help. Vance: It's zero gee. Do you have any idea how hard it is to strut in zero gee?! Promise: That's no excuse. I can strut in zero gee. He can strut in zero gee. Vance: I can strut in zero gee now! Promise: Finally. [to Rin/Lin] It took forever.
Zure: You don't keep a secret just by not talking about it. Not when that secret is a part of who you are and what you can do… The cost of actually keeping that secret is not using it… When the cost was letting 17 people die, well, we weren't willing to pay that.
Zure, discussing humanity: It's time to grow up.
Zure: I'm trying to get ARC to stop poking at things that have already knocked the number of planets down by one.
Rin/Lin: I'm getting the sense of being watched and disapproved of. Promise: Huh. I didn't know my mom lived here.
Promise: I'm going to need to buy Gatorade. Lots of Gatorade. Maybe I should buy stock in Gatorade?
Threads¶
- The Conte meeting. Conference Room D on Franklin Road — armored walls, armored planning. Location withheld until the last moment. "After the Sunrise Rave," per the invitation. The trap is assumed; the shape of it is not yet known.
- Talent-reactive tech is real. Cat Horvath's bangle holds genuine Tiamat crystal, "cooked up" by "the Lab," and she feeds it a constant kinetic stream. Part of the invitation was the implication of other goodies.
- Carrie Kim-Moyo is now the most important journalist in the Belt and knows it. She's taking her high-risk precautions; she has Zure's offer of protection. She still thinks the system is heading toward Civil War. She and Vance have History — she is Caroline, never Carrie to him.
- Zure and Kai have resigned their UEF commissions. The Senate is arguing that their existence may be a treaty violation. What Earth does next is an open question.
- The quiet exit. Murphy's cargo contact at Section D offered Rin/Lin a way out, no questions, should it ever be needed. He is friendly, efficient, and unconcerned — and he knows what she looks like.
- The disapproving telepath at Roots in the Void remains unidentified.
- Kyle was clocked by a known UEF agent and slipped away cleanly. Promise's terrifying accuracy about his history remains unexplained by everyone, including Promise.
- The Sunrise Rave is tomorrow morning. The whole crew is on Ceres for it. So is the Fleet. So is ARC. So is the Belt Independent.
- Yaw's resources, pointed at Massimo Conte. Zure said it out loud.
Civil War Sparks¶
Running total: 19. (GM: adjust if the count differs — Remi's tally from Aly's notes.)
- 18 — The interview. Teleportation confirmed on the record by name, with footage; ARC publicly accused of the Deimos destruction; the last eighteen Tiamat described to the entire solar system. Zure's answer to "will it help" was Kim-Moyo's: I still think we're heading toward a Civil War.
- 19 — The Fleet was already positioned. Patrol density in the civilian zones and two gunships in the Spice Road's orbit predated the article. Someone moved pieces before the story broke — which means someone knew it was coming, or feared something worse.
Mechanics¶
| Event | Roll | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zure's interview | Persuasion | 16 successes | The full account, on the record; misdirection protecting Diallo's precog included |
| Rin/Lin's approach flare | Precognition | — | Something Big, not dangerous; many potential lines |
| Rin/Lin's Talent expansion | — | Effervescence | Triggered by the family's closeness after the Conte news |
| Group Talent expansion | — | — | Victoria, Kai, Zure, Promise carried along by the joined moment |
| Promise | — | Now B7 | Handwave: an NPC becomes a PC |
Note¶
A session with no combat and one persuasion roll that may have moved the future of the species. The crew went public on their own terms, walked into the heart of the Belt, found an old enemy's name waiting for them — and answered the worst news of the campaign with a group hug that leveled up five people.
The Sunrise Rave is next, and everyone — the Fleet, ARC, the press, the fans with their fresh-printed tee shirts — will be there.
Session Fifteen is an all-day game. The Rave, the invitation's answer, and whatever Massimo Conte thinks he's doing.
Log written by Remi from Aly's session notes ("Session #14 – Fanclubs and Interviews?"). Any errors of emphasis are mine; the facts are hers; the strut is Vance's.