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Dew shimmered on the window from the fading evening light, giving a lackluster amount of visibility inside the office. With each passing moment, the sky faded until it was gray, and the water gradually froze into a thin layer of ice, blurring the outside world. Information pamphlets messily decorated the single table in the small room, and various motivational posters hung from the walls. Cardboard cutouts of famous politicians sat in the corners of the room next to portraits of historical political figures. Eighties rock music played at a low volume while a black-spotted white cat leaned back in a chair with his sneaker-covered feet propped up on the desk. Yarn was repeatedly tossed up from the cat's palm, his yellow eyes sticking to it like the hungry predator that he was.

Or in this case, the bored predator. It had been over an hour and a half, and as always, no one even showed up or called. While the feline could not blame anyone for not wanting to waste their valuable time at the hopeless abyss that was the local Dino County Democratic Party office. That phrase, which he mouthed to himself as he thought it, used to fill him with such pride. All it represented now, however, was the obligation to waste countless hours every week on volunteering at a place with no future.

"Better start setting up the tables, I guess." The middle-aged feline groaned to himself as he pushed himself back from the table with his feet, and then rose up from the seat. He walked through the front room of the office and around a corner to the back. After a moment of fumbling through his pocket, he found the keys and unlocked a small storage room to the left of the kitchen area, and began to drag out folded white plastic, scraping against the tiled ground without the slightest care for the streaks that were left in the process. The plastic was unfolded, and then propped up on its metal legs. The cat went back to get a few chairs, placing two on each site of the table, and repeated until there was enough in the main room for about twenty people. It would be a little cramped, but it would work well enough.

A bell chimed above the glass entrance just as the final chair was put in place. He turned to see two dark brown deer enter. An elderly male in a wheelchair with white plastic bags balanced on his lap was pushed by a slightly younger-looking female. Years of stress had wrinkled their faces, but the two looked happy to have arrived.

"Hey there, Aire, Pence." He smiled half-heartedly at the married couple, and waved for them to come in. Aire pushed the other deer to one of the tables, and then pulled out a chair next to him to sit down.

She smiled back with a nod. "Hello, Nis! Good day, isn't it? Even if it is a little cold." Her husband looked up to the cat with a slightly open maw. The wheel-chair-bound one rarely spoke or got up much, and smelled of urine. Being too close made Nis gag.

"...Yeah." There was a little hesitation, but he knew it would be ignored if he made up for it quickly with some lame small-talk. "I've been working on re-decorating the office. How do you think it came out?"

After taking a moment of peering around the room, she looked impressed. "It does look a little better. I remember the table being a lot further from the door."

"I thought it made it look more professional, I guess," he shrugged. "I'm glad you like it." In truth, he did it for no reason other than mind-numbing boredom. But that answer sounded better.

"I agree!" Aire then got up and walked to the kitchen, and took the plastic bags with her. "There's still water bottles in the fridge, right?"

Nis turned in his chair enough to face the the back room's entrance. "It's behind the Tupperware in the fridge. I should probably throw those away, really."

While he waited for her to come back, he stared at the table. Pence made several unintelligible mumbles, to which Nis randomly nodded to the noise. Finally, after a wait that felt almost too long, Aire came back with three bottles and gave one to everyone. After opening up the bottle for her husband, they all sipped at the cold liquid.

While staring at the sloshing within the bottles as they set them back down on the table, Nis thought to himself, 'What is water? For us, it's what makes life possible. The erosion of the world, rain, hurricanes, something to drink, and is made of two other important elements required to make life practical - oxygen to breathe, hydrogen for the stars. But what use are we, here, right now?'

"Uh, Nis?" A bunny of a roughly similar age, brown fur covering his skin, to himself had walked in and said something while he was spaced off. Aire looked a little concerned, or perhaps merely confused.

"Oh, sorry," he laughed, mostly from forcing himself. The rabbit held a brown paper bag in his hands, and Nis stood up. "I'll get the glasses, Perat."

Now having a convenient excuse to get up from his seat, he walked to the kitchen with Perat, and finally saw the disappointing condition the place had been in. With all the time he spent setting up the front, he had left the back mostly unprepared. Aire had dragged a table out of the storage closet, but bits of food were already building up on the table, crumbs of crackers having been spilled after being poured into a large bowl, and several other crumbs of things that had been hastily slapped down onto ceramic plates. Even with the floor comparatively clean, permanent black marks were abundant due to lazy table dragging. The counter next to the sink was small, and cluttered with glasses that had been cleaned yet not put away in the cabinets above.

"Not many people showing up today, huh?" the rabbit asked, pulling the cork out of the black bottle. A dark red liquid flowed out as he tipped it, filling a wine glass he grabbed from the counter. Once it was sufficiently full of alcohol-laced delight, he sat the bottle down.

Chills flowed through his hand when Nis grabbed the bottle, and poured himself a glass, and clearly took more than Perat. It was necessary. "It's been getting a little slow lately. Probably the holidays," he shrugged. Though he thought it might be more accurately attributed to other factors, he kept those thoughts to himself.

