Traveller Vignette 014

“That girl of yours is certainly sleek-lined” the commodore said appreciatively, watching her walk away. He saw my expression “No offence intended, lad. I just meant that you're lucky”. Sensible navy officers don't offend the son of a marquis without a good reason, even if he's technically their subordinate.

“Actually, that's my mother” I told him.

His eyes widened as he realised I was serious. “But she doesn't look any older tha...” He trailed off, obviously thinking about how much of an anagathic regime that could hold off three or four decades without trace must cost.

In fairness, it's not just the juvenat treatments. Mom works hard at staying up to date with fashion and slang, and can pass for her apparent age easily enough. A lot of rejuves don't, and are still wearing the same fashions they wore at that chronological age, young bodies in old-fashioned clothes. I often think it's why imperial fashion is so conservative.

Another thought occurred to the Commodore. “How old are YOU, in that case?”

I smiled. “I'm a few years older than I look, but that's it. Youth and beauty are always going to look good on a woman, but if you're a man and look 25, it's hard to get people to take you seriously at a senior level. I won't start the full regimen to stop ageing until I've hit thirty, and got a bit of gravitas”


(Author's note - Anagathics are available in canon, but aren't really explored very much. Whether you can tell a person is older than their chronological age may depend on how much work they put into it, as above. The young officer and his deceptively young mother might also be useful NPCs in a naval campaign (giving a quirk to personalise one of the NPC officers) or as passengers in a merchant focused one)


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