Senator Elesse Vendar of Alderaan waits for her Jedi escort at one of the landing pads on the Senate Tower. Senator Vendar displays none of the displeasure Darth Sidious feels. Senator Vendar is a loyal public servant, and will diligently see this conflict resolved to everyone's satisfaction. She hopes the Jedi will be of aid in this endeavor.

(Though where were they while the war was hot? A question she can subtly work into the after-action report, perhaps.)

She's being assigned a Jedi Master with a long track record with difficult negotiations and complex diplomatic situations - a record full of rather startling successes. It's hard to say what the Jedi Temple's internal politics are like, but the Senators who've worked with Jedi Master Palpatine have spoken well of her, by and large, or at least had to reach for ill things to say. Her teacher was Mace Windu, the current Grandmaster of the Order, which also has several Senators patting themselves on the back for supposedly winning her ear. 

She's early, arriving not too long after Senator Vendar, and she bows at an appropriate distance (the motion is perfectly Alderaanian) as she greets the Senator and introduces herself - 

- And her fourteen year old padawan.

"And this is Anakin Skywalker," she says. "We'll be accompanying you on this mission."

She bows as well, a step behind her teacher. (Her form's just as smooth.)

"I'm looking forward to our work together, Senator," she says. 

She returns their greeting. "A pleasure to meet you both." And a smile for Anakin. (The girl is strong, strong enough to be noteworthy.) "It is always good to meet the future of the Jedi. Your order does so much for the Republic."

She smiles. "As much as we can, Senator."

"We do appreciate it, especially in times such as these."

"Thank you." She ducks her head a little, grinning. But then, more seriously: "This mission is going to need a lot of that effort."

"It will. I do not think any of the involved parties will be very happy with whatever sort of peace settlement comes of these negotiations- But hopefully everyone will at least be satisfied."

Serious nod.

"We'd like to discuss strategy on the flight, for that very reason."

"My staff is already on the ship. I reserved a shuttle for us, and it it is..." She looks around a moment, then points. "Over there."

"Alright. Thank you."

Over to the shuttle, then? 

Over to the shuttle, and then to the spaceport where the diplomatic vessel is waiting to launch.

She signals for Anakin to take the lead initially. 

Who has questions! About the Senator's assessment of the situation and participants, who's likely to act how, if she has any information not in the briefing, how she plans to approach this...

They're pretty insightful questions, and she clearly knows a lot about what they're going into already.

Elesse has very thorough answers- quite a bit off the top of her head, but some details she has delegated to her staffers.

She does praise Anakin's depth of inquiry. It is sadly all too rare, even among her colleagues.

Tiny blush.

"I have a very good teacher," she says.

"My compliments to her as well. But the best teacher in the galaxy can do nothing if the student is unwilling."

Heh.

"True," she acknowledges. Then: "I enjoy learning. And people are interesting."

"They do come in incredible variety."

"Yeah. And I like complicated stuff."

"You have certainly chosen the correct mission."

"We always get the fun assignments."

"What sorts of things have you done?"

She can chatter about that a good bit - successfully avoiding any details that a Senator might not have access to. They get sent on a lot of diplomatic missions, and a lot of stuff involving protecting Senators or other politicians. Lots of academic missions, too - assisting in and guarding archeological endeavors, escorting scholars or library collections through contested space, investigating leads on historic artifacts...

Her teacher actually found Anakin on a diplomatic mission. Lily Palpatine had been the Jedi Master initially assigned to protect Queen Amidala of Naboo during some negotiations with the Trade Federation and several of Naboo's neighbors who'd been heavily aligned with the Federation. The talks failed, the planet was blockaded, and Queen Amidala was attacked, so Lily guarded her on their way to Coruscant to ask for aid for her planet. They were forced to land on Tatooine on the way, where they found Anakin, and Anakin left the planet with them. 

(The Naboo Crisis was a turning point in many, many ways; Jedi Master Lily Palpatine had made quite a few waves in successfully and strongly tying both Gardulla the Hutt and the Trade Federation to criminal darksiders and anti-Republic activity - and to each other. Gardulla's empire had been shattered by the Jedi, and while the Trade Federation still exists, its influence is a tiny fraction of what it once was, and the Jedi are still tearing it apart five years later.)

(So it was this Jedi that broke the Naboo plan. Interesting. Sidious may owe her a debt of gratitude, then.)

Elesse remembers that time well. In many ways, it set the stage for the years since.

She also has a passing interest in archaeology. It's possible that she helped fund some of the expeditions Anakin has aided.

She knows most of the grant programs the ones with Senate funding were using, so she can compare notes. 

Anakin is rapidly proving herself to be an exceptionally well put-together young woman.

She giggles. "I've got a good memory. And I'm pretty sure knowing too much about something is actually just impossible."

"A fine attitude, and one I share, to the extent my time permits."

Nod. "It's a pity you can't spend as much time on that as you want... Having the opportunity to spend my time learning is - it's really nice."

"One of the perils of adulthood and having a career, I am afraid."

"Some careers are more friendly to learning than others, though."

"True. Though alas, more than those are necessary for a functional society."

"One of the great tragedies of the galaxy," she teases. 

"Perhaps. Though the work is necessary."

