LogThe City Never Sleeps-Jason-13

Game log for the 2024/04/07 session of AW:The City Never Sleeps, as taken by Jason

Nobody can find Grandma. She seems to have left town, and there's no leader in Churchill. Also the Bakery is gone. Vanished. It's an empty lot now. Mac's infirmary is next door now, in what was once a Steak'n'Shake. (That was a dispersion tactic implemented before the Bakery vanished.) Chaos has ensued. Most of the possible candidates (Abnett, Semmel, etc) all vanished with the Bakery. Many people are asking Augustus for instructions on what to do.

Skint brings in a new performer named Knell, who can help keep the Colosseum bringing in its audience. He's sort of a staff performer.

At Joe's Crab Shack, Billings enters, and spies Twiggy and Frost (who is not eating). He tells Twiggy that they need to get in front of the leadership crisis and establish some order. The Stooges could be the new keepers of order. Twiggy immediately points out that the Stooges are not a force of order, they are savages. Billings seems comfortable with that, and points out that if they were the government, they could tax the populace. Twiggy's interested if Billings can come up with a proper plan, but he doesn't want to be the new boss. He wants to work for the new boss, and if Billings wants to be that guy, he needs to provide a plan. Billings tells Twiggy to give him 24 hours and not to sign up with anyone else. Billings leaves. There's a sound of gunfire outside. Garfield comes in and tells Frost he needs a personal protection detail for his boss, Shelley. Frost isn't sure that Shelley would like that, but Garfield assures her that Shelley has written it off as a professional dispute, not a personal one. She takes the job for 3-barter, up front. Frost orders some food to go. Garfield explains that they'll need to go get Shelley, bring her to the Colosseum, and convince Augustus to let her speak. Frost says that for the right price, she'll use her relationship with Gus to help with that. Garfield is interested but he'll have to owe her. They split up, with a plan to meet at the old water tower. Frost stashes her barter and goes to the Colosseum.

When she arrives, Gus is trying to keep things organized, ready for the crowd, able to reassure people that some things haven't changed. Kenworth is pretty nervous about what all this will mean for them. Frost arrives and tells the maestro'd that he has an opportunity to get ahead of the situation. Shelley is moving in, she says, and Frost thinks Augustus should be part of that future rather than part of the problem. Frost realizes that getting Augustus to get on board is going to involve appealing entirely to his mercenary instincts. He'll side with Shelley if it's obvious that doing so will be profitable for him. Kenworth has no problem with Shelley as a boss but thinks Augustus should go for it. Gus is not so excited about that, but wants to get paid before he'll help Shelley. Frost tells Augie that his last bodyguard was cuter and departs.

Jones confirms that the Bakery has vanished and stops by the Steak'n'Shake. They exchange discussion of current events, and Mac asks Jones to tell Garfield to stop inside if he comes by. They're interrupted by Billings' men bringing in their boss wrapped in a sheet. Garfield went after him already, and Billings' men look like they might fight to avoid paying, but Jones easily convinces them not to. Mac tells them that while he can save their boss, this town is going to have a new boss before Billings is up and moving around again.

Aurora comes in to the Crab Shack and expresses pleasure at seeing Twiggy again. She hits him up for the gossip right away. She's looking for work, and Twiggy mentions that Billings might be hiring. After they eat, Twiggy offers to help her find Billings, which they do... in the infirmary. MacWillard is glad to see Aurora again, and warns them both that a civil war is coming, and the work will be plentiful, but high risk. They go next door to see Billings' men, Sphinx and Dixon. They're still loyal to their boss and convinced that he's the best thing for the future of the town, and they blame Garfield for the shooting. They express an interest in hiring Twiggy to help smuggle Billings out of town, if Shelley ends up in charge before he wakes up. Dixon suggests that Twiggy needs to help someone restore order, or if not, he could always start looting the place now. Twiggy offers to go out and try to calm things down, without necessarily taking a side.

