Senator Kendal Raines has had a long, long day, and it's only getting worse.

His old political mentor, Senator Gavin Carden, once defined a politician as a "man skilled in working with cities".  He emphasized taking good looks at the big picture, eschewing hot-button politics in favor of 'holistic treatments for the Body Politic'.  That may be why he only won about half of his elections.  Nobody ever said Senator Carden was easy to understand.  But he knew his constituency and had a great reputation.

Senator Carden was also one of the first assassinated by Abyssal hit squads.

It's one of those Holistic Days, that's to be sure.  Demonic agitation in the Underdecks, an accident in the Forge levels that left a couple hundred of Leaden-Blooded dead, a union strike... fire after fire needing putting out, and to top it all off, a meeting with one of his least favorite peers on the Last Refuge.  The demon politician Mxotichtlatl:  an Anuhles spider-demon, elected to represent a section of the Last Refuge populated mostly by humans (66%?) but with an extremely active demonic population that somehow outvoted the rest of the constituency.

Senator Mxotichtlatl shares the same subcommittee as Kendal, the Subcommittee on Safety.  It's a prestigious posting, encompassing everything from industrial accidents to internal policing of the mixed neighborhoods of the Last Refuge.  Mxotichtlatl favors fixing a lot of this by outright segregation, a popular sentiment among the more empowered beings on the Last Refuge.  It's not popular among the humans, who often feel like they'll soon be left in the dust.  Mxotichtlatl also believes that since it already happens it's practically a fait accompli and should be made official policy.  He and Kendal have already clashed several times- not necessarily because they disagree on anything, but because he's openly disdainful of baseline human contribution to the Last Refuge's continued survival.  In his view, Kendal and people like him are simply a hindrance to the ship's daily operation.  It's a step away from calling for genocide.

So it's a bit weird that Senator Mxotichtlatl has requested a one-on-one meeting to hash out a revision of Subsection 3.2§10.A, a bit of minor arcana in the safety code that can be accurately summed up as 'power tools are capable of causing injury'.  It's a very odd thing to meet about, especially face to... uh... mandibled face.  In politician parlance, it may mean he wants to make a deal, but about what?  Right now their subcommittee has been humming along just fine, with the big votes (like neighborhood segregation) effectively tabled until the creation of some new layer of political power called the Admiralty Board.

His secretary has left Kendal a can of Raid sitting atop a pile of forms as a pointed joke at Senator Mxotichtlatl's expense.  Knowing the bloodthirsty, murderous nature of the anuhles, he may actually need the thing.  At least the meeting will be in his office, so he doesn't have to worry about the other kind of bugs.

One of his aides shoots him a quick chat text.  "Sen. M. 15 min away".

Kendal lets out a long breath and stands up to make preparations.

But it's hard to properly prepare for something you are not expecting. He asks the assistants to quickly gather what ever info they have on subsection 3.2§10.A and if there has been any major activity among the upper hierarchy to suddenly provoke Mxotichtlatl to do something like this.

What ever the case, Kendal knows that these meetings can get quite heated from time to time and acts accordingly, moving hes precious drinking mug and family photos off the table and tidies up the office so it looks representable.

Now thoughts about the imminent meeting rush through Kendals head, why a private meeting? he had no reason to reject it, but there surely is a hidden agenda in what ever the demon is on about. Could he be here to accuse Kendal of something? no? Beat him to submission? maybe... Kendal is just a human after all. Or actually to just come and see him because there is something only Kendal could do? This one seems more likely, but as some info rolls in Kendal sits calmly at his desk waiting as the 15 minutes is almost up.

His aides start scrambling trying to find what information they can.  It's sparse.  Just more... bureaucratic filler... the sort of thing to save asses if there were actually things like lawsuit lawyers around here.  It's what one of his old school buddies called a 'CYOA Clause'.

Two minutes left.  His office is in full crisis mode.  He nears a rap on the outer office door, a quick drumming, like multiple legs tapping at once- a typical Anuhles affectation.

OK, now that it's a bit too late to make actual research, it's time to exit panic mode and enter establish dominance mode. Telling the office to chill and continue on whatever they were working on previously, Kendal also takes a stack of unfinished papers and continues signing them by hand.

Kendal chuckles at the thought of a horror movie monster waiting behind his office door for an appointment.

He intends to let Mxotichtlatl in right on time, but to seem preoccupied himself with other paperwork as if this was not the highlight of the day and make the demon wait just a bit longer than he really needs to at the table... that's the plan anyhow... time to see what the-creep-of-the-day has to say.

The demon senator doesn't take being made to wait lying down.  It spends the entire time waiting for him by drumming on that door in the most annoying way possible.

When finally let in, it lets out a loud hiss and scans the room with its huge eight eyes, each the size of a baseball.  He's the size of a large dog, a good 50kg of chitin and bizarrely fluffy orange and green fur.  There's a backpack strapped to him, no doubt full of paperwork.  Long mandibles click as he focuses on Kendal.

"Human senator," He chitters disdainfully, "If we were not allies in this shared struggle I would bite you, inject your foul body with my venom.  If we did not have shared enemies I would defile the memory of your ancestors with feces spun from my words.  If we were not forced to live in this cage, I would have burned it to the ground while you slept in it."  He makes a sighing sound from his spiracles.  "Now that the pleasantries are over...."  His eyes drift over to the can of Raid on Kendal's desk  "... I have underestimated you."

Kendal replies without lifting his head from the paperwork "oh spare me the pleasantries eight legged one, if we were enemies you might find yourself in a stew" as he finishes signing the papers, putting them aside and finally meeting the spiders gaze.
Even after many years, it was still disturbing to see these creepy demons crawl to his office, but he doesn't let it show on his face.

"Now, as you haven't bitten my face or vomited feces on my floor, I take it that you have something important... or at least interesting to talk about?" Kendal asks without even blinking "Please have a seat and let's have a nice civilised discussion" pointing at the floor next to the chair opposite of himself.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:24, Mon 25 June 2018.

"I do not vomit feces, I excrete them.  Wildly.  In every direction.  Some may splash in your mouth." The vitriol from the demon is... tired.  He's going through the motions, though Kendal knows damn well the demon doesn't like him.  Anuhles doesn't sit, but he does stand where Kendal points- after shoving the chair out of the way.

"Yes, interesting, interesting.  As you know we have come at loggerheads in our discussions on the floor.  Politicians!  We should never have become politicians.  It doesn't suit human nor demon.  Politics is something for dirty gods."  It spits out the words, "In this you have my respect- you are no god.  Anyway, yes.  The subsection about power tools.  You have read it, yes.  A bunch of nonsense.  Of course power tools are dangerous!  Of course they cause blood!"  He starts to salivate on the floor.

"So look what happens when I see this."

He digs in his pack and produces a sheet of paper- a draftwork of some law or the other.

"From the census bureau.  I won't waste our time making you read it right here, but it's for you to peruse later." He taps the paper onto the desk.  "There is a footnote with a citation to our little 3.2§10.A.  It, in essence, states that demons fall under the subsection.  Do you understand?  We are being classified as power tools by the Bureau of Censuses and Citizenship!"

Even though he was slightly amused, his professionalism kept his poker face solid "Well that's not right at all." He says as he picks up the papers.
"Who even wrote this? i could see a racist snob trying to categorize demons as animals, but power tools? now that's just mean, even I know demons have feelings... or at least feel anger that's for sure." Kendal puts his arm on his forehead as he thinks of reasons as to who would do this.

"So did a demon hurt a human and it's being labeled as a power tool accident? Or is there really no clause to make demons citizens of the living fleet? Now this is either a huge oversight or someone doesn't want us to get along too well. This has to be fixed right away."
He stands up to look for the big list of constitutional amendments and changes in legislation made almost 10 years ago to check.

"Anger?  That's nothing.  Some of us are crybabies.  Almost literally, when presented with a newborn baby." The Anuhles can't really roll his eyes, but a gesture of his legs does roughly the same thing.

"We are- were- citizens, just fine, until this recent bit of work."  He taps his legs, "It has little real legal standing, until all of a sudden it does.  In which case this being published is precedent enough to tie things up in the courts.  It is a sneaky, sneaky way of removing our rights."

Kendal's binder is huge, but quite clear.  Anything with sapience is more or less considered a citizen, even down to certain species of animals.  After all, every cow and cat and dog is precious.  Of course that's caused a lot of problems with the animal rights groups...

"The reason I approach you with this is manifold.  NUMBER ONE!" He shrilly screams and waves one of his legs in the air, "You have an Exalt in the family!  You have growing clout!" 

"NUMBER TWO!"  Two legs tremble in the air, "I loathe you with every muscle fiber I own!"

"NUMBER THREE!"  Now three legs tremble, and oh dear, is his voice cracking?  "Our districts share a border and we share a committee!  Some of your constituents are affected as well!"

"NUMBER FOUR!" Yep, his voice is cracking, "Your impartiality, while vile and untrustworthy, is respected by the rest of the committee!"

"NUMBER FIVE!"  He teeters on three legs, "I would like an introduction to Lorbellis, Fifth Deck, Third Room, and attempting a superficial rapport with you will improving my chances of surviving a mating with her bulbous abdomen!"

Kendals Professionalism is put to the test when the spider puts on a circus act, so far so good.

"Yeah I see no problem in helping you with this, introductions and all, as I too find this power tool thing to be troublesome... Yet I get this feeling of being your wingman on a date... you will owe me one." Kendal puts the binder back on the shelf and looks at the (still balancing on three legs) spider with a inquiring look as if waiting for him tell more details or does he want a paper signed or what?

The anuhles collapses back down to all eight legs, wheezing through his spiracles. "Ah, owe you one?  This is language I understand." It clacks two claws together, "If I survive the mating, I will vote alongside you on one issue.  Acceptable?"  It then sidles back and forth, "If this is an agreement, then we must strategize.  I and three of my aides will meet with you and up to three of yours tonight, for a strategy session.  They will be compiling lists of members of committees, voting records, things like that.  We must plan our attack carefully."

The demon considers for a moment, "Tell your aides to come armed.  For their own protection.  Demonic strategy sessions can be... demonstrative."

He listens carefully what the anuhles says, nodding in agreement until he mentions armaments and the need for protection, the previous amusement fading as Kendal takes a serious tone "Yes i agree with the planning and the... mating, but I hope you understand that a serious injury to my employees will bring the meeting into a halt."

His fingers drumming the edge of the table only once.
"Nontheless I agree with this proposal, lets try and keep this show professional for all of our sakes."

Then he ponders for a short time what he already knows about Lorbellis and if any of his staff has proficiency with weapons or to make do with just bulletproof vests... Is hiring an armed guard a bit too much for this occasion?

"What do you call a serious injury?  Loss of two limbs?" The Anuhles asks, "I will try to restrain my aides, but be cautious, they are very very emotional!"

Lorbellis is one of his constituents, a large, old Anuhles with striking black and red chitin and a propensity for petitions. Her last petition asked that people would be moved out of their apartments to make space for an indoor park, perfect for cattle grazing.  Mostly because she really wants to eat a cow.

"a personal injury which results in death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement, a fracture, loss of a fetus, permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function or system. Or if prevented from normal daily activities for 90 days out of 180 days... in a nutshell." He says as if he had written the law himself.

He rises up again, taking his satchel and tablet from under the table.

"But rest assured, I will also make sure my employees know what they are getting dragged into before the meeting... and I hope your underlings know too. Now come on, lets make our preparations." Raising his hand, gesturing at the door signaling that this meeting has ended.

"Hmm.  So fragile,"  Mxotichtlatl muses, "But if that is what it takes... IT IS DONE!" The anuhles screeches, "I will see you in four hours, at a neutral location of your choice!  Inform me via the electronic mail, if you can type fast enough, dirty monkey-human-mammal!"

The spider opens the door with a quick burst of silk and then scuttles out to the horror of Kendal's aides.

Kendal keeps his composure and the polite smile until he is sure Mxotichtlatl exited the office proper, then letting his face drop into his own palm and letting out a short sharp sigh.

Without looking he presses a buzzer on a panel at the table, calling his secretary, talking with the usual polite yet tired tone.
"Are you there? I need 3 sacrificial lambs to jump to the belly of the beast with me in 4 hours, so can you find me a place to invite said beast and all the info you can get on Lorbellis and what she is up to these days asap... thank you."

After that he removes his glasses to rub his eyes, swallowing the fatigue and small frustration and starts thinking the best way to go about this ordeal.

Within five minutes there's a knock on the door.

"Sir?"  Her voice is a vibratto harmonic, a tensed guitar string thrumming in the distance.  The purple and blue light of her hair shines under the door before she even appears.

Xene is- was- the Goddess of Neon, not the element, but the light source that so dominated the 1980s.  Young and somewhat powerful for a new god, she had quite the portfolio during her heyday but frittered it away with drugs and bankrolling one too many Schumacher Batman movies.  Xene found herself bereft of just about everything at the time of the Exodus.

Which, in a way, saved her.  Forced to go cold turkey, Xene ended up going to one of the hundreds of makeshift 'schools' and finding she had a surprising aptitude for bureaucracy.  Unfortunately for her, as part of the new wave of clerical workers, she's one of millions of them.  They're a dime a dozen.

But she's also Kendal's dime.

"I have a list of potential lambs,"  She says, "And a bottle of vodka."

"Come on in, but don't get caught in the web that demon spat on the door" Leaning back to his chair, it was always relaxing just listening to her voice, especially after that hissing and yelling a moment ago.

When the door opens, he greets her with a genuine warm smile, happy to see her and the bottle she carries. "Thanks, you are a true life saver, you make my life better just by being here." Kendal likes to throw some light flirt with her from time to time, just to tease, no real intention behind it.

He then takes a stack of hollow books off the shelf revealing some glasses and empty bottles hidden inside, taking two of the glasses and putting them on the table "Lets see what we've got"

"Worst potato vodka I could find, which is just perfect given the circumstances." She waggles the bottle, "Made in a still on the 8th level of our own district.  A man of the people should drink his people's hand-crafted booze."

She pours him a full cup and pours half of that amount for herself.

"Well, we've got no shortage of volunteers... all of them smarmy little a-holes looking to make a name for themselves.  You have to pick two of them.  You're laying this little lamb-" She takes a sip of her vodka and gestures at herself, "Down on that altar, because you're useless without me."

When Xene fills the glasses, Kendal started raised his finger when it was half full to say that's enough, only to be ignored. He takes a good sip and lets out a long breath as the taste of alcohol hits home.
"Perfect choice indeed, i can almost taste their determination"

He listens to her, nodding in agreement.
"For this quest we are looking for lambs who can defend themselves as the monsters minions just might explode... and yes, the King does need his Queen with him."

Taking another sip "Any suggestions on the lambs?"

"I can taste the antifreeze." She remarks dryly. "OH, I'm a Queen now, am I?  Is that so?  Maybe I should ask for a raise then to match my Queenly status?  Triple the pay, effective immediately, chop chop."

She flips open a notepad and adjusts her glasses.

"If we're looking for footmen to bring along, I have a few suggestions.  But the qualification that they need to defend themselves cuts a few of those short.  For instance, I'm sure Brenda...."  (Sweet, wonderful Brenda, a wizard of political law, but in her late 70s) "... doesn't fit that bill.  So we're down to five hale-and-hearties, one of whom I'm pretty sure has never picked up a weapon in his life."

She looks at Kendal and sighs.

"They're interns, not warriors.  So, I'm going to have to say we go with the Dwalaski brothers."

Ah, yes, the Dwalaski brothers:  six years apart in age, mostly good men.  Gym time is sacrosanct to Piotr, to the point where he doesn't do nearly as much social work as he should because those gains, brah.  Michal, on the other hand, is a dedicated sportsman who plays some sort of regional ballgame (that Kendal and most sane people could never figure out) and engages in recreational swordfighting in the hopes of bagging that cute Fire-Aspected Dragon-Blooded that lives on his block.  Both of them are not exactly his best workers.

"I was first going for a Knight and squire analogy, then Prince and Princess, but decided King and Queen to be most fitting" He says, ignoring the pay raise comment.

He frowns as he rubs his chin, thinking.
"As they say, right tool for the right job, with the two of us I don't think we need more brain power, just the extra hands in case the demons try and throw a party."

He takes his own datapad and looks through the Dwalaski brothers info and drinking more of the antifrozen determination.

"Well, yes, I guess, but what happens if I'm distracted by a demonic insult?  Then the brain power in the room gets cut to 10%."  She smirks at him.  "Think they'll try something especially bad?  I mean, they're definitely going to try something, they're demons."

