Private A Narrow and a Tall One

[Verity Stuyveris]

THE SENATE
SENATOR LEX'S OFFICE​

Verity decided, after making the gesture for Eadu Yittreas , that the gift of a plant was better left to its original proponent, Eharl Sarn . The gentle old -- she thought, but she supposed she didn't know for sure how old he was -- Ithorian did seem to have an affinity for it. There was something comforting and earthy about him, much like the little moonfrey vine that he had gifted her in her first days in the Senate. Verity was neither comforting nor earthy and so it rang rather false for her, so when she arrived at the outer office of Senator Lex of Nubia, she carried something quite different.

In one hand was a wooden box, roughly the size of a shoe box, within which was a small selection of customized stationery: letterheads with the Senator's name, public office address, and public coms information, note cards and matching envelopes, plus some otherwise plain notepads with the subtle monogram of his initial, all accompanied by a business card for the shop that Verity Stuyveris considered the very best stationer one could patronize on Theed.

It wasn't a bribe to Senator Lex, and it wasn't patronage to Giuseppe Trossi, whose business card it was. Verity just knew how difficult it could be to get good stationery on a foreign world and wanted to save new colleagues the trouble ifs he could.

"Senator Stuyveris for Senator Lex," the Senator for Druckenwell said pleasantly to the staff in the outer office. "I believe my assistant called ahead to see if he was free."

Lex​

 

[Lex]

Verity Stuyveris

A perhaps familiar face sat at the front desk today. A younger woman with fiery red hair and slightly pale skin. Seemingly nobody, but anybody who had seen Lex in his podium would clock her as his aide.

"Oh, of course," she smiled at Stuyveris. "Let me buzz you in."

A dissonant buzzing sound echoed in the reception followed by the snap of a lock. The door to Lex's office opened and brought with it the gentle smell of lavender. It was by most measures an empty room. The echo didn't help make it feel any less cramped.

Statistical holograms of Nubia's readiness obstructed Lex's face for a moment before they promptly closed and he stood up out of his chair. He quickly threw the opened nicotine patch packaging on his desk in the bin and extended his hand as he approached his fellow Senator.

"Miss Stuyveris," he gave her hand a shake and firm squeeze and let go. "I saw that you wanted to meet but there were no notes in the message."

His gaze fell upon the curious box.

"What's that?"

 

[Verity Stuyveris]

Verity allowed her hand to be shaken firmly, returning it with a vigorous pump of her own before they disengaged. "Mr. Vreen," she said genially. "Thank you for making the time." She followed his gaze down to the box in her other hand. "Ah -- this? This is just a little welcome gift. When I was still relatively new to the Senate, Senator Sarn was kind enough to give me a small plant and I thought it was a lovely tradition. This is... something a little more in my style," she said dryly.

"Just some essentials," Verity added. "Nothing complicated."

She held the box out to him.

"As to the purpose of my meeting -- beyond this box?" She paused a moment, clasping her hands behind her back. "I wanted to thank you for your support on the Displaced Persons bill, first and foremost. I also wanted to see if there was some way we might work together on legislation in the future. The High Republic is more or less alone against two Sith powers; we will be at war on paper as well as in fact soon enough. Someone needs to look out for data privacy and civil rights. That seems like something you are very invested in. We have that in common, I think."

Lex​

 

[Lex]

Verity Stuyveris

A gift? It was appreciated, of course, but certainly not expected. Lex gently grabbed the box when it was offered and opened it to see the care package within. Stationery of various kinds, all with his name and initials on them.

The man couldn't help but raise his brows and smile. It was thoughtful, he'd give her that. Most of the items around them spoke more of a stale government office on a street corner than an office in the senate. Perhaps the plastic hexagonal cylinders covered with a blue little cap and black ink would say that much.

He closed the box and carefully put it on his desk. Once Stuyveris spoke up again he froze in place for a moment before he turned back. Lex couldn't help but chuckle.

"I see," he crossed his arms. "Well, you're not wrong. I ran on a platform based on transparency and a right to privacy and now I'm sworn to uphold those promises."

"Although I get the feeling you're not just here to talk about my electoral upset."

 

[Verity Stuyveris]

Verity watched, looking to gauge Vreen's reaction. She was aware that it was a little presumptuous, maybe, to buy a stranger stationery. After all, what could be more intimate than the paper one signed one's name to? Still, she liked to think of it as thoughtful rather than pushy -- and a gentle reminder that just because one had access to the awful, cheap, mass-produced paper in the Senate's supply cabinets didn't mean one had to be limited to them.

The conversation turned to practical matters.

"No," she conceded. "I am not. I -- "

Stuyveris glanced at the door and then, with an apologetic half-smile, she pulled it closed. Now that, she would have to agree, was slightly pushy in someone else's office. "Forgive me, this is -- slightly delicate. I'm sure that during the debate over the Displaced Persons bill you noticed as much as I did that not everyone shares the same commitment to privacy rights. The Magister's distaste for limitations on the government's ability to monitor people is new information to me, but it follows a long track record of a commitment to..." She paused, searching for the opposite of transparency, before finally settling, uncomfortably, on: "...opacity."

The Senator for Druckenwell frowned thoughtfully, studying her counterpart for Nubia with pale blue eyes. "May I ask -- how familiar are you with Ravion Corvalis ?"

