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« on: September 06, 2011, 10:04:53 PM »
Apocalypse World -- Appalachia, Windmills and Treehouses -- Session 17
"Maps" (or "The Naked Episode")
Before any opening session rolls are made or anything of the sort, we flashbacked to about 10 years ago in the lives of various characters. By point of comparison, the holding's been around as is for about 3 years. [Note: lots of maps were drawn and used in this session. I hope Meg is able to post some of them here!]
Out beyond the strip-mined mountain lies the Gover Mitney highway, an armored holding made of a truck stop. Hooch (at the age of 14), Dolarhyde and Barbecue are all standing together as if in portrait on the highway. Hooch has a shiny new bike, which he found while scavenging out on the trail. It had flipped onto its previous owner, who lay dying beneath it. Hooch grabbed the bike and drove over him as he departed. Meanwhile, Barbecue's the cook at the truck stop, but A.T. the boss sucks. A.T. has decorated himself like a ravenSee Barbecue himself isn't a victim of A.T.'s chief crime (hint: he's a slaver), but he did bat shit to Frankie. So he put the word out to Hooch to take his new bike and look for a new spot. Meanwhile, Dolarhyde's brokering deals on peripherals to get enough goods to start the holding for real, though he "doesn't deal in slaves." He also doesn't know Hooch none too well, nor does he trust Barbecue placing all his eggs in one basket with this young boy. This is the moment when Hooch tells him about the hilltop with the windmill tubes; Barbecue/Hooch's future holding. Dolarhyde stays behind, but then leaves a little later. Why? Proust. He turned down his daughter. Hooch, by the way, was saved by a boar at age 5, and struck a deal with the boar at the founding of the holding that the boar would hold off eating them all if Hooch kept him around. Barbecue and Hooch come rolling up into Burroughs' haunted domain (as he had kept away scavengers and looters with his brain and knives up until then). Burroughs is completely surprised by the arrival of all these traders, escaped slaves and rangers pulling up into his territory to stay. When Barbecue takes the cabin for himself, he arrives behind the man. "I'm the ghost," Burroughs says as Barbecue turns around to see a shoddily clad man-thing with a bag over its head. "Boo." Barbecue and Burroughs negotiate an amiable truce, as Burroughs is interested in the brains of the new arrivals, and Barbecue is interested in Burroughs not "murdering people in their sleep."
Flashback to October in the City, a dirty scruffy kid. The elegant older girl Belinda, who looks a lot like Kate Bush, has taken her in off the streets and is currently cutting her hair. Soon after, Belinda would die, and October hatched a plan with Snow and Dusk to desert the City. Their plan would become the Moulin Noir. It was Eliza who directed her not to venture near the Gover Mitney, and instead settle among the strip mines in Barbecue's holding.
Hazel was raised as a "nun" with the Whispering Daughters of Mary in the shadow of one of the mountaintop-removal zones. The nuns raised her harshly in a highly disciplined cloister environment, which then had them running raids on the slavers when they ran out of food (Hooch remembers Hazel and her fiery red hair from being assaulted by them at one point). One of the main features of "whispering" is the elaborate, slow dance rituals the nuns perform; a nameless nun taught Hazel how to use the forms to fight. She eventually flees the nunnery and winds up in the Warrens as a dancer in Roschild's establishment. She overhears Enough-to-Eat, the Warrens' chieftain, talk of the full nature of her exploitation of her own people and is then thrown in a Warrens prison for months. The chaos around the blinkwolves assault allowed her to escape.
So now with the opening rolls: October's followers (fail) suffer from hunger and disease. There's new germs around, not enough food and shelter to protect people from them, and even October's acquired a cough. Hooch (holding: partial) is finding that the holding is full of idleness -- too many refugees, and no clear answers on where to put them. Hoarding has begun, and the future ghettoization of the Warrens refugees appears to be nearing. Dolarhyde (gigs: fail) has been avoiding Proust from the old Gover Mitney holding because he's convinced Dolarhyde knocked up his daughter. Proust's going to catch Dolarhyde in a bad spot shortly. As for Dolarhyde's (gig: fail) brokering of deals, well, the other guys from the Warrens have pretty much cut themselves loose from him. Now he's going to have to look to new people in order to move forward in this new holding.
Where were we from last time? Hooch and Jones were heading up to the haunted windmill. October and Burroughs were dealing with the fallout from the followers' dissent last time, when Dolarhyde and Hazel arrived with Barbecue and October becomes distracted.