The Dwalaski's files give him their law scores- a solid 50%, dead average- and other basics.  Piotr's 26, Michal's 20, orphans smuggled onto the Last Refuge out of Warsaw.  No major problems with demons to date.  Michal does have something on his record from the early days on the Last Refuge- he apparently once tried to punch a God of Murder and it took Exalted intervention to prevent his death.

"Yes yes they probably will, might be venom or just violence, but I fail to see why? We already made a deal with Mxotichtlatl about our involvement, is there any reason to throw a tantrum other then just for the sake of it?"

Or just maybe someone has a grudge against him, that was not unusual.

They are asking us for help and causing injuries is counterproductive to meet their goal... are they trying to lure us into provoking them, making us the ones to blame?

"Hmmm... as we really cant tell if this is legit business or a bait, we just must prepare for the worst and be damn sure we are not the ones picking a fight" He says as he cant hide the concerned face anymore, not around her.

"They're demons, Senator Kendal," Xene remarks with an eyeroll, "Their whole point is emotion and warped morality and alien motivations.  Didn't you hear Mxotichtlatl?  He said he loathes you, but used that as a reason to ask you for help.  To the right breed of demon, pure-hearted loathing is just as good as love."

She crosses one incandescent leg quickly over the other and leans forward in her chair.

"What I mean by especially bad would be an actual concerted assassination attempt, not just a demonic tantrum gone wrong."

"Well yes, pardon me, it seems my fatigue is getting the better of me. It's good having someone with brain capacity around here." he says after listening to what she ways, avoiding her with his eyes and drinking some more.

"Even after 10 years I have trouble remembering these things, but anyway, the best way to defend is to make your defenses impossible to attack. We either go to a public place, a place we have total control over or somewhere the absolutely can't even think about attacking us, ideas?" When he speaks, he always talks about everyone's safety, not just his own, caring about others even if it's him who is in the most danger.

He brushes through his hair with his fingers, messing up the lining.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 19:53, Thu 05 July 2018.

"Don't beat yourself up over it.  If we could understand demons really well I don't think they'd be demons anymore."  She smirks as he cuts down on his drink, readying the bottle to pour more.  "I think that the best place to be is a combination of the latter two.  Public really isn't a good idea.  Do you want to end up on the news?  Because I definitely don't want to show up in the news talking to a demonic group about political skullduggery."

She thinks, "There's a whole bunch of places that might work for this sort of thing.  Like inside an airlock with a thin bulkhead sort of thing.  If they cause a problem, we all get vented."

"Well yes, getting the wrong kind of spotlight can ruin a career overnight" He agrees as he looks at her smirk and passes his glass over to her.

He then stretches his arms and massages his left shoulder, all this sitting has gotten his shoulders stiff.

"Hah! I have never been vented out of an airlock before, heck, I don't think I have been outside the Last Refuge in these past 10 years. Getting couple of space suits shouldn't be a problem or setting up the meeting in an airlock, but I feel if we do that I want a man outside in case we get vented, I reeeealy don't want that any of us get adrift out there."

"Most people haven't.  I mean, what's out there?  Just the howling dark of death."  She sips her drink now, "Well, then again, the downside is that a lot of demons are a hell of a lot more durable than you are.  I mean if you get vented or your suit gets hit, you're dead.  Me, well, I'll maybe get a headache.  I'll miss you at least." She kisses in his direction.

"A human can survive a vacuum for a moment, it's not like we explode the second there is no air pressure or oxygen, what, you're not going to grab me real tight and give me mouth to mouth just to keep me alive?" He returns the kissing gesture with just narrowing his eyes.

"Because I really doubt they would accept a skype call or something, the airlock is not the worst idea ever as long as we get backup"

Maybe it's time to pull some threads to get some "insurance"

"Look, how would I know what happens to a human body when vented?  I only know what I helped produce for movies."  She sighs and rolls her eyes, "Well, I don't breath air like you do, so I could blow some helium in your lungs and you can scream for help in a really funny high-pitched voice..."

She looks at her pad.

"Well, I'll see if I can dig up some other places."

"Well if we want to go with classics, we could go to an opera or a play and reserve a booth, but I don't think we can do that in 3 hours. Or if we want to get crazy and not end up on the news, we just go somewhere with high security, say, near command. Or if we want it equally hazardous for everyone we go to the inner wilds... but lets not do that."

He pics up his own pad and starts looking through his contacts if there was someone who would be ready to help. He was running out of ideas for places to keep a safe meeting with no outside observers.

"Well they do say: If there is no peril in the task, there can be no reward in it's accomplishment. We will make this work now that I gave my word for it."

"Think you idiot, think!" was the one thought running through his head.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:58, Tue 10 July 2018.

"The inner wilds?  Are you nuts?  It's not even all mapped out.  That's neutral, yeah, but it's the worst kind of neutral.  Tell you what.  What about the Underforge?"  Xene suggests, "I know a family or two that, uh... may or may not... worship me."

Kendal tilts his head to one side as she tells about the worshipers.
"Well I thought it was the point of being a Goddess to be worshiped? maybe i should acquire something with neon lights on it to decorate the office." he jests.

"I've never been to the underforge, but there is a first time for everything. With the lack of better option in this time frame lets go with that. Can you make the preparations?"

"Yes, we're supposed to be worshiped.  Supposed."  She says critically, "That would be nice, it'd almost make me think you cared.  The downside is that this family doesn't worship me as the Goddess of Neon Lighting.  It's more like I'm, um, they think I'm a Goddess of Parties and it's pretty embarrassing.

Sure, I can try to contact them, but I'd rather we not turn this into a rave, so I have to be prepared to lose a few worshipers."

"Huh, I never really had the time to think about all of this worshiping stuff, how should one worship the Goddess of Neon Lightning? Prayer? Bright lights? Better pay?" the last part is made with a sarcastic tone.
"And yes, I suppose if people care enough to worship something, they would worship the more visible heroes, like Five Days Darkness or Lucifer."

He then starts to look at a map of the underf- oh shit! what a mess of pathways and pipes... good thing he doesn't have claustrophobia.

"Well, bright neon lights usually help, but there's also synth music, dancing, a 200% raise, you know.  that sort of thing.  Why, you've got it down pat!"  She beams- quite literally.  She holds up her drink in a salute.  "Now get to worshiping, chop chop."

Yeah, the place looks like someone shook up a can of spaghetti and dropped it on the floor.  It takes most of his mental capacity to just figure out where the main hallways are.

The light hits his eyes straight on, argh. He pumps the air with his fist a couple of times and says "wub wub" in monotone, then back to poker face.

"I'll leave the worshiping to after you have done your job." He gulps down the rest of his drink. "If you do a decent enough job I just might humor you, now go on, make yourself useful."

"Oh, so I'm noooot useful."  She dims down a bit, though whether it's from anger or for eye protection is a mystery.  "Well then, maybe I should go find another employer, hmmm hmm."  She stands up and leaves her glass half empty, then puts down the bottle.  "You're actually going to get some sleep right?"

"Sleep? Like... right now? And I'm to trust you with all the arrangements?" he says with the voice of a man in charge questioning a employee, all though he actually wants her to take the initiative and talk back, because he Really wanted that sleep, but can't back down from a conversation.

"Well, yes.  That's my job, isn't it?  I want that raise, don't I?  How am I going to get it without taking additional responsibilities?"  She chides him, "Besides, you're only human, and I'm a goddess.  I don't need sleep like you do, only worship."

She stares down at him, shifting her weight onto one hip and high heel.

"Honestly, Senator, the way you're working you're going to collapse and die one of these days.  Do you even know what downtime is?  Do you even have- dare I say it- fun?  Let alone sleep?"

He looks back at her and keeps silent for a second before smiling and turns off the tablet. Rising up and loosens his tie a bit.

"OK, have at it, wake me up in 2 hours and have more coffee ready... Fun comes later."

Then he has to move over some books from on top of the sofa he has in the office to lay down on it, bu before he does so he thinks there was a blanket around here somewhere and searches for it.

"That's not an answer, Senator," She says softly to him as she closes the door.

There's a blanket underneath the couch, crisply folded and with the slightly musty smell that says it's been unused for some time.

Kendal's quick to doff his shirt, clear a spiderweb on the sofa, and then try to rest on the rock-hard cushions.  Most of the furniture nowadays- the cheap stuff, anyway- wasn't particularly comfortable.  But sleep comes quickly to the Senator.  Dreamless, quiet sleep doesn't come often to him.

He's woken up by a blinding light blinking in his eyes. "Time to wake up,"  He hears Xene hum at him, "I've got good news and better news."

Ahhh sleep, the daily condition that is caused by the deficiency of caffeine, to be avoided at all costs, but man does a power nap feel good.

he sits up and stretches his shoulders before putting the glasses back on, it only needs one long breath to bring him to focus.

"Lets hear it... the coffee?"

She's standing over him, arms folded beneath her breasts, blinking her incandescent skin on and off until his glasses are in place.

"Good news is we have a place.  It's basically a small refinery-house by the Underforge occupied by some of my followers.  Demons won't start any problems there because it turns out that I'm not the only one who's been hanging around down there. Alveua, Keeper of the Forge of Night, once made it her home and it's something of a holy place.  Our esteemed colleague was quite happy with my choice.

The better news- I won't be suing you for sexual harassment."

"So I take there is no coffee then?" He rises up in manner that he doesn't bump into her and starts putting his clothes back on.
"Anything else? Are the siblings ready? And what is the back up plan in that place? Or are you just going to leave me in suspense?"

When Xene mentions harassment, he isn't quite sure to what specific point in time she is referring to, but it doesn't matter, if it is a problem she will surely say about it.

"Yea leave the court cases for later, i'm too busy to go to jail or get fired."

"There's coffee on the pot but it's not done brewing." She remarks, watching him get dressed intently, "The siblings are ready.  Our backup plan- I'm actually proud of this one.  Turns out someone in our office knows a high-ranking officer of the Ilmorijo.  We've been given a code, if there's an issue, there'll be a 'standard patrol' to help defuse things."

As he ties up a merovingian knot to his tie he also checks how he looks in the mirror, hopefully not too tired.
"That's great news! Anything else but the coffee before we head out?"

He then puts on the rest of his suit, a vest and a jacket. To be good you must first look good.

"Tell you what Xene, If this all goes smoothly i'll give you a proper prayer of thanks." He glances at her as he gathers the rest of his stuff in a suitcase.

"Just a mug of joe, Kendal."  She hands him a mug. <b>"You look good, tie's too complex as always but looks good."  </b>Then they head out.

Maybe the tie was a mistake.  Xene certainly thinks her blouse and skirt are mistakes once they hit the Underforge.  God-flesh or not, this place is HOT, and the siblings are "Sweating our balls off!".  Piotr Dwalaski, in particular, is one giant sweating hulk.  Xene wrinkles her nose.

"Alright, down here."  She gestures to a ladder down a hatch, which makes Michal grumble darkly. "You first?"

"My my, a gentleman." Xene heads down, then Michal directs Kendal.  Piotr's last, partially because the bodybuilder is almost too big to fit in the tunnel.

Another turn, another.  Eventually they reach a wide-open pathway with access to a forge; a hot fiery wind blows down the tunnel, crisping their eyebrows and eyelashes but otherwise leaving them unharmed.  Xene finally directs them through a paired set of bulkheads.

The Temple of the Forge of Night, now the Temple to Xene, is really just a small refinery-house for Xene's worshipers.  There's a kitchen, a dining room big enough for 12 people, two sleeping quarters, and a forge.  It looks like they make some sort of small moving part for one of the furnaces here.  It's the house of an entire family whose sole purpose in life was to build one part for as long as it takes.

He's met by the matriarch, a tiny Korean woman with calloused hands and a broken-toothed smile.  "Thank you for coming.  May I bring you some tea?"

This... doesn't look like someone who parties a lot.

Kendal tries his best to remember all the corners and bulkheads in case he needs to find a way back home, or better yet, find his way down here later.
Good thing there is always cologne to mask the smell of sweat, the idea of a meeting place in a bulkhead still sounds really good right now.

He nods politely to the woman greeting them. "Why of course thank you, iced tea if at all possible. My name is Kendal, it's a pleasure to meet you" giving a gentle smile.

He also looks around if there are sings of anyone being here or that partying Xene mentioned.

The old woman cackles, "Iced tea!  Good one!  Iced!"  She hobbles to the kitchen giggling at the thought.

There's nobody else here, just the old woman.  But judging by the size, and given the scarcity of space, Kendal estimates there must be at least 20 people working here.  Xene notices him looking around and coughs once.

"Aye, we're gonna be sweating our balls off forever here," Piotr says in a low voice, "I hope this meeting doesn't last long.  And what's our nuclear option?"

"The forge." Xene nods towards it, "There's a control panel by the forge.  We press it, it'll flood the whole place with molten metal.  It's a last-ditch resort."

"Who the fuck would design that?"

"Last-ditch resort.  Sometimes things get a bit screwy in the Underforge with mutations and you need to sterilize or seal off rooms," Xene tells him. "Anyway we have Ilmorijo as a backup, the lava-button is only for posturing, which the demons will appreciate."

"And the rest of the people who live here?  Where are they?" Michal asks.

"I've paid for them to have a nice trip to a club close to the upperdecks.  So we won't have to worry about the lives of anyone but our hostess."

Kendal looks for a place to sit down. It's pretty much just waiting from now on.

"Piotr, would you mind rearranging the furniture so we can sit in a group opposite of our guests."

Buying a freezer for this place would have been a really good idea, but cool drinks must have to wait.

"On it, sir." Piotr is very respectful once he's actually starting to work, and apparently rearranging furniture counts.  He sets up a chair for Kendal and Xene, then leaves the rest of the chairs on the other side of the table.  "Michal and I will stand behind you, if that's okay, sir?"

Michal pulls back his suit coat to reveal a long knife.  Piotr draws a pair of brass knuckles out of his pocket.

"We have to show them we're serious, sir."

The Korean grandmother hobbles back with a hot cup of tea, freshly boiled.  "For you, my guest!" By the smell of it, it's the fake stuff grown almost everywhere in the underdecks- basically just plant-flavored water.  But it can be expensive anyway.

"Yes that is fine." he says as he sits down, putting his suitcase on the table and takes the can of Raid out of it to put it on the table as well.

Boiled drinks are always preferred because they most probably have no extra bacteria and such, wouldn't want to get an infection down here. "Thank you for the tea, your hospitality is greatly appreciated."

"I'll be in the other room if you need any help."  She smiles at him and waves, then backs away.

They wait for two minutes before there's a bang on the door.  Piotr gets up to get the door, opening it wide.

Of course, there's the usual suspect:  Mxotichtlatl, who leads the way with pompous arrogance and waves his claws in Piotr's sullen face.  He's followed by three other demons.  The first is a Chrysogonae, a Crying Woman; no surprise there, that breed of demons loves political intrigue and they infest the senate like lice.  The second is a Firmin, a Needlemaker, not well-known for intelligence; this one has a vacant look and its quills have been oddly cut short.  The last is an Erymanthus, a Blood Ape, covered in patchy red hair and wearing a tailored suit coat and a thick set of glasses.

"I am MXOTICHLATL!" The Anuhles announces, "And these are my advisors and interns!  The Chrysonagae Crowwood!  My scribe, the Firmin InkQuill!  And this is Erymanthus Torvald, my legal aide!"

Crowwood chuckles.  InkQuill stares at them blankly.  Torvald reaches his hand out to Piotr.

"How do you do, a pleasure to meet you all!" The Blood-Ape greets them as Piotr awkwardly shakes the huge hand.

Kendal stands up to greet them, shaking hands if offered. At this stage he was no too concerned yet because if they just wanted to make a ruckus they would have done so the second they stepped inside.

"Greetings Torvald, the pleasure is ours."

He also looks if they brought anything extra with them.

"My name is Kendal Raines and these are my employees, my secretary Goddess Xene and my personal aides Piotr and Michal Dwalaski. Now, as we did the pleasantries just 4 hours ago, let us talk business." He sits down and leans back, preparing his eardrums to any possible screeching Mxotichlatl may emit.

"A point of order." Torvald raises his finger and clears his throat, "Has this room been checked for bugs?"

"Well-"  Xene starts to say.

"Besides my client?"  Torvald continues, a strange twinkle in his eye.

"We didn't bug."  Piotr growls.

"I have no doubt.  But who knows who else may have."

"Yesss, yesss, check the room for bugs,"  Crowwood starts to crawl around the place, sniffing behind her strange mask-face.

"My apologies.  We have to be careful." Torvald glances over at his leader, who has busily started to push two chairs together for his wide bulk, "For both of our sakes, of course!"

"There isssssssssssss nothing." Crowwood announces.

