"Yes.  We'll certainly continue our investigation.  But on your end, we'd like you to put out some feelers to the members of that committee.  See if you can't get a bit more information for us.  Not too much skullduggery!  If they'd like to talk to you about it, that would be ideal,"  Torvald says helpfully, "They'd be much more willing to talk to you than to us."

"We must also consider to take the rout of classical infiltration. Mask ourselves to have the common cause, get in as one of them and work our way from there, that takes way longer though. Sending feelers and such also takes time, but is there any indication that the committee has more plans in the near future? Are we in any rush?" 

He drinks some of the tea before it gets too warm. Skimming through the notes and documents from previous meetings for any clues.

"That's your prerogative.  We wouldn't wish you to-"

"Yesssssss.  Become one with them.  Suborn them from within!  Cut them piece by piece-"

"- risk too much of yourself or your reputation." Torvald interrupts the chrysogonae.  The firmin keeps scratching on a book of leather; the anuhles senator has spent the past few moments glaring at Xene. "This is done with your help, we wouldn't ask you to sacrifice anything for us."

"WE REFUSE TO SACRIFICE TO YOU!" The senator waves his front legs.

"Yes.  At any rate,"  Torvald clears his throat, "There's a limit to what we can find through sheer paperwork.  Or at least the paperwork we can easily require.  On the bright side, to answer your questions- no, there's no sign of further plans on their end, but we have no feelers there.  The rush is less than we'd expect.  You see, by doing this, they try to work with precedence.  The longer the law is on the books, the more clout it'll have and damage it'll do.  They're playing a very long game, and the fact we caught it so quickly has given us an excellent opportunity to play spoiler."

Why isn't Torvald the senator? He is way more helpful, maybe that isn't a good merit among demons?

Kendal spares a glance at Xene to see if she is bothered about the anuhles.
Thinking about the situation this is a prime opportunity to actually use those friendly connections to get in easier, not to use too many though to avoid unwanted attention... Mike should be willing to help with this.

"We could go for both actually, make agents outside of my personal crew to infiltrate in the long run and I will send some of my men to act as feelers. Not risking reputation and preparing for the long game as well just in case. And Xene, can you get a hold of Mike for me? it's time to trade some favors."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:04, Mon 30 July 2018.

Xene is keeping her composure.  She's likely seen much worse.  Hell, she worked with Harvey Weinstein once.

"That's up to you.  We certainly won't dictate your strategy, merely ask for your help and tell us what angle we will approach a solution."

"Absolutely, sir,"  Xene picks up her smartphone and starts tapping out a message.

"We also believe that if there is an issue- if there is a true human supremacist coalition involved here- that you may be in danger.  We understand that you're remarkably even-handed with your constituents.  They might find you to be a race traitor."

"Wait, it's like I have heard this before... are we in Germany in the 1930's?" He lets out a small sigh and shakes his head. "We left a lot of things back on Earth, this supremacist mentality should have been one of them. There is no way we can get to the far reaches of space, not to mention the wyld pocket, if these kinds of coalitions are left unchecked."

He wants to see the reaction of the demons when he says this. "There shouldn't be a thing as a race traitor, there are the Living and the Dead, and fracturing our fleet with these kinds of stunts only help the latter. I would like to make this clear to everyone in the political theatre."

"I've been in Germany in the 1930s, and while there are similarities, there are many differences."  Torvald says to him, "But those sorts will always be around, of course.  It's a reason why we are so stubbornly pursuing this line of inquiry."

"No, it'ssssssss for ourselvessssss." The chrysonogae corrects him.

"Well, then it's why *I* am doing so.  At any rate, there's a clear difference between what should be and what actually is.  Your fellow senators may agree with you in public, but in private, who's to say?  But, let's say that I definitely agree."

"I for one disagree.  A human throwing humans to the dogs for gods, that is preposterous.  A demon groveling so a human can be raised, preposterous!" The Senator snarls at Torvald, "Enough of your heresy!"

"As you will, Senator."  Torvald answers dryly.

