-Doubts-
Day 15
A mistake was made in The Refuge. A bandit had left a box he was carrying from one building to another in the night on the ground. Jaynis had taken it and examined it in the basement where he gave his speech to the town. The box was sealed shut with duct tape with a layer of glue underneath. Clearly, something was inside that Taylor didn't want anyone seeing. Jaynis was fully confident that Taylor's heresy was genuine but he needed concrete evidence that he was an enemy of the bandits. Jaynis flicked out a penknife and stabbed into the slit where the flaps met. He carved through the cardboard and tugged at the duct tape to cut through it. He tore off a flap and dug his fingers through the leaves that were stuffed inside. He felt something round, solid and light. He picked it up with both hands and raised it from the box. Jaynis' eyes widened at the sight of a paper mache head that looked just like his own. His name was written on the forehead with red ink- not blood.
Jaynis ordered a meeting with fifteen bandits he knew were on his side. He met them on the second floor of the building Jaynis slept in. The second floor was one large square room with a ceiling fan that was missing a blade, broken wooden chairs, a metal frame bed with a torn mattress and an old comfy armchair with a knife stabbed into the back. Jaynis sat on the arm chair while the bandits made use of the various tables that just about stood up. Jaynis broke the sound of scratching table legs and clumsy movement with the name of his brother. "Taylor is an enemy of the bandits and enemies of the bandits must die." Jaynis was comforted with the reassurance that these bandits were with Jaynis. They didn't defect to Taylor and they didn't abandon the need to survive together. "We're on the edge of a civil war. Taylor told me what I always suspected- he wants to breakout of our brotherhood and walk alone. In short, he wants to kill me and take everything I've worked for. We took this town together but he could never do that alone. He seems to think that with me gone he can be the most powerful and influential." Jaynis continued "He's making life size figures of me as propaganda to wage war on me which means war on all of you." Jaynis pointed his finger at the bandits in front him as he said it and lifted up the fake head he found. They understood exactly what Jaynis was talking about, Taylor had to be stopped. Their futures depended on it. Jaynis sat up from the armchair and walked to the window. He rested his hand on the windowpane and looked at the other side of the town. That side now belonged to Taylor. Another reason why bandits were running from one side to another at night- they were defecting. Jaynis dug his fingernails into the head and ripped it in half from the inside. "Taylor won't stop, he won't talk things over. There is no war yet but in time he will strike…"
Day 16
Jaynis and Taylor had spoken to each other for the first time in over a week. They're conversation was brief. Jaynis tried to ask his bother to stop his futile revolution. Taylor was caught off guard; he didn't know that Jaynis knew what he was planning. He told Jaynis that he wanted to be the better brother but he never once said he was revolting. Taylor left Jaynis alone again and walked away. There was no harm in trying one last man-to-man talk with his younger brother but after that Jaynis decided that Taylor wasn't going to be reasoned with. So, Jaynis entered the building which in its past life was a café. In the basement there lied the weapon crates that Taylor and Jaynis hijacked from the convoy of Runners. Jaynis opened three boxes and found two Torgue assault rifles and one Torgue revolver. Jaynis had been thinking that leaders ought to have signature weapons that set them apart from anyone else's. Jaynis spent two hours combining the three weapons, throwing away some parts and adding in his own elemental effect to create the assault rifle he named The Meat Grinder.