"EXCELLENT!" Mxotichlatl screeches, "To business!!!!  Now let us see what we have!  TORVALD!  THE BOOKS!"

"Yes, sir,"  The blood-ape sighs and opens up a manila envelope, "We were looking and we found some curious things."

"We can find more curiousss thingsss if we band together." Crowwood sidles over towards their side of the table.  Michal heads her off with a hand touching the hilt of his long blade.

"This little rewording snuck in during a rather larger heading.  By such a strange coincidence, nobody has figured out who submitted it.  The arguments were getting rather heated, at the time.  You see, this was brought up during the announcement of the formation of the Admiralty Board.  And, more importantly, it was brought up when discussing a potential court-martialing of Lucifer.  So, of course, everything about it was conveniently ignored."

"Well the little people always scurry away at the mention of Lucifer or if there is even the slightest possibility to end up on his bad side."

This bloodape is quite amusing, never heard of a Erymanthus using words that long.

"Well, lets see it and think what to do about it."

"I do believe I summarized it."  Torvald pushes his glasses up his snout. "This is only the documentation."

He drops the book of proceedings in front of Kendal.  It's full of notes and notices, little bookmarks.

"Admiralty Board announced.  Prime candidates chosen.  A call to update the Code of Censuses and Citizenship while the hubbub was still going. We've got a 68% vote along the lines of Yea with 1% Nay and 31% abstaining, still arguing about the need for an Admiralty Board."  He flips through the pages with his huge shovel hand, "And here!  The Admiralty Board hasn't been formed yet, but a list of tabled selections includes Lucifer, and the Code of Censuses and Citizenship with the offending paragraph snuck in.  I took a look at their bureau.  There's fifty senators.  10 gods, 10 elementals, 10 humans, 10 Dragon-Blooded, 10 demons.  The overhaul for Censuses and Citizenship was delegated to a group of 6 humans, 3 gods, and an elemental."

"i must say you have done a splendid job. I get the idea of what is going on, but i'm still yet to hear what you want me to do specifically? You have gotten so far without my input, so what is the problem?"

So the culprit is most likely at least one of these 10 or all of them for all we know. Now he just waits for them to get to the point.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:42, Thu 26 July 2018.

"The problem is we're demons."  Torvald says gently.

"DEMONS!  HATED BY FILTHY HUMANS AND GODS!"

"Correct, Senator."  Torvald nods in agreement, "If we go to them and try to discuss this, we believe they'll close ranks.  Shore each other up.  More importantly, we can find no records of who put together the Censuses and Citizenship Overhaul Group.  Whoever did certainly made a conscious effort to stonewall demons, probably for just this sort of underhanded move."

"So the individual senators may be the problem.  It may be one of them, or all of them.  But the real problem is finding who organized it." Michal observes, a bit out of turn.

"Correct." Torvald nods towards him, "There are a number of senior senators on Censuses and Citizenship, of course.  None of them are in the overhaul committee.  They're all of them juniors.  Less than 3 years of experience each.  That's not to say they don't have the intelligence to do such a thing, but it reeks of working with cutaways."

As he listens to the explanation he nods from time to time, sighing when Filthy humans are mentioned.

"So I'm here to talk, that's completely fine with me, but I assume you keep doing the investigation so we wont get connected in their eyes."
He wants to confirm that he's staff doesn't need to do any spying.

"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."

"Aren't we leaving something out of the equation? It could be a resentful Exalted for all we know, with no clues we cant make a proper analysis yet." He taps his fingers on the armrest. "Personally I think it's just a fucked up pathetic little man who has no clue of what he is really doing, thinking that what he does is best for all of us, the fool."

"Do we even know any resentful Exalted?  I mean, they're all pretty up front about things.  Known quantities, you know?  I'll ask around but I don't think there's any Exalted running around with a hate-on for demons."

She shakes her head.

"Whoever did this has to know what they're doing, otherwise why go at it this method?  This is really roundabout.  Honestly it's a miracle the demons even noticed it."

"Good points, but never underestimate human ambition and stupidity. Demons noticing could be plain old professionalism on their part or even a deliberate ruse to lure them in." he rolls his eyes because this is all just guesswork at this point.

"Anyway lets just focus on gathering all the possible puzzle pieces we can before we try to put it all together, or is there still something on your mind?"

"What are the odds Torvald- because it has to be Torvald!- is just sitting there, scanning every footnote of every one of the hundreds of pages of documents generated every day by the Senate?" Xene says with a little exasperation, "I think it's just a miracle he found it!  So let's walk into this with wary eyes, right?"

Xene sighs and puts her hands over her face.

"Gods, they're such idiots... okay.  No, there's nothing else on my mind, Senator.  Unless you needed some coffee?  I think everyone else has gone for the day."

"Yes a cup of coffee would be nice. After that you can go and rest if you want, I'm thinking on getting some work done to cool my head."

He agrees with Xene about this being a miracle, but he doesn't want to draw any conclusions just yet.

"Coffee it is,"  She remarks with a saucy wink as she leaves the room.  He's left alone with his thoughts for a few minutes as he hears the coffee percolate, that sweet sweet sound of bubbling caffeine.  He also hears a few 'DINGS' as Xene receives some emails on her phone, and he can hear her cursing it out occasionally.

She returns with a full mug of the dark ambrosia and sets it in front of him alongside some sugar and cream.

"Good news.  Mike's responded." She folds her arms in front of him, "Apparently he thinks you owe him a favor, because he seems to think you can order me to go on a date with him."
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:44, Tue 14 Aug 2018.

A spoonful of sugar and a some cream, perfect.

"A date? Tell him that an audience is as close as he is getting if he asks me for that sort of thing." He gets mildly irritated at the thought, he needs Xene to do all the work she can and dates seems like a waste of time anyway. "What is peoples fixation on dates right now? Is there a God of Love on the run or what?"

Good thing he got the coffee or he just might get actually mad.

"I've already told him off, no need for you to get further involved."  She waves her hand, "I think it's just the whole 'we're gonna die any minute' sort of thing."  She taps his desk twice, "Am I good to go, boss, or do you need me for anything extra?"

"I'm good, you go and recharge your batteries, we got a long day tomorrow."

He plans to do some work and browse the web before calling it a day.

Xene nods, "Good night, Senator."

The daily memes are hilarious.  Dawww, that dog got stuck in an intake valve!  Eventually Kendal falls asleep...

We move to the next night.  Nothing important happens throughout the day, but Michael does get back to him with further information- he's treating Kendal to a nice dinner, sushi at the Jumping Salmon, a very high-quality joint in the Upperdecks.  Dinners there usually cost more than a full year's salary down in the Lowerdecks.  But that's for good reason:  fresh fish is costly.

Xene shoots him a look, "Maybe I should've taken him up on that date.  I've wanted to eat there ever since they started domesticating the mini-tuna."

((Anything you want to clear up before the meeting, go ahead, then we'll jump right to it))

Only the freshest memes for the Senator.

((Nothing comes to mind, of course i'll think of something when it's too late. Although a brief summary of this whole mess would be nice.))

Kendal likes to cook his own meals, saves money and still tastes better then the composed garbage people usually sell, so a visits to restaurants are rare. The last time he ate sushi was back on earth, he hopes they have shrimps.

He returns the look with a raised brow "I thought people go on dates because of the company not the food? And if you just want to eat maybe go with a friend?" Well he knows it's still expensive with her salary. "You should go with my sister, I think she could afford going there anytime she wanted."

So, to summarize!

• A particularly incredibly observant demon working for probably the most incompetent demonic senator on the Last Refuge discovered a tiny footnote of a subclause in another document
• This footnote classifies demons of all types as, essentially, power tools
• This footnote could be used, in the far-flung future, as precedent for taking away demonic rights ("They've been classified as power tools for years!  If anything we're just calling them what they've always been!")
• The reworking including the footnote was snuck through a committee during a contentious bout of arguing about the formation of an Admiralty Board and Lucifer's impending courtmartial
• The committee who added this subclause and footnote are 10 junior senators- and not a single one is demonic
• This heavily implies they've been used as patsies by a being with a grudge
• The demons are pissed (honestly, when are they not)
• The demons are unwilling to confront the subcommittee openly yet and have asked for Kendal's help to get a bit more of an idea who started this
• If there's a human supremacist movement, Kendal might be in danger as a race traitor

"I'd love that, if your sister wouldn't mind dropping me a line sometime?" She curls a bit of hair around her finger, "Go have fun, Senator."

The Jumping Salmon is beautifully ornate, a full-scale Japanese restaurant built hanging over the Upperdecks much like the Neomah warrens.  Old, lacquered wood and paper give the restaurant an old world flair that sets many a patron to sighs of longing.  Wood is expensive these days, and all this wood is from Earth itself.  Kendal is met at the front door by a waiter in full tuxedo, who gives him a quick bow.

"Senator Raines, this way, please."  He directs Kendal through the winding floors of the restaurant, until he finally reaches a corner booth way out of the way.  Old, bad tobacco wafts up as he approaches.

Michio "Mike" Nakama is an old veteran ex-yakuza, a pinky missing, teeth split, weathered log of a man.  During the escape from Tokyo he helped hold one of the defense lines with- as legend has it- a gold-plated baseball bat and an M1911 stolen from the defenders of Wake Island.  Time has treated him poorly.  He may be in his 50s, but he looks around 70.  His teeth are yellowed, his breath stinks, but his eyes are wise and calculating.  His reputation is one of neutrality; and that's probably why he's not been a senator for very long.

"Raines, take a seat."  He says in heavily accented English. "It's been a long while."
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 21:27, Wed 15 Aug 2018.

Today's attire is smart casual. His face says I'll try when he gives a nod to her as they part ways.

In the booth he naturally looks around if they are alone and greets Mike before sitting down "It indeed has, how is life treating you these days my friend?"

"I can't complain.  My restaurant is doing well, as you can see.  Anything you'd like to drink?  I bought this place half a year ago.  Amazing what you can do with a little money, a little clout, and an old blood-debt."

He's already sipping on a drink- sake, probably made on-ship.  Old Earth sake probably doesn't even exist anymore.

"And, of course, eat.  But I'm waiting on the freshest fish to come in and for the chef to tell me what's looking the best."

"Good to hear, I'll have what you're having."

"I did wonder if shrimps were still a thing in one form or another.Tell me, how much did Xene inform in the message? I was thinking of waiting for the food before talking about exchanging favors."

"Hot sake it is.  And sure, we have shrimp.  It's some of the easiest stuff to farm, along with tilapia.  The salmon, on the other hand... that's tough.  Core is apparently working on a fish circuit.  The Last Refuge is big enough for that." He takes a long sip, "She just said you needed help and assistance.  Nothing of favors was really spoken.  But I don't recall either of us owing anything to each other but friendship."

"Fish circuit? now that is something. And you are correct, we don't owe anything to one another and I intent to keep it that way, that being said, I need your help regarding a certain committee and the people behind it. There has been..." He thinks his words carefully to not give away too much information. "...A case of a tiny footnote in a subclause that can cause a lot of trouble later on. I need it fixed and find out who exactly made it happen."

"Core's described it as a massive conduit of rushing water, large holding tanks, and the like to represent rivers and oceans.  A place where salmon can be, well, salmon."  Mike tells him as a waiter comes over with some hot sake, pouring a small cup for both of them.  "Ahh, thank you."

He takes a long sip, contemplating what Kendal's just said.

"You're going to have to explain that a bit more, my friend.  There are a lot of subclauses and a lot more footnotes."

"Of course, I just had to raise some interest in you first. This particular footnote classifies a certain ethnic group as power tools, I'll let you guess which it is." He also takes a sip of sake before continuing. "I'd like to make it disappear as soon as possible and make sure it can never happen again, there is enough trouble brewing as it is."

He is excepting Mike to ask something in return of course.

"I'll be blunt here, Kendal," He takes a big drag of his cigar, "I haven't a clue what you're talking about.  You have any idea how much work crosses my desk?  And problems with ethnic groups?"

He chuckles and shakes his head.

"I've got people petitioning me daily- daily!- to throw the Jews out the airlock.  There's so much prejudice still on this ship it's hard to keep it all straight."

"Okay, I will lay it our for you, in the worst case scenario half of the living fleets population will be stripped of their rights and anything could be done to them and they could do anything without consequence... Legally."

He looks Mike straight into his eyes. Kendal wants his words takes seriously.

"What makes me to believe that this is even a possibility, is that the footnote was deliberate, there was a subcommittee formed to make this happen and i'm afraid that if this is overlooked, a whole assload of shit is waiting for us down the road."

"Name the footnote," Mike sighs and blows out a bit of smoke, "Because I don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of this stuff.  There are a lot of footnotes.  And I don't always touch all of them."  He looks dead at Kendal, "And I don't like your implication that somehow I'm a part of whatever shit-slinging you're dealing with.  Take a step back and a deep breath, young man.  You came here to ask for my help, not insult me."

"My apologies if I offended you." He lets out a sigh and calms down a notch, he clearly got too excited.

"What I meant was that this is an issue that has the potential to affect many people and I indeed asked for your help because I deemed you most adept."

He keeps his tone lower than before, takes a sip and wipes the frown off his own face.

"It's *insert footnote name here* and in summary it says that Demons are power tools."

"Apology accepted but that means I get to old man rant at you a little more first to get it out of my system.  You need to watch it."  He jabs the cigar in Kendal's direction, "Being a firebrand is great and all but now you're a politician, damn it.  You need to learn how to be politic.  That means knowing how to treat people, when, and where.  Or else you're not going to last long in this business."

Admonishment over, he knocks back the rest of his sake and takes a few deep breaths.

"... Really."  He leans over to pick up something next to him- a tablet.  He starts to flip through it.  "Well.  That's... something.  It's not exactly legally much.  But given the weight of time- it still isn't much.  Stupid laws unenforced are always considered stupid, you know?"

He puts down the tablet, looking right at Kendal.

"I'd say you got wound up over a prank but I'm betting you're not the one who found it, so someone else got wound up and you got wound up on their behalf.  Alright, it's fine.  We can look at it one of three ways. First way:  it's a stupid prank.  Let it slide, it'll fade in time, no worry.  Second way:  it's a malicious prank.  It won't hold any legal water but it'll get some people gravely offended and spark chaos.  That's my bet.  Third way:  It's a threat.  And someone will start trying to actively build precedent."

Oh right, this was a meeting, not a dinner with a friend. He starts to smile again, leaning back and relaxing a bit.

"If someone saw this much trouble for a prank of any caliber, i'm even more motivated to find out the culprit. Anyway, if this has even the slightest chance to spark unease it's worth looking at."

It would be against his character to leave work unfinished, and if this was a prank we are falling for it dammit!

"We can't discount the prank angle."  Mike says seriously, "There's trickster gods around and some have made it into the Senate before.  They usually don't last long.  But they're never really directly malicious, they usually target one or two individuals.  If this is the ultimate Godly Prank and it sets half the ship on fire, we should respond with extreme prejudice."

He starts going through some more files on his tablet.

"If you give me the time I can forward you some of the minutes.  But I can tell you we can probably nail it down to six potentials.  We work in teams of two and present to the committee, this slipped past me."  He taps the tablet, "My partner and I didn't do it, and I can vouch for two others who're demon-friendly."

A waiter arrives, choosing that moment to interrupt them with the fish of the day:  tilapia (much to Mike's distaste), old frozen bluefin tuna (ridiculously expensive), squid, and shrimp.  Sadly there's no salmon for the day.  Mike orders some squid sushi for himself and the shrimp nigiri for Kendal.

"Trickster gods eh? well they would definitely fit the bill regarding the prank potential, but this whole thing has a malicious feeling behind it if you ask me."

He is clearly delighted to see shrimp, he has mostly eaten only ready meals or protein bars with coffee, surely the healthiest lifestyle.

"In your opinion, could this be the work of human supremacists? since the committee that did this is most likely influenced by someone who wants this to happen."

The shrimp look fresh, beautifully pink-orange, and delicious.

"If it is, there are two potentials."  He answers, "It's certainly possible.  There are no shortage of those in the Last Refuge but I don't know too many in the Senate.  They tend not to last very long."  He rubs his chin as he looks at his food, "The Gods, on the other hand... they're very blatant about their dislike of just about everyone else and still cling to old ways."

"So not so much pro-human, but more like anti-demon mentality? You have a clue of who it might be?"

He takes some shrimp and nods to Mike "Thanks for the food" nom nom shrimp. Trying to enjoy the taste of actual food, might be some time before he can do this again.

"My thanks.  Bring some more people here, yeah?  Good for business."  He takes one of his pieces of sushi and eats one,  "Yeah, exactly.  I mean, some of the hardcore gods don't even think humans should be involved in the governmental process.  They had their own bureaucracy for thousands of years, back when we thought Eye for an Eye was the height of governance."  He takes another long swig of sake.