"Senator Raines,"  Xene finally speaks up, "Are we overlooking that this may be an Abyssal act?"

"Yes but at least we can all agree that pleasing each and everyone is always impossible, but having goals and ideals is important."

Mxotichtlatl's disagreement is really no surprise.

"A good point." He turns his head towards Xene "If we find evidence that this case is influenced by Abyssals, we have too keep that an absolute secret from the public and just call the Exalted for help. If news that Abyssals are meddling with our politics would be a public death sentence."
The thought of the Dead infiltrating their ranks so deep makes him feel uneasy.

"Who would we turn to?"  Piotr speaks out of turn. "If that's the case.  I mean, most of the Exalts are pretty... bulls-in-china-shops."

"And who could we trust!"  Mxotichtlatl shrieks, "But an Infernal!  Most are ending up dead, you know," He leers at Kendal, "We wonder whyyy.  There is, of course, Brahe."

"So we'd need to make a task force of a task force,"  Xene murmurs.

"It's a nasty, suspicious thing, but I believe you're right.  We can't risk not thinking about this."  Torvald says to Xene with a courteous nod, "And Senator Kendal, if they catch wind about what we're doing- you would be first on the chopping block."

As Piotr is being an asshat he receives a disapproving glare from Kendal "Don't you trust me that much? I'm convinced that a certain Exalt would be interested if I call about Abyssal minions meddling with politics."

She would be thrilled no doubt

"But let's not delve into the Abyssals and Exalts topic too much for now, we will keep our eyes and ears open for possible corruption, but i'm sure this is still an act done by humans or gods. Having precautions is good, but lets not involve anyone extra before it's deemed necessary."

When then investigation starts proper, he wants to make sure this case doesn't involve Abyssals... he hopes this doesn't involve Abyssals...

Piotr just looks confused.  Ah, right... not many people know much about Lyla.

"We'll work with you to establish codes and cutaways,"  Torvald immediately reaches over to clamp the chrysonogae's mouth shut before it can hiss another stupid thing, "Please be careful in the meantime, Senator Raines."

"YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE."  The Anuhles waves a pair of arms in the air, "Only I am allowed to kill you!  Do not spite me in this!  Or- or I'll bite what's left of your nose and eat it!"

The firmin coughs lightly and speaks for the first time this meeting. "A weak one, you can do better."  He mumbles as he scratches the insult down on his book.

"... If you die I'll drop your remains in the tilapia tanks and parade small human children around so they can watch and laugh!"

"Much more inventive,"  InkQuill mumbles again as he sets to jotting down this latest threat.

"Yes, well done." Torvald takes his hand from Crowwood's mouth.

"Hooray!  Hooray!  Three cheerssssssss for the sssssssenator!"  Crowwood raises a pair of creaking, withered hands to clap.

Michal looks absolutely, totally confused.  Xene blinks.  Piotr cracks a smile, "... I kinda like that one."

"Yes yes very intuitive, you must have used all your brain power to come up with it." He gives a sneer directed to the anuhles. "But before this conversation turns into trading more pleasantries, I ask, is this all the available information for now? If it is I would like to wrap this up if you may."

Unless someone has something to say, he starts gathering the papers and finishes his drink.

"The humans do understand!  Perhaps this isn't so bad after all,"  Senator Mxotichtlatl is quite pleased by Kendal's insult, "Yes, this is all we can get for now, I guess.  Torvald!  Hand him the papers of the junior senators for his later perusal.  There's no reason to sit around while the monkey reads."

Torvald gives his boss a dangerous glare but hands a last sheaf of papers to Xene.

"We will be leaving!  Soon our fake enemies will be dead, and we can get back to being true enemies to each other!... Well, true friendly enemies; not like the true enemy enemies like the Undead..."

"Sssssseeee you later." Crowwood hisses, leering at Xene.

"Senator Raines, it's been a pleasure."  Torvald holds a hand out to Kendal to shake.

