Private Confidant | Kirie

[Auteme]

Kirie ​

Important. Wake up, now. I need you here.

Sorry. Big news. Come over, do whatever you need to keep yourself up. Get here ASAP.

Auteme felt kind of bad waking Kirie up at this hour. It was important, yes; maybe not enough to warrant firing off a half-dozen URGENT messages to her well past midnight. Of course, it was a touch ironic that Kirie found Auteme sitting in bed, half-relaxed, as every holodevice she had was splayed about the room.

"Did you have a caf? There's a machine in the kitchen," she said, glancing at the door.

Maybe she had a need for company. Staying up late to read legislation, watch the news, everything else... she wished they weren't on Coruscant, and instead lived on some planet with many more hours to the day. Then she'd be able to get some sleep, and properly do her makeup every morning. Safe to say, she was not in an especially flattering state that evening.

"Take a look at this," she said, once Kirie was ready. She gave the woman a minute or two to look things over.

"This feels like our chance. Tithe... this seems desperate. The Coalition's in a good spot right now, too, and- well, the PR's our next big thing. Just, this-" she stopped herself, and shuddered, her breath becoming shaky -- excitement or fear, she couldn't tell.

"I want this. Badly. This is the chance to swing everything." She looked at Kirie, eyes full of fire.

 

[Kirie]

Senate Accommodation
Coruscant

Auteme​

The bleating of the communicator pulled Kirie from an already fitful sleep, and she sat up quickly, dark eyes alert and watchful. The room was dim, illuminated in bursts by the flashing red light of the device, indicating important messages that could not wait. Kirie’s eyes skimmed over the screen and she sighed, rising with a stretch.

Auteme’s apartment was only down the hall, so Kirie simply threw a coat over her sleepwear and pulled on her boots, slipping out of her apartment and wincing at the harsh light illuminating the hallway. As she walked to Auteme’s apartment, she checked if there were any other messages. She assumed everyone was safe for the moment, otherwise there would have been more information. Sleepily, Kirie wondered what new political crisis awaited her. Hopefully something urgent enough that it warranted getting her out of bed at this hour.

Kirie yawned and knocked on the door, before scanning it with an ID card. Slipping inside, she gave Auteme, who was in a similar state of dress, a wave and a polite ‘hello’. At the moment Kirie couldn’t muster up many words, so she made good on the invitation to get herself some caf and tried to wake herself up while the machine ran beside her.

Once she had the fragrant cup in hand, she wandered over to where Auteme was sitting, and read over the HNN report that was to be the subject of their meeting. As she scanned over the lines, Kirie’s eyes widened a touch, and she pursed her lips as she handed the device back to Auteme.

“Well. It’s unexpected to say the least.”

Kirie didn’t know what to make of it at that moment. On the surface it looked cut and dry, but she couldn’t shake the feeling there was something deeper at play, another part of the puzzle that hadn’t yet been shown to them.

“It might be an opportunity, it might be nothing.” Continued Kirie, sitting herself on the edge of the bed. “The Chancellor has made a show of defending democratic norms but corroding them behind closed doors, but this kind of boldness is a change of face. He must know that there is no chance of this being approved, and yet I can’t imagine he or his party are yet that desperate.”

Kirie frowned, and looked more tired than ever. Her life had been unusually comfortable since settling into her position and palatial life on Epoch, but in recent weeks she had been overtaken by a certain restlessness and malaise. Maybe she needed some time off.

“I don’t know. I just feel like we’ve got to be missing something.”

 

[Auteme]

Kirie ​

"He can't get reelected. And there's no one on the corporatist end of things with enough sway as Tithe." She paused a moment. "Maybe Tambor, but with the way he's been lately with the Imperials, it's a hard sell.

"I can't think of any ulterior motive. This just seems like setup -- I mean, the end of the term is, what, a little less than a year away? A corporatist majority popular vote is pretty unlikely. They could be taking their chances in the Senate where their odds are better. You know, get the Imperialists and Federalists thinking that changing leadership mid-war would be a bad idea."

She rubbed her eyes. Kirie could be right, but the sense Auteme got from the Senate these days was one of yearning for change. Perhaps it was just her company, but she felt things beginning to shift. She wanted to direct it.

