AP: Welcome, New Jerk

Introducing:
"Brazor" - After Brace's warlord, Newton, was killed, Brace grabbed his weapon and went looking for the assassin. He found Razor hidden away with her long range rifle, one thing led to another, and now they're fucking.
Crimson - A small hold with decent people who retains a semblance of tradition, and a small library of books.
Levis, Diesel, Sammy, X - Some teenagers from Crimson. Levis is big and strong but a bit uncertain, Diesel is a pouty girl that's supposed to marry him (Yes, they do that), Sammy is awesome because she has a bike. The last guy, I don't remember what his name was, except that it wasn't Fifi. He's the dark brooding type.
The river people - The river is Bad, so Crimsoners stay away from it. There is some greenish algea goop on the water that sticks to you. The river people have embraced the river and it's goop, they live on inter-connected rafts, drifting up and down the river. They constantly have a small amount of goop on them.
John - One of the river people.
Glendower - The leader of the river people, an ancient man in a wheelchair. The folds and furrows of his face are green with ingrained algea, and his long beard has a bright greenish hue. I picked the name from the top of my head, only later realising it wasn't from an Apocalypse World namelist, but rather the name of our friend Glendower, here on the forum! Funny. :D
Beastie - Baddest ass in gang of no-gooders
Fianelly - Leads a hold centered in an old bunker
Crin - Leads a nomad hold

Introducing Sin
This session also saw the appearence of Sin the Skinner, the new player character. Glenn describing his character went something like this: "She is of latino descent..." "YEAH!" "...imagine Michelle Rodriguez..." "HOT!"

We're so eurocentric (We live in Europe, even), so playing new ethnic groups gets us excited. Canaveral is afro-american, so that is awesome too. Of course, in Apocalypse World, gender, ethnicity and sexuality doesn't really seem to mean anything, so that makes it easier, there is a lot less fear of "doing it wrong"; I think. Sin has a lot of pre-apocalypse concepts on her: Glasses, pink tank top, jeans, rockabilly tattoos, katana.... and good looks. I also like the fact that Glenn choose latino looks, because otherwise, a girl with glasses and katana would just make me think manga.

In case you didn't realise it from the session report, Sin has the move "an arresting skinner".

Session seven:
Jonatan summed it up pretty well, I'm basically just going to add some complements, emphases and thoughts.

I went in with zero prep except for the MC love letters I wrote for everyone. I just threw out some random ideas on Nero's paper, but he put it together to a real coherent story, which was also connected to Brine as it turned out in the end - So we ended up doing high octane action & adventure after all. :) Even though you broke some kind of record of rolling snake eyes, this is probably the session where your characters kicked the most ass. I think both Sin and Nero got two advances during the session, continuing the experience madness from last session. (Sin's hot was highlighted, and she picked A devil with a blade at the start of the session, as a result of her introductionary letter.)

It started out kind of slow and uncertain, the first few minutes was just me getting a feel for Sin, but then it kicked off in style. Once again I realised that, hey, it's ten PM, and I forgot to take breaks again. That's the loss of time conception of a strong flow state! My particular favourite scene was Sin threatening John to have him let her go, or Brace would kill him. "Who's Brace?" he says, and then the rain clears up, and Brace and Razor are standing on top of the approaching dam, readying their weapons (Sin used her move Lost), with Canaveral beside them. (Canaveral used her move Bonefeel.)

With you constantly failing your rolls, I got a lot of practice in snowballing moves, which was nice. I think separate them is my favorite move right now...

There was a lot of Weird stuff going on. It turned out that Sin's maelstrom took the image of an old water energy plant or purification plant (I don't quite remember, actually), and as John was preaching veneration for the river from his li'l raft, she decided to open her brain and take a look, failed her weird roll, and came to after she had smeared some green on her face, which is when Johns fascination with Sin started.

When John pushes Sin down into the water (I love how you can't swim, and I'm pushing you down water all the time. Water = Scary!) she manages an Open your brain roll, and finds out that the river is full of nano-machinery bacterium (But I didn't call it that) which have lost their purpose, only seeking to absorbing matter and reproduce.

(Which I illustrated by manically grabbing everything in reach, crying "More! More! More! MOAR!". This upset my players a lot more than I had expected.)

That pillar that thrust Sin out of the water was some kind of silicon-like material, which then dissolved into water again.