Outside, they soon hear screaming, and see smoke. They move fast in that direction. A lady named Kimberly and a guy named Farnsworth are screaming at each other about someone having taken something. She thinks he stole something, he says she set his house on fire, and each has friends around. The tenement is filling up with smoke. Twiggy sends people door to door trying to tell people to evacuate. Ferguson tells Twiggy he's not really interested in knocking on doors to try to save a bunch of dirty violent strangers from burning. Twiggy gives him a glare that explains, without words, that nobody offered Ferguson a choice, and says that if Ferguson gets shot, well, that's why he always has more Stooges than he needs. Twiggy tries to fire a shot into the ceiling to make sure everyone is paying attention, but it ricochets. The surprising impact knocks him down and causes him to drop his gun. A random denizen picks up the gun and shoots it at Farnsworth, but manages to graze Kimberly instead. Someone comes in at Twiggy now, swinging a bike chain. Twiggy gets to his feet while pulling his machete, but the bike chain knocks the machete right out of his hand. Twiggy calls for the Stooges to leave with him and tries to move toward the machete again. His assailant is not skilled with the bike chain, and can't keep him from picking up the machete, but Twiggy can't really square up in a proper fighting stance either, because he's constantly trying to avoid the chain. He bites the bullet and moves in, getting walloped with the chain for his pains, but managing to hack the guy's carotid open. The guy collapses almost instantly, and lands on Twigy, taking the chopper down. Another bystander starts screaming. Twiggy looks around for the magnum, doesn't see it, and tells the Stooges that they're leaving. He tells the Stooges to give him a gun, and one coughs up a 9mm. They head for the Steak-n-Shake. Bradbury asks what Twiggy was thinking, putting them into that. Bradbury wants them to quit trying to do good and to go take territory instead, like maybe the Colosseum.

The Stooges and Twiggy arrive and explain what happened. "I see it's the Stooges as usual," Jones says, which doesn't please the gang. Mac explains that treating Billings cleaned out his medical supplies, so the deal is going to be that he'll lay his hands on Twiggy to heal him, and Twiggy will repay him by finding or trading for medical supplies (not stealing it or killing anyone for them) and bringing them back.

Frost meets Garfield, some thugs, and Shelley at the old water tower and reports in. Garfield is not happy that Augustus wants to be paid, because they have nothing to trade with. They ask if Frost can get the into the Colosseum, which she can, and then they ask if she can get them in without the maestro'd knowing about it, which Frost says they can't afford. Shelley accepts that answer, and they all head into town together. They're not far outside of own when Frost feels someone watching them, so she tells her new friends to hurry it up. In fact she decides that it's best to lay down some suppressive fire to let the rest of the group move on. She thinks she hits whoever was watching, and the ex-Watervale contingent hustle through. They soon arrive at the Colosseum and approach the front door. There's a crowd there, and Apple keeping them out. Apple does not seem to know that they're expected, so he sends Tinian to fetch the boss.

Tinian finds Gus' door locked, because the proprietor is opening his brain, hoping to get insight into how to chart a path forward for the Colosseum. He has someone else's memory of the place when it was a basketball arena, but the nets are all retracted, and there's a pop band giving an wonderful concert. He remembers being pumped, and leaving the show in a fantastic mood, walking outside into the dark. He comes to, opens his closet door, and retires to safety.

When Frost and Shelley hear that nobody can find Augustus, they ask for Skint, who also has no idea where the hell the boss went. Skint is willing to let them in if they do a little crowd control. Frost agrees to help Apple keep people out if they let her friends in. Avery is at the front of the crowd, and Frost makes eye contact with him so hard that he just freezes in place, then steps backward. She puts her hand on her gun and tells the crowd that the building is not open, and they need to have some patience. The crowd decides that they will not push the point at this moment.

