LogAWBO Smoke On The Water-Jason-3

Game log for the 2022/11/06 session of Apocalypse World Burned Over - Smoke On The Water, as taken by Jason

JP brings Churban to Jacob's infirmary, and Jacob swiftly applies his healing touch, which ensures that the man without a past does not become a man without a future. There's one point where he has Churban sedated and he's working his way through diagnostics that he notices a lump on the back of Churban's head. At first he thinks it's swelling from an injury, but upon closer examination, it turns out to be some manner of subdermal implant. He begins trying to pull it out, and finds that there's some sort of metal covering or replacing part of Churban's skull, and there's a jack or port there. WTF? Jacob decides not to try to pull it out. There's no scarring, so either this was somehow done from an incision elsewhere, or the surgeon was an artist.

Bulldog, one of the guards, tells Jacob that Churban is trouble and they need to get rid of him. Jacob won't get rid of him until he's done healing up. Bulldog warns the boss that he thinks Jacob's putting himself in danger and he may take action.

Churban has another vision. He and Merody are in the planetarium. They aren't allowed there, but they like to sneak in together. At some point, one of the Guardians find them, and they are known to be devoid of sympathy, compassion, or empathy for lovers. Churban tries to talk his way out of this, but the Guardian jams the barrel of an assault rifle into her eye, and that's when they know they have to escape. The Guardian never displays any emotion as he does this. He's matter of fact, laconic, and never hesitates to use force when words fail. He wakes up from the vision, and finds it dark and quiet. It isn't usually quiet in the infirmary, but it is now. He can sense that he isn't alone in the room. Someone is moving quietly off to the side and around past the head of the bed. His best hope to survive might be to make some noise before he's silenced. He looks around for a weapon and sees an instrument tray nearby, just out of arms reach. He loudly asks who's there, and then someone clamps a hand over his mouth and says, "How do you know?" Whoever it is starts to put a blade at Churban't throat. The noise wakes Jacob up. Churban grabs hold of the hand that was coming in, and latches on for dear life. The attacker tries to cover his mouth and nose, and Churban bites hard. The attacker keeps talking in Churban's ear, but he can't hear.

Jacob walks in to see this small but vicious brawl between Bulldog and Churban. He orders Bulldog to let him go and grabs sedatives. Churban starts to turn blue from lack of oxygen. Jacob tries to sedate Bulldog, but the guard seems him coming, and moves his arm out of the way. Churban gets the sedative instead. Ooops. Churban tries to twist his arm around, but he's losing strength, and Bulldog cuts him. Bulldog steps back and reverses the knife. Just then, Shoeshine comes in and says, "What the fuck, man?" Jacob realizes that something is going on to push Bulldog into this. He doesn't normally attack people like this.

Bulldog tells Jacob that Churban knows stuff he shouldn't know, personal stuff, which he then says in his sleep. Bulldog declares he's going to end this now and goes to finish Churban off, and Jacob tries to tackle him. That keeps Churban safe, but Bulldog stabs Jacob instead, tearing a hole in his shoulder. Shoeshine is really confused now, and Jacob asks him to help him stop Bulldog. Shoeshine steps on Bulldog's knife wrist, and Bulldog decides not to try to pull his pistol. He stops struggling, Shoeshine disarms him, and then they all sort of go to neutral corners. Jacob asks Bulldog why, and Bulldog keeps repeating, "How does he know? No one knows." Jacob has someone take him to the padded room, and someone else get him a giant bandaid.

Jacob then decides to open his brain. He inadvertently leaves his brain open to Churban's unconscious psyche. Churban knows he could really get Jacob under his thumb if he controlled or threatened the plants or water, and that that Jacob might take even closer care of him if he projected himself as more of a charity case. Churban picks up Jacob's greatest secret fear - having to kill someone for the greater good. Jacob did it once before, to someone named Andrea, a hothead who got in with the wrong people, and she was working her way up to stealing drugs and poisoning everybody. Jacob sits down, stunned and incoherent, and Churban, still unconscious, says, "I know it was you who killed Andrea."

Some days have passed since the expedition to the bottom of The Shambles now. JP treats himself to a big knife at the market. He's out and about when someone slides up to him and casually mentions that Bantam's boat just pulled in. He immediately goes looking for Crill. They meet up. Crill's been working security in the market. Finch has been doing some shopping and found himself a tech repair kit, so everyone is in the market when Crill sees one of Bantam's lackies in the market. Crill asks his business, and he assures him that he's just looking. Everyone's spidey senses start tingling. Frank the dog is around sniffing at stuff, but Pickles is focused on Crill. Finch realizes that if Crill goes loud, Pickles will probably join in, and that means Finch has to be involved too. His best way out would be to use his dog whistle to get him and his dogs out. He tries to do just that, but as he backs up, he bumps a boat engine on a repair stand, steps in oil, slips, falls, exhales reflexively, and accidentally blows the attack noise on his mouth. Crill tries to think of some way to get this guy out of the market, and is busy thinking it will take a show of force, but hasn't gotten there yet when Pickles goes tearing past him. John Paul Jones is looking around and figures his best way out is to use Crill as a decoy. If he can just get out of this guy's line of sight, he can sneak out any number of ways. However, if all Bantam's men aren't here, that suggests they're at JP's boat. That, in turn, suggests that maybe he could steal Bantam's boat to escape.

Anyway, before anyone was ready or expected things to go bad, Pickles just rocketed into the situation and affixed his jaw firmly to the bad guy's crotch. JP slips away. The minion begins fumbling for his gun. Crill tries to call Pickles, but Pickles does not respond. Crill pulls his knife but realizes he can't make the throw without potentially hitting Pickles, so he moves in. The minion shoots Crill in the gut as he moves in, though Crill's heavy body armor absorbs most of that impact. The gunshot startles Pickes for a minute, but then he bites anew, and this time he gets a tooth into the minion's femoral. Finch blows his whistle again so that Frank will engage too. Given the way that femoral is spraying blood, it doesn't seem like Frank is going to have a lot of work to do.

Guy is not happy about this incident in his place of business. He orders Finch to get out and not ever bring "those mangy mutts" to the market again. He orders Crill to send someone to talk to Stempler right away. Meanwhile, Finch has tucked himself and his dogs away in his bolthole. Said bolthole is in The Shambles, in a dry room that can only be reached by diving under first and then getting past the previous owner's traps. Finch found it earlier, and cleared out the previous owner's remains in the time between sessions.

JP works his way over to Bantam's boat, and confirms that it isn't entirely deserted, though the watch isn't especially alert. He decides to find some Grey Cutters, and finds Torren. The Grey Cutters aren't interested in solving this problem for free, and apparently coming into town and threatening people is not against Stempler's version of the law. JP does report that a crime was committed in Guy's place, and for his pains, Torren tells him to fuck off. Just then, he sees a wounded Crill approaching.

Crill brushes in, jokes to JP about how quickly his exit from the market was, and asks Torren if JP is starting trouble with him. Without waiting for a response, Crill tells them that Guy needs someone to come collect a body from the market. Torren assures him he'll go tell Stempler. Torren being a Crill-hater, it's likely he will present the news to Stempler in a "Crill killed someone at Guy's" fashion.