"I'm sure it'll pick up." Perat patted the cat's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him, and walked back to the main room.

Nis sighed and leaned against the counter. "But I don't want it to pick up..."

When the liquid hit his lips, a slight smile curled on the feline's muzzle. Warmth instantly spread through his throat and built up in his stomach. When he pulled the glass back, he could not help but sigh in content. It would take more than that to make the evening go by, but it was a good start. Quickly, he poured back in the amount he sipped, stuffed the cork back in, and went back to sit in the front.

As time passed, a handful of others came. Most of them were the regular visitors, most of them no younger than thirty-five - and that age group was a minority. Nis mostly sipped the wine and avoided looking at others. While most others had gotten some food, he had none, simply not feeling hungry.

Just as the booze began to finally go to his head, he looked up and saw someone new. Nis rubbed his eyes to get the slight blurring that had formed in them, and examined the newcomer. A short, black feathered creature walked in, peering over the environment with his blood-colored eyes. Left ignored for the moment, the bony male walked carefully around the tables. He folded his wings to sit down, and looked around somewhat nervously. While not the only newcomer at the event, he was the only one who came to do nothing. It somewhat befuddled the feline: Why would anyone come to just sit there and do nothing? If no one would notice, Nis would leave himself, but the chairman cannot simply walk out the front door like that. With a sigh, Nis begrudgingly pushed himself from his seat and walked over to the bird. For only a moment, the smaller guy looked up, and then nervously looked away, listening to a different conversation.

" You seem new." Saying those words made him feel a little stupid. Of course the guy was new, but Nis felt bad for the raven wasting his time alone. At least now they could waste it together with more useless chit-chat.

There was no response other than a shy clacking of the bird's beak, even when Nis cleared his throat. Eventually, the black-feathered male felt too awkward ignoring the other, but he still shuffled his hands oddly in his lap, and had a genuine but scared smile on his face.

"Y-yeah, I haven't been here before," he stammered, and turned a little in his seat to better face the cat.

"I'm Nis, the chairman of this place. May I ask who you might be?" He extended a hand, and waited to feel the smaller one grasp his. There was a surprising strength in the shake, and the male's talons were deadly sharp, but he refrained from wincing.

"Ren." Saying nothing else, the handshake ended. Knowing he was talking to the chair seemed to m

"Well, Ren. Welcome to the Dino County Democratic Office." He gave a cheesy thumbs up. "So, what do you do? Go to school or anything?"

Ren leaned his elbows on the table, and pushed the seat out to sit only on its edge. "I go to the university here in town. Political science, before you ask."

Another sip later, and the glass was nearly empty. "I see. Then the reason you're here is probably the same reason you study it." He swooshed the few tiny droplets that were left in the glass until the urge to drink the rest of it overcame him, and he gulped the remainder.

The raven nodded. "When I first became old enough to vote, I started paying a lot more attention to everything. It just seemed fitting to go to college for it, too. So, I came here hoping I could volunteer and get to know people."

What Nis wanted to respond with was, "Well, that would be a lot easier if you actually talked more." But that would be rude. "Simple enough," he shrugged. "Why don't you come by Monday? I'm in office from two to four. Is that good for you?"

"Y, yeah!" The raven's mood seemed to pick up, smiling and leaning in a bit closer. "That'd be great."

"Alright then," Nis smiled back, and patted the shy bird on the shoulder. "Go get something to eat. Everyone brought food, and you look hungry."

Ren nodded, and then rose up to check the food that others had brought and accumulated for the gathering. Nis saw him come back with a paper plate full of nothing but... plain crackers. 'Out of all the things he could have picked,' the cat thought with an eye roll, but otherwise did not really care. Instead of sitting back down with him, however, the raven decided to take a seat at another table. It made him ping with slight jealousy, for now he was alone again, but it was good that the bird was talking more to people, so perhaps some good came out of it.

Ren approached four that sat at a circular table, all having sips of wine and beer, accompanied with warm and hearty beef stew and other filling piles of butchered flesh. Pence and Aire were among them, and Nis cringed on behalf of the blissfully unaware raven. The others consisted of a stereotypically overweight panda, who seemed to be the only one aside from Ren who was not eating meat, perhaps on an all-bamboo diet. Next to her sat a horse with dark gray fur. All old, all female, aside from Pence.

"Things seem so grim these days," the panda sighed, setting her fork down and leaning her head in a palm. She stared out the window, watching the last rays of sunlight dim over the horizon. "It's not like it was, back when we could still win."

A nod of agreement came from the horse. "It's been a long time, hasn't it? I remember when things were different, but this state's gone redder than a blasted crayon!"

"When was the last time, Coli?" Aire asked the horse, leaning on the table slightly to get closer.

Coli opened her muzzle to say something, but another plate was laid down on the table before she could. They looked up, seeing the raven take a seat. His black beak crunched half of a cracker, and he gulped it before he finally sat. "Nineteen forty-eight," he answered for her. "Truman. That was the last time."

