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[Auteme]

Senate Building, Coruscant​

There were not nearly enough hours in the day to do everything she needed to -- work was chipping at her sleep. She could deal with the baggy eyes, but given enough time the tiredness seeped into her mind. Makeup couldn't cover that.

By midday, though, she could claim to be completely awake. That awareness was what reminded her that she had another meeting -- right now.

"Whoisitwhoisitwhoisit-" she scrolled through her schedule.

Right up until the 'who' it was walked through the door.

Anyone can come -- Auteme's probably pretty lenient with who she meets with.

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Although that 'who' wouldn't be the who she was planning on. See, the meeting had been made for Coren Starchaser, but in actual fact, it had been Cotan Sar'andor planning to come all along, on one of his few trips back towards the Core as of late. Still, other than the odd holocall, he hadn't had any opportunity to catch up with the young Jedi-Turned-Senator in ages, not after watching her run away from the council chambers instead of staying and taking part.

Imagine how surprised he was to learn that she'd decided to step away from the Jedi afterwards.

"You need a better lock on that door, kid," he said as he walked in, tossing around a couple bottles of juice. Although the bottles ceased their flipping through the air once he got a closer look at Auteme's face. Makeup or no, fully awake or no, she wasn't the only perceptive being in the galaxy. "You need a break, too. Blumfruit or Meiloorun?"

Auteme

 

[Auteme]

Cotan Sar'andor ​

Auteme put her head back, slumping in her chair.

"Starchaser would've stressed me out more, honestly," she mumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Please just request meetings under your own name. My secretary is really nice, she'll let me know and won't make you wait ten years."

The thought crossed her mind -- how many months ahead was she booked?

Her eyes went to the juices. "Those are, like, super sugary and bad for you." She chewed her lip. "Blumfruit."

She sat up. "Why are you here, Cotan?"

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"Can't, that would've made it too obvious." He went ahead and tossed over his left-hand bottle, hoping that Auteme wasn't so tired she'd fail to catch it. "But also, Coren, stressing you out? You've got him on too tall of a pedestal. Did you know the only reason I have an honourary mastership with the Silvers is because he got me drunk one day to convince me to accept it?" Distinctly un-Jedi-like behaviour, if he had to judge it. Which he didn't, but he would regardless.

He reached out a hand, grabbing the nearest chair and pulling it over so that he could slump into it in the least chair-y way possible. "I figured I'd be able to get a better grasp on what's going on in your head if I could see you in person, rather than relying on the twelve seconds each day you have for a free holocall. Was hoping you'd learned how to keep from working yourself halfway to death each day." He gestured lazily with his still-unopened bottle of meiloorun juice at her general personage.

"If that motor-mouthed mumbling I heard walking in was any indication, the answer to that question is no, so I don't really feel bad about showing up just to make you take some time to breathe and relax."

Auteme

 

[Auteme]

Cotan Sar'andor
​

She caught the juice.

"I'm getting new soundproofing done tomorrow," she said, deflating. "I hate having a sweeper team come through every day to check for stuff in the lobby. Can't wait for... what's it called... sound dampers. Aural dampers. Whatever."

She opened up the little bottle and took a sip, seeming satisfied by the taste.

"Yeah, sorry for being sparse. I've been procrastinating on pushing heavier intervention stuff for Ren and his crew. Nothing's happened, right?"

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

She gave a decent answer, if a bit aside from what he was actually getting at, before immediately jumping back to work-speak. "Nothing new, almost seems like they've disappeared entirely. That just leaves some of the movements of Final Dawn elements and sympathizers instead, but I already sent all that stuff to you and everybody else I'm supposed to. I wouldn't come here just to talk about that." Or, really, to talk about it at all, although he wasn't surprised that she immediately jumped onto that topic.

He flipped his juice around again, one heel tapping against the side of his chair. "Rule number one for this meeting: it's not about work. Rule number two: no talking about work, unless it's about strategies to keep from killing yourself with the work. Rule number three, I reserve the right to add more rules as necessary." She could argue all she wanted, but Cotan was nearly twice her age, even if didn't look it whatsoever. Between dealing with other senators, planetary governments, and worse, he'd developed enough of a stubborn streak that short of throwing him out entirely she wouldn't get him to budge on any of the rules he'd just made.

Would she be likely to try that? Well, he certainly hoped not.

"What do you do in your free time, Auteme? Or do you even let yourself have any?"

Auteme

 

[Auteme]

Cotan Sar'andor
​

She slouched even further, finding something of a comfortable position, and took a few slow breaths.

"I mean, not really? There's always something to do. Sometimes I block out an hour or two to just reset. And I can't, like, work when I sleep, so." She shrugged, then took another sip of the juice.

"I usually watch the news before bed. Or watch TRAA if I need something dumb. Or, like- sometimes I practice weaving." A frown crossed her face. "The last time I picked up a book... yeesh."

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Cotan nodded. "So, yeah, that's a major problem right there, kid. You need more time to unwind, and not just to sleep. How many staff do you have? How much stuff do you delegate?" He finally took a sip of his juice, the slightly sour liquid rolling down his tongue. He wouldn't admit it, wouldn't even make a face to hint at it, and he was far too guarded for her to easily notice...

But he'd really been hoping she'd pick the Meiloorun juice, not the Blumfruit. Oh well.

"It took a long time for me to learn it, I'll admit, but delegating stuff is important. Letting other people work on things for you, you just have to trust them with it. Make sure you block out the amount of time in the day that you devote to work, and don't let it completely overtake your downtime. Even in politics, things can wait, you shouldn't have to be constantly working, or seeing ways that everything else you do relates to work. You've got to keep yourself healthy, you've got to help yourself, to be able to help everybody else."

A pause, and a small, wry smile.

"You can't pour from an empty cup, after all. How's he weaving practice gone? What books do you have that you want to pick up and need a grumpy, stubborn, old Jedi-ish to make you read so that you can justify actually doing it?"

Auteme