LogApocalypse World: Black Rain-Jason-11

Xander, trying to be helpful, throws something at the back of Paradox's head. That distracts Fisher, but not so much that he doesn't pretty much shoot Paradox out of this life. Fortunately, nobody else gets hurt. That stops conversation briefly. Fisher reminds everyone that the deal made with the Cattle Clan will be kept, exactly. Slingshot speaks up and confirms that there will be no problem. The gunlugger then sends Slingshot to lead Tanis and Tyrant out of town, sends Xander back to his cell, and joins the patrols of the keep.

Not too much later, Slingshot and company arrive at the Cattle Clan. Unsurprisingly, Pullo takes Tyrant aside for debriefing. Slingshot lets Captain Maxwell know that things are maybe not 100% optimal at the keep, but the town has calmed down a little. The Captain takes his leave of Pullo, acknowledging that he's got some problems to deal with. People are giving the hardholder some funny looks, and he realizes that if the Cattle Clan goes after the keep, he may not be able to stop them. On the other hand, they're nomads; staying in one place and trying to take it over might cost him control of the group. Maybe if he emphasizes how close the clan and the settlement have gotten, and how welcome they are in town, he could take the wind out of Pullo's sails. Maybe. He gives it a shot, thanking Pullo for his help and telling him the clan is always welcome at Running Rock, especially since they're so much more polite than other nomads that come through. Maxwell does some haggling but ends up giving the Cattle Clan a real good rate on water, just to keep things nice and friendly.

As they hike back to the keep, Slingshot brings Maxwell up to speed on recent events, including the possibility that something is moving around inside the abyss in the great hall, and of course the fate of poor ol' Paradox, and the riot that String averted.

They make it back OK, and the boss takes stock of the situation, and then he takes a nice nap.

In the wee hours of the night, Xander's cell opens, and Banto walks in, and orders Xander to come with her, silently. She leads him to the passage near the great hall that opens onto the abyss, and tells him to listen. He hears the sound of wings beating, large ones. They both wait there until morning, just in case. The Captain finds them there in the morning.

They both tell the Captain that something's moving in the abyss. He orders Xander to work on closing it up, and Bento to give Xander his tools, but keep him under guard. The savvyhead gets to work, and he does occasionally hear stuff from the abyss. Once he even hears a whispered conversation between the inside and outside of the abyss. He uses his screwdriver to reach out to the outside-the-keep whispherer, creating a connection that will be stable, persistent, and contained. It's not somebody he knows, it's somebody out in the wild, looking for something. He asks what they seek, and they answer, "lithium". They've looked for it in many ruins, but can't find it. He offers to work on making a lithium detector, and tells the voice it can find him in the keep at Running Rock. When the passage is bricked up, he asks the boss what's next, and gets assigned to work on windmills. He figures that will take about six days.

The Captain takes Fisher and a couple guards into town, looking to round up some instigators. As they walk, they discuss ways to approach the fragile political situation, with Depthcharge suggesting a water embargo to the Syndics. Fisher argues for a return to normalcy, but with the Captain recruiting more men and taking over control of the markets. Slingshot suggests going to String to get her thoughts. The Captain decides to stop off at Xander's trailer and ransack a barter's worth of crap from it. From there, off to visit String.

They find String reading a waterlogged magazine in the grotto. Since anyone last visted, the infirmary has been set up, and the dust-making operation grown more sophisticated. String receives them coldly, so Maxwell leaves a barter. He tries to figure out why she's being so cold, and concludes that she thinks her was wussing out on the town during the riots. He tries to thank her for her help dissolving the riot, but she's still pretty cold. Sybil brings up the pending business she has with Xander, and encourages the Captain to let hin out. Maxwell's not real eager to free the guy who conspired with the rebels, and makes it clear that their business with Xander is in no way his problem.

String begins trying to figure out what it would take to operate on Sybil and correct her recent cranial injuries. It will take fresh human brain matter, expose Sybil to risk, and it may take a few tries to get right. She mentions the idea to Sybil, who's not super excited about brain surgery. She might be happier living with her difficulties.

A couple days pass, and then Maxwell returns to the guild hall. A lot of Syndics are gone. The weavers are there, some of the potters, the cattle clan is still there, but that's about it. Borthwick is gone and Cuthbert the moneylender seems to be running things. He welcomes the hardholder and lays out a spread. Captain Maxwell reminds them all of the important role the old Syndics and their security played in the attack on the keep, and tells them that the keep will control all the guards now. The Syndics will still settle disputes as per usual, but enforcement will be done by keep guards. The Syndics don't immediately take to that notion and confer amongst themselves for a while. The Weavers point out that they had no part in the attack, to which Fisher retorts that that's why none of them got shot. Nobody pays attention to Fisher. Cuthbert tries to tell the Captain that he doesn't understand what their security force does. He'd be taking responsibility for a lot of petty crap that doesn't impact the keep. Maxwell retorts that they haven't given him a choice, but he'll tolerate unarmed Syndic adjuncts working with the guard to keep lines of communication open and the rules clear. Someone in back yells out that this is all because of the Captain's weakness, at which Fisher offers a show of strength. Everyone continues to ignore him. The Captain points out that if strength is what it takes to impress them, he could always tax the hell out of everything in the session. Cuthbert and the Captain quickly head off that idea between them. However, the heckler in back moves on to emphasizing Xander's role in the insurrection. The Captain believes that story, which is why Xander's in jail. The Syndics accept the new Keep-controlled guard, accompanied by Syndic "aldermen".