"Oh. Well, yeah, I guess that was the last time our state went blue for a president, wasn't it?" the horse asked, and held her chin in a hand, thinking.

"I believe he is right." Aire nodded. "So, who are you?"

Without looking directly at her, only in her general direction, he replied, "Ren." Once again, the inadequate introduction invoked a few odd looks, and he ignored them by nibbling on another cracker.

"Well, I'm Aire, and the horse next to you is Coli," the horse gave a wave then and smiled. The panda next to her looked expectant as she waited to be introduced next. "That one's Ster. And this," she motioned, "is my husband, Pence. He doesn't talk much, though." Upon noting that, the wheelchair-bound deer moaned something, but no one understood.

Coli still had the same interested smile. "What brings you here to us old folks, Ren? You must be the youngest one here!"

"I study it in college, so I guess something about it is just natural," the bird shrugged. He didn't feel like explaining it in full again.

"I see," Ster nodded, a pleased look on her face. "So that's why you knew that thing."

"Yes, you seem to be an educated one." Something in Aire's voice sounded annoyed. No one seemed to take notice, but Ren's eye twitched upon hearing them, and he became uncomfortable with her being so close. With his eyes staring down at the table, he took another nibble of a cracker. "Have you taken Avi's class? He comes here once in awhile," she asked. The bird merely nodded, and did not discuss it further.

The panda finished her bamboo salad, and laid her plastic silverware in her plate. "Do you know much about campaigns, Ren?"

He tilted his head, and nodded. "Some. I took an elections class. Focused on poll-taking and the like."

"Good, good!" Ster clapped her hands together. "In the 70's, I had a friend running for the state legislature. Back then, we didn't have much to work with. It was nothing like how it is today. We put together the best campaign team possible. We were going out door-to-door, making phone calls, and we were even among the first to start trying to organize everything on computers." Her expression grew a little depressed. "But that's all standard practice today. We lost that election, too. Wasn't even close. The opponent would constantly carry a Bible around with him and preach on stage instead of talk about actual politics."

The gray horse made a solemn look, and patted her friend's back. "At least we have Dai Emerson now."

"And we barely got him," Aire sneered. "He only won with thirty votes. What's wrong with this place?"

Much of the rest of the evening consisted of finishing off the remainder of the food and booze Soon after, the social gathering began to die down. Most had left, only a few people in another corner of the room talking, whom of which were already starting to get up to leave.

Nis walked near the bird, who had sat at a table alone after most of the others had left. "Well, things are basically over. I'm going to start cleaning things up. You might as well go home."

Ren looked over to the exit, watching the other two leave. It was dark now, and the sky was nothing but an empty void of smog blocking out all visibility of stars. "But..." He didn't seem eager to leave.

"Hmm?" The cat looked at him for a moment before grabbing some plates and empty bottles that various others had left on the tables and, in some cases, the floor. "What's wrong?"

"N, nothing! I'll see you Monday!" Quickly, Ren pushed himself up and nearly ran out the door. Nis raised a brow at the sudden exit, but shrugged, and went back to cleaning.

Drool pooled around the feline's white cheek, until the liquid began to drip over the edge of the desk, falling on his lap. Despite the sun shining brightly in the cloudless sky, winter's grip refused to leave, and a small tabletop heater blew over Nis while he slept, lurched in the office chair. Even as the bells chimed above the door to signal an entry, he only replied with snores. Not until a powerful grip on his shoulder shook him did he even crack open his eyes. With a sudden jump, he rose from his seat. A sparkling string of spit stuck on his face and the desk, and his vision was blurred for a moment. All he could see before him was a darkness, with two red orbs staring back at him.

"I, I'm sorry," the raven lowered his head, and turned back to the door. "I'm interrupting. I'll come back later."

"Wait, no, it's okay!" Nis quickly raised a hand just as the avian reached for the door. "I, uh, was just getting things ready."

For a long moment, all Ren did was stare at him. A droplet of saliva fell from Nis' cheek, falling audibly onto the table. The cat wiped his cheek dry, and looked down at the mess he had made.

"You sure?" Ren asked again, looking between the drowsy cat and the door.

Nis sheepishly nodded, and wiped up the drool puddle with his hand. It was then that Ren noticed a pile of papers on the office desk. The bird approached the pile, thumbing through it. They appeared to be pieces of a larger picture, but he could not make it out.

Nis cleared his throat, and the avian looked up. "It's a poster. Or, it will be, once we cut some of the extra blank space off and hang it up."

"I wonder what it's for," he wondered aloud, not specifically asking.

The oddness of it made the cat laugh a little. "It's for advertising our next big event. Purrfest."

"Purrfest? What's that?" Ren giggled after he thought about the name for a moment. "Did you make the name?"

"Nah," he waved it off, but smirked as well. "But it's nicely fitting, isn't it? Purrfest is just a fundraiser, but it's also an important platform for some of the local candidates running this year to reach constituents. They'll be there, give a few speeches after everyone has dinner, a raffle, opportunities for people to sign up for volunteering. Those sorts of things."

