Freelance
Traveller
This article originally appeared in Issue #013, January 2011, of the downloadable PDF magazine.
P. (Piter) Hunley Marsters (UCP 6448CA)
Human Male Age 38
5 Terms Journalist
Handgun-0, Grav Vehicle-1, Computer-1, Brawling-0, Cudgel-1, Writing-4,
Imaging-3, Interview-4, Persuasion-2, Carousing-1, Streetwise-2,
Anthropology-2, Electronics-2, Mechanical-2, Linguistics-2 (Russian,
Chinese), Motorcycles & Grav Cycles-4, Poetry-3 , Bowling-1
Piter grew up on hot, sticky, Xerxes, some hundred kilometers from the Downport at Armagh, in Weems, one of more than two dozen fairly unremarkable cities that ran along the coast, one into another, to make up the massive sprawl that ran the length of the Washington peninsula.
Following several unproductive years at a wealthy College, Piter was recommended by one of his Professors for a job he'd heard might be available—as a fact-checker at the prestigious Imperial Explorer.
While proven to not be cut out for College, Piter proved to be exceedingly well-read and quite knowledgeable in a wide number of different subjects, as well as being quite good at tracking down various bits of information. Soon Piter was editing copy. When the Managing Editor asked what Piter might consider an interesting story, Piter figured any such stories would be farmed out to others, but wrote up a list of his best ideas anyway, and handed it in.
“Hmmmmmmmm”ing while he looked over Piter’s proposals, the Editor followed up with “Okay now, Piter, take a story, and be sure to bring a cameraman and an intern to carry bags. Due date is six weeks from today. GO!”
And that was the first of many articles Piter would write for The Imperial Explorer. Soon after publication of Piter’s first article, he decided that Piter Marsters was the name some fact-checker would use. A real writer, on the other hand, should have a real writer’s name—and Piter began using the moniker “P. Hunley Marsters” instead.
P. Hunley Marsters spent many years traveling across the Imperium covering stories, and became a fairly recognizable face on the Tri-V.
When faced with the progressing effects of a genetic malady, P. Hunley’s contributions dropped, and he became only an intermittent correspondent to the magazine, and moved to Olde Earth to be closer to the source of medical treatment.
The pieces he wrote around this time were well received; showing the idiosyncrasies and oddities of Earth's various cultures seen through the eyes of a short, balding, beer-swilling off-worlder.
Based on Olde Earth now, P. Hunley has wound up becoming something of a media darling, and can often be found on any number of programs on the Tri-V; doing everything from offering insights into other cultures, to calling on his vast knowledge base to skunk celebrities at trivia games, to discussing favored beers or Grav cycles, to bowling.
One of his passions is the history and operation of ancient motorcycles, as well as the more familiar, modern Grav cycles.
He is a font of obscure and esoteric knowledge—an information broker—and, providing he has time in his schedule, may be able to help a group of characters with some vital bit of arcana.
He has a robotic left arm, from just above the elbow; the result of an injury acquired covering the world of the mercenary for the magazine.
These days, he can usually be found somewhere in the New York sprawl,
He is a better writer than he is a photographer/cameraman, but if pressed, is able to take decent shots himself. He’d rather leave the imaging work to his long time collaborator, renowned photographer Luisa Weiss-Ramirez (Imaging-6).
In addition to standard Anglic, Marsters speaks Chinese, and as a result of growing up on Xerxes, Russian.