He shakes hands with anyone who offers one and gives a nod to those who don't.
"likewise, if anything new comes up let me know"

He then waits for the guests to leave.

That'd only be Torvald.  The other demons leave first.  Torvald gives him a wink and then closes the door.

Xene lets out a loud exhalation.

"So, that was... nothing at all like I expected.  I'm sorry, Kendal."

"Shit," Piotr and Michal say at the same time, and then Piotr continues.  "If the Ape had wanted to, we'd all have been smears on floor."

"The Firmin was weird too.  Normally they're not smart enough to talk, let alone write." Michal says to Kendal, "They're great swordfighters but they're smart as dogs, usually."

When the door closes, Xene's and Kendal's exhalation are more or less in sync.
"No need to be sorry, you did well." he pats her on the shoulder.

"Well done everyone, now lets leave before we begin to suffer from dehydration and take a breather before wrapping our heads around this further."

He also looks for the old woman to thank her for the hospitality.

The old woman bows to him.  She's not even sweating!  She takes the teacup from them and wishes them a good trip back.

They all head out and move back to their offices.  Michal and Piotr both look miserably sweaty but they're not heading home just yet.  They all sit down in a sweaty heap, pouring glasses of cool water for everyone.

"So, what have we learned today?"  Xene isn't sweaty- she's really more glowing, literally.

Only after they reach the office and sit down, does Kendal show a sign of being uncomfortable by loosing his tie a bit.

Mental note: put sunglasses in the bag.

"That our preparations worked because no one died?" he responds a bit sarcastically because he really does not like that question, it's too teacher-ish to his liking.

"That demons are fucking weird," Xene flops on one of the couches by his desk.

"I at least expected the blood ape to attack at first,"  Michal takes his long knife out of its loop and puts it on the table, "Honestly that might've made me more comfortable."

"I'm not comfortable with any of this." Piotr agrees. "But I am comfortable with not having to go get into a fistfight with one of them."

"I agree that they are weird, but these ones were weird in a good way, instead of licking blood off their fingers most of them had manners and the meeting felt like... an actual meeting" This meeting was not the worst one he ever attended.

"On the other hand it did have the potential to go very differently, but did you get any reads on them you think I missed? I kept most of my attention on Hulk and Spiderman."

"Firmin don't usually talk.  They're usually pretty dumb." Michal says to him, "The ones that do are usually bad news.  Wasn't Oeguso a talking firmin?  And didn't they never find the body?"

"Why even bring the Chrysogonae around?" Xene asks everyone, "All it did was yell bad advice.  Really, truly, stupidly bad advice."

"well that is something that never crossed my mind" he replies to Michal when Oeguso is mentioned.

"Now lads do you have more comments, feels or educated guesses on this matter? If not, you two can go and if you feel thirsty, the first drinks are on me."

They did their job already, luckily the bodyguard part was unneeded this time around. Maybe a few words with Xene before continuing wor- bedtime! yes bedtime... as if.

"No sir,"  Michal shakes his head.

"Nope." Piotr agrees with his brother, "We'll be at the Senate Floor-"  their favorite bar, "- if you want to catch up, sir."

They leave.  Xene tilts her head back and sighs, "So, I didn't want to mention it to the brothers, but- I think we both know what was going on there.  I think Torvald's the actual brains of that department.  The senator's just the pretty face."

"Agreed, makes me think if he is even a blood ape at all." He sits on the couch next to her and leans back.

"So, what do you think of this whole mess? I just hope this doesn't involve any Abyssal shenanigans that you pointed as being a possibility."

"If he's not, then he's amazing at costumes."  She sidles over a bit to give him a bit more room, "I... don't think this is Abyssal work.  They're not subtle enough for this, you know!  But I do know there are a lot of resentful gods around here who might pull that sort of crap.  Elementals, Dragon-Blooded, eh.  Humans?  Absolutely." She waves a manicured hand in the air dismissively, "Don't get me started on your fundamentalists.  But my money's on a god.  Humans wouldn't think to classify demons as power-tools, they'd classify them as enemies of the state."