Without waiting, he picked up a sheet of paper, and then a pair of scissors lying on the desk. Before he could start cutting, Nis grabbed his wrist. Ren looked up with a confused and slightly depressed look, disappointed that he already was doing something wrong.

"Careful. Some of the white portions are part of the poster, and some is not. We have to arrange them like a puzzle, and then we'll use the guillotine for it. Not scissors." He pointed to a cutting table behind himself.

"Oh. Sorry," he lowered his head, and placed the items in his hands back down.

The two sorted out the papers. What seemed like a simple thing to do took over an hour, and required Nis to reprint some of the papers, as some either did not come out well or not at all, some pages missing entirely. Neither turned out to be good puzzle-solvers, but the job got done. Unfortunately not much time remained. Ren felt rushed, and tried to cut the pages quickly. A few came out uneven, but none were rendered unusable.

By the time the clock ticked a few minutes past four, the two were panting with fatigue, sweating despite the cold. "All we did was cut a bunch of paper," Ren gasped, and gulped down a swig of water from a bottle.

"Give me a break, it was a lot of paper," the cat laughed out between breaths, and taped up the last piece of paper to the office window. The sun no longer shined in very well, but the decorations were complete. "There we go. How's that look to you?"

"Good." He smiled proudly at the work he contributed to.

A hundred different voices spoke over one another all at once. Stale smells filled the white tiled room, forcing Nis to hold his breath. Dozens of tables and more chairs than he cared to count filled the gym-size room, and in the center of the room against the wall was a small stage with a podium and microphone. Blue tickets were rolled up in front of him as he sat at a white plastic table near the entrance, one of the same kinds used at the office, and he bent them in pairs and pulled them apart, handing them to anyone who walked in and donated a few dollars, while the other half of the tickets were tossed into a collection hat on the table.

"The winner gets a chance to win a five hundred dollar gas card," the feline repeated to everyone until his voice became monotone. "Would you like a free pen, too?" Next to the tickets stood a large box full of blue advertisement pens with the address and phone number of his office printed on them. When a black form walked in, he grabbed another couple of raffle tickets and a pen, and was about to throw his sales pitch to him. But the raven looked down at the items, back up to him, and tilted his head.

"Um, am I supposed to do something with those?" Ren asked, pointing to the things in Nis' hand.

The cat looked down, and took a minute to think. "Y... Yes! Come around the table," he motioned hurriedly, and Ren complied, taking a seat next to Nis. Behind them was Perat and Aire, keeping money safe and paperwork sorted. "Just try to get people to buy these blue tickets, rip the purchase part off and put the part with their names into this hat for drawing. One dollar a piece, or twelve for ten. Don't forget to give them pens, they help promote us. Give the money you get to Aire."

"A, alright," Ren stammered. "I can handle that."

"Good. It'll slow up in about thirty minutes, when the speeches start, and then we can eat." Nis rose up from his seat, and began to walk away. Nervous beak-clacking and whines stopped him for a moment. "Don't worry. Ask the others for help if you need."

With that, he left the bird mostly on his own. Wasting no time, only acknowledging anyone calling his name with a simple nod and smile, he head straight for the bathroom. Water leaked from the only two faucets, the mirrors tainted with rust, cracks, and fingerprint smudges. Nis opened one of the bathroom stalls, and was careful not to get his shoes dirty in any muck. Once the stall door was locked, he leaned against it and reached into a pocket, pulling a small flask from his pants. Almost instantly upon the strong whiskey being gulped, powerful contentedness caused him to sigh with a dumb smile.

Meanwhile, Ren cringed every time he had to rip some tickets and sell them to someone. Fear of messing up never left him, and he was sure he might have given people the wrong number of raffle tickets more than once. The money collected was handed over to Aire, who placed it inside of a coffee can labeled 'donations'.

Chimes of a glass being hit with a spoon brought the raven's attention away from the front door. He turned to see Nis on stage, an unusual happy look on the feline's face as he placed the glass down and pulled out a handful of note cards. After tapping them on the desk and clearing his throat, the cat began to speak as he looked down and up from the cards periodically.

"Everyone, thank you for coming and showing your support this fine, fine evening. I would like to thank Aire, Dino County Democrats' secretary. Without her to help me organize things, I'd be completely lost." He smiled to her, and she beamed proudly at the mention. "Perat, my vice chair and close personal friend, has helped me in more than just work. He's always been there, and no one else I know could be in his position and do as much as he does as well as he does it." The rabbit gave an exaggerated salute.

After Nis flipped to the next card, he curled his lips and furrowed his brow, barely and only for a moment. Ren narrowed his look as the feline went on. "But we didn't come here to listen to me babble. We're here for two main reasons. To collect funds to help advocate our party's candidate for president, and also for our state representative, Dai Emerson."

As everyone politely clapped, the cat backed off the stage, and young, green lizard stood up from a table, and walked on stage. He looked only a few years older than Ren, but his scales were perfectly groomed, and his black wardrobe spotless. Dai stood behind the podium, waving a hand at everyone until the noise died down. After pulling gently at his shirt collar and arranging his blue tie slightly, he leaned in to the microphone and started to speak.

