LogApocalypse World: Purgatoria After Dark-Jason-4

Game log for the 2016/01/31 session of Apocalypse World: Purgatoria After Dark, as taken by Jason

Chaos, Balkanization, tremors, and massive unrest broke out in the first year of the Collapse. All the government could see that the end was coming and they had just a short while to figure out how to survive. We knew that the Vatican was pioneering Stasis technology, but we didn't know who else was.

Demetri determines that he requires some medical care. The doc he knows best soesn't like him so much as she used to, but he does know a guy named Vigo who might be able to help. He staggers up a narrow stairway and down a dark tobacco-stained hall and knocks on a non-descript door, which is answered by a haggard crone. The office smells horrible, which does instill confidence in one's doctor, but that's life after the apocalypse for you. Vigo appears a few minutes late and expresses confidence that he can fix many but by no means all of the numerous indignities done upon Demetri's flesh, but only on a cash up front basis. Demetri has no cash. He's going to need a plan.

Demetri then goes to visit Gennady, the sausage maker, and tips him off to where he can find some meat. He discourages Gennady from asking what sort of meat he's peddling but in the end admits that he wants to part out a human child. Nope. He advises Demetri to trap the rats that come to eat the body, because he'll make sausage ouf of rats, but he draws the line at people. Demetri accepts that advice. Unfortunately, when he goes back, the body's gone.

Back at Coffeemesto, the revolutionaries have returned from their expedition to Stasis. Semyon warns the grandchildren that while it's safe there, they need to be careful screwing around in there. Natalya's trying to figure out how to use her new medical supplies and the equipment she saved to rebuild her clinic, and she suggests to Semyon that she could operate out of his basement. No. He would prefer to reduce his profile, not increase it. He wants her to operate nearby but not someplace that will draw attention to him.

Konstantine joins the discussion at the end and asks Semyon to explain the revolutionary cause to him. Semyon convinces him to come to a meeting to hear about how the Glorious People's Party will change everything. Konstantine doesn't really believe that party meetings will get this done, but he'll listen.

Natalya goes looking for a new office site. There's a decent place that's too far away, or a convenient place with a landlord she doesn't quite trust. She goes back to Coffeemesto to see what Semyon thinks. He offers to help her negotiate with the landlord at the convenient place.

The landlord's name is Zoltan, and he's wearing a crappy bathrobe and thick glasses when Semyon and Natalya go to talk to him. Zoltan promptly tells Natalya that Semyon's the sort of bad crowd he was afraid she associated with. Zoltan's open to doing a deal but he doesn't want the revolutionary crowd trapsing around the property at all hours. Natalya tries to explain that she heals people who need healing, not any particular crowd. He asks her to come with him to she can see how she helps people. He leads them into a back room where there's a young girl who looks like a meningitis victim playing with toys. Natalya says nice things about the child but expresses no conviction that she can totally undo meningitis. She asks for privacy while she examines the child, but he will not allow it. Natalya then examines the girl but she doesn't seem to acknowledge the doctor's existence. She could make the girl lucid if Konstantine could help her figure out the neural patterner from the Stasis lab, and if the grandchildren would play with her to help socialize her. Zoltan will let her come back in the morning to examine the daughter and let her the room for 1-barter up front.

Karina and Kiril are hanging out in Kiril's squat, hanging out with Yvgeny the read Russian soldier. They want his advice on how to make Konstantine happy. He suggests that the Major must see the photo but must not know that the child is Yvgeny's. Fantastic. Paulina and Ruslan go out and run errands to get supplies for the day at Cofeemesto, with the Major tagging along.

In the market, looking for milk, Konstantine sees several Striyanka thugs beating the crap out of some woman. All three of them had off in a different direction, because they understand that we can't stop the Terror by fighting two guards at a time.

Everyone returns to Coffeemesto and it opens for business. Roman stops in and asks to talk. Roman's concerned that the Worker's Party isn't competent to provide a stable environment for his criminal enterprises, and that the People's Party might not be any better. That brings him to his real concern - rumours about what's been happening at Coffeemesto, and specifically that maybe some Striyanka got hurt there. Semyon denies all knowledge of any Striyanka coming to a bad end in his building, and also suggests that Mr Harkov would be best off not knowing if any such thing did happen. Roman agrees but expresses concern that what happens in a building he owns reflects on him. Roman therefore commands him to limit his activities to brewing coffee. Semyon says he'll do that and tells Roman about how Demetri has been causing trouble. Roman says that he might have someone stay around Coffeemesto to make sure there's no trouble. Semyon asks how Roman's conversation with Inspector Kavashian went, and Roman says that he hears that Semyon reached an arrangement with Kevashian. Semyon explains that such is his method - when there's trouble, he makes accomodation with the people who can solve it. Having anyone unfamiliar around would disrupt his web of contacts. Roman will agree not to have someone there all the time if Semyon will hire on one his people as staff instead. Semyon points out that an adult would stand out, but Roman thinks he knows someone. Vladich will come to work for him.