Nitpick: Diesel wasn't swept away by the water, but rather covered in goop. This is a taboo in Crimson, so she had a bit of a life crisis, howling and running away from the others, seeking out the river people as it turned out.


And I think I know what the maelstrom is now.

I think you did Jonathan, was intressting read for me at least :).

I love to play Sin, I cant wait to spill more beans, cause more trouble and solve trouble. Loved the "one year older" Nero and Canaveral, its gona be so much fun to learn more about them.

Loved Nero's ninja move! :)

And I picked latino mostly because... I never played one seriously, and well, hot and California made me think "Latino".

Arvid: I was thinking, now that I've advanced "Open your brain", that I should come up with some fantastic idea about what the maelstrom really was, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to describe it if I should roll 12+. But if you, who have been into it the most since you've been into five different maelstroms (the characters' and Brine's), have a good idea I'll roll with that. If that's okay with you. I mean, when you open your brain the first time you get to describe it yourself, but at this point I'd prefer something thought-through to something personal.

Arvid: I was thinking, now that I've advanced "Open your brain", that I should come up with some fantastic idea about what the maelstrom really was, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to describe it if I should roll 12+. But if you, who have been into it the most since you've been into five different maelstroms (the characters' and Brine's), have a good idea I'll roll with that. If that's okay with you. I mean, when you open your brain the first time you get to describe it yourself, but at this point I'd prefer something thought-through to something personal.

When you roll a 12+ on opening your brain, I'll ask you if you wanna tell me what you see, or if I should tell you. Then, we'll see what happens.
Play to find out what happens. (Not plan)

Here's the people Sin slept with for her MC letter:

Barker, who gave her a gift, her pretty glasses - That's cool! Barker has always been this asocial guy who just want to stay in his shed and Work With Things. Who would've thought he could be gentle?

Daimyo, who will give her shelter - Oh, this is just rich, the other two PC's doesn't want to come within a mile radius of Daimyo.

Brace, who will help her out with something useful, killing people - EVERYBODY loves Brace.

III, who wants to please her, like so bad - Man, III is turning into a borderline case. I'll have to do some gender anti-stereotyping here.

Beastie, who must have her and won't let go - As of yet unintroduced

Rose, who scares her like hell - Rose, Daimyo and Sin. Great triangle.

Razor, who Sin still has feelings for, but she wishes she didn't - And Razor is fucking Brace. Awesome. Guess Razor is okay with that, but Sin feels it's complicated.

---

All in all, good stuff indeed for a little paper.

New gamesnight, new story. I´ll try to summarize.

A short jump back to Crimson, accompanied by some 20-odd survivors from the Riverpeople. They see Sin as a prophet and Nero as some kind of invincible hero (cutting their arrows in half mid-flight does that, i presume).
Brace and Razor also keeps hanging around, catching up on the last couple of months.
Canaveral occupies herself with Corbet, the Crimson child ridden with the mystical disease that was the reason for confronting the Riverpeople at all. Red blisters, cold and clammy skin, that kind of thing.

While Sin chats the evening away with Brace and Razor (who keeps hoping for a threesome, but Sin would rather just have Brace), Nero and Canaveral speaks to the Riverpeople about a cure for the disease. One of their young guns, Abraham (?), chucks a spear at Nero, who catches it and snaps it in half, winning even more of a hero status. The crowd calms down, and offers to bring them both to a place where the cure might be found. Having no other leads they accept, agreeing to leave Crimson the next morning.

Back in the tavern where they are lodged they meet up with Sin, Brace and Razor again, and relaxes together for a while. Sin whines a bit about her (mostly self-inflicted) wounds from the "Great Dam Battle", and Canaveral helps her weird-style with Healing Touch, letting her warm and dry interpretation of the maelstrom take the edge of the near-drowning damage Sin has suffered.
Suddenly a buzzing is heard from Neros luggage. The old walkie-talkie comes crackling to life! Daimyos voice carries over the room, and Sin picks up the call, acting secretary for Nero. Daimyo don´t recognice her voice, but he wants to talk to Canaveral. Canaveral lets him spill his beans - there seems to be quite a lot of people in New Jerk struck by the very same disease they are already trying to find a cure for. The team reluctantly promises to see what can be done, and agrees to head down to New Jerk after the expected cure has been tried out on Corbet.
Sin ends up in bed with Brace and Razor, snuggling rather than fucking, somewhat unpredictedly sharing secrets with Razor after Brace falls asleep. Razor learns that Sin is born and raised in New Jerk, and she is in fact the daughter of restaurant-owner Rose.

