The morning started early for Gustavus Amehr and Quintus Fives, but to some extent, part of was because the night never really ended. Sure, they'd gotten some success the previous day in that Charles had been able to get a protest arranged for the first official reveal meeting and from what Charles reported, most of those that they'd gotten to show up outside the Stevens home a few days before showed up for the protest. However, from there, not much went right. For one thing the number of counter-protestors were about equal to those protesting the reveal and from what Charles reported to them, the police kept a close enough eye on things that anything that would have risked a fight or come off as suspicious was immediately off the table. That had meant one of Charles' missions, to track Harold Stevens and Tom Herald from Moon Lake's City Hall could not be done and the counter-protestors would embolden Herald's attempts to reveal the were secret.
"This is insane... a town full of weres... a town RUN by weres and they can't police and silence one rogue going on some love-sick fever dream?" Gustavus growled as he paced their hotel room as the sun just started coming up over the eastern horizon. "That's all Herald is! And this town is entertaining his antics!"
Quintus slowly sat up on the bed. He'd managed to doze a bit while Gustavus had paced most of the night grumbling over the report that Charles had given them after the meeting was concluded. His partner was clearly frustrated and from the point of view of preventing rogue weres from revealing the were secret, that was quite understandable. Tom Herald had made it quite clear that the were secret was to be revealed. Some things had filtered out that Moon Lake wouldn't revealed, but there was the sense that if weres were revealed, EVERYTHING would be revealed, and that was what the Luna Brotherhood feared. For they feared the negative response first and foremost, and had been why they confronted Tom Herald in the first place. But they had failed to convince him and now seemed to be building support in Moon Lake. The reports indicated that it was slow progress but progress nonetheless and that was what Gustavus had spent the night raging at. Quintus didn't get much chance to do much more than nod and doze.
"I mean they should see this as a threat cages, the inquisition, being hunted, the works!" Gustavus ranted.
"Possibly because Tom Herald isn't like any rogue you've hunted," Quintus spoke up with a yawn.
"What?!" Gustavus almost growled as he turned to his partner. He'd noted that Quintus did respond to things, but it'd seemed like his partner was only barely with him through much of the night.
"Think on it... we want to characterize Herald as a rogue were a threat that Moon Lake's police would actively hunt if it happened here... or that the Luna Brotherhood has hunted through its connections outside of Moon Lake, right?"
"Of course, because by revealing the were secret he's doing exactly what the rogues we've hunted in the past are doing," Gustavus insisted.
"In the same way?" Quintus asked.
"What are you getting at?" Gustavus questioned.
"I'm saying he's not a typical rogue, if maybe even a rogue at all," Quintus said slowly, "most rogues that weres have warned us on have been those like Lionel Ulysses... they've gotten themselves involved in drugs or some other criminal action that's included murder... brought in law enforcement. Or worse those that figured their power and strength justified things like murder. That isn't how Tom Herald has operated. He's been calm, quiet, polite, and engaged in debate... not making emotional statements. Remember on when we tried to talk him out of it?"
"Don't remind me," Gustavus answered, "saying "it'll come anyway" is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. We've kept weres safe for centuries and adapted to technology as it has advanced. We can continue to do so."
"You assume we can do so," Quintus said slowly, "but regardless... Herald has not acted in the way one would expect a rogue to act and from what he's presented... even if only to us... it's clear he's given it some thought and has some sound reasoning And that is likely to win support... as Charles' report has seemed to indicate."
Gustavus pulled his lips back to sneer, but he didn't say anything and he turned to look toward the front window to their room. Their blinds were pulled and thus they weren't getting too much in the way of early morning sunlight, but it was enough to know that the sun had risen. For a moment, Gustavus glared at the closed curtains and the light filtering through them as he thought over the situation with Tom Herald and his reveal plan. While there were times where he thought Quintus was rather weak on the issue, Gustavus did have to admit that he had a point that Tom Herald was not some typical rogue were and that from the way he talked on the subject, it seemed that he honestly believed he was doing something good for weres.
It was that sort of thing that made him the most frustrated as it was unlikely that Herald would make the sort of mistake that would allow for them to easily employ their standard tactics. That made the purpose of assassinating Tom Herald difficult, which would already be quite an order given who he'd managed to pull into providing him with security in addition to the Moon Lake Police. The theoretical option was there to get him when he was outside of Moon Lake, as the Skulk couldn't exercise many its own measures in Seattle, but that had its own risks. Namely that there would be the higher possibility of witnesses and the Luna Brotherhood as an organization had already shown some signs of tiring with the chase after Tom Herald in one way or another.
"This would be a lot easier if things were more predictable... Moon Lake unites to protect the were secret, Tom Herald is isolated and shunned for it, we get him on a drive by and he dies taking the reveal threat with him and our actions get swept under the proverbial rug... as they always have," Gustavus grumbled referring to the clandestine way in which the Luna Brotherhood operated In theory it had worked for centuries, but largely because of the hidden government and business connections that the Brotherhood had that made them too big to tackle. It then let them fill in as additional security forces in lawless areas and even as managers and agents companies, governments, law enforcement agencies. Of course a lot of this work did its best when their activities were easy to hide, before things like the internet and more instant communication.
And while Gustavus firmly believed that no one would ever find out about weres, that didn't necessarily mean he was completely unaware of the consequences that technological change had brought. The case related to Tom Herald showed all of that, and that added to Gustavus's frustration that the old ways WEREN'T working. The werefox wasn't running around like a mad dog and Moon Lake wasn't giving them unrestricted access to law enforcement or the city government, which only complicated matters further. They could protest and try to build support, or at least so polarize it that they wouldn't accept anything, but even Gustavus wanted Moon Lake to stay in tact to some degree without looking like it'd gone through the Civil War.
"Charles will want some continued instruction on what to do..." Quintus said slowly.
"For the moment we can't do anything major until the next reveal meeting," Gustavus said slowly, "and Charles didn't know that... if its at a regular interval, we could expect it next Wednesday... if not... it could be sooner."
"I can go out and listen to the radio... get updates that way," Quintus offered, "but the big thing will be what we do in the meantime."
The answer was paused as Gustavus gave a yawn and finally turned back to the hotel room and staggered to the bed. He sat down and let himself bounce on the springs a little as he sat down before kicking off his shoes, again letting out a yawn. It gave some indication that the man was tired from pacing all night long.
"You do that... and take the phone with you," Gustavus instructed, "should Charles call... tell him that for the moment we'd want to get more people involved. Take the protest to the other Wards of Moon Lake and set up outside the homes of the Ward representatives. It'd be like what we did with the Stevens home. Show up... shout the slogans and attract anyone in the area to our side to come out. It'd thus help see how much support we have and what we'll need to do. In the meantime... I think I've finally wore myself out."
With that Quintus watched as Gustavus fell back in the bed, still fully dressed, and seemed to be out before his head even hit the pillow.