Demetri has no idea how he's going to make money. He reluctantly concludes that he either needs to commit a profitable crime, or go asking the Order of St Stanislaus for free help. The Order's chapel is gothic, and the two alcoves displaying armor with chainfists and multitools demonstrate the Order's emphasis on service and healing but also remind people that even a suit optimized for medicine can mess up most people. The infirmary's about two-third full, and many other people are staying in the Order's facilities for sanctuary. Some of them would be considered criminal thugs outside, but they seem quite relaxed inside. An older fellow with a tonsure and about three teeth asks what Demetri needs, and he simply asks for help. The man leads him to the infirmary, where a doctor with badges of the Order is working. They also bring him gruel. Demetri notices that the man who brings the gruel has two prosthetic hands. Sir Gareth comes over and questions him about his injuries. Sadly Demetri can barely track the conversation because the Hoard really wants the man's holy symbol. Demetri tells him he got into trouble with criminals and gives them a clear description of Konstantine, especially his old pre-Collapse badges. Sir Gareth tells Demetri that they require no payment but he should contribute in any way he can. Orderlies then come and strap him to a table, and then they carry him into the operating room. The operation succeeds in fixing most of his physical ills.

Natalya asks Konstantine's help with the neural patterner. The manual was back a the lab but, um, the grandchildren used it for kindling. The Major, for the firt time in his life, feels a deep desire to strike a child. The kids give him their guilty faces and he falls for it so totally. It's hugs all around. But there's still a question of how the neural patterner works, and how nobody wants to go first. Natalya calls in a favor and gets Oksana to act as guinea pig. Natalya needs Kostantine's help, and Anton helps Konstantine, but the Major misreads the instructions and somehow Anton and Oksana switch bodies. They're unconscious for hours and when they wake up, yeah, el switcho. Now Anton gets to see how it feels to be a 23-year-old girl and Oksana's a five year old boy. Anton finds it all sort of gross but Oksana completely flips out. We may need to go back to Stasis and see if the non-portable equipment can help them reverse this. Semyon comes downstairs in the midst of an argument about this and Oksana-in-Anton immediatelly tells him to go do several anatomically impossible things to himself. Meanwhile Anton-in-Oksana is crying. Everyone, including Semyon, is about to go to Stasis when Vladich shows up to work. Semyon begins showing him the ropes, which means he's not going to Stasis. Vladich does not like what Semyon's saying and refuses to hold a mop. He even drops a little "Do you know who my father is?" Semyon tries giving him some different tasks and claiming that they're really important, but Vladich doesn't buy it. He's busy showing him how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble one of the machines when Vladich slaps him and asks if Semyon takes him for an idiot. Well, Semyon knows that Nikolai (Vladich's dad) loves fear, so he figures that Vladich is accustomed to slappings, so he slaps him right back. Ruslan Paulina observe the handprint on the boss' face and see Semyon's hand go back, so they try to move in behind Vladich to pin him down. Unfortunately it all goes wrong as the kids get in the way and Vladich ducks, so Semyon ends up punching Paulina dead in the face. Vladich sneers but agrees to clean the machine, but it's a little late now, because Semyon is furious and wants to teach Vladich something. Vladich ducks and Semyon ends up putting his hand through a glass pitcher and now Vladich is laughing his ass off. Semyon grabs a knife and tells the kids to hold Vladich down. They're all over his shit and now he's not laughing. Spread-eagled across the bar, with the kids holding him in place, Vladich is scared and not feeling so funny. Semyon says that the thing Vladich needs to remember is that while his Father wants to keep him around, Semyon does not. Vladich begins to process that this is not like starting crap with his dad. He's in the adult world now and Semyon has a whole team of feral humans on his side. He agrees to clean Semyon's machine for him. The children tell the boss that if Vladich causes any more trouble, they'll take care of him like they did the others.