The next day Nero, Canaveral and the Riverpeople head upstreams, towards the source of the River. The Mother.
The trip is unexpectedly simple, the only issues being Moses (a Riverchild covered in so much algea and goo we started thinking of him/her as Cousin It) and Rachel (Nero´s very own fanboy, he badly wants to be close to The Hero).
Anyways, the expedition arrives at this great structure up in the mountains, like a giant spear cleaving the rock. The Riverpeople seem to hold some kind of reverence for this place, and motions Canaveral and Nero to carry their quest inside.
Stalking the interior of the place, they notice something stirring in the shadows. Nero opens his brain to it, reassuring the being of his good intentions and arranging for some kind of meeting. Following the soft noices it makes they finally come to a large room with high ceiling, all filled with old computers and screens. And in the middle of this the very same man Canaveral knocked out cold inside the Great Dam. He certainly must have moved fast to get here on his own... We learn his name is Reckoning, and he really wants to join us with the equipment that should be the cure for the disease. Some kind of advanced dialysis, we decided. The needle reminds Canaveral of Brine a little to much for comfort, but if this is the cure so be it.
On the trip back to Crimson Rachel warns Nero about Reckoning, whispering about how he carries death and that one should not let him touch you. Oblivious to this little chat, Canaveral spends most of the raftride keeping close to Reckoning an trying to get him to talk about how the machine works.

Meanwhile, in Crimson. Sin is spending time with Brace and Razor in the fields surrounding the village when Levis finally gets around to asking her about Diesel (his betrothed, the girl who fell in the river and later was chopped up by Sin). She lets him know that Diesel is dead, and when he whines about it Razor steps up and shoot him, just like that! "What, he seemed to annoy you, and it´s not like we´re staying here much longer." Sin and Razor argues a bit about this, but Brace herds Razor away and leaves Sin with the dying Levis. At first she tried to drag him back to Crimson, but she finds he´s to heavy for her. In the end, she just sits there and lets the young man die listening to her MP3-player in the middle of the field.

The River-expedition returns to Crimson. Canaveral and Reckoning immediately hooks Corben up to the dialys, with Nero and Sin as on-lookers. They keep at it for hours, Nero and Sin heading back to the tavern. Canaveral falls asleep in the sick-room, dreams of a deep-frozen girlchild in a cold room smelling of salt... She is woken up in the dawn by the touch of Reckoning, who tells her the process is done. Corben seems a little warmer now, breathing with a bit more ease. Success!

Soon enough the team is ready for the journey to New Jerk, and Reckoning is coming as well. Brace and Razor heads off to other horizons, making this weird promise about burying us if we die before the next time they see us. We immediately establish this as one of the more common leave-takings in California. Noone in Crimson knows about Levis´ death as of yet.

Failing all the rolls to travel safely over the wastelands our heroes find themselves lost in The Pit, the very place the were trying to avoid on the way to New Jerk. Sun is setting, supplies have been out for a while, and both Reckoning and Canaveral have disappeared...
Nero starts to open his brain (getting more and more common) to locate them, but Sin stops him and shows him her "Lost" move instead, whispering Reckonings name to the maelstrom.
Canaveral finds herself waking up from briefly passing out stuck in some kind of forgotten Dog-cult-trap (courtesy of a failed Bonefeel-roll at the start of the session). Reckoning is gleefully giggling, having hooked her up to the dialys (blood out only). Canaveral stares him down, forcing him to back of, and then he just walks away (drawn back to the camp by Sins maelstrom-call). Keeping her cools, Canaveral manages to get the needle out and proceeds to free herself from the trap.

In the camp, Sin easily spots Reckoning´s lies as he tells her and Nero he has not seen Canaveral. Sin goes aggro on him, but he forces her hand, stating he is invincible. Sin promptly runs him trough with her sword, and then she and Nero tries to backtrack him. They find Canaveral just out of the trap, packing the dialys together. She tells them about Reckoning, and learns that he´s dead as a doornail.
As they get back to the camp, a couple of the Pit-dogs are fighting for the last scrap of Reckoning, nothing else is to be seen of the body (dun-dun-duuuuun).