"I mean, that point it gets hard.  There's a ton of gods around and a ton of them think like it, but not all of them talk about it.  And they're really hard to get to know."

"Well It's no wonder they want to keep their thousand year old mind set, its a part that makes them what they are right?"

More shrimp.

"It also takes one to know one I presume? I think I can manage that side."

"Kind of.  But it's also old psychology.  The Gods are based on us, after all." His cigar's burnt out; he leaves it in an ashtray. "Just like we have our prejudices, so do they.  Just like we have pride, they have more.  And what's more dangerous than pride?  Wounded pride.  We don't necessarily need them any more, Kendal, and that bothers them."

He nods.

"Xene.  She'll be tough, though.  She's a newer God.  Only born relatively recently.  She's a liberal by their standards.  And that's assuming it's a God.  There's also Elementals, who're a whole different bag..."

Every time Mike takes a turn talking, Kendal takes a turn eating.

"Need them? hmmm... Xene did mention that people no longer worship gods like they used to, maybe it's a part of when you live next to them, they start to lose the mystery surrounding them and make them more mundane. Heck, we all would probably be pissed if our godly status got stripped to that guy next door." He rubs his chin. "I think we just need more information at this point before making any major moves."

"Yes, YOU do.  I'll take a look around too.  But I'm not going to do that much digging." He sighs, "The last thing I need is for one of them to start getting riled up, especially since we've worked so hard just to work together properly.  I'll send you the information to go through, nothing more, nothing less. Okay?  You can comb through the minutes bit by bit, that's what interns are for.  Me, I'm too busy."

He pulls out a new cigar and clips off the end.

"Off the record.  I'll admit.  I'm not thrilled with the demons."

"Well its great that I have all that free time to spare" He clearly jests, they both are most likely so busy that this is what resembles a brake in their minds. "Now that we got that nuisance sorted as much as we can sitting here, you know a good place I could go see a good play or the likes? Or is there some great pass time I have been missing?"

He starts to steer the conversation off-topic, no need to talk about the committee thing longer. Eating and drinking, enjoying this little moment with a friend talking about whatever.

"There's talk about a new sport being designed..." Mike goes into it.  Who'd have thought that the old Yakuza was such a sports fan?  Apparently it's a cross between baseball and basketball, with a bit of soccer thrown in- he's a big fan and has already begun backing a team, who he's called the Yokohama Yojimbos.

"So they're already building a Cup and everything, and I think we've got a shot at the first win," he says after an almost interminable amount of time. "But if you want to go more highbrow, there's a few operas being offered.  You thinking about actually getting some rec time in?  Rich!  I had you pegged as a workaholic!"

"Maybe i'm just a clever workaholic? Keep up with new things and sports to mask my conversation with non-work related things to talk about. I have been told that talking about paperwork can be exhausting to some so I try to know what is up these days."

He looks up the sport to know more about it, no harm in knowing more, maybe he will like it who knows.

"And since I have no real hobbies anymore, might as well find a way to spend the money I earn, could as well be arts and sports."

COREnet has a small entry on it.  Apparently it's beneath CORE's true concern.  Though he has left it open for other people to edit, something fairly unusual for CORE.

"Anymore, huh?"  He leans in, grinning like a shark with yellowed teeth.  "What was your old hobby, my young student?  And here I thought you were a blank slate carved into a politician!"

"I did exercise routinely since I was a kid, going to the gym, running and I tried many different hobbies ranging from fencing to board games. But as time passed I had less and less time for myself or my friends." Then he tries to change the subject away from himself. "And I thought you were new in this scene? Hardly makes me a student, all though I don't know your role or history in your previous occupation."

"Some people have a lot of time nowadays, but the real movers and shakers don't." He agrees, "Fencing, hm?  Very interesting.  I did kendo.  It's not quite the same but maybe we should spar sometime."

He chuckles at Kendal's question.

"New to the respectable political scene, but definitely not new to politics.  Back in the old days there was a lot of, ah, wheeling and dealing, and none of it above board."

"No wonder you fitted right in" He pours himself some more sake. "It's not like politics are meant to be played nice, if you don't play dirty, someone else will and you will be at a disadvantage."

He frowns for a moment but lightens up quickly again. "What a profession we picked for ourselves... oh well, if you want something done right, might just as well do it yourself right?"

"Politics have never played nice.  Ever hear of ostracizing someone?  It comes from an ancient Athenian practice, called an ostrakon."  He pours more sake for Kendal, "They didn't have democratic elections like we think they work.  Not quite.  But they had one thing that was democratic, the ostrakon, a time when everyone voted for one person- just one- to be exiled from Athens.  The most... ahem... popular candidate would be exiled from Athens for a decade."

He smiles.

"Of course, when they dig up these things, these ostraka- shards of pottery- they'd find the same name hundreds of times, written with the same hand..."

His face seems to be getting a little red.  He burbles with contained laughter.

"Dirty politics?  Might as well do it yourself, the ancient Athenians would say absofuckinglutely right!"

It's not like Kendal couldn't handle his liquor, but the pace of it was getting to him.

"Indeed the ancient world had lots of interesting politics and practices, my favorite is when Ceasar fucked the whole Roman system and rose to power with just two friends and a shit-ton of scheming." His speech is starting to lose focus, but he does his best not to drink too much so he can walk home without looking like a dumb ass.

((I don't have anything more actually important things to talk about with Mike. We can skip the rest of their shenanigans unless you have something in mind.))

"HAH, Caesar!  Talk about a dime store politician, now let met tell you about-"

The two ramble on about famous politicians, games, and sake until the end of the meal.  Mike is pleasantly drunk and almost passed out when Kendal finally finishes, mercifully not as drunk as he thought he'd be.  And, true to his word, Mike drunkenly gropes for the check.

((Unless you have more to add, gonna skip forward a little...))

It's the next day.  Next afternoon, in fact.  A rough hangover does not pair well with a seafood dinner but Kendal keeps it down.  The office is slow, quiet.  People chug along with their new workload, processing the volumes of information thrown at his direction.  Xene has taken to the 'streets' to field requests from his constituency so he doesn't even have her to keep him company.

That's when he gets a phone call, patched into his private office.

"Senator Raines?" He doesn't recognize the voice, though he recognizes a Finnish accent when he hears one.  "Do you have a few moments to talk?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:34, Tue 04 Sept 2018.

"Yes, Raines here, even though I have a moment I didn't catch on who's calling?" He is surprised that someone is asking if he has time since usually even phone calls are scheduled, even more baffling is what a nordic elf wants with him.

he clears his throat, even if you are dying you should look and sound good "let me guess, it's something urgent?"

"My name is Ilari Lievo, combat epidemiologist." That's not a term or name to take lightly- the man is famous for dealing with potential Abyssal void-diseases. "I wouldn't say it's an immediate life or death situation.  The dead stay dead when the proper rites are observed.  I am wondering when was the last time you spoke to Senator Mxotichtlatl."

"With that lead in you make me think that my eight legged friend is dead." Actually the idea of Torvald taking his place doesn't sound too bad, but it's not like he would just drop dead for no reason. "I talked to him the day before yesterday when he came to my office" No need to mention the later appointment as it was the same day, couldn't make that much of a difference.

"Why, is he?" Ilari asks with a tired voice, "We think he's missing. His office is an abattoir but we don't see any Anuhles blood.  It's usually very distinctive."  He sighs over the phone, "There's a large stack of papers in a folder with your name on it, and it's awfully close to the phone.  Most of it is covered in gore."

"Well we were doing some work between our subsectors, so the folder is most likely regarding that." The mention of gore makes him concerned, did something happen? If so, it might be a good idea to beef up his own security just in case someone hostile had found out what they were doing. "I'd really want him not-missing though, need my help in anything? I assume his assistants aren't missing?"
He keeps his speech calm and collected, not letting any emotion slip through his voive through the phone.

"No, no they're not.  At least, I don't think they are.  They're mostly in pieces, scattered around the place." Ilari pauses, "Seven, two Blood-Apes, a chrysonagae, a firmin, a demjen with two chalcothetes, I think a bisclavaret, and what's probably the remains of a tomescu.  Some of the bodies look untouched, others look like they were ripped limb from limb.  I could use your help here if you can help ID what's left or have any other insights."

The idea of seeing gore was not on the list of things to do today, but oddly enough he thinks he would be more grossed by human remains.
"Sure, i'll come over... Uhh... Do I need rubber boots? Eh, no matter, i'm on my way."

He then wants to call Xene and inform her of what happened and possibly take her there as well, he also informs the staff in office that there has been an incident and to keep their eyes open in case of unwanted company. It's not like a murder squad could just waltz in, but it doesn't hurt to be careful.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:41, Thu 06 Sept 2018.

Xene is a bit busy but she takes the call, soberly telling him to be careful and giving him an emergency number just in case.  Not like he needs it- his emergency number is his sister- but it never hurts to have extra.  Unfortunately she's a bit stuck at the moment and, to be frank, "I'll hurl everywhere".

"Best not to worry anyone.  Street clothes will do.  I'll have protective clothing waiting for you Senator." Ilari hangs up.

The staff nod soberly.  This isn't their first time getting a death threat.

Heading over to his counterpart's office is maddeningly slow, especially since he knows what's waiting for him on the other end.  When he finally reaches the area he's stopped by an armed squad of Ilmorijo, who quickly check his face against a pad and then beckon him on in.  He's directed to the Combat Epidemiologist, who has commandeered a nearby office for a clean room.  The man is already prepping a clean suit for him.

"Glad you could make it, Senator."
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:10, Thu 06 Sept 2018.

Kendal shakes hands end exchanges greetings "Pleasure to meet you, I hope I can be of assistance."

He starts putting the clean suit on and asks "Are there any precautions or rules I need to be aware of? I'm no detective so this is not really my strong suit." Maybe a barf bag just in case...

"Don't splash in the blood puddles, don't move anything without asking, if I say get out you get out and run back to this room.  If something pops out, like a ghost or something, and it manages to get past me and into this room, it's your duty to die."  He says flatly, "If this is an Event they'll want you spreading their stuff around so stand your ground."

He takes out some duct tape.

"I'll be taping together your suit at the wrists and ankles.  Again, this is all precaution.  I don't think this is going to be that kind of problem but we have to remain vigilant."

He starts with the feet while Kendal puts on the upper half.

"Especially after last year's Ghost Bullet infection."

The thought about dying without a fight makes him feel uncomfortable. "If a ghost enters the clean room I hope I'm allowed to hit it before succumbing to my fate. "

He takes a look at the Finns equipment, just looking what kind of gear he has. "Of course I'll follow your instructions. lead on" He says after putting on the suit and him sealing it with duct tape.

"Of course.  Just if it kills me, then I doubt there's much you can do about it.  My apologies, but it's the start truth."

He leads him back out of the clean room and into the office.  It's very similar to his:  a central space that opens to the outside and then a secondary room that can be closed off, usually the Senator's office.

It's carnage.  Blood is everywhere.  Bits of demon hang from the ceiling; the chrysogonae he met earlier hangs from it like a demented chandelier.  One blood ape lies slumped on the floor next to the door, huge gashes throughout its body.  A lot of the slashes were to the forearms.  A demjen lies slumped over a table, the broken remains of two metallic chalcothetes lying forlornly on the floor next to it.  A few insectile pieces of chitin may be found everywhere.  Finally a shadowy, rotten-looking figure lies beheaded near the door to the back room.

"Looks like swordplay here," Ilari says as they walk through, "Not your typical weapon nowadays."

((Awereness roll: 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2 & 1
19+5=24)

He takes a glance around the room, looking if he recognizes any more demons or anything else that catches his eyes. He looks at the height of the splatter and if the place looks sacked or robbed, or was this just a murder spree.

"Takes a lot of confidence to pick up a sword and come head first here, do we have an idea of how many attackers there were?"

He also wants to take a closer look at the beheaded figure, but he takes it slow to make sure he doesn't step on anything.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:01, Mon 10 Sept 2018.

There's not much he can really see.  But he does note that he doesn't see the Firmin nor Torvald- but there's one more room.  The rotten demon is a bisclavaret, and looks much the way he normally would, just sans a head.

"No idea.  Could be Tomescu, gang wars.  Tomescu have swords literally growing out of their body, but... it would still be equal."  Ilari says as he picks his way around the corpses.  "The other two bodies and the pages are in the back room."

The Lunar directs the way to the back room, opening it up.  The firmin InkQuill has been crucified against the wall by his own needles, with extra ones driven through his eyes and mouth for good measure.  Torvald sits in a chair behind Senator Mxotichlatl's desk, six bullet holes in his chest and stomach.

As he sees them all dead, he lets out a frustrated sigh. "I'm sorry" he says under his breath.

He starts to move closer to the desk.
 "All the employees I know of are here. Is it ok to look at the notes meant for me?" Picking them up if Ilari lets him.

The notes are near Torvald's hand.  "Be my guest,"  Ilari says, gesturing to them.  "They seem very relevant to the problem."

The moment Kendal touches the notes Torvald's chest heaves.  He lets out a rattling breath and his eyes open, glazed and in pain.  Ilari swears in Finnish and takes a step backwards, hand reaching for his medical kit.  "He's alive?!"

Kendal has never before been so close to a heart attack. No horror movie jump scare can compare to this,  He is quick to recover though.
"Torvald?! Torvald can you hear me? hang in there big boy we need you!" of course he lets Ilari pass himself to help Torvald.

The blood ape wheezes, blood dribbling from his nose and mouth.  If he can hear Kendal he doesn't react beyond a twitch of the hand.  Ilari rushes forward to start administering first aid, swearing more in Finnish as he tries to deal with the demon's alien biology.

The Lunar works with preternatural speed, shoving a sharp bladed tube into one of the bullet holes.  Then he pours some sort of silverish liquid from his hand down the tube.  "He's going to live,"  Ilari says a few minutes later.  "Erymanthoi don't go into shock when hurt, they just get more mad.  He must've had the presence of mind to play dead and shut his body down long enough for friendlies to arrive.  This is huge."

He observes very nervously the few minutes Ilari gives Torvald first aid, not wanting to brake his concentration. After Ilari is done Kendal asks. "Do we have a safe space to take him in the Sanctuary? I really don't want the killer hear of his survival so probably best to keep quiet about this."

He takes the notes and puts them in a plastic bag before tucking them away for transportation in a satchel. "What now? Call for assistance or just carry him out ourselves?"

"Sanctuary's pretty secure.  If someone can break into there and get patron records we have much bigger problems."  He says as he injects the blood ape with something more, "I'm going to have to call their orderlies, but we can take it from here.  But can you confirm you haven't seen the Senator's body?"

He hasn't.  The other Anuhles he saw definitely didn't look like his erstwhile 'friend'.

"The anuhles corpse over the didn't look like him, so if he is here, he is one of those puddles on the floor or Torvald is sitting on him. " he says as he observes him working.

Not really anything more to be done here unless something more unexpected happens."Sorry for not being able to assist you more here, but I'd like to hear what happens to Torvald and if something more turns up."
He then prepares to leave to the clean room to remove the suit, but he does check if the anuhles resembles Lorbellis before leaving.

"Well, Torvald isn't sitting on him so we'll have to assume him missing.  I'll get the test results to you soon.  Before you leave- please contact me if you start to develop any strange symptoms in the next 2 to 24 hours."  Ilari waves to him.

No, the Anuhles doesn't look like Lorbellis; Lorbellis, as far as he knows, is a rare thing, a demonic artist.  She's not the type to be here, even if on a date with the Senator.

He heads to the clean room, removing his suit and going through decontamination procedures to take the big sheaf of paper.

After the decontamination he keeps the papers in a clean sealed plastic bag and puts them in his bag before leaving the clean room. He intends to return to his office to inspect the papers.

He takes a detour by the liquor store, really need something strong for this occasion. He sends a text to Xene as he walks "Whole place was a mess, going back to office with new intel. Join up if able."

"Coming boss.  Glad you are OK.  Sure office is best?  Could come my place, closer"

"Not sure we should panic the office"

There's a few liquor stores on the way, not like the liquor's at all good.  Most of the stuff nowadays is basically moonshine hooch, with the most expensive stuff being things smuggled from old Earth.  All of that stuff is rare as hell.  But, hey, a good bit of moonshine will certainly help, and it's cheap.

"Good call, i'll head there. Ge glasses ready, need something after witnessing that mess." He gets some oh-so-good-quality moonshine and some mixers to go with it and heads to Xenes place.

He also buys sunglasses just in case there is a danger of getting blinded in there.