 

[Kirie]

Senate Accommodation
Coruscant

Auteme​

Kirie sat cross-legged on the bed, her chin resting on her hand. In her lap she nursed the cup of caf, from which wafted tendrils of steam and a pleasant aroma. Her features, which were normally worried by stress and anxiety, were unusually placid. Perhaps it was the midnight rising, but Kirie felt refreshingly distant from the affairs of the world outside the apartment complex. Even the current issue of the Senate seemed distant, like some sort of strategic puzzle.

“I suppose that either way, we have a period of transition ahead that we will have to weather.” Kirie said thoughtfully. “What we need to figure out is how to get through it so that you’re a contender. In that respect you’re off to a good start.”

She continued thinking for a few moments, her vision sliding out of focus as she stared out into space.

“Anyway, the way I see it you have maybe three or four people you realistically have to watch out for if you’re going for the Chancellor’s seat. There’s Tithe of course, he’ll always have a few tricks up his sleeve, but there are others too. Tiresh Kobitana, for example."

Kirie looked across at Auteme. The woman looked tired, beyond even the exhaustion from being up so late, and there was a sort of nervous energy and fear that buzzed around her that concerned Kirie slightly. She was so immersed in the affairs of the Alliance. Kirie, of course, handled much of the same business as part of her work, but being an aide gave her some reprieve from the intensity of the Senate. In the same position, Kirie knew she’d be crumbling, that she almost had crumbled when she faced the Senate directly.

“Are you alright, Auteme?”

 

[Auteme]

Kirie
​

Auteme fidgeted, rubbing her fingers. She dodged the question for a moment. "I want to take control of the coalition -- at least, in terms of public image. Kotibana could turn her political capital into public favour pretty easily, but she's not radical enough. She'd make a weak Chancellor. I'll turn myself into the public face of it, even if it sends mixed messages. We'll iron things out."

She scratched the back of her neck, but her hands soon fell to her lap. She was shaking.

She could feel it.

"It's- it's not wrong for me to want power, is it? Because that's what I'm doing. I- I want to be Chancellor." Her hands balled into fists. "I don't want to fail. This- this is scary. I've never wanted something so bad in my life, Kirie."

 

[Kirie]

Senate Accommodation
Coruscant

Auteme
​

“Not radical enough.” Kirie allowed the question of how Auteme was doing to slide for the moment, instead pondering over her remark. Auteme was a strong willed and in many ways extreme figure in the Alliance. She had a vision for the state that was full and realised, one that Kirie shared. There were other Senators that didn’t have that, or at least weren’t as forthcoming with their stances. That made them less divisive, but it also gave Auteme an opportunity to stand out.

“Alright, I’m with you. Just be prepared for harsher critiques from those who don’t like ‘Auteme the Revolutionary.’ The moderates will have the advantage on you there.” Kirie looked at Auteme a little worriedly. It made sense that campaign politics were consuming the woman’s life, Kirie just didn’t want to see the institution chew her up and spit her out like happened so often across the Galaxy, like had happened to her.

“I know you want this, and I want it for you.” Kirie said gently. “But we’re not even in the race yet. Let’s take things slow and figure out our strategy, instead of losing sleep over it at this point.” Kirie smiled and gestured vaguely at her pyjamas, coat, and haggard features. “If you really want this, you’ll need to take care not to burn out before election day.”

Kirie didn’t share Auteme’s enthusiasm, nor her optimism, for the realm of Alliance politics. It was a dynamic that had come to define their working and personal relationship: Auteme the idealistic optimist, and Kirie, the cautious cynic.

“And no, I don’t think it’s wrong to want power, at least, not in this sense. You and I both know that the Alliance is fast heading towards a tipping point it can’t pull back from. I know you have the ability to change the course, we just need to get you into the pilot’s seat.”

“Besides, before you get your campaign going, you’ll need to figure out your running mate.”

 

[Auteme]

Kirie
​

"Yeah." She relaxed a little, but whatever had set her off to keep her up this late wasn't subsiding. The question of who her running mate would be wasn't one she'd thought about much, so she focused her energy on that.

"Pryce, probably. His defense credentials are ironclad, and that's a place I think I'm lacking. I mean, otherwise I'm reminding people I was a New Jedi in the war with the Sith, and that's a fifty-fifty on what we're remembered for." She sighed, deflating at the memory of those battles. "I don't really want to do that," she admitted.

"He's trustworthy. Corellia is a big voting bloc. Our politics aren't incompatible. Gives me an in when it comes to military issues. And I think he'd accept. If not... Organa or Taszzn, probably. Someone reliable, who can make me look less extreme."