Night falls. An argument breaks out regarding the fact that the party is out of food, ending with Canaveral accusing Sin of being a spoiled brat, telling her to stop her whining. Sin takes the first watch (you don´t sleep without in The Pit). Tired of being hungry and lost she calls for backup through the maelstrom, pulling on Rolfballs strings, hoping for a savior before dawn.
Then the dogs attack, a whole pack of them. They start chewing on Sin, who (mostly) takes care of herself until Nero jumps into the fray to scare the bastards away. Canaveral is still half-asleep, dreaming about Brine, sensing her out in the wastland night. As a result, Canaveral misses out on the fight, but at least tries to help the wounded Sin. Sadly, she fails and opens her brain and Sin´s up to The Pit and the everpresent Brine...

By now, Arvid was out of ideas and we agreed to leave the results of this roll to the next session.

Nero got an advancement back at the beginning of this session, I think when opening his brain to find Reckoning, and still hasn't used it. I have an idea of a second character though, so yeah.

This was pretty much a lull session, we went along with stuff. Some interpersonal drama between Sin-Brazor and in the end the three of us, arguing about who didn't do any work and petty things like that. Otherwise not much action, but it was nice as a contrast to last session's ass-kicking.

Thanks for the write-up!

When you write it up, it really shows just how bleak this session was, all my imagery was in grey and hueless beige. I imagined the river part as very clouded in damp and heavy grey clouds, and just look at poor Levis' pointless death.

It wasn't a very exciting or fast session, rather aimless even. A lot of time was spent giggling at sexual themes.

In a way, I liked that. It's so liberating to just sit down and see what happens, and having you say "You know, I don't think this disease is so interesting" at the end of the session, and me saying "Yeah, I think so too, let's focus on you going back to New Jerk".

It feels good to know that it's okay to be boring sometimes.

Anyway, I'd like to add the following:
- I nuanced Razor killing Diesel a bit by having Brace explain she had taken something. She promised not to while they where in town...
- Sin didn't tell anyone about Diesel, but when riding out the following day, she could swear she saw him waving them goodbye. Of course she doesn't explore this further, as his death is a secret.
- Canaveral catches a glimpse of someone or something moving far out in the darkness when waking up.
- The conversation with Daimyo was funny, pretty cute even. :)
- I had Canaveral roll weird EVERY TIME she went to sleep. The weird part of her is really waking up. This also helped set the tired, treadmill mood to the session, I think.

This very bleak and eerie session however, sets us up wonderfully for the next one. I have a wonderful idea of how to start it, and Jonatans new character will make a nice entrance as well. I've mailed with him, and it's a great concept who will take your group in an interesting direction, I think. Sin and Canaveral, lost in the maelstrom, a new person showing up... The timing is perfect. It's time for their vision quest. It's going to be sweet.

And then we'll see where things go from there.

Dont forget that Sin also told people while they had drunken chat that she can play the guitar and sing.

And you mean Levis and not Diesel right Arvid?

All these jeans-named people...

We played today, and after some switching back and forth between Nero and my new character, Tai the Savvyhead, I retired the former to safety. Stuff happened before this, but I'm tired and just want to get this up. The gist is that we made it back to New Jerk with Rolfball's help, Sin got in some business with her mom and Canaveral set up her gear to fix the epidemic. Later that evening:

---

Nero was sitting in Exit's tent, minding the weirdo machine. Sure, it helped against the affliction, or seemed to at least, but it still wasn't natural, see what I mean? I mean ew, blood's supposed to stay inside the body.

How'd he ended up here again? Sure, he didn't mind helping people, but he wasn't needed here. Canaveral was, yes, but he started to feel more and more that he was following her around. And for what? The company. That was all it was, in the end. Roaming California trying to make your way together is better than doing it on your own. But getting tied down in New Jerk again, because that shitface Daimyo can't take care of his own hold, that sucks no matter who you got to do it with.