"Thank you, everyone. Serving you these past four years has been an amazing experience that I would never trade for anything. But I wasn't even sure about running this time." The lizard leaned on the stand, and sighed into the mic. "As many of you know, my biggest concern is and has always been with the justice system. It's why I used to be a lawyer. Having an issue with people being sent to jail and being given harsher punishments for smoking a joint than beating their wife, I tried to propose an amendment to our state laws to lighten up. But it got killed in committee. And when I asked the chairman of that committee, who was a Republican, why he wouldn't let it go through, he said it was _because_it would pass, and if it did, every Republican that voted for it would lose in the coming election for not looking like they were being tough on crime, and looking like that supported liberal ideals.

"The legislature is completely controlled by them, as well as the governorship. But many of these people have never had a job before, do not have a college education, and some have never even finished high school. Instead, their staff members, influenced mostly by moneyed interests, give them bills to propose, and in their incredible wisdom, they do so. After all this time, the most I have ever been able to do is delay their efforts by choking things up in various legislative processes. But seeing how bad things are now, if the most I can do is make things a little less bad, then that's worth it. And that's why I'm here."

Some cheered, some whistled. The speech went on with a few jokes and comments about his family, that he worked for their future and everyone's. It ended, and everyone got in line to get the various foods being placed in plates, bowls, and pots on a row of tables on one side of the room. However, Ren did not get up and jump in line like everyone else, but stood and waited to see if Dai would get in line. Sure enough, the politician got in line, talking to a few standing near him along the way. Ren got in line once he did, standing near behind him. As the lizard held a conversation, Ren stuttered and mumbled the beginning of sentences, but never speaking loudly enough to get attention. Eventually, they made it all the way through the line, but the representative walked toward a different table, isolating himself. In that moment, the raven stepped in front of him, almost causing Dai to bump into him.

"S-sir?" he stuttered, holding his hands up and twiddling his fingers nervously. "I, wanted to talk to you, please!"

The representative momentarily looked annoyed, but changed his expression to a gentle smile. "Well, that's fine." He held his plate to the side, and extended a hand to shake with the bird. "Good to meet you. What's your name?"

"Ren, sir." He shook the hand excitedly. "Thank you for talking to me."

Dai nodded, and started nibbling on a piece of bread from his plate. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Uh, um." Nervousness started to overtake him, but he swallowed hard and breathed deeply. "I wanted... Well..."

Figuring that he needed to help the obviously shy male, Dai interrupted him. "Why don't you just tell me your issue? I'll hear you out."

After taking a moment to relax, the bird nodded. "Have you noticed how everyone is?" Dai looked a little confused. "They look down when they eat," he motioned around with his head. "They reminisce a lot. They feel like you were the first victory they ever had since they were young."

"Well, you heard me talk." The greenscale spoke between swallowing butter-coated bread. "I'm one of only a very small handful of Democrats in the legislature. So, all I can do is damage control, and give the minority here a voice."

"But," he almost whined it out, sinking his head down. Verbal confrontation was not his strong suit. "Don't, don't you think you're contributing to the problem?"

At that, the lizard stared at him for a moment in pause. After gulping down the hunk of bread in his maw, he stopped eating, focusing on the bird completely. "Come again?" A hint of anger was laced within his voice, and he narrowed his eyes.

"They talk highly of you, but you kind of admitted that you can't do anything," he explained, fidgeting his fingers and scratching his talons against one another. "You placate them, give them false hope, but you mentioned money interests. Why don't you do anything about that? I, I know you have the legal po-"

Losing his appetite, Dai tossed his plate in a garbage can next to him. It had gotten cold anyways. Then, he interrupted, "If you were stabbed, could you do anything to patch yourself up with the same knife?"

"Er, no?" The bird tilted his head, and blinked.

"The legislature is like that. You can't use the thing that's causing a problem to fix the same problem. And so, you can't ask me to do anything but slow the bleeding down." He took a step closer, whispering. "I know your kind. Your mind's in the clouds. So don't say I contribute to it. I do what I can." He left the building after that.

Everyone, laughing with dull eyes and eating still, continued on, unaware of the conversation that they had talked over. Ren got back in line, staring down at the ground until he got his styrofoam plate. But, not feeling very hungry, he only grabbed a few crackers and a bottle of water. After getting to the end of the line, he looked about the make-shift cafeteria, and took a seat at the first empty spot he found. The noise of so many voices was rather uncomfortable. Ren tried his best to ignore them, keeping his head low as he ate slowly.

After he finished eating the handful of saltines, he propped his beak on a palm and stared off at a wall. A grumbling near his side caught his attention. He turned and saw Pence eating a bowl of bean and beef stew. Wanting to be polite, he ignored it, but the noise continued.

"Ngh... Kids..." the old deer mumbled.