Demetri goes looking for stuff he can steal in the infirmary. Are you getting a sense that he's not a hero? Because that would be a correct impression. The Hoard really wants one of the chalices in the infirmary. He waits for a chance and sure enough, one of the other patients eventually goes into convulsions. Gareth calls for people to hold the man down, and Demetri goes to "help" but can't stop staring at Gareth's holy symbol. Eventually he goes to grab it, and Gareth sees it all happening. There's a frozen moment when Demetri has the symbol in his hand and Gareth is looking right at him. The moment breaks when Demetri rips the symbol off his neck and runs away. An hour later, he's back home, giving the symbol to the Hoard.

Over in Coffeemesto, Semyon is telling all his staff to attack Demetri on sight.

Demetri goes wandering the streets over to the area around Coffeemesto.

In Stasis, Natalya doesn't find an instant cure, but comes up with a plan for trial and erroring her way into success. She needs Konstantine's help, a month or so's time, and she'll be exposing people to danger, but she feels confident she can work it out. Also, it occurs to both Natalya and Konstantine that the neural patterner could be used to install the neural implants required to be a night.

Semyon takes Konstantine to the Party meeting. Demetri observes them walking and tries to follow them. Semyon's attempt to take a circuitous route and avoid being followed fails. Demetri actually gets close enough to sneak into the meeting because the guards think he's with Semyon. Mikhail Popov begins lecturing the crowd about the action they need to take. He thinks the Worker's Party hasn't stepped up because Igoshin continues to pull strings. Why else would they keep him alive? Therefore, the People's Party must take out Igoshin to destroy his influence and let the true revolutionaries in the Worker's Party step up. Conflict within the Worker's Party will create an opportunity for the People's Party. Konstantine reads him and senses that Popov is telling the truth. He believes every bit of what he's saying.

Meanwhile, Demetri opens his brain and tries to figure out how he could get to the basement of Coffeemesto and steal Konstantine's uniform. He needs to create a distraction to clear people out of the basement.

In Coffeemesto, Vladich has quieted right down. Ruslan tells him to pull his head out of his ass. When that doesn't make an immediate impact, Ruslan tells him that Vladich would never make it there and Ruslan would have to drag his body through the tunnels. Vladich spits on him, so Ruslan pulls a knife. Vladich darts away, and when Ruslan looks likely to make another move, he runs out the door. Arbo cracks him over the head with a broomstick and asks him what the f is wrong with him? Ruslan tries to front but Arlo's having no part of it and tells him to go downstairs. Right at that point, they see Demetri coming out of the building next door as it bursts into flame.

Demetri checks to see how mnay faces are in the window at Coffeemesto watching the blaze. He doesn't see any urchins in the window, which gives him pause, but he doesn't want to disappoint the Hoard. He sneaks in but then hears children between him and the exit, so now he has problems. He temporizes by stealing the Major's AK-47, and then ripping the insignia off the Major's uniform. He then decides to get out by threatening the children with the AK. He hasn't even gotten the drop on the kids yet when Paulina sees him and throws down with her Tokarov. She wings him but not fatally. He returns fire and kills them both, but takes more rounds himself. He's barely alive and runs for it, dropping everything in his haste.

Unbeknownst to Demetri, Ruslan isn't dead.

Unbeknownst to the children, Demetri heard them talking about Stasis.

Natalya returns from Stasis to find that there's been gunfire in the basement again. She immediately treats Ruslan... and fails.

At the meeting, Arbo shows up, which causes some commotion at the door. He hollers for Semyon and tells him there's trouble at Coffeemesto. Semyon begins yanking Konstantine for the door, but Konstantine's thinking tactically and insists on pausing long enough to read the room. From the way people are watching Semyon, he realizes that this was probably supposed to be hosted at Coffeemesto, and now that it was moved and then more trouble happened there, the coffee shop revolutionary has lost a lot of his popularity. When they get to the door, Arbo tells him that there was more shooting downstairs, and Ruslan and Paulina are dead.

When they return they find Natalya just giving up on Ruslan. They see that the AK has been fired and left in a pool of blood, so it's not hard to see what happened, but why? And who took all the Major's insignia?

Then Arbo remembers to tell Semyon that Ruslan chased off Vladich just before the fire started across the street. Semyon assures Nikolai that Ruslan and Paulina won't be around the shop anymore.