There were too many places to avoid here, and it wouldn't take long before someone would recognize him. Nero hadn't even visited anyone, but was already feeling like everyone wanted to keep him here. Daimyo of course, but there were others. Word was Nail was still in town. Two Moon would probably want to preach, but the way they tapped the maelstrom in the - oh god - water cult wasn't anything for him anymore. That girl III kept showing up, and she was doubtless around somewhere. And Barker. Rose. Scream. Fox. Oh man, Fox.

Canny and that mechanic guy, Tai, showed up. They wanted to go looking for Sin, round up the crew. Sure, as long as it could be done without too much of a fuss. Fat chance with that Sin, though, but anyway. Watching a machine suck out the blood of someone they were supposed to help wasn't very thrilling either.

Nero kept a low profile as they walked the streets. The place was bigger now, admitted, and there were a lot of people he didn't recognize. They kept drawing closer to the fort. Not that way. Tai seemed to try to talk Canny into seeing Daimyo. Don't. Please don't. He doesn't have to know we're here. Well, he knows we're here, but he doesn't have to notice, doesn't have to realize until we're gone. Poof.

Suddenly the megaphone crackled to noise again. It was Sin, surprisingly (or expected?). Something about a party in the fort, and someone's mother. Tai kept at it, now he wanted Canny to come to the party. Sensibly, she declined. Tai turned to Nero.

"What about you, Nero? A night at the fort?"

And then, he decided. He'd tried to hide, and been found. He'd tried to weasel, but was drawn here. It was time to get this shit over with.
"Sure."
"Yeah! Well, see you tomorrow, Cannie?"
They entered. Tai was filled with the rythm, but Nero was filled with resolve.

A number of people - I mean hyenas - met them in the entrance. They seemed to have a good time. Nero didn't mind them. New Jerkers, born and bred. They could stay here, 'cause he wouldn't. Then he saw III. Of course she was here, how else could she interfere with his plans again. And there was scream. He ignored them, and walked up to Daimyo.

Okay, so Nero had this all planned out in his head. Twenty variations of a scene all ending with him slamming the walkie-talkie down on the desk, saying something badass and walking coolly out the door. Of course it didn't work that way. It never does. Daimyo didn't even notice him. Seemed he was too busy making out with Sin. Fuck it. Nero left the walkie-talkie next to him on the desk. At least he still got to walk away on his owm terms.

Except on his way out he saw Fox. Cold eyes met. There was nothing of her friendliness left, at least not for him. He probably deserved that. There were no words from either of them. Nero's face was a sad excuse for an apology. He plucked the blue metal flower from its place in his jacket. It had been there all this time. Maybe she understood that, that she had never been completely forgot. Maybe she'd hoped all this time that he''d kept it, or maybe she'd hoped that he hadn't. More likely she didn't even care. What did he know. He threw her the flower, turned around, and left her standing. At last he was out.

Nero didn't turn around on his way back to the hospital. He slept in a corner, on his pack. Early the next day he said goodbye to Canaveral, got on his horse and rode out of town. She probably didn't get that he meant goodbye forever until the next day or something.

---

Retire to safety, where the safety is never having to do with Daimyo, Fox or (hopefully) Brine again. If Nero rides east, into the sun... rise I don't really care if he gets killed as soon as he reaches a new place. At least he'll spend the rest of his life free, albeit alone. In retrospect, he had a bit of the Driver in him. He almost had to prove Fox didn't own him, and they didn't even have sex.

I look forward to playing Tai. He ended up having a completely different relationship to Brine than all the others, which will probably shake things up.

Nice text! And Tai seems like such a nice guy, full of energy and "active Hot" or what you would call it...

But I sure will miss Nero, as will Canaveral. I´ll probably write my own text about it sometime this week, something like a letter that never gets sent.

This is probably not a letter, more like some internal ramblings from Canaveral. I tried at first to get it to keep the tone of Arvids MC letters, but in the end Canaverals own way of communicating took over. She must be the only one in California who talks in this thoughtful, archaic way, using words like "discourteous"...
Also, I´m not sure about how long Nero has been gone at the time of these thoughts, but I figure it´s been at least a week, probably longer.
____________________________________________________________

Hey, Nero, cool man, lonely man, what you up to?
Have you found company who won´t tie you down? Friendship with no strings attached? Or are you finally learning there are no such things?
 