"Mixers"- right- like the Last Refuge has much in terms of mixers!  Lemons and limes, that's about it, maybe a bit of sugar.  There's very little around this area.  That sort of shit is a luxury.

Sunglasses, on the other hand- well, he gets welder's goggles at a fair price.  Same thing, kinda, right?

Turns out he doesn't need it.  A note on her door says to come on in.  Xene certainly may be the goddess of neon lighting, but she's definitely toned it down in her personal quarters.  Sure, there's more bare walls than there needs to be, and sure, it looks like she raided the last Ikea before blasting off to space, but it's at least livable.

The shower's going, and steam billows out from the closed door of the bathroom.  "Be right with you, Senator,"  She calls out, "It was a hard day and I'm hurrying as fast as I can!"

If the only options are lemons and limes he leaves them be, just the booze will do for now.

What was the last time Kendal visited someone else's apartment, heck, when did he even visit his own apartment? "Take your time, it's not like i'm leaving any time soon." He puts his jacket on the coat hanger and he looks if she put the glasses somewhere or did he have to go through her cupboard to find some.
Then he settles somewhere comfy and puts his bag aside, really need a breather right now.

As the place is a lot more silent then outside in the daily commotion, he takes the chance to lean back and just listen to the water fall.

She's finished in another five minutes.  As this isn't a juvenile fantasy she exits the bathroom in a simple pair of shorts and t-shirt.  Her exposed legs and arms are still white to the point of being potentially blinding but she's otherwise modest.

"You okay, Kendal?"  She asks, "I was really worried there for you for a bit."

"I appreciate your concern, just feeling a bit heavy and had the biggest jump scare of my life, but otherwise ok." He keeps the casual smile and greets her with a hand wave. "Thanks for inviting me here, it's nice and quiet, also maybe outside distractions won't find me here either." He also can't help but enjoy the scenery, but avoids staring too much.

"Talk to me about it." She sits on the other side of the couch, leaning back against one arm of the couch and bringing her feet up onto the cushion next to him.  "I figured that's why you should come over, after all.  You're not used to the death and trauma associated with it.  Here's... nice.  Quiet.  Want to talk to me about it a bit?"

"Well the only time I was in touch with death was when my parents died back on earth, car accident." He knows there is a chance it was no accident, but it's too late to point fingers now. "After the exodus I have managed to evade or prevent any deaths of colleagues and friends, Also I know I owe a lot, like probably my life, to my sister, thank the Gods she is ok." He takes a glance at her and says sincerely. "I also feel you have kept a lot of heat off of me, thanks for watching my back."

Of course there was the huge tragedy of the exodus itself, but since everyone lost someone in the chaos and all of them shared the experience, there was no point in turning that up.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:41, Fri 21 Sept 2018.

"Well... honestly, not really.  I'm sorry, you're a bit too small fry for the nasty heat, Ken."  She winks at him, "Your constituents are relatively fat and healthy, you're looking like you'll win your next reelection in a few years, and you've got an unhealthily good work ethic.  I do want you to relax more, yeah, but if you listened to me too much you'd probably not be as well off as you are.  It's unusual to see a mortal with your drive- well, it was, anyway."

She sighs.

"And how was the... uh... scene."

"The scene had blood splattered on the walls up to head high, numerous demon bodies were eviscerated, lacerated and impailed all over the office. Some were killed by a sword or something similar, but the senator was nowhere to be found." He looks straight ahead when talking, visualizing the scene in his head, keeping his voice calm. "Then we found Torvalds body sitting in the senators chair and when I went to collect the notes with my name on them, it turned out he lived, scared the crap out of me."
He again turns to face Xene. "Ilari Lievo will take him to sanctuary and keeps me updated. Meanwhile we have these notes to look through."

"Oh!  He's alive then?  That's good, that's very good." She twitches her foot to a beat in her head, "It means they've got a witness, I guess.  And Sanctuary's a bit of an asshole place to be but they take protection seriously.  And I think Torvald was the brains behind that operation in the first place."

She pauses.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that though.  But hey, something to work through, right?  Get your mind off of things?"

"Doing work to get my mind off from work? I do like the sound of that." He says half sarcastically. "I agree on getting my mind off of it, but reading their notes right this minute doesn't feel inviting."

He leans back on the sofa, closes his eyes and sighs deeply. "I need a drink."

"I can get that for you.  What would you like?  I've got a bunch of stuff, actually, from the old days.  I've kept it in my sanctuary." She stands up from the couch, "I mean, they're mostly airplane-size bottles, except for the champagne bottle, and that's for something special.  But tequila, whiskey, cognac, vanilla moonshine, scotch, rum... I'm kinda packing a whole bar in there."

He answers without opening his eyes. "Let's go with rum because i'm picky with my whiskey, even though nowadays it's really hard to find any to my liking i'm not lowering my standards."

"And what if I told you I had Japanese whisky?" She asks, a playful tone in her voice, "Well, then I'd be lying, but let me know what kind you do like when I get back and I'll try to get some for you later, OK?" There's the sound of fabric ripping and then silence.

"I really like my whisky smoky as a campfire and..." He stops at the sound of something ripping. "Did you brake something? need a hand?" And raises his head, opening his eyes.

The room is empty.  Nothing there.  But then there's the same ripping sound and Xene steps out of a fissure in the room, a slash into someplace bright and garish that hurts Kendal's eyes for a few moments.

"Hey, no," She holds up a pair of rum bottles, old and dusty, in her hand.  Her skin glows even brighter for a few seconds before it tones down. "I'm all good, thanks.  No help needed, you just sit back and relax.  That was just my sanctum.  I don't normally let it out, you know, it's just too... bright.  I'd burn out your retinas."

Getting flashbanged is never fun, he takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes for a moment. "That's a nice trick, what else you have in there?" When he gets the drink, he takes a sip and leans back again.

"Most of my clothes, some mementos, bug-out stuff.  Sanctuaries are about the size of a small room, usually tailored just to me, and kinda anchored in one place."  She remarks, "Half the trouble of the gods getting into the Last Refuge was moving the sanctuaries in.  A lot of us were afraid we'd never get on board, but somehow Core figured it out."

It's an old bottle but the rum still tastes smooth and good.  The real stuff always does.

"Well the brightness is certainly you" He fixes his glasses back on. "Nearly blinded me, next time give a warning before taking away the rest of my vision with your dazzling looks" He says with a smirk, taking another sip.

"Easy now, Senator, you know neon lights are too hot to touch."  She smirks back and winks at him, "Just rum straight up, huh?  I'm a big fan of pepsi.  I'd kill for some right now.  Too bad I don't think there's a single bottle left..."

((spent 1 chivalrous Joss))

Sometimes it's good to know your employees. "Pepsi you say? while you are up, check my bag... And no need to call me senator while i'm a guest in your house." after drinking more, he turns sideways on the sofa, leaning on the armrest like Xene was a moment ago. He takes more space though, being taller and all.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:29, Wed 26 Sept 2018.

Xene gives him a weird look, then stands up and takes a look into the bag. There's a single can of Pepsi, 350 mL, a decade old.

"... You're kidding me." She says incredulously, eyes narrowing, "You just... happened... to have a drink I haven't had in a decade in your pack?"

She walks directly in front of him, a few inches away, standing over him with the can in hand.  She gently wiggles it for emphasis.

"Well I never just happen to have anything, I had a chance to trade it to an old favor and I remembered you liking pepsi so I thought why not." He looks her in the eyes, still smiling. "Think of it as a... Goddess appreciation bonus or something. I never got you anything so there you go."

"Mmhmmm..." She seems to think about this a little, cocking a hip to the side and brushing long black hair over an ear.  "You know, you didn't have to, Kendal.  All that worship thing's just a joke.  A little joke, between us."

She looks down at him and smirks back, "That said.  A goddess likes it when the mortals listen, though.  You know, it's a mutual relationship.  The goddess receives her worship... and she gives a gift back in return."

That's when she sinks to her knees in front of him.

He turns sideways so they are face to face. "hmmm, literally a godly gift? I would be honored." He locks his eyes with hers, making clear that she will be the one to make the next move.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:08, Fri 28 Sept 2018.

"Yeah, you should."

Twenty minutes later Xene quickly excuses herself to her sanctuary. Kendal's world has been quite thoroughly demolished, but at least she's left him an awful lot of drinks and his work.  Though whether or not he can focus on anything is up to him.

Regardless, Xene steps back out a few minutes later, makeup- something he never quite noticed but is now quite visible, now that he thinks about it- thoroughly touched up, a quite proud and satisfied look on her face as she sits down next to him.

Soon after Xene excuses herself, Kendal stumbles to get a glass of water, mortal bodies are not build for this. He then puts his clothes back on, even the tie, but leaves his hair be for the moment. Before putting the notes on the table and preparing to look them through, he checks his email and phone if anyone tried to contact him while they were busy, but waits for her to finish before starting anything.

When she steps out he is now smart enough to cover his eyes for the blinding flash of light and greets her with a smile while leaning his chin against his hand.

There's been a single text from Ilari letting him know that Torvald made it to Sanctuary safely.

"Well, someone has a smile on his face."  She rubs his back, "If you wanna go all the way next time you're going to need to take me on a proper date, though I still think your sister's way too hot to ignore.  Also-"  She puts a finger on his lips to stop the no-doubt snarky comment about to worm his way out of his mouth, "Nobody hears about this, okay?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:28, Sat 29 Sept 2018.

There indeed was a snarky comment waiting, but he keeps it in. "Agreed, lets not set any plans for a date as I think we will be busy for quite a while, and don't worry, I'll make sure that you don't have free time when she does." He says when the finger is removed from his lips. Then he straightens his back, coughs, fixes his glasses and goes back to work mode. "Now, as for the notes..."

He starts to go through the notes and makes a digital copy of the main topics to his tablet at the same time

They start to work.  Xene is her usual professional self, pointing out little things and helping him annotate notes all the way along the line.  But eventually she starts to tire, and the next thing Kendal notices she's nodded off, head falling onto his shoulder.  She pulses with a light white glow.

Is it already that late? Well it's not like either of them keeps track of time when working. There is nothing else that makes you more tired other than watching a someone else sleep, he yawns and then makes an effort to not wake her up. There was a bedroom somewhere here right? carrying her there is not the worst idea and calling work done for today.

After that he looks up how far he is from his own apartment, if the travel time is over an hour long he will just sleep on the sofa, otherwise he will pack up, tidy up and go home.

Xene slides down onto the couch, happily snoozing. She murmurs when he tries to move her, so it's probably best to just leave her where she is.

His apartment isn't too far.  He picks up the notes and starts heading back.  But something tickles the back of his head.  It's not something he can really pinpoint, but something he was wreading doesn't quite add up.  Maybe it'd be best to take a second look when he gets home...

((Make sense of notes, roll Politics 9, 8, 7, 7, 7, 5 & 2
37+10 = 47))

He makes himself look decent before heading out, making sure he locks the door on his way out.

When he gets inside his own flat, he locks the door and turns on the lights. The place looks clean and orderly, not too much furniture or decorations, instead there are bookshelves full of literature both classic and modern.
He sits down on an armchair and starts to go through the notes one more time.

Something really seems off about the notes.  Torvald seems the meticulous type and the more the senator looks- this time without the welcome distraction of Xene- the more he realizes there's some... random stuff in there.  Proposals to the committee about minor things like the closures of cafeterias, the redistribution of oil from engines, and the like.

It looks like he's pointing towards a slow, subtle disenfranchisement of demonhood as a whole.  Little things, building up over the course of 8 years.  But he can't note a pattern...

(Politics or wu wei to continue)

((Make more sense of notes 10, 9, 5, 5, 2, 2 & 1
Wu wei: 22+10 = 32
Politics: 25+10 = 35))

Oh, so it's going to be that kind of night. Now that Kendal is warmed up, there is no way he goes to sleep before he figures this out.

More coffee for the Senator!

A third mug down and he's got an inkling of what's going on here.  Following Torvald's trail he finds more breadcrumbs. But he can't put the pieces together.  He knows they're there; he knows the blood ape was on to something, but Torvald himself never finished the work.  The effect was like a blind, deaf man stumbling through a cave of conspiracy, and it looks like he must've set off a trap.

He feels pressure building in his head.  Something in here is a key, he's sure of it.  He's also sure that Torvald has been working on this for some time.  Some of these files were printed out years ago.  The worst part is that there seems to be no recurring actors.  Nobody involved in any of these laws have ever been involved in another.

It's a dead end of a twisted maze of clues.  There's really a limit to how much human minds can focus on this sort of thing.  It'd be easiest now to just give up.  Pass it on to someone else.  Maybe contact one of Xene's friends?  Or petition for his sister to bring it to Core? Maybe just leave it for tomorrow and hope Torvald's gotten better by then...
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:25, Sat 06 Oct 2018.

There exists no problem that can withstand a barrage of constant thinking. If Kendal was the kind of guy who quits now, he would have never made it this far in life.
Like he said before, things are done in two ways: right or again.

There must be a detail he missed, an occurrence in the wider picture he is not taking into account or a sequence of events not taken into consideration.

He is not giving up. He puts some classical music on the speakers and spreads the notes around, this is going to be a long night...

... Odd.  He feels the pressure build, more and more, heavy water behind a leaking dam, little chunks of consciousness flaking off the outside and letting trickles of something greater through.  He develops a splitting headache as he works, the pile next to him growing by the minute.

He flips to the next page, halfway through his giant pile.  There he finds an official fleet proclamation offering sizable cash prizes for anyone who'd be willing to staff Mercury-class transports who also meet certain physical characteristics- the main effect being several of the more common demons would be shuttled off to the most dangerous, lowest-paying jobs in the Fleet.

There's a double-space after the start of the section and a period at the end of the sentence.

It draws him in.

It's nothing special.  Nothing concrete.  He's seen little formatting errors since he started the job, and God knows he'd made a few himself.  Normally there's only a single space after a section start and no punctuation at the end of these sorts of sentences...

§5.8 Lorem impsum

vs

§5.8  Lorem ipsum.

But all of a sudden he's sure of it.  He's seen it before.  He hears something tinkle and ping as the lights flicker, but then everything is fine.  Everything's brighter, and man, does he really need that cup of coffee?

There, he finds it again.  And again.  He's definitely seen it before.  It's there, clear as day, a minute trail throughout all of those subtle laws, winding its way through over and over, disappearing occasionally, recurring again...  and he'd seen it before, too.  With a moment of perfect clarity he remembers-

"One of these days I'm going to hire someone to fix my little typos, Senator Raines... we're here to govern with compassion, not glare at spaces and punctuation marks!"

A senior senator, the God of Broken Swords, Holftan.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:02, Mon 08 Oct 2018.

Well now that all of the fatigue is suddenly gone, it's time to do more work! Was this all the notes contained or was there still more? It had been a long time he felt this motivated, in the middle of the night no less.

Also calling Holftan for this little discovery in the middle of the night might not be the best idea, so he sends a message instead.

"Good morning Senator Holftan, i acquired some notes that had such specific typos i couldn't help but think of you. My current work might and probably will have a major impact in the current human-demon relationships if not done correctly and I request your opinions and advise on the matter. Contact me when you have the chance.
-Senator Raines"

Now would be a good time to do as much work as possible, so unless he is disturbed, he goes through the notes again or does any delayed work he had pending until he gets tired again.

There's no immediate reply.  Holftan is a high-energy sort of guy, but there are limits to even his energy.  Huh.  Speaking of energy, Kendal isn't tired in the least.  He feels like he could go running for a hundred miles or more, or- man, his forehead feels HOT. And there's a weird reflection on his tablet...

Looking down he sees a caste mark, sparking and glimmering on his forehead, the whole room illuminated by its diffuse glow.

He stops.

Puts down the tablet.

He then contemplates on the fact of what just happened, partly excited above all measure and also confused.

"Well, that just happened" he says and walks to the bathroom to look at his forehead in the mirror, just to make sure that he didn't fall asleep just now and was dreaming.

As he really doesn't know what to do in this situation, he sends two more texts saying: "I think I just got a Promotion, what do?" One to Lyla and one to Command if able. Then because he has no better idea of what to do, he continues working until someone responds.

Yep.  There it is.  A big, shining caste mark; a circle within a circle; the mark of the Eclipse.  There apparently hasn't been an Eclipse for some time.

Command isn't someone he can easily text.  In fact, he's pretty sure he doesn't have Command's number.  Yet there it is in his phone; he texts them, but there's no immediate reply.

((Lyla can chip in here first if she wants))

Its no surprise that Lyla responds quickly, Kendal can be certain she has his number so that it always goes through. She reponds in text back:“A promotion? At this hour? Wtf. Wait. U mean THE promotion? What did you do?! I told you to alarm me if u r in danger! Explain or Im coming over.”