Ren looked around. Were some kids bothering him? But there were none that he could see. The same old and middle-aged people he were used to. It occurred to him that it might have been himself that was being referred to.

"Everyone here is already dead."

The words somewhat shocked Ren. "Did, you say something? Pence?"

After another long moment of silence and random noises from his maw, a dribbling of soup rolled down his chin and over his shirt. Ren shook his head and looked back to the wall, until he spoke up again.

"Said, everyone here," he waved his spoon around, motioning to the room. "They're dead."

"What do you mean?" As the raven asked, he backed away slightly, since the comment was rather odd.

After taking another sip of the broth, since all of the food in the bowl was now gone, Pence turned his head and looked at the comparative kid. "Don't rely on them. They aren't the ones who will change anything, because they had the sense to quit." He pointed his spoon at Ren, flinging some of the broth accidentally onto the bird's feathers. "But you kids are too stupid to know when to stop. It'll be you who changes things 'round here."

Ren quickly wiped the broth off with a napkin "But what am I supposed to do about that?" The elderly deer went back to slurping noisily on his nearly-gone soup, not responding.

"Good to see you, Ren." Nis smiled to the bird as he walked through the office door. The desk was covered in papers, even more messy than it usually was, but at least not coated in drool. "Would you mind coming over here?"

Ren quickly walked over, and looked over the table. "Wh-what is it?"

"We're trying to get some people signed up for helping with the coming election." He grabbed a clipboard with a pen and sheet. "You can start with signing up, if you like. A few other things," he gestured around the table, "like calling some others, writing letters to ask for donations. Most of it's going to be for Emerson, though."

"I don't mind," Ren began as he wrote his name on the volunteer sheet. "When do we start?"

"Couple weeks. We'll get on everything a few days before the election," he nonchalantly stated, and went back to writing notes on another paper.

After signing, Ren placed the clipboard back on the desk. "W-what? Why would we wait for so long"

Nis looked up, confused at first, but then realized that Ren had never done anything like this before. "Oh, I guess you don't know how we do that. We're going to do some of the basic things. Hold signs on the street corner and the like. Everything prior to that is mainly organizing. Like what I'm doing," he pointed to the table.

"Organizing is important," Ren nodded, and clacked his beak a few times before continuing. "But, shouldn't we start earlier? Like now? There's not a lot of time as it is."

After taking a moment to think about how to respond, Nis held his hands together, took a breath, and looked up. "We just do what we can. We're not going our state, or even our county, to go blue. We're going to do some, just to show support, but our efforts are going to focus on keeping Dai in office for another term."

"But..."

Before Ren could say much more, Nis continued instead, ignoring the bird. "Now, if you don't mind, I need you to help with-"

"But that's not good enough." Ren shook his head and clenched his hands. "Even Dai said that he can't really do anything. Why should we focus so much on him? Even if he's re-elected, will that really mean anything? Inst, Instead of pretending we come here and care about anything we do, can't we really try? If we're going to be irrelevant because we've become happy with that, or become irrelevant because even if we try, we still lose - I'd rather really try and lose."

The cat laid down his pen, crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair. "Alright then, what would you do?"

"I'd..." He scratched his, thinking.

"See? You don't know any better."

The raven shook his head, and pounded a fist on the office table. A pen rolled off from the side, falling to the floor. "You're right, I don't know any better! I'm just too stupid to roll over and die like a dog, aren't I?"

"Ren, you can do whatever you want," Nis sternly hissed, and stood up, holding his palms up flat. "But I don't think I need you helping right now. I think you should go home."

Nis had never see the bird's wings expanded. Black feathers fluttered through the air, shaken loose by the raven having his outburst. When the wings spread, the knocked over papers and a bottle from the desk, and Nis jumped back in shock, falling on the floor. When he rose up, the door had just finished clicking shut.

Despite the aspirin, a powerful headache pulsed through Nis' head. The hangover had gotten to him, and it was not helping him deal with the situation. People crowded the room, but they did not sit at the tables, a fact alone that annoyed the feline, since he had put all of them out for the purpose of the social gathering. Some voices were yelling, some talking amongst themselves, but most were facing his desk, looking to him expectantly as they all spoke. After having enough, the cat stood up from his desk and held up his hands.

Though Ren had only talked to a few people, the word had gradually spread. Even though the bird was not present, everyone had been talking about him. "He kind of had a point, doesn't he?," some cried. "Can't we at least give it an honest-to-goodness try?," still others asked.

"Alright, alright!" he yelled, silencing everyone in a moment's notice. "If everyone here really wants to do it, fine." Some people cheered an enthusiastic 'yes,' while most nodded to confirm their answer. "But I still think it's a giant waste of time and resources. We'd be better off not doing it. But whatever." After throwing his hands up, he fell back down in his seat. The pain in his head kept throbbing, and he sighed as it only grew worse.