Life in New Jerk is pretty much the same as before the war, except maybe a little less risk of getting shot at random. Daimyo hardly ever leaves the Fort, and the day-to-day business is run by people like Rose (who, by the way, appears to be Sin´s mother. Some apples fall a long way from the tree). I still look forward to leaving this place, all the same. Most of the patients are clean now, but I can´t seem to get through to Two Moon about stopping the leakage from the Maelstrom. Maybe she would have listened if you had talked to her. I need to get her some kind of proof.
People seem kinda disappointed with me here. They remember the Knight of New Jerk, and can´t get their heads around the idea of me working round the clock patching people up instead of just walking around with spear and armor shining brightly. I´ve had a few young guns trying to prove themselves against "Daimyos Assassin", but so far I have managed to avoid bloodshed. I´m not interested in having to sew them up, and it would be discourteous of me to put more of a burden on Exit.
Sin is keeping herself busy fucking Daimyo and playing that guitar. I do listen in on the music every now and then, watching those slim fingers caressing the strings, seeing tears in the eyes of the audience. She works her magic, and everyone leaves longing to hear her play again. Soothing their minds but stirring something deeper in their souls.
Another one working magic is Tai. You never got to know him, and I suppose I can´t say anything on the theme of "You would like him" since I´m not sure you ever like people. He is a curious person, a lively fellow who asks a lot of questions and seems genuinely interested in the answers. Every piece of technology and machinery he gets his hands on runs smoother after he has worked them over, and I think he´s somehow related to Barker. He really want´s to get Balls back from Rolfball, too, but Rolfball wants a very special thing to let the boy go. I don´t know where he heard about Brine´s bomb, but he craves it. So far I seem to have pursuaded Tai to leave it alone, but sooner or later we will have to make sure neither Brine nor her bomb will pose a threath to these lands in the future.
 
But what about you, Nero? What about the man who is indeed an island?
Always the lone wolf, the wanderer of solitary roads. All these new horizons, and noone to share the sunrises with.
I´m sorry I couldn´t be the one you wanted. What went wrong? Should I have stayed a killer instead of becoming a healer, so that I had no reasons to hang around people other than you? Or let myself be saved from danger every now and then? What use is the knight in shining armor if the fair maiden slays her own dragons?
Am I thinking the same things Fox used to think now? Are we anything like each other, her and me? The difference being, perhaps, that she tried to get closer and I kept my distance, none of us ending up in the right zone.
Will you ever find someone who can find that zone and stay there? Giving you the space you need to feel free, unhindered, but at the same time managing to be close to you?
I hope you find that person out there, I hope you find something that at least feels like happiness.
But at the same time, I really hope you miss me like I miss you.
 
 

Introducing:
Bar and Rufo, two of Rose's workcrew. All of Rose's crew dress smart and bathe regularly. Bar is fit and looks good, a childhood friend a few years older than Sin, Rufo is a party guy.

Introducing Tai:
Our newest PC, Tai, is this inquisitve and soft-spoken, maybe even naive, Savvyhead that's been travelling with Rolfballs rollers.

Session nine:
Canaveral had just blown both her own and Sin's brain wide open to the Maelstrom, in the middle of The Pit, so we started the game with a vision quest-sequence for Sin and Canaveral.

All is darkness.

They see The Apocalypse, a great silvery snake of technology, sweeping faster and faster, out of control of the men of science, turning on itself and devouring itself, trashing the cities, the roads.

They see The Maelstrom, a great spiral of the silvery shreds of the snake, turning and turning, like a white eye with a black hypnotising pupil in it's middle.

Sin loses herself in the maelstrom eye, and loses her way back to reality. Canaveral tries to save her, but their both dragged deeper into the maelstrom. Brine shows up, huge and pale white, looking for them, grabbing them to eat them. Sin stabs her in her humongous eye. Hyena cackles in the distance. Nero opens his brain too, to try to bring the girls back.

Canaveral dives deep into the black void-water of the maelstrom to find answers about the disease, and finds III at the bottom. Small shards of the silver snake is burrowing under the skin of the fascinated III, her flesh is revolting and fighting it's influence.

Brine's arm is there, looking greedily for III. Canaveral finds the spear she left at Sunken City lodged in Brine's arm, and grabs it, and stabs her, frightening her, securing III from her influence.

Nero goes aggro on the Hyena to bring him and Sin back.