Lex​

 

[Lex]

Verity Stuyveris

Stuyveris closed the door, Lex circled around his desk to have a seat behind his desk. He figured his principles would be tested at some point. It would seem some manner of such a test was about to be put on his desk today.

She directed his attention to Ravion Corvalis, asked if he knew anything about him.

"I'm afraid I'm not." Lex admitted and interlocked his fingers on his desk. "He seemed well-spoken in the senate, if a bit… Long-winded."

"I remember him wanting to register all the people your bill would process. People who by all rights are already citizens of the republic, just because they happen to be fleeing." His thumbs spread with a shrug. "I get what he is getting at but I don't agree."

"Why? Are you saying he might have some ulterior motive to this tracking?"

 

[Verity Stuyveris]

Verity couldn't help but smile at Vreen's description of Corvalis. "He is -- yes, both of those things. And -- listen, I'm a pragmatist as much as I'm an idealist and I think reasonable minds can differ on the question of what civil liberties we grant to refugees from enemy-occupied worlds. Let's face facts: the Sith are not the type to consider morality or good faith or the Republic's good intentions when it comes to refugees. They will seek to exploit everything they can. My preference would lay somewhere between 'bring them in and let them loose' and 'chip them with some ungodly Denon contraption that allows us to disconnect their brain stem at the push of the Chancellor's button'."

She paused a moment. "But," she added, almost a complete sentence in itself. "That's not the extent of my concern about the Magister. Perhaps some of this is before your time, but I don't think that makes it beneath your notice."

Verity counted them off on her fingers. "He has overreached the authority of his office -- as far as anyone can see -- on several occasions. The last election, where he -- with an utter lack of subtlty -- defenestrated Aurelian Veruna from the Chancellor's podium. He then controlled the ballot as to who was eligible to replace him. More recently, the Corellian Crisis, where he spoke with an authority that is nowhere to be found in the Charter of Unity or any legislation my staff have been able to locate."

The Druckenwell Senator lowered her hand, clasped them behind her back again, ramrod straight. "Someone with your concern about transparency and government overreach, I would hope, would be equally as concerned with an un-elected, even un-confirmed executive bureaucrat ruling by whim and misleading the Senate as to his actual legal authority."

Lex​

 

[Lex]

Verity Stuyveris

He laughed at the joke. Ungodly certainly seemed like a good way to describe Denon these days. The laugh and lingering smile abruptly ended however once Verity cut to the core of the issue. Lex couldn't help but turn his head ever so slightly, eyes rapidly blinking as if he had just been blinded by her words.

Attempted murder on the king?

"And he's still in office somehow?" Lex recoiled for a moment, took a step back to think on the matter before he straightened his posture yet again. "Provided that this is true, of course. I haven't seen anything, but I'd certainly say that if you could provide evidence of this we'll have one hell of a problem on our hands."

He leaned against his desk for a moment to think before it hit him.

"That's… What your bill was about? The, uh…" His hand circled in front of him to reel his thoughts in. "The DARE act."

"Separate the concerns from the Chancellor, make this kind of game more difficult to play?"

 

[Verity Stuyveris]

Verity watched Vreen with some confusion for a few moments. It did seem a little bit of an over-reaction to throw someone out of office merely for being duplicitous and overreaching. If that were the case, there would be fair few Senators left in this place by the end of a legislative calendar. She replayed the conversation in her head once more and her lips twitched up at the edges. "Mr. Vreen, it's possible I was -- careless with my language. Apologies. I didn't mean he'd actually pushed him from a window. No, the Magister merely cut short Senator Veruna's interim Chancellorship on grounds that are, I contend, at best constitutionally dubious."

"The Magister is, admittedly, quite -- " Verity was on the verge of saying silver-tongued but wanting to avoid further misunderstanding, she decided not to engage in colorful metaphor. " -- well-spoken. He has a way of phrasing things that makes constitutional overreach seem uncontroversial, and enough command of the customs of the chamber that makes his declaration of nigh-unlimited power seem the natural path."

She steepled her fingers, flexing them against one another. "I have inquiries in with the Senate Parliamentarian to clarify his actual authorities, to be absolutely clear. If something is to be done about the Magister, it must be ironclad. It must be fail-safe. Until then, consider this: the Charter of Unity makes it clear that the Chancellor appoints a new Magister upon election. It has been months since Chancellor Vexx was sworn in. Why is Corvalis still in office?" The Senator for Druckenwell shrugged and clasped her hands together again.

Lex​

 

[Lex]

Verity Stuyveris

The man couldn't help but run his hand under his nose to conceal his grin. He wouldn't have been in this seat if he hadn't been able to laugh at himself, and to watch in real time as a respectable senator realized that her subtlety had been — perhaps — a little too subtle was one of the most amusing things he had ever seen.

"I see," the pitch of his voice betrayed his amusement. "You have a good point, I won't deny that. If Corvalis is indeed overstaying his mandate, that's an issue that needs to be fixed."

The man straightened his back, wiped the stupid grin from his face and went back to a mood more befitting a genuinely serious conversation.

"I take it from what you're saying that this is the case and that he hasn't been re-appointed by the chancellor herself? Silly question, I know, but as we both found out a few moments ago… I'm not the most… Shall we say, experienced politician around."

"Subtlety still has its ways of eluding me, it would seem."