After which there is almost immediately a phone call.

”For fucks sake, you are definitely on to something there if that happened. Just..Keep at it. Alert the command. Though they prolly know already.”
This message was last edited by the player at 21:50, Wed 10 Oct 2018.

He needs to move the phone away from his ear "Yeeeah chill sis, the biggest health hazard right now is chocking on my surprise, I'm in my apartment and i'll let you guess what I was doing."

He sits down on the armchair again.

"Apparently i'm an Eclipse and I did send Command a message, so just wanted to let you know first in case something weird happens."

He is fine talking with her for a while, or just listen to her babbling. It's not like there was a pressing matter to attend to right now.

"Yeah I love and care for you too, idiot. I only have experience of my own exaltation and it was far from safe, so I had every reason to be concerned. But ofcourse you are nose deep in paperwork,
Arent you? Fighting against paragraphs?"
Her tone of voice is somewhat relieved.

"Well congrats. Welcome to the higher circles to leave your mark on our fight against the ever lurking Abyss. Just dont forget that you are still a human at heart and everything should go dandy."

"Spot on sis, I was working so hard that my headache turned into a lamp on my forehead." He laughs. He takes this pretty much as an actual promotion, more responsibility, less free time, maybe eventually more influence and better chances to spend more time with sis.

"Yeah, I agree. I think I'll have an easier time getting used to this than most, knowing you and Daniel makes the glamorous curtain of exaltation fade away. I'll contact you again after I get a response from Command." He then listens what she has to say and gives the usual love you too and hangs up. Waiting for the next thing to happen.

The next thing that happens is a series of texts from Command.

"congrats d00d"

"glhf"

"also lol eclipse we are fukt"

"light one up 420"

Then another pair of texts,

"You Exalted for a reason.  You have been chosen because of your great potential at the moment you sit, not exactly for the traits you already have.  A rolling stone gathers no moss."

"Juno is right"
"Contact me if you need counseling"

"Training people rn"
"Let me know when you want to be penciled in for combat training"
"thumbsupemoji.jpg"

This informality is almost stunning but not surprising, seems like the Sidereals are still just as down to earth like all other Exalts he knows.

So after the caste mark stops glowing, it's time to put this energy to use and what better place to direct it at other than more work! He gathers the notes and his other stuff, cleans the room and washes the dishes so he can leave the apartment as clean as before he arrived.

Then in the middle of the night... or early morning? He heads back to the office and does as much work as he can to adjust his thinking pattern to his newfound abilities, best to figure out where his limits are before he is in a tight spot.

Lets see if we can find those limits, or does he have to go somewhere else to keep his mind occupied.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:25, Fri 12 Oct 2018.

After a fruitful night cleaning and doing the dishes, he heads back to his office.  But things just don't click there.  It's about 7 AM when he gets an email back from Holftan.

"Senator Raines,

I'd be happy to discuss anything you have about human/demonic relations!  Please remember the gods are involved too and some of us are awfully finicky about this sort of thing... come on over to my office whenever you'd like.  This is an issue close to my heart.

Thanks,

Senator Holftan"


Well!  That's promising!  Senator Holftan's office is all the way across the Last Refuge, so it'll take a while for Kendal to make it there.  When he finally does, it's about 11 AM, he should be ravenous and exhausted... instead he's brimming with energy.

Holftan's office is immaculate, a clear step up from most of the other senatorial offices he's encountered.  Everything's well ordered, there's a nice lobby with a water fountain and a fish tank, and his secretary takes Kendal's information with a smile.  He's left waiting an exact 6.5 minutes and then ushered into Holftan's personal office.

"Senator Raines, good to meet you face to face."  Holftan looks human, but his head is a jagged mass of metal that basically resembles a face made from hammered-together shards of steel.  Behind him is a huge sword, square and blocky, broken halfway along the blade.  It looks like the sort of thing that would've been used by an executioner. "Please, come in.  Would you like anything to eat or drink?"

"Senator Holftan, it's an honor." He replies humbly. "Black tea would be nice, or any tea for that matter."

As he steps inside, he takes a glance around the room and moves closer to Holftan to shake his hand.

"It's great that you could see me so soon, I found myself looking for answers for questions I didn't know existed and this happened last night." He lights the caste mark on his forehead for a moment. "So as I am looking for help with my current work, I was also looking for guidance with the situation I now find myself in."

"I'll see what I can do." Holftan presses a button on his intercom and calls for some black tea, "Please, take a seat." He shakes Kendal's hand.

his desk is imposing, made of old world wood, chipped and battered in places.  He's got a very comfortable chair placed across from it.

"... Goodness.  You've Exalted?  What wonderful news!" Holftan says cheerily as he sits across him, "There's a big problem with that, of course..."

He sits down. "The problem of not being a normal human anymore right? Now my opinions and actions will be viewed in different light no matter what I do or say, or did you have something else in mind?"

Kendal is not really upset because of this, he is just more and more eager to prove his worth, most of all to himself.

"Well, sort of both."  He holds up a hand, "Technically, you're no longer part of the Senatorial structure at this point.  Celestial Exalts can't hold an office."  He folds his fingers together, "This is without precedence, but it's in the constitution that you certainly can't run for office as one.  There'll be some who argue you should immediately step down and your constituents should hold a special election to fill the vacancy."

"And I would just let 15 years of hard work trickle into nothingness? I'd had to be mad to let that happen, but the question is, can I keep this a secret from the wider public, or is my cover blown immediately by a influential god?" He gives Holftan an asking look, he wants to see if all gods are as power hungry as he hopes.

"Let us say I stay in Politics, I would need good allies to make my way higher in the ladder without shining like a beacon, would you like to help me make the Last Refuge a better place for everyone?" He is actually sincere. All he wants to do is to make the lives of others better.

And this is a great chance for Holftan to gain a rare and powerful friend.

"I don't know, is it?"  Holftan shrugs, "You're asking a lot here, Senator Raines.  Let me ask you a better question.  Why should I let you?  Don't think of this as me asking for a bribe.  Think of this as an ethical question.  You're asking me- as a new Exalt- to willingly keep quiet about you breaking one of the fundamental laws of the Senate, in the hopes of a nebulous 'better the world' ideology.  This is not a particularly good start nor is it good optics, Senator Raines.  This is a blatant request for corruption."

"Yes indeed, why would anyone let a Solar have a hand in politics? Just put me in a spaceship and order me to fight the Abyssals somewhere far away and everyone is happy right?" He keeps a friendly tone in his voice, not wanting to seem threatening or demanding. "I think that's wrong, why not let me do what I clearly excel at? Why would I let gods and demons stand next to humans in politics and be denied the honor myself?"

He pauses for a second before continuing. "All i want to do is my job and i'm not so naive to believe that blind ideologies make any lives better or so ignorant to not see the obscenity of my request, but..."

He emphasizes his last point. "If I want to rule with wisdom and compassion I still need to rule"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:53, Wed 17 Oct 2018.

"Because there are countermeasures to both gods and demons.  And they represent both, but you are no longer strictly human.  I represent a group of broken war gods, for instance.  Who will you be representing?"  Holftan asks, "If you'd like to have a greater role in politics, then so be it.  Lobby for it all you want.  But this is the Senate, a representative government.  And I'm already hearing some unhappy words.  Rule?  Govern, represent, but rule?"

Holftan shakes his head and stands up, starting to pace through the office.

"Say we allow the Celestials a spot in the Senate, a voting bloc.  In time they would render everyone else superfluous.  That's your power.  You are a political nuclear weapon,"  He explains to Kendal, "And it's something that we already have reviewed.  Otherwise why not put Lucifer in control?  Make Core our complete guiding star?  Make the Sidereals be the beginning and end of governance?  All of that is, well, slippery slope argument.  But I'll ask you this:  if you claim to want to keep your hand in politics but are already willing to break the law and keep it covered up, then that perhaps may be the surest sign you don't belong anywhere near it."
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:56, Thu 18 Oct 2018.

He raises a hand "Slow down a bit, I never said i wanted to make anyone superfluous, a poor choice for words on my part I admit, but I don't want to tare down the very system I am.. or was a part of. It just... Pains me if my life work and career are wasted because I 'have potential' and still be cast aside"

He stands up as well, but even if this is frustrating he doesn't raise his voice.

"I want to be of use, Senator Holftan, and If right now a law is preventing me from participating in politics, my opinion is that it should be changed or altered. I'm not here to screw the Senate, but if men and women older and wiser than me have already decided Celestials don't belong there, what other choice i have but try to hide it?"

He lets out a small chuckle. "Heh, i'd really rather be a watermill than a bomb. But since you have way more experience in dealing with Celestials than I do, please tell me, what would happen if I go public with my exaltation and say I want to run for office?"

"And for the question, I'd represent anyone who wants me to represent them, I came here to ask for help, not draw you ire."

This is going great.

"If I were you,"  Holftan says reasonably, "I would retire from office immediately, citing your position.  Then, during your retirement speech, I would announce that you were Exalted for a reason- to help lead- but you didn't want to break the law." 

Holftan continues to pace, "After that, you'd announce that you'd lobby for an amendment to the current system.  Open up a referendum, popular as well as senatorial.  After that, if it's amended, it's amended, no harm done, go on with your career.  If you went public and DON'T immediately resign, I imagine the pushback from the Senate would be massive and you might be impeached out of your position.  It'd do you more harm than good.  They'd point to you clinging to power as a negative, and a perfect example of why you shouldn't be allowed to keep it."

Kendal does understand Holftans point, anyone would be careful and wary of anything that has the potential to disturb the status quo. Yet he is still mildly baffled by Holftans attitude, politics back on earth were all about passing laws to go around other ones and constant backstabbing with deals and contracts. It's clear that their points of view are far apart.

"Thank you for your advice, I will surely keep your words in mind. And to ease your mind I could take a couple of days off before making any announcements, so I'm not doing anything illegal yes?" He sits back down again.

Do you mind me changing the topic?  I have suspicions there might be a larger scheme attempting to strip demons from their rights bit by bit. I suspect this will be my problem in the future, as a politician or not. " He does try to see his true reaction. He should be pro-demon after all.

"Sure, but the longer you take the worse it'll be-even for supporters.  You'll have to be decisive one way or the other."  Holftan tells him.

The god listens to the next bit and frowns.  "Strip demons of their rights slowly?  How?  In what ways?  This is a big deal."

"Well to sum it up, i found out that a freshly formed subcommittee consisted only of newbies has submitted a footnote classifying demons as power tools. Normally this could be a fluke, but no one in the committee is a demon and there is no record of who formed it. Also the rework was snuck in during the argument about the formation of an Admiralty Board and Lucifer's impending courtmartial, this is more than suspicious." He says.

The look on his face is clearly worried. "I fear that if nothing is done, something worse will happen in due time."

"Power tools?  That would certainly be a problem.  It wouldn't be a problem now, but in 5 years..."  Holftan trails off in thought, "Yes, you're absolutely right.  This should be nipped in the bud.  Thank you for including me in this.  How did you find it?"

As the connection between Torvald and the others should be kept a secret for now, it's best to not tell the full truth. Best to let him believe there are no others connected to this case.

"It was a one in a million chance really, because of other work I was reading through the subclauses and footnotes and this caught my eye, so I looked closer to find it suspicious, then I did some digging to find out what was going on and that lead me to this."

"A fortunate glance, then!  Did you find it before or after you Exalted?"  He asks, "I can take a look at it.  See what I can do to get it fixed up.  I know some people attached to Oversight, they'll be very interested to see this sort of thing."

"I started as a human, exalted in the middle of it. And I'm pleased to hear your readiness to help me with this, although I also want to know who or what was behind all of this to prevent it happening in the future." He looks up the subclauses and footnote numbers to share them with him.

Unless Holftan has anything else to add or ask, Kendal is ready to shake hands and call this meeting done.

"Well, I'm certain we can figure that out with enough investigation."

Holftan sits and listens to all the subclauses and footnotes, duly writing them down and promising to follow up with them later.  He offers Kendal a handshake and his assurances that he'd get right on it, but that's it.

Before he leaves, he asks if Holftan would like to go for a coffee after he makes the announcement.

When he leaves he sends Battles a message "Greetings, suddenly I got the need to vent some steam. Is there a sparring session I could join? - Kendal" and wanders somewhere to get a coffee or something while he waits.

Holftan accepts, though he's sure that Kendal would prefer tea!-  which Kendal certainly did get during his time at Holftan's office.  Good stuff, too.

"No formal session but could meet you at martial library"

Holftan's office is in a nicer area of the Last Refuge, so there's no shortage of coffee shops and the like nearby.  The Martial Library's also pretty close.

He replies to Battles "Sure, see you there within an hour" and also sends a text to Xene saying "Wont be coming to office for a couple of days, if something comes up call me." he will tell the full story later.

And before he heads to the martial library, he goes shopping for some tea to help him relax later. He takes his time, looks around and heads to the martial library unless something overly interesting catches his eyes.

"fine."
"stay safe senator." is Xene's rapid series of replies.

There's a teashop pretty close to the Martial Library.  It's a pretty popular place.  The tea is particularly good, especially since tea was one of the things that was prioritized by Core and many of the people fleeing old Earth.  It apparently grows quite well under Core's care- not much of a surprise if the superintelligent being is taking a personal interest in the matter.

After getting a bunch of really truly excellent first flushes he heads to the Martial Library.  The famous library is dominated by a massive lobby full of stacks and stacks of books, most of which are dominated by books on war and strategy, ancient scrolls of fighting techniques, and even a few cases of speculative fiction.  The hundreds of tables are crowded with people sitting and reading from the texts, most of them armchair historians though a few have the builds of fighters and soldiers.

Battles stands out like a beacon to Kendal.  He'd recognize that mop of blond hair anywhere.  The sidereal sits reading from a pile of dog-eared textbooks and writes copious notes onto a pad of paper.  He looks up to Kendal and waves him over.

Seeing the clear dissatisfaction in her texts, he doesn't want to tell all of this over a phone so sends one more text "Something came up, I can tell you later today in person" If she wants to be mad anyway she is free to be.

When Kendal sees him, he waves as a greeting. "What are you reading if I dare ask?"

"Caesar's Commentaries for a starter, but I've got two books on World War 1 dogfighting techniques, and some items on French warfare during Charlemagne.  I guess I'm going Gallic today."  He stands up and extends a hand for a handshake, "Great to see you, Senator.  How're you feeling today?"

He firmly shakes his hand "Good to see you too, the feelings of today are a rollercoaster to say the least. One does not simply prepare himself for this kind of thing."

He looks at some of the old tomes, he likes to see these survived all the way up here. "Anyway, do we talk here? was hoping for a bit more of a private conversation."

"Well, one does if one's- hm.  Let's go for a talk.  There's some study rooms."  He says as he gets up from the table, "I'm more than willing to listen."

Battles takes him to the study room, the only one open- almost like nobody knows it even exists.  Battles gives him a small smile, "Reserved for me, at all times, and completely secure.  So.  Congratulations are in order.  Have you already gotten in a fight?"

Kendal follows him in. "Thank you, the only battles today were verbal ones. Also I think I managed to piss off my secretary, but that's today in a nutshell. Anyway since i haven't gone public yet I just wanted someone to talk to about... well... all of this." he says, frowning just a bit.

"Well, I'm here to listen.  And the verbal ones can be just as bad- Mars knows I'm not really good with words all the time."  Battles takes a seat at the table, "Well, tell me.  I'll help however I can and offer whatever advice I can give.  I've also got an hour's worth of Core processing power at my disposal in case things are really hairy, which... I'm starting to get the feeling they're not going so great."

"Spot on, the thing that bugs me most is that my career is in danger of being wasted and there is not too much I can do about it lawfully. He also takes a seat. "The thing is, I feel i would be of use most in the political scene, but I'm between a few options here, either open a referendum and just blindly hope that people want me as a Senator again, Be just a consult or an advisor to someone else or... I use my newfound skills to find any flaws in the current system and subtly force my way in and make reforms so I can make my ambitions a reality." He looks at Battles, not looking for approval, but for an honest opinion.

"Well, that's interesting.  You want to know something?  We thought long and hard about this when we built the Senate- or rather had a hand in it."  He says, "There's a lot you can do lawfully since we specifically built a loophole in the rules- an Exalt can't run for office but there aren't any rules that you can't already be in office.  Your seat isn't instantly lost the moment you start glowing gold.  So, you have until your next election to iron out those wrinkles."