I had basically handed them a sheet with suggestions for things they could find answers to, and asked them questions back. I had them make rolls based on what felt apropriate, and the trip got better or worse, accordingly. I could tell it was a little hard to relate to, at least at first, and Martina wasn't entirely convinced, but I'm satisfied. It went something like this:

When they come to, all three are walking the wasteland, and it's dawn. There are motor sounds around them, Rolfball and his gang are all around them. Black Kitchen is coming to beat them up and take their stuff, but Sin uses her sword to sieze his hand by force. He's stumbling back, reaching for his gun with his left hand, but Canaveral gives him a hard look, and he just sits down on his ass. Canaveral is reunited with her dad, Joe's Girl, as they patch him up. Sin takes her jacket off, slings it over her shoulder and walks up to the great Rolfball, no-one can do anything but watch. Rolfball tells Sin her mother want's her to come home, and shows her the text message machine. Sin plays it sultry, which is met by silent sorrow from Rolfball, like she has wasted a wonderful potential of hers.

Tai makes his appearence.

Everyone go to New Jerk, with the dialysis machine.

The place has changed. It's definitly grown, the market is huge and bustling, there is an Peacewater orphanage/pickpocket orphan base in Nero's old house, run by Nail. Sin starts looking for a guitar, but blows her roll, and end up running into Rose, her mom. Rose asks her where the f she's been, (She ran away, like, 5 years ago) lectures her, and gets her bathed up. Rose really want nothing but the best for her daughter, but it is her who knows what's best for her. She want to give Sin her everything, her entire legacy, acquire Greentown and give it to her.

Fox is working for Rose now, and Rose send out Fox, Bar and Rufo with a bunch of Favors and Daim's, the new currency in town, to show her this is where she belongs, to party like in the old days. Sin and Fox learn that they both know Nero, and find a little bit of friendship in talking smack about him.

Tai wants to free Balls that Rolfball brought with him a year ago. Rolfball promised he would let Balls go with Tai if Tai would do something for him. Now, Rolfball doesn't really want to let Balls go, so he gives Tai a really hard task...

We started asking ourselves what this could be, and somehow we got the idea that Rolfball wanted to strap Brine's nuke to his bike, run into something and go out in a blaze of radioactive mushroom cloud glory. It was so over the top, we had to use it: Tai will get Balls if he gets Rolfball Brine's nuke.

Brine actually likes Tai, and has helped him before.

Daimyo wants to see Canaveral, so he sends out two men to find her. They tell her he said they'd be dead if they came back emptyhanded, (and he confirms from the fort, through his loudspeaker) but Canaveral convinces them to find Sin to distract him first. Canaveral is seeing Two Moon of the Peacewater Cult, who's gotten even older and blinder, and tries to convey how water has corrupted the people of California (Sunken City, Riverpeople). Of course, Two Moon is not ready for this, but Canaveral decides to try to convince her to stop charging the water with maelstrom.

The cult is now the church of California. Daff, from the very first session, is overseeing the building of their Cathedral, and Two Moon's right hand man Ik is this scary missionary-official guy, spreading the word throughout the wasteland.

Sin now finds the finest god-damn guitar ever in an exclusive relic store, but she cannot afford it. She plays it in the store, moving the shop owner so profoundly that he realizes it belongs with her. She promises to play every night there for a month if she can have it, so he agrees.

The guards catch up with Sin, Fox, Bar and Rufo and invites them to Fort Daimyo. Daimyo is delighted to see her. His new foot masseur is III, who is really into Sin. Tensioooooooooon! Daimyo throws a party for his now quite disciplined soldiers. Tai and Canaveral goes there, Sin borrows his loudspeaker and shouts "I'm fucking Daimyo, mom!" all over town. Daimyo and Sin sleeps with each other, Tai is making friends, and Nero comes over, leaves the walkie-talkie and the flower to Fox, and then leaves for ever.

For this, I can just refer you to Martina's and Jonatan's pieces.

I don't know where we'll start next session, but if it's not right there at the party I want to state to the record that Tai did his best to chat up someone to go to bed with him. If at all possible, maybe even III (that is, unless it was blatantly obvious that she could do nothing but pine for Sin). The thing is we broke the session right there, so I never got to make any kind of Hot roll or anything. Whether he succeeded or not isn't that important though, so if you got a great MC letter starting a few days after like we thought you should, then we can just leave that and push on.