There were too many to fit inside the relatively small office space, and so they all listened outside, standing to listen to Ren talk. "Despite a strong state budget, education gets cuts while the governor gives money to her campaign buddies. If you're poor, you can't eat. If you want an education, you can't get it. If you think this is what our city, our state needs - you're in the wrong party. No more of the blue dog stuff. No more pessimism. Just this once, let's fight to win." Most clapped and cheered, though Nis held his head and groaned, while Aire shook her head.

Music in the office played at a low volume while a slight glow of a computer monitor shined over Ster as she sat typing on the machine, filling out spreadsheets of volunteers. Paper slapped down on the table, and she jumped back a bit in shock. Aire stood there, arms crossed. "You scared me!" the panda sighed, holding her chest in relief.

"Our smartass leader wanted me to give this to you." The deer explained nothing else, and walked off.

Ster picked up the stack of papers, flipping through the colored sheets and skimming them. Gradually, her face lit up. "I see!..." They were copies of letters, all with different headings of whom they were meant for, but basically the same plea, the same rallying cry, for people of the county. Their representative, Dai; the county clerk; university and high school Democratic clubs; and the list went on for some time, various names of people in positions who might be able to either provide outreach, donations, or public support for the change in strategy. "Guess these need mailing, then!"

Behind her, at a smaller table that had been set up, Nis begrudgingly picked up the phone and dialed in a number, calling from a list of names printed on a sheet of paper. "Excuse me, this is Nis from the Dino County Democrats. Would you mind donating again this election?" The forced enthusiasm in his voice was thick, and he could feel the need for a drink rise.

Near the university, on an understandably busy street and during busy hours, a crowd of people stood holding up signs supporting their candidates, and their cause. Though some honked, most simply yelled foul words, and one threw an egg, hitting Ren in the chest and splattering over his red shirt. Coli came over and touched his shoulder out of concern, but he shrugged her touch away.

"I'm fine," he insisted, and simply shook his shirt to knock some of the yolk and shell off, and went back to waving his cardboard-on-a-stick about. Despite some minor setbacks, he looked up to Coli, and they both smiled. Pence sat in his wheelchair nearby, holding his own while he drooled over his own cheek a little, while Perat stood behind him, calling out to those passing by with his own counter-swears whenever they picked on them. "Fuck you, too... egghead!"

"That's not a very creative remark," Coli sighed.

"Shut up!" The rabbit turned his face in embarrassment. "Though, I am wondering why we put up with this. A lot of these students either don't vote, can't vote, or know how they'll vote anyways. Not a lot of swingers. Going off of statistics, anyways."

"Because," Ren began, looking up to Perat, "I think we can get new voters. No one bothers trying, and just assumes they won't."

"Right," Coli nodded, and authoritatively held up a finger. "Either we'll lose all the same, or we'll win by trying to reach people who no one bothers to try. Right?"

"Yeah," the raven smiled, scratching the back of his head shyly. "That's what I thought, at least... But this is just the start for us."

Weeks went by, with multiple major collaborated events happening at the same time, and the office stayed open from eight to five every weekday, both never done before, as there had been no drive, no will to do it. For the first time many could remember, they felt excited and hopeful.

Lights hummed quietly in the office space, filled with everyone who had worked so hard. Fatigue caked around their eyes, and seeped into their creaky old bones. All sat in chairs as close as possible to a television that had been set out on a table, watching the cable news to see when and how their state went. "We didn't win, you know," Aire loudly stated. The brown rabbit sitting next to her shushed her, and ignored her duty look by staring at the screen.

"That's not the important thing," Ren whispered, mostly to himself, though a few others near him heard. Coli and Ster smiled in agreement, and stared at the monitor.

A picture of their state came on screen. Naturally, it was mostly painted red, and no one was very surprised at that. What everyone's eyes were staring at, however, was a single blue dot at the center of the image.

"That's us!" the horse yelled, jumping out of her seat. "Hah, the first time the county's gone that way for awhile."

"Thirty-two years," Ren said without looking away from the TV. "For presidential elections, I mean."

Several ran back to the kitchen and storage closet. Chairs were swept aside for the moment to make room for tables. Glasses smacked against each other as Perat held an armful, setting them down on the table. A pop of a wine bottle filled the room, filling a few glasses. A tall, fat doberman laid a large box of beer on the table, and pulled out out to drink. The dog slapped Ren on the back, smiling.

"Sit down and have a drink," he laughed. "You've earned some extra credit this semester, I'll say."

"Th, thanks, Professor Avi." The bird never expected his own teacher to come, since he never even volunteered there. But then again, Avi liked any good excuse to break out alcohol.

Screeches echoed in the room as he pulled out a chair to sit, and dug his hands into the professor's box. The silver cans were cold to the touch, and upon opening and sipping at the cheap, fruit-flavored beer, he quickly sat it back down to warm his hand back up. Everyone parties for a couple hours before it all died down nearly at once, until only two people remained.

A body fell down into the chair next to him, startling Ren for a moment. Nis sat with a glass of wine, nearly empty, and a tipsy smile on his muzzle. "Enjoyed the party, bird?"

"Yes," and with no further details, he sipped the now-warm beer again. "I am surprised you are here. You seemed like you'd be the last one to celebrate this, even if we won."