October leads Hazel over to Moulin Noir and serves her tea. Hazel downs it in one gulp, her hair tossing back and revealing that her left ear has been cut off and is only mangled tissue. October is trying to win over Hazel immediately (artful and gracious: success - Hx: interfere: partial -> partial). She can take comfort that Hazel will slowly fall in love with her over the course of the evening. Hazel strips naked and gets into October's tub. Soon she's relaxed and singing a strangely nun-like version of Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield." Placed at ease, Hazel begins to chat with October about her time in the Warrens, especially about Roschild's betrayal of her. She even gets so melodramatic as to rise out of the tub as if to go off and kill Roschild. October blocks the door: "That won't be necessary." They (mutual read a person: partial) pause and October figures that she can maintain Hazel's loyalty by not abusing her like the nuns and Enough-to-Eat did. Fair enough. Hazel finds that October wants to sleep with her and, after she discovers her coveted record player, she can hardly say no. But she also gives the impression to October that she's a wild type; the Moulin Noir could be in ashes if she wanted it so. Her fickle moods are in the right place, for now. After they sleep together, Hazel wears October's kimono and wants October to "choose her new weapon." October gives her an antique pistol, which Hazel accepts with pride. Their scene ends with Hazel performing a slow kimono dance for her.
Dolarhyde promptly begins as Burroughs' medical assistant. His first task is to watch over Nash (read a situation: success). He knows that Nash, who's still thrashing around intensely because of the poison, actually poses himself the biggest threat by vomiting, but maybe he can stave it off by forcing him to vomit. Burroughs seems to be the real one in charge here: he deals with patients behind the tent flap and keeps an ear out (read a person: partial) for how Dolarhyde does. He gathers that Dolarhyde would be better off bartering off Burroughs' healthcare services than actually helping him provide them. Case in point: he tries to induce vomiting in Nash with one of A.T.'s keepsake black feathers (act under fire: partial), only to have Nash vomit all over him. Burroughs enters to help him clean up Nash, only to send off Dolarhyde in his vomit-covered suit. He proceeds to the refugees' fire, where he strips down to his boxers and burns his suit. Burroughs approaches him after this ritual has been completed. "I still got a job for you." he says. "Go down to Valley Camp. Bring me their sick, their injured. We'll make nice barter off those that come." Dolarhyde finds these terms acceptable and sets up a new gig.
Barbecue wants to head to Valley Camp tomorrow as fulfilling his larger vision for the holding, but only after a good night's sleep. Scratch that; Hooch now owns Barbecue's cabin. He sighs and goes to sleep in the still, only to find Honeytree and Roschild holed up there for the night. When he arrives, he first gets a big hug from Honeytree, then a kiss. "Can I crash?" he asks her. "Sure," she replies, pregnant with meaning. He's on guard (read a person: success), but it appears her designs on him are benign: she just wants to sleep with him. On the floor. Right now. She likes to do it cowgirl-style. Well, shit: that's a problem, 'cause he doesn't love her (and is a Touchstone). Loveless sex is still how he spends his night before the Valley Camp trip…
Hooch and Jones arrive at the haunted windmill, with Hooch's express purpose to get rid of the nightmares he's been having. He tells Jones: "I've got to protect this holding from whatever these ghosts are." He gazes up at the giant mural spiraling up the inside of the windmill, ending in the bats at the top. The last entry on the mural, so it seems, is Hooch shooting Rolfball down in Valley Camp. Curious… Anyway, he assesses the situation (success) and finds the presence in here to be more benign than he thought: they're here to record stories, watch, and possess foreknowledge of things to come. He still wants attention from them, though, so he heads to the top of the windmill, yells "Hey motherfuckers! I'm talking to you!" and takes his ax to one of the older drawings depicting the Old Valley before the big Event (go aggro on the mural: success). Jones immediately flips out, and one of the Historians does in fact make an appearance. Since they live through the characters, they appear as them. Hooch sees himself there with an ax, and has to offer himself a hard bargain: either they inhabit him and see what he sees or he will tear down the windmill. Hooch's double shrugs. "Stop the nightmares." Hooch demands. "Life is scary, shit happens." the other Hooch replies. "It'll give you nightmares." Hooch is taken aback by the fact that they think he's afraid of anything, but they seem nonplussed. Hooch eventually confesses: "I'm scared that it's all too big," gesturing at the whole mural and referring to his huge responsibilities as cardholder. Other Hooch has a simple reply: "People, they're not that complicated. … Nobody knows how their story ends." They agree to meet again sometime and Hooch will likely continue to visit the haunted windmill in the future. Jones is still shaking at the bottom of the windmill. Hooch claps him on the back and offers him a space in his cabin if he'd like it.
Next session will begin with Dolarhyde, Barbecue and possibly others in Valley Camp, and building actions in progress to provide shelter for the refugees back at the holding.
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