Players: Jess (Lumen), Cynthia (Tejas), Nicholas (Xenon)

In a cyberpunk reality, where corporation-states rule everything, unlicensed parenting is illegal, and people take their owner-corporations' names as surnames...

Suitor 1: Tejas Biotek, a hacker but mediocre, law abiding but for that one thing..., and unmodified but unclaimed

competes with

Suitor 2: Xenon Cyglom, an artist but blocked, rebellious but family oriented, and cloned but unaware of it

to share in the emancipation of

The Beloved: Lumen, a daring, anarchic, emancipated techie bio-human, who is debilitatingly agoraphobic, and who dreams of exposing the truth about Moni, the ex-CEO of the corporation that just folded, leaving her mainly emancipated but with some unresolved contractual obligations.

Tejas knows that Xenon is her sibling, a clone of her dead twin brother, who Moni had created in order that she could have a child of her own. The truth that Lumen wants to expose is about Moni's massive illegal cloning operation, through which she was making billions on the side by selling clones like Xenon to other unlicensed parents.

Round 1:

Lumen gets locked out, Tejas hacks her way back into the apartment, so Biotek lawyers show up to seize Lumen's property. The two succeed in talking their way out of it using convoluted legal rationalizations.

Xenon heard what happened, so he comes over to convince his friend Lumen that now is the time to take down the system, man. Lumen doesn't care about smashing the system so much as smashing Xenon's mom, Moni. Uh-oh, the lawyers are back, and they can't be stalled this time, so Lumen and Xenon grab their stuff and head to Xenon's underground artist collective to hide out.

All three meet up in hyperspace to plan the next move, but when Xenon tries to jack out, he senses the telltale buzz that means someone's trying to trace them, so he convinced them to run to an iOpium den where they'll be 'safe' from the law for a while.

Round 2:

Tejas reveals the whole sordid 'family' drama to Lumen, who realises that Xenon's birth certificate (which Tejas has been hiding) is the last piece of evidence she needs to really bring down Moni—the only problem is, it implicates Tejas, who is part of the 'genetic stock' that will be purged if everything comes to light. Even worse, goons are at Tejas' apartment right now and she has to jack out to fend them off while Lumen's vengeful ex-Monicorp lawyer buddy rushes over to fend them off with threats and contracts.

The buzz Xenon sensed when he tried to jack out earlier catches up with them, and now the artist collective where he and Lumen are physically located is being raided. He calls Moni for help, then everything descends into chaos. Lumen disappears, hiding in a closet until everything's over, and Xenon is taken into custody. A lackey of his mother's shows up, telling him that he's burned his one 'get out of jail free' card and not to call Moni again. Ouch!

Time for the three to take the fight to Moni! They sidetrack her goons and break into her apartment at night. Everything comes out about the cloning, and about Xenon and Tejas' relationship. Xenon is dumbfounded, his mom is angry and self-righteous, and Tejas pleads for Xenon to give up Moni and come be a real brother to her. In the end, Xenon burns his bridges with both of them, and as the goons descend, Tejas and Lumen give themselves up so that they can have their day in court, counting on being able to make a deal to save them both from being purged. Lumen wins this one, so she has the evidence that gives them a good shot at being able to take Moni down through legal means.

Finale

Tejas wins the final roll, so this is the way things play out:

She convinces Lumen to share her emancipation with her so that if either of them succeed, they both make it out of this alive. The court case ends up being unsuccessful; there isn't enough evidence to convict Moni. At least both Tejas Cyglom and Lumen Cyglom avoid being purged, living out their days as low-level techs at Cyglom. As for Xenon? Cut off from his trust fund, he spends most of his time in an iOpe haze.

A few other notes:

This was my first time facilitating, and the inaugural Shooting the Moon game at Story Games Seattle (I think), so I hope I did a good job. Thanks to Nicholas for trying out the 'romance' game even though you were skeptical. I think we proved that at its core it's a game about relationships, and that can mean a thrilling cyberpunk adventure if that's how you want to play it.

Here's the character sheet, in case anyone wants to see how the shared character sheet works for this game--complete with grease spots from our tapas at the Capitol Club.