"Well, we didn't exactly win, but it's still kind of cool," he shrugged. Then, he leaned in rather close, enough for Ren to smell the wine deeply saturated in his breath. "Let's put all that bad stuff aside. It's time to party."

The last word was said with a unique emphasis that made Ren shiver. It certainly did not refer to anything like the celebration that had happened. He turned his head and looked into the feline's yellow eyes, swallowed and whispered back. "But, but the party's already ov-..."

"You know what I mean," the cat smirked. Without another word, he stood up and walked to the bathroom, around the corner opposite of the kitchen. Nervously, the bird sat there for perhaps another minute, periodically sipping at the beer in hopes that the alcohol would make him forget. But it didn't.

The bathroom door wasn't locked, though the light was on. Nis stood there, looking into the mirror and petting his fur down. "Sit down." The raven gulped, even as he could feel the blood rush to his crotch. Obediently, he sat down on the closed stool, and was immediately thankful that the bathroom seemed perfectly clean despite the event that had happened.

"Why are we in here?" he asked, looking down to the floor while he nervously tapped his talons on his knees.

Nis closed the door and locked it. "This is the only room here with both a lock and enough space."

"I, I," Ren stuttered with a hint of fear in his voice. Soothingly, the cat shushed him, and his hands rubbed the student's shoulders.

"Just relax, alright?" he whispered, and kissed the other male's cheek. "You can tell me when to stop if you don't like it."

Nis moved down to his knees, and placed his hands on the younger's lap. From there, he could faintly smell musk radiating from the bird. He licked his lips hungrily while he unzipped the raven's black jeans and pulled them down. A rush of the student's scent hit his nose, the cat meowed lustfully, and dove his muzzle into the crotch before him. Ren gasped at the touch, grabbing the cat's head and thrusting against him as the bulge in his white underwear.

"N-Nis!" A small wet spot formed at the white peak, and the cat nuzzled against it. Taking the reaction as a good sign, he opened his maw wide and buried his face over the fabric-coated length. After only a few moments, saliva had completely soaked Ren's crotch, making the cloth semi-transparent. A heavy black sac showed through it while the feline's sandpaper tongue lapped at them repeatedly, while a fleshy pink rod begged for more attention. It received as much when Nis grabbed it, stroking it through the soaked rags. "Just...!"

"Just what?" he asked with a smirk in between licks.

Ren reached down to the waistband of his underwear, pulling it down to his thighs. "Just, suck me already." A red flushed through his cheeks, showing even through the avian's black feathers. It made Nis laugh, who nuzzled against the pink meat for a moment before blowing his breath over Ren's crotch, causing the bird to shiver.

"If you insist," he whispered seductively, and gave the rod a single lick around its base.

The sensation was far stronger now that the fabric wasn't in the tongue's way. Ren could feel every tiny bump on the feline tongue rubbing over him, and he hanged his beak wide open in a long, drawn-out moan. "It was only one lick," Nis snickered, and patted the length. The raven covered his face shyly and turned his head away. But when he felt a warm mouth wrap around his tip and quite suddenly engulf his entire rod, he grabbed the sink counter and the wall for support and spread his legs wide as he gasped.

All too slowly, the muzzle noisily slid up and down the raven's pulsing shaft. Pre poured into the cat's ravenous maw, who licked it up and begged for more. More he got, for when he pawed at the moist, soft balls, Ren slammed his hips forward and buried his cock in Nis' throat, dribbling liquid lust at a near-constant rate. Hands squeezed Nis' ears as a grip, the raven acting on pure instinct as he began to pull back and push himself back in repeatedly, while the held ears acted as handles.

A thick glazing of pre coated the inside of Nis' muzzle as the bird began to lean on his face, thrusting like a rabid dog. Black feathery balls slapped against his chin, splattering the dribbling saliva around. Every pulse of the avian's cock accompanied a glob of salty lust, and his talons dug into Nis' head. "Nnrgh!" he whined, only to get a spank from the cat. When Ren gasped and looked down, he saw the male on his knees grinning.

Warm, salty cum flooded the feline's mouth as Ren screamed pleasurably, hugging the cat's head to keep it from pulling away. So big was the load that Nis gagged a bit, and while he could have forced himself away, he decided not to, letting the white spunk overflow his mouth and dribble down his neck and the bird's thighs instead. Purring, he clawed at the cum-laden thighs, lapping his naturally studded tongue over the whole of the cock's underside inside his mouth and throat, until, with a loud sigh of content, the bird let go and sat back, catching his breath.

Nis stood up, and then leaned in for a kiss. The musky flavor of his own load made Ren whine girlishly, but still swallow down the trace amounts of spunk from the feline's muzzle.

"Well, hope you enjoyed yourself," Nis sighed with drunken content, patted the bird's head, and walked out. Ren could hear the front door open after that, presumably leaving Ren to lock up on his own. Cleaning would apparently be put off.

Ren stood and pulled his clothes back up properly, and left the bathroom with a smile.