A couple weeks pass. Fisher orders another batch of AP ammo for his assault rifle. Keep workers move all Xander's remaining stuff up to the keep, which Xander reassembles into a workshop. People start arriving back in town, including a gang leader named Kruger, who was pretty much a raider, but will take Fisher's money to work for him. The new guys mesh with the existing (surviving) guards really well, working out hand signals, tactics, etc quickly. Captain Maxwell realizes that Kruger wants to be his second-in-command. Cadbury urges the boss to fire Fisher and run him out of town, because wherever he goes, people die, usually innocent people. The Captain declines, pointing out that Fisher working for them is better than Fisher working against them. He ends up not declaring an official second, but he uses Kruger to control the city for the most part and the people from before to control the keep.

Sybil goes into town looking for a gig. Cuthbert hires her to find out more about Kruger. She asks for advice on breaking the ice with him, and he tells her that grain is in season and brewers are in town, so she could just buy him a drink. This job is worth 3-barter to him, and he's not in a rush. She goes right to work, heading to the taproom. She finds Kruger, watches him, and determines that he's guarded, but maybe slowly starting to relax. She waits for an opportune moment, then catches him on his way out to void his bladder. He's cordial. She invites him to the Grotto, which does not seem to catch his fancy. They part so he can take care of business. A bar fight develops in the taproom, and then someone gets in the middle and says, "Friends, there's no need for violence." The face and voice are Fisher's. She tries to put the whammy on him immediately, but he just looks at her, and suddenly she feels like she knows him. Once he's done stopping the fight, he heads over to Sybil, just as Kruger comes in. She steps aside, as if the Fisher-looking guy is going to go past her, but he comes right to her. She tries to stab him. She grazes him, but he just says, "Do you know a man named Xander Carthon?" He does not seem to care that he's been slashed with a knife. Kruger sees that someone has just done violence in the town, and punches Sybil right in the face.

Kruger begins wrestling her to the ground, but this guy tells him to wait, that he and Sybil are old acquaintances and this was just a misunderstanding. She touchs Kruger with her violation glove and tells him to arrest the duplicate Fisher. He does, and he arrests Sybil too, taking them both to town jail. The duplicate Fisher goes willingly. Kruger compliments Sybil on being quick with a knife and able to take a punch, and tells her to look him up tomorrow night. The duplicate Fisher declines charges, so they set Sybil free, but take not-Fisher to the keep.

Xander works on his lithium detector when the whispherer says "I am coming to you know" and Kruger shows up at the keep with the duplicate Fisher in handcuffs. The other Fisher is polite and very happy to make Xander's acquaintance. Xander refers to him as Mr Whispher. They bring the double to Captain Maxwell, who is very weirded out. The Captain tells him he's not Fisher, but the double assures him he is, just not the Fisher he's used to. Maxwell sends one of his minions to find the local Fisher. Maxwell suggests moving the conversation to his old office. Not-Fisher's happy to do so, but tells the Captain he doesn't need the handcuffs, and hands over the ones he had been wearing.

Asked, Not-Fisher reports that he's been "here" for three months and change. He came into this world underwater, somewhere east of the town. Asked what he's doing here, Not-Fisher explains he's trying to undo something. He wants to undo the void. Everything in this world is backward for him. As Maxwell and Not-Fisher talk, it's clear that this guy is urbane, purpose-driven, and just wants to talk to Xander about their project.

Maxwell then meets Fisher and tells him not to get into trouble in town, though not why.

Sybil reports back to Cuthbert and gets paid, then reports to String that there's a duplicate Fisher out there, and the double's a really chill guy.

The Captain tells Xander his "friend" wants to talk. The three of them meet in the old office, and Xander pours them all drinks from his flask. They sit down on the floor to talk. Not-Fisher explains he's looking for an initiation device. Then he asks why Xander reached out to him, and Xander explains that he wants to find out the reason that everything keeps happening the way it is. Not-Fisher asks if Xander hears the singing. He doesn't, or at least, not yet, but he does hear wing beats in the void. Not-Fisher seems disturbed by that. He is, however, happy that the duplicate String seems to be out there still. Poor Xander has to mention that Not-String was a killer and got killed in return. He then asks what the other Xander is like. He's a well-respected man of science. "There's a change," Xander says, snarkily. Maxwell counters by asking if the other Xander would ever start an insurrection. Not-Fisher assures the Captain he would never do such a thing. Not-Fisher also explains that crossing over isn't always possible, which is part of why he's on this quest for lithium. Maxwell reads him and senses that he's hopeful and enthusiastic. He thinks that if he can do what he's trying to do, either it will set both worlds right, or forever separate them from each other. When Maxwell asks, he says he does not think it would destroy both worlds, though it's possible. On the other hand, they may be headed for destruction anyway. He wants to create a chain reaction in the void that will cause it to calcify or collapse. Tests will need to be done.

String and Sybil go to the Keep and ask for Fisher. He comes to them and finds String making a scene. They explain that his double is running around the keep, so Fisher says, "Let's go kill a motherfucker then."