He looks at the Senator,

"Exalts are like goldfish.  They tend to grow to the size of their tank and stifle the development of other fish.  We specifically left a tank open, Kendal, and you're the result.  Do you think you'd be necessary if Serenity was running the show, or the Red Queen had taken over?  Serenity calls this Exaltation Engineering and I've got to say I wasn't much of a believer before, but she might be right in this case.  It also helped us, hmm, contain a potential problem Exalt."

"Loopholes, my favorite." He lets out a chuckle, it's almost like the Sidereals knew what they were doing. "That certainly made my day better, it's kind of your thing to make things go unnoticed right? You had my back before I even exalted." He shakes his head while smiling, he found this funny.

"I think I can go a long way with just this information, but i still haven't been able to stretch my muscles yet, think you can help me with that too?"

"Maybe not you in particular, but certainly the position you're in."  He says with a small grin, "You got elected when, a year ago?  You've got 3 years to make your case.  Is someone pressuring you to quit?"

He nods, "I can help you stretch out.  We can spar, I can teach you some basic fighting styles instead, or I can help you with an exercise session.  Or give you the number of a good masseuse."

He returns the grin and replies "More like someone giving friendly advise at this point, I have no real intention of quitting and if someone claims I said otherwise, they don't know the full truth. At this point the two last options sound great."

"Who is this someone?"  Battles presses, "Because that advice may not exactly be friendly, especially since you said it was a verbal battle.  And you look stressed, the same kind I see in someone prepping for a mission."

He stands up, "Best way to deal with that sort of thing is to let it marinate.  C'mon.  I'll take you for a parkour run along the Martial Library obstacle course, we'll get you showered up, and then we'll look at this with fresh eyes.  Alright?"

((Make a generic Obstacle Course roll.  Just one set of your Lake.  Choose one of the below for your primary result (that can be made with 1d); Minor Actions with additional sets can go towards any of the others.  It's not very important, really more just for fun, but may also influence future training regimens Battles may try to put you through.  If you don't want to roll then no worries.
[*] Footwork - determines how well you get through the general obstacles
[*] Block - some of the obstacles are a bit more... active...
[*] Hardiness - how far through the course you get
[*] Might - moving through the upper body strength based obstacles
[*] Wu Wei - if you think Battles hasn't introduced some weird magic into this shit then you're not paying attention son))
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 21:51, Mon 05 Nov 2018.

((Training: 7, 5, 4, 4, 3, 2 & 1
primary, footwork: 17 + 20 = 37
Wu Wei: 24 + 10 = 34))

"Oh, I hardly never take friendly advise too seriously, it's really just self interest in disguise." He also stands up and follows him. "I'd really not like to drop names of people I've met, since I don't like people knowing what I've been up to." he glances at Battles. "Well not that it matters too much, I had a meeting with Holftan. Talked about this beacon on my forehead and demon related troubles, but not the kind of trouble caused by demons"

He approaches the obstacles like any other physical challenge so far, light on his feet with eyes and ears open for anything.

"Interesting.  Let's talk more once we've made you sweat a bit, huh?"

The obstacle course is located in a surprisingly huge back room to the Martial Library, and it's for more than just exercise.  It's like a Ninja Warrior course but for crazy people.  Knives spring out of inopportune places, powerful wards keep Kendal from taking the easiest paths, and some sections are hidden treadmills.  It's about halfway through that Kendal realizes that this isn't normal.  Most normal people would be seriously mangled halfway through.  Battles is putting him through his paces, testing to see what he's capable of.  He fares better than most would, finally kicking up a serious sweat and needing to stop roughly a quarter of the way through.

Battles presses a button on the side of the last platform, atop a 7 foot wall.  He doesn't seem to have broken a sweat.  "Not bad,"  He says, "You've got the basic balance I'd expect from an Exalt, and you more or less ignored all but the worst of the misdirection wards in the rope maze.  You can definitely use some help with your stamina and threat recognition but you're about baseline in the end.  Also remind me next time to electrify some of the wires.

So.  Holftan, huh.  What vibe did you get from the guy?"

Before he continues talking, he evens out his breathing by making deep and slow breaths, slowing down his heart rate so he can speak properly. "I really don't know if that was a compliment or consolation, but thanks."

He sits down, wiping sweat off his brow and turns to Battles. "Well, his reaction was to be expected but not what I hoped for. What he said did fit the picture of him I had in my head, but even if he was sincere, his verbal output was strangely on the offensive. He didn't tell me everything he had on his mind that's for sure."

"An admonishment, actually.  I adopted this from the Ifrit. Your sister passed the entire thing the first time she went through, though it was a bit less... advanced.  You need to use your Essence.  You never touched it."  He says, "We'll work on that later, though, for now you're showing the general hallmarks of a typical Exalted, which means you're faster and stronger than you used to be.

And no, I don't expect him to.  He's a politician, the mark of Janus:  a face forward, a face behind.  Plus, I've worked with him before."  Battles frowns. "He's a war god.  But he's also a god of peace made from war.  Holftan is unreliable, in my opinion, and that's why he's done so well for himself in the Senate.  He can approach problems with a flexibility few other gods can.  His sword turns to a plough, but it can also turn back to a sword.  He can plant wheat or hack you to pieces."

((Wu Wei roll. Difficulty 40.  Pour into it.))

((Wu Wei: 10, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4 & 2
20 + 10 + 10 = 40))

"Well, she was the Olympic athlete, I was the bookworm." he puts the towel around his neck. "That sounds almost poetic. I have to admit I have never met a person involved in politics I would fully trust, even the thought sounds weird."

"Some can be trusted.  Others..."  Battles hedges as he buries his face in a towel, "Hah, are you saying I shouldn't trust you?"

Blunt swords.

Burying.

The bodies in the office.

Cut to pieces.

A memory.

---
"Looks like swordplay here," Ilari says as they walk through, "Not your typical weapon nowadays."
---

A sword, hanging over a desk.

Kendal sighs, it was obvious really but he clearly didn't want to consider the option earlier. Maybe the hint in the notes needed to spell bad guy for him to get it.

He gives a wide smile "Have I already earned your trust? I wouldn't trust me, I'd have to earn that trust for it to mean anything." His expression stiffens, clearly the exercise helped clear his head. "Question, how many people you could say would be capable of mowing down an office full of demons with a sword? Probably to cover ones own tracks or mistakes."

"I'll trust you because I know that if you aren't on the up-and-up, your sister will kick your ass." He says to him, "Hmm, an office full of demons?  Quite a few.  65.5 by my reckoning, but if we knock down the people I absolutely trust, 21.5 sounds about right.  And if we count out the people who'd get severely hurt in the process we can knock it to 11.  Holftan's one of them."

"Ah, fair enough." he replies "Because the rigorous exercise cleared my head, it occurred to me that the assault to Mxotichtlatl's office was perpetrated by someone with a blunt sword and has strong ties in politics, maybe you've heard of it? Holftan would fit that bill, but I don't have any solid proof unless... " he sighs and looks at Battles "...Unless Torvald wakes up and makes a testimony. The sole known survivor of the attack and the Senator himself is still missing. I didn't tell him I had that information."

"... An attack on Senator Mxotichlatl.  I hadn't heard of that.  With a blunt sword?"  Battles sounds disturbed, "... We need an Endings more than ever... this was his department.  Holftan does sound... but he's always been a stalwart supporter of demon rights.  I may have to speak with Core, if Core hasn't already weighed in."  Battles looks to Kendal, "Why would Holftan suddenly switch against 10 years of support to massacre another senator's office?  And then not finish the job properly?"

"Maybe he didn't switch at all? This whole mess was aiming for the long run from the start it seems, but I prefer my full analysis based on hard data not guesswork, so we need more of it. Also, Torvald did a convincing job at playing dead, he even fooled Ilari Lievos eye at first glance." He smiles when he thinks of Torvalds resilience, maybe Kendal should hire him

"Maybe, but it's a hell of a smokescreen.  But it'd be the sort of thing Holftan could play and play well,"  The Sidereal looks sour, "Hard data, huh.  We could try to muscle in some time with Core or get my sister involved.  The thing is if he's been planning this for years he's been playing a very long game that didn't involve any politically-oriented Exalt to arise.  If what you say is true, he's either panicked right now or implementing a contingency plan."  He pauses, "For the record, Holftan did actually have a say in the Senate creation, you know.  He voted to allow Exalts a place on the grounds that the Dragon-Blooded were close enough."

Kendal thinks, hopefully he didn't escalate things too much. "Do you think the panicking or contingency plan will involve more bloodshed? If that happens it's almost sure who to blame." Kendal joins into the sour looking club as he is increasingly concerned.

"No, he'd be too smart for that, but... text your office just in case." The sidereal tells him, picking up his own phone and starting to text, "I'm sending some Ilmorijo to watch your office, okay?  Let them know we've got them protected.  But if I were him, my contingency plan would be to organize a handy disappearance."

"You don't mind me calling now would you? I also think I managed to piss off my secretary earlier. Maybe even invite her over to explain the whole thing. If you are here she might not get as mad as she could" He says with a small smirk when he talks about Xene.

Kendal waits for approval before calling, but does so if it's okay.

"Yeah, go for it man."  Battles tells him with a nod as he furiously texts.

"Xene."  Xene answers her phone bored, as if halfway through a dozen boring cases- which, to be honest, is probably the case. "Bit busy, Senator Raines.  Mrs. Ochono came in again..."

Ah yes.  Mrs. Ochono, also known as the Infinite Petition Engine.  That's a week and a half's worth of paperwork right there.

"Ah, I see, Just called to inform you that Battles is sending some Ilmorijo to stand guard at the office just in case because I may have escalated things and we are taking slight precautions." He says with a uncommonly serious tone. "If you want the details we are at the Martial library."

"... Allllright," He can hear a bit of panic creeping into her voice but kept stamped down, "Okay, that's... that's good, got it.  I'll be sure to greet them properly when they arrive.  Do you have any special instructions for how to handle our guests?  Or anyone unexpected?"

He starts to talk just a bit slower and goes back his own relaxed way of talking, "Proper manners and hospitality will suffice for invited guests, but for the uninvited however... just don't accept any last second appointments or sudden visitors, no matter who they are." He sighs, "Relax, this isn't an emergency just a precaution, if you want to stay in the office I will fill you in later today, just need to get some stuff done."

"Okay.  Got it, I'll let the others know.  We could use the time anyway to deal with these petitions... when can we expect you back at the office?"  He can hear papers shuffling on her desk, "Or will you be sending us instructions from out of office?"

Battles has finished his text.  He gives Kendal a thumbs-up and mouths 'On their way' to him.

"Really don't like sending instructions, but I can't promise a precise time I'll be there, so let's say i'll arrive before the day is done. Also I have an announcement to make when I get there so keep don't let anyone vanish anywhere." He nods to Battles as acknowledgement, "See you soon." He says the last part with a bit more softer, friendlier emphasis.

"Right.  See you soon, Ken-doll."  She then hangs up.

"Go well?"  Battles asks, "Good news, there's Ilmorijo nearby anyway.  Seems they're already on high alert and have been been conveniently stationed out around the Last Refuge.  I wonder when they decided to tell me..."
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:43, Sat 17 Nov 2018.

He looks at his phone after she hung up, pondering for a moment, then puts his phone away. "Great. She is always quick to catch up. So, is there a bigger incident causing the high alert or..?" Did he miss the news or something?

"Well, the kidnapping/assassination of a senator is pretty big news.  There's a standard plan in case of something like this, CODE LOITER ASTERISK.  Basically once that happens a whole bunch of Ilmorijo begin to sort of hang around key areas in case of further sabotage or assassination attempts, some on duty, some not.  Then they're prepared for rapid response."  Battles explains to him, "Usually Sunipa tells me when these things happen."

Kendal chuckles at the plan name, "So anyway, as I keep investigating this and hopefully Torvald recovers enough to talk soon, do you want updates on my progress as the subject is clearly of interest to you?" He asks while tapping his fingers on the armrest.

"Absolutely I do.  Hopefully they'll start forwarding more things my way.  I'm worried they're worried that I've got too much on my plate."  He says, "And you- are you going to need anything?  Weaponry, additional training, assistants?  You should get used to wearing a weapon at all times.  A little tip- since you're an Exalt now, you're cleared to hold a weapon just about everywhere on the ship, with the exception of Core's refuge and Sanctuary."

"Maybe a weapon or two would be nice, although I don't know how to use firearms properly, I do know how to use a sword, but somehow i don't see myself carrying a visible sword everywhere allowed or not."
He rubs his chis as he gives a thought for more helping hands, never too many I suppose, "I don't have anything in mind that would require more random assistants, unless you have someone specific that you deem necessary, otherwise no need."

"Not really.  I don't know you well enough or what you'll deal with.  A sword, though?  I have something for you." He gives a grin, "How'd you like some lost technology?"

He heads over to the edge of his little parkour zone, towards a weapons locker cunningly built into the side of the room.  "I've kept a few of these around, just in case.  But a little bit of a history lesson.  Back in the day Nirvana Industries- run by our enemy Yama- was a legit company, fighting against a Lunar's company.  She was killed and her company taken over, but before that happened she and Lucifer managed to infiltrate a Nirvana Industries building and capture a lot of their equipment."

He pulls out a cylinder roughly the size of a flashlight.  He holds it out to him carefully.

"Even though the enemy made it- it was an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.  Not as clumsy or random as a handgun."

First he was genuinely interested and exited, but the reference makes him roll his eyes and laugh, "Hah! If you say it belonged to my father I will just walk out immediately."

He takes the cylinder and inspects it. If there are no buttons or switches it's probably essence activated.

He holds the cylinder horizontally in front of him and tries to activate it.

"If Yama was your dad I'd have some very interesting questions for you."

There's no button but there's a depression on the cylinder where his thumb can sit.  Putting a trickle of essence- something that comes as naturally to Kendal as breathing- causes it to surge.  A beam extends about a meter in length from the cylinder, pulsing with contained essence.

"Good news and bad news about it.  It's not really a prototype anymore.  The first generation ones exploded if you put too much essence into it, which was great for a last-ditch weapon, but according to Core made the whole thing less efficient.  The old ones could only be turned on three times, max, before they burned out.  This one is more like a couple hundred times before a single part needs replacing.  It's not going to do some stuff like in the movies- like deflect lasers- but it's going to cut better than a razor, burn like a branding iron, and can hurt ghosts."

The beams center shines deep purple, transitioning to blue on the edge. When it moves it leaves behind a trace of eerie smoke, not heavier or lighter than air, leaving it floating on the air.

Kendal nods, "I think blocking bullets would be more relevant. And if I try to overload this it will turn off I presume? Also a holster would be nice."

He tests the new sword by making a set of sword strikes, a move set of parries and blows against an imaginative foe. Quickly realizing that the weight and speed needs some getting used to, also the very nature of the blade opens up many unorthodox fighting style options.

"Have to admit, this is cool" Kendal does his best to contain the nerdgasm he is having right now "Have any more cool gadgets? wouldn't happen to have a spare ship so i can go flying with sis when need be?" He is half-serious, as he doesn't know if he is required to go out and fight anyway.

"It'll turn the bullet to slag, maybe redirect it or turn it to harmless shrapnel if you can play it right.  If you overload it'll just turn off.  Sorry about that, everyone loves the explosivity but I love knowing that it'll work every time.  I can get you a holster, it should be easy enough to make."

He thinks for a bit.

"I'm not really a gadget kind of person.  I like my weapons, this is true, and a few pieces of armor, but not the sort of thing you're thinking.  But a spare ship, I'm sure I can wrangle one.  Interceptor?  Bomber?  Fighter?"

Was Santa real after all? If he was a sidereal a whole lot of it would make sense.

Kendal looks at Battles in slight disbelief, "You're kidding me, you'd give me a ship just like that? The only experience I have on flying is too many hundred hours on Elite Dangerous. Ummm... well... I guess Interceptors are closest to my play style at least."

"You're an Exalt, with baseline Exalt reflexes, making you automatically more qualified to fly one of those than 75% of our existing pilots." He remarks, "Interceptor, huh?  Alright, guess you can ask your sister for some help with that.  You want it painted a certain color?  We'll worry about weapon loadout later, I guess- though I'm betting you'll be best off with a pair of short range lasers."

"Well when you get me one i'll check it out how it works and leave the paint job as it is please, as long as it doesn't have genitals painted on it."

He powers down the sword and puts it away, "I trust you will take care of it? Did you have anything else in mind before I continue back to my office and make my subordinates lives a bit more hectic?"

Meeting Battles was a good idea, helped him clear his head and made Christmas come early.