They all go into Gus' office and find that Gus left a letter for Skint, laying out the dream he had, and ending with, "Follow your dream." Skint decides that her dream is to run this place and puts herself in charge. Shelley tells her that what she wants for tonight is a chance to make her pitch to the crowd. Skint is not real sure how to put all this together, and at that point, Knell walks in and assures all present that he'll put the crowd in a positive mood. He also gives Shelley an extra "heeeyyyyy." People generally ignore him.

Twiggy and Aurora go to the show. Knell, despite being a purely acoustic act, plays absurdly loud. It makes no sense. He sings songs about love and friendship and good times that bring the crowd together. In between sets, Shelley makes her pitch to the crowd about how she can take charge and build something new and wonderful here.

Frost is out during the show, hunting for more of the dispersal caches Grandma made in case the Bakery vanished. She finds the chalk outline of a door and no food. It's a child-sized door. She does manage to find some other caches with valuable supplies in them, but finds chalk doors all over the place. She runs into Gumball at one point. Frost asks if Gumball knows where Augustus went. Turns out that he was spotted whistling a tune and heading out to look at the stars. She has to explain what stars are, and says that she hasn't seen the night sky since before she was born. When Frost asks, she also volunteers that Grandma walked off into the sunset. Gumball also helpfully tells Frost that the grocery store has vanished and the only source of food she knows of is the bodega. Frost lets Gumball know that she's been to the Spire and made it to the 14th floor, and that the Joneses are a big problem. Gumball thinks the real question is how to keep the Goddess from making more Joneses. Frost thinks maybe she needs to get to the Goddess and work it out with her.

Twiggy goes to the Colosseum looking for Gus, and gets shown the letter. Knell wanders in as they're trying to figure out where they stand and reminds Twiggy that running the Colosseum is a huge job. As Twiggy and Skint fence verbally, Knell realizes that the best way to turn Twiggy into a fan would be to help him take over. Rather more importanly, Skint wants Twiggy to fall in line and back her play. Twiggy lays out several reasons why he should run the place, not least of which is that unlike Skint, he brings muscle with him. She yells for Apple to do something about the guy in her chair, but when Twiggy reminds him that he once saved Apple's life, Skint runs out of support in the room. She leaves in a huff. Knell tells her he'll see her at the next show. She responds by spitting at him, which hurts Knell's feelings. Some of the Stooges decide to follow the new boss into his new role, but most of them hit the road, under Crocker's leadership.

Skip Skeevy has heard that Augustus quit, and shows up at the Colosseum in time to see Skint get escorted out. He decides to try to interview Skint, who is delighted to dish certain information. As they walk over to Joe's, she explains how Twiggy screwed her.

Not too much later, Bradbury tells Twiggy that there's a reporter there, wanting to talk to the new management. Knell intercepts Skip and centers himself firmly in the center of the story, but Skip is too experienced a reporter to care about what performers say. He then gets to Twiggy, who assures him that the venue is going to focus more on fun and less on mayhem. Skip and Twiggy make a deal to get some positive coverage for the "new" Colosseum.

Things are quieter on the streets in the morning. Shelley has set up at the Starbucks. MacWillard, with Jones watching, goes to visit her there, and they ran into Frost. They chat briefly, and then let them in. Frost goes to speak to Garfield. He's appreciative and pays off what he owes her. He then takes her to Shelley, who's been surprised by how quickly problems for her to solve have been coming in. Frost relays the bad news about the grocery store. Shelley, Garfield, and Thomas are all concerned. Shelley offers to pay for information on food sources and on anyone who might be able to drive and take care of business. Frost makes a mental note to find Aurora. Mac then comes in and assures her that he has no grudges, thinks she'll be a great leader here, and he wishes her only the best. Meanwhile, Jones opens his brain, and has a memory of being in a courtroom, watching his boss work, and thinking that he absolutely nailed it. The jury deliberates and comes back with a guilty verdict, which absolutely shocks Jones. The boss gathers his stuff, shakes hands with the prosecutor, and tells Jones that sometimes you do your best and still don't win.