"... I can't promise it won't, but I'll take a look at it.  I'll certainly take a look at it for you and make sure it's all up to snuff, but most of them are.  We've got at least 5 of each mothballed waiting for a new Exalt, just in case.  But I've got nothing else for you now if you don't have any other questions.  Remember to ask, ask, ask!  That's what I'm here for."

He holds out his hand to shake,

"Pleasure to have you involved.  Welcome to the fight proper."

He shakes the hand firmly, "The pleasure is all mine, it seems I wont be bored as long as I live. Last question before I go, is a call sign mandatory? If it is i'll come up with something later."

After that he takes all his stuff and proceeds to walk back, but before going to the office, he stops at his own apartment to change clothes.

"Always, always mandatory,"  Battles winks.  "Hit the showers."

Kendal's apartment beckons!

(Go ahead and roll Awareness)

((Awareness 10, 10, 8, 8, 6, 3 & 3.
28 + 5 + 10 = 42
float 10-10))

While he walks back to his apartment, he doesn't take any unnecessary stops or detours. He also think about the probability of an ass whooping by Lyla the next time they meet.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:20, Sun 02 Dec 2018.

((Roll failed))

Kendal makes it back to his apartment just fine.  When he gets back there's a few messages on his apartment terminal, some spam, an apology from CORE that spam still exists and reassuring him that the spammer will not have a fun few days, and some files from the office.  Lots of general work, honestly!

Spam? What kind of spam do people make nowadays? Before he goes through the office files he showers properly and gets a change of clothes.

Once done he goes through the files just to see what they are about as he will probably just take them with him to the office anyway.

Well, time to go.

The spam advertises increasing his genitalia size, the Natural Way, through worship of the God of Sexual Enhancement!  Pray now!

Most of the files are pretty standard stuff, letters, petitions, stupid emails he has to respond to, all sorts of the normal crap of his day-to-day life.

He gets to the office to find armed guards, Ilmorijo, standing guard outside.  The tall warriors are tattooed, carry actual honest-to-god spears, and P90s.  They look at him and nod, one of them holding out his hand.

"Please state your name,"  The Ilmorijo warrior says kindly, his hand glowing a dull white.

He stops and looks the Ilmorijo in the eyes. "Raines, Senator Kendal Raines." He waits for their acknowledgement before proceeding.

"Clear,"  The Ilmorijo tells the other, "Please enter, Senator Raines."  He gives him a wide, bright, predatory smile, a lion wearing human skin.  "And do have a good day."

His office is in a state of muted chaos.  Everyone's eyes are wide, mouths thin and pinched, trying not to raise a ruckus.  Trying to actually get work DONE.  Xene spots him immediately and gestures him over,

"Oh thank Core you're finally here," She says loud enough for everyone to notice, "There's a lot of things that need your attention.  I'll brief you in your office."

As he walks in, he nods to everyone who meets his eyes. The usual, faint yet confident smile on his face. "Good day everyone, once I get briefed i have an announcement so don't wander off." Conveying that the announcement is a positive one.

Once in his office, he sits down in his chair and taps his fingers on the table, looking at Xene. "Please, go ahead."

Xene takes a deep sigh, "Well, there's fifteen different things but really really I'm just buying you some fucking time to not get immediately swamped by all of us.  I mean we're mostly humming along as normal but we're slowly getting more freaked out by the troops and we heard what happened to the demon senator and everyone is dead, what the FUCK, and you suddenly disappeared-"

Xene takes another deep breath.

It's rare to see her so stressed, maybe she actually concerned? "Well i'm not going to say they are freaked out for nothing, it's not going to get any easier after today, probably going to be even more hectic than before."

He leans back, "Didn't i tell you... oh never mind, no use to keep you in the dark." He taps his forehead with his finger and lights up his caste mark. "There, that should explain things."

"Buh- wha-"  She points a fluorescent-white finger at his head, "What.  The.  FUCK.  WHAT THE FUCK." She moves closer, almost clambering over the desk to look at his forehead, "WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN.  WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME SOONER.  OMIGOD." She pokes the caste mark, "IS THAT WHY YOU WERE HANGING AROUND BATTLES."

"Just last night, you can take a wild guess how it happened." He looks at her, ignoring the finger pressed against his forehead. "Correct, I had a talk with Battles to figure stuff out, like if I don't get stuff done this will be my last term as a senator, weapons, security, the like. "

"Uhmmm---"  She turns bright, neon-red.  "I can take a few guesses... Buuut... wait, yeah, wait, aren't you supposed to NOT be a senator anymore?  What the fuck gives?  What the FUCK."  She draws her finger back from his forehead,  "So we hit something bad, huh?"

The sudden color shift is amusing to him. "That's what I thought as well, but it turns out I just can't run for the seat, nothing is kicking me out of it. But for real I was at home decrypting the notes, I have been up and doing stuff since."

"And are we any closer to figuring things out?"  She holds up a big volume of paper, "You know... you're an Exalt now.  An Eclipse.  You're probably really fast with paperwork now, aren't you..."

"As any proper encryption, all answers just made more questions... And as I can definitely do better work, I'm not a miracle worker, lets see." He gestures at the papers.

She hands them over.

My God, this shit would take up Xene's attention for 2-3 days.  Petitions, bills to review, reports to file.  There are a lot of complaints about the food, as per the usual, and some about the water quality.  There's also always about a dozen complaining about WAL's goblins and some requests for further security in his region.

((Go ahead with a Politics roll.  You can make an action with 1d, and any additional sets speeds it up.  Anything over 20 is successful))

((Politics: 9, 8, 7, 7, 7, 5 & 2. flood 10, 10 from river
Main roll: 19 + 10 + 10 + 5 = 44
speeeed: 37 + 10 + 10 + 5 = 62
more speeeeeed: 20 + 10 + 10 + 5 = 45))

"Right then, let me look these through, can you get me a cup of dark life essence please?"

He starts working as she turns around.

"One cup, absolutely sir."  She stands up and flips him a mock salute before scampering out.

By the time she comes back he's blown through half the stack.  His pen's almost out of ink.  It's weird how fast he's gotten, how the words just trivially float across his eyes.  He knows the next sentence before he even reads it.  It's like he can look at a page and just distill it to a single sentence...

"Damn,"  She breathes as she sets the hot coffee in front of him.  "Already done with those?!"

"Well I figured I had to catch up for lost time." He stops for a moment to take some coffee, it's not like he actually needed it, but at the same time office work requires coffee to feel right. "Anyway, sooner or later I have to make this public and I want to do it the best way possible. Many people are probably not going to be happy if I don't resign immediately, but I'm not planning on doing so."

"Well, if you know the law and it lets you..."  Xene trails off as she watches him work, "I mean, what's the wrong way of doing this?  Besides not revealing it at all.  I think you have to do it eventually... but it's not like this is a terminal illness you've got to eventually break to everyone.  Or an affair.  This should be a positive thing, right?"

Kendal breathes deep after setting aside another set of finished papers and starting on new ones. "It's no longer about if I'm allowed to do so by the law or not, it's obviously about how people will view me after I do it, will their first thought be 'He stays senator because he is an asshole solar who gives no shits' or 'He is a great guy and we want him to stay senator' or something else. All I want is that positive reaction you had, but I'm afraid that the political scene and masses will have a totally different reaction."

Well the sooner it's done the better.

"Well, I don't think anyone sees any of the Solars as assholes.  I mean, we should be throwing a parade every time one of you Exalts." She says, "So we can start with that.  Spin it as a celebration!  Especially for your constituents.  Then we can go from there after we gauge their reaction?"

Wow, he's almost to the bottom of the pile.

"In fact-"

Xene is interrupted by the jingling of Kendal's phone.  It's a text:  Ilari informing him that Torvald is stabilized but currently unconscious.

"Somehow the glamour of solars was lost to me the second my sister became one, so I easily see the possible negative sides." He says to Xene as he replies to the text: "Great work, thanks. Send me a text when he comes to."

Then he puts the phone away and looks at Xene again. "You were saying?"

"Well, that's YOU, most other people will be thrilled.  In fact, I think you could really play this up.  Don't announce it Last Refuge wide, announce it in a meeting just for your constituents, reassure them that you're thinking of them first and not your greater political career, they're the first to know, etc.  I mean who's gonna get really hurt that you're a Solar?"

Refusing to be too optimistic, he still agrees mostly to what Xene says. "Well there are always people who don't like me or my way of doing things. Anyway your idea sounds good to me, make it happen after we are done here today."

He nods. "No use contemplating on this for too long, better make the best out of it ye?"

"I'll send out an urgent town hall notice," She already has her PDA out, "I can't guarantee a huge turnout... you know how people are with local politics.  But if we set it after normal working hours we should get a good turnout.  Let me check- you think we should apportion some of our Sweets Budget to see if we can't get more people here for punch and pie?"  She looks up at him, "I think the more people we get the better..."

He frowns for a second when the sweets budjet is mentioned, it's the most carefully calculated budjet after all. "Hmmm..." He rubs his chin  "I'd love me some blueberry pie... Anyway I think we can spare some of the budjet. Remember to inform the Ilmorijo and our staff as well. Let's not leave anyone out."

"Well, I'm thinking some for everyone who shows up.  You've got 50,000 constituents, so if we dip into the candy reserves... I'm trying to get an auditorium,"  She explains to him, "We can pass them out at the door, I guess. If I play it right I can save about 25% of our SB."

She looks up.

"Sorry.  Getting sidetracked.  OK.  So how do you want to play this with the rest of the office?  Let them find out during the presentation or tell them now or what?"

Kendal thinks for a moment. "Hell, why not just do it right now? Invite everyone to my office would you?"

it might get cramped, but hey, why not.

"Alright, sure enough boss."

She steps out of the office, giving him time to compose himself.  He can hear her calling everyone to the office.  There's a few muffled 'What, seriously?' style replies, but sure enough, they file in.  The Brothers take the back, especially since they're noticeably larger than the rest of his mostly scrawny, under-exercised group of bureaucrats.

"Alright, Senator Raines.  We're all here."

While they gather he looks at their expressions one by one. "Everyone, welcome and thank you for keeping your cool even at this stressful time." He stands up when he starts talking, keeping his voice loud enough for everyone to hear him clearly, but not deafening the first row. "If anyone thought your current workload was hard enough, it's not going to get any easier anytime soon. You see, you all are getting a promotion of sorts, more on the side of prestige, but nonetheless. I will not accept any holiday requests for some time. " He says with a reassuring smile.

"All this fuzz, extra security and all up coming work are a result of a single thing, as of yesterday, approximately at 4am I Exalted to a Solar of the Eclipse caste. It will be my pleasure to make the Last Refuge a better place with all of you." He follows their reactions closely.

"No holidays," He hears one secretary mutter- Liz Alis apparently had Plans from what he remembers.

"Wait.  What." Another one of his staff says deadpan, his face a mask of disbelief and something approaching hope.  It's like someone in the floodwaters watching a helicopter draw near.

"No fucking way."

"Proof?  Wait, is this standard with the Ilmorijo?  I thought it was the attack on the other senator!"

"Show us!" Piotr calls, "Yes, show us!"  Michal chips in.

"All questions will be answered shortly. Also I said I won't be taking holiday requests, not that I wouldn't be granting any, I just don't want anyone bailing on me when it gets really busy."

When they want proof, we shall give them some, it's not like Kendal would get bored showing off anytime soon.

He starts to let the surrounding essence flow through him, reading the surfaced emotions and thoughts of his underlings. The temperature drops a bit and he lets his anima flare out as blue-purpleish flames engulfing his arms and shoulders as the caste mark on his forehead flares. "Good enough?" He says with a partly smug, partly reassuring smile as he draws back his anima and ending the show, letting the temperature to rise back again.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 09:16, Mon 24 Dec 2018.

Jaws:  dropped.  Eyes:  bulging.  His crew has... no goddamn idea what to make of this. Even Xene is still quiet, and she's already seen it.

Only Piotr manages a dumb nod.

"What are you ogling at? Never seen a Solar before?" Well most likely they havent. "Now is not the time to get distracted by flashy lights. C'mon, shows over, more info will follow shortly so back to work." He claps his hands twice to make sure they wake up.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:22, Tue 25 Dec 2018.

They scatter, like roaches exposed to sunlight.  Or maybe something a bit less negative than roaches?  They are being exposed to sunlight, after all...

He's left with Xene and Piotr.  He clears his throat.

"Sir?"  He says to Kendal, "I have two words to say:  about time.  We needed someone like you exalting in the Senate, sir.  Michal and I have been talking about it.  If you need we can start laying down some groundwork..."

Kendal is somewhat surprised of Piotrs reaction, pleased, but still surprised.

He raises an eyebrow and slightly tilts his head to the side "Please, tell me more. What kind of groundwork have you come up with?"

"You know we belong to clubs, yes?  Boxing, fencing, macrame, cooking...  We've been feeling this out for some time.  Many of us are fed up with the standard politicians.  We don't agree that the Exalts are no longer human.  What are they, if not the most human?" He gestures at Kendal's forehead. "We've had our eyes open for this for a while.  We're not the only big guys but we know the ones who are.  Posters.  Speeches in bars.  You know.  Things like this."

"Well, maybe you can go and invite these people of influence to the meeting for my constituents we are about to make happen." He gives Xene a look. "I think we can make room. If there are people who already think like that it's great news for me, so this might not be my last term as a Senator after all."

He looks at both of them and claps his hands one more time. "Unless you have something more to add, go make stuff happen! Spread the word and let us get this done so we can all celebrate afterwards!"

"There should be plenty of space," Xene grants.

"We'll get them sir." He says, starting something that might look like a salute, "We are very very happy we finally have an ultimate human voice in the Senate."

He nods again awkwardly and steps out, leaving him alone with Xene.

As Piotr leaves, Kendal sits back down again, runs his fingers through his hair and breaths deep. "How much overwork you think this body can take? I somehow get the feeling I will be hoarding those vacation days for a while."

He turns to Xene. "Well i'm going to work you harder than before so prepare yourself."

"Well if Lucifer is any indication, a decade or more with the occasional bout in the hospital."  She replies deadpan, "Sir, if you work me any harder I'll be forced to ask for additional bonuses and raises commensurate to the position of Personal Secretary to a Solar Exlated.  I only require, hmm, three whole decks all to my own.  Sound good?"

"I'm afraid that the additional bonuses require increased performance, not a new title, or would you prefer to be someone else's personal secretary if the job suddenly gets harder?" He replies. "It's not like your contract had ready terms in case I Exalt."

It's not like he would be against it. Lets just stay in office first.

"I'm just giving you a hard time you ass,"  She rolls her eyes and laughs a little, "Roger that, boss.  I'm off to take care of the troops."

She leaves Kendal alone.  For a few moments, he's there, blissfully alone in the quiet.

He only sighs as a reply to Xene as she walks out.

When he is alone, he takes good use of the situation and goes to pours himself a drink, sits back down on his chair and leans back, closing his eyes, assesses the whole situation in his head again. Trying to spot things he missed or didn't figure out in all the hurry. But unless some random assassin falls through the roof or what ever, he just prepares for the next thing to do, which seems to be the constituent meeting most likely.

Kendal spends some time writing speeches, fielding phone calls, and doing the millions of minutiae that take up his time.  And that's when he gets the phone call from Sanctuary.

"Senator Raines," The voice on the other line isn't familiar, "This is Orderly Worendi from Sanctuary.  The patient Torvald is awake and is asking for you.  He's refused to speak with anyone else before you- can you come in at your earliest convenience?  The Ilmorijo need to discuss with him the incident at his office."

"Right, I'll be there momentarily, just a moment." He sets his desk in a neat order. "Just need to set my timetable straight, but this takes top priority." he listens if Worendi has something to say and hangs up, now he just needs to find Xene again and inform her of this so she wont lose her shit when he is gone again.

"He'll be on the fifth deck, room 8," Worendi responds to him, then hangs up.

Xene listens to him and tells him to be careful- though not without the suggestion that perhaps he should inform Battles.  She also slips him a small envelope, "Open it later when you're alone.  Nothing important."

Sanctuary is not the most pleasant place to be.  It smells of antiseptic, desperation, rot even at the best of times.  He's directed through the checkpoint only after going through a rigorous investigation by the warrior-orderlies, each of them giant slabs of unhappy muscle with shock prods.  They take cheek swabs from everyone who enters, puts them through some eerie glowing machine, and then direct him through.

Orderly Worendi is a strange god, vaguely Middle Eastern, like Iranian or Azerbaijani if Kendal is any judge.  He gives Kendal a quick nod, "This way, sir."

Torvald's room is a mass of machinery, tubes, red blood splashed across walls and ceiling, and a full squad of Ilmorijo watching over him.  His eyes are crusted red when Kendal opens and he gives a smile.

"Ah... Sena...tor..."