Serious nod. "It is. And it's good you're doing it." Then, teasingly again: "Though I'm pretty sure the point of us young and bright students is enabling you to retire someday."

"I would not be opposed, in the fullness of time. Though it was my understanding Jedi do not dabble directly in politics."

Giggle. "Surely there's some young bright Alderaanian students out there, though."

"Oh yes, my office hosts interns every summer. I make them attend the budget committee's organizational meetings, and tell them they will be taking those notes for the first five years of their careers. It is a quite effective way to determine which of them are worth our investment."

Even more giggle. "Lily has me do a lot of the grunt work for investigations and research and all," she says. "It's not that bad."

She reaches over and ruffles Anakin's hair. "Possibly I need to make you deal with other people fighting about incredibly stupid ways to spend money more often, if you still think that." 

She sticks her tongue out at her teacher. 

"Oh, no, the organizational meetings are worse than that. People fighting about incredibly stupid ways to fight about incredibly stupid ways to spend more money."

"A good learning experience, then."

"Indeed."

"You're both sadists."

"Call it the weight of our worldly experience."

"The older you get, the more you realize the great joy of tormenting your students?"

"Preparing the bright young things to better enable our retirement."

She laughs. "Well, fortunately I'm a weirdo who likes hard lessons."

"One to keep an eye on, then."

(For more reasons than one.)

She grins and ducks her head a bit.

(...Cute girl.)

"What sort of hard lessons do the Jedi teach?"

...Hum. "There's advanced stuff of course, but the - stuff that's actually hard to accept you need to learn... Self control's a big one. Knowing yourself - what you value, what you want from yourself, what your goals are, and why they're your goals. Admitting when you've acted out of alignment with those, and then trying to do better. That one... That's the hardest for me, by a lot."

"Sounds very... philosophical."

"I mean, real philosophy is just - the life you live, the life you want to live, and how you'd describe it. Many people just abstract everything concrete away until nonsense sounds plausible and sense sounds bad."

"But if I'm - like, if I'm trying to write a budget, and I keep failing, then I'm not succeeding at my goals, and I need to sit down and identify why I'm doing this, what I want out of it, how I'd get that - and what I'm doing wrong, since I'm not getting what I want. And if there's tradeoffs, I'll want to know what those actually are and what they're actually worth."

"And you have to remove your own ego from how you judge the world if you want to actually do that, right?"

"Like, if you sit there insisting that you're very excellent at budgets, and this budget just keeps failing to balance or getting rejected because everyone else is an idiot with terrible priorities and this budget software is badly designed and this form is dumb, and it'd all be better if everyone magically listened to you and designed things correctly - it doesn't even really matter if that's all true or not, because if you sit there waiting for people to magically realize you've been right all along and they should acknowledge your brilliance and stop arguing with you, you're going to be sitting there a very long time. And if you keep not achieving your goals, you're not as good at this as you think you are."

"Cogently stated. Your self is what you can control, so one should ensure that they do."

Grin! "Yeah. And self control is hard."

"Would you give that talk to my interns? It would do them good to hear, I think."

She laughs. "Give me a little bit to polish it, but I'd be happy to help out."

"Excellent."

"Serving the Republic is a Jedi's duty."

"Then on behalf of the Republic, thank you."

Giggle. "You're welcome."

Smile, and she draws the conversation into more about Anakin's training with the Jedi.

Which she's pretty happy to chatter at length about - though she does respond with her own questions about Elesse's work. 

Elesse is more than willing to answer Anakin's questions as well. Curiosity is a good look on her.

Good! 

Anakin can keep this up until pretty late in the evening - and she seems to have forgotten that humans generally need to eat, too.

The nice thing about traveling with a staff is that it's someone's job to remember when meals are, and to bring the meals to them.

Anakin also needs to be poked into eating instead of letting her food go cold (though her teacher seems pretty used to providing gentle reminders).

Elesse might have to insist they take a break to eat, then. She pays the cook very well, and it would be almost criminal to waste his efforts.

Alright...

Elesse will be stopping to eat, anyway, even if Anakin doesn't.

Since everyone's insisting...

It's for her own good, really.

She sticks her tongue out. "Except that figuring out what's my own good is my job."

"Consider it friendly advice, then."

Giggle. "I'll accept that."

"Good."

The food is extremely delicious, too, and she sets in with a very hedonistic relish once she stops getting distracted. 

Seconds?

Yeah!!!

There's plenty.

Perfect. 

Her energy is winding down some by the time they finish dinner. 

They'll be in transit for a few more days.

Plenty of time to keep picking Elesse's brain tomorrow, then. 

Indeed. And more time to prepare for the summit.

Yeah. They've got a lot of details to work out, still...

They'll make it work.

It isn't even all that hard or painful, just a little bit time consuming. (Master Palpatine and Anakin are much easier to work with than effectively anyone else Elesse has had to coordinate with on this sort of thing.)

Maybe they'd consider more attache work with her in the future, if this goes well?

Anakin glances at her teacher. 

Who smiles. "If you need us again, we'll be happy to help when we're free."

"Wonderful. I'll make a note to request you."

"Good."

And in due time, they arrive. The negotiations are happening at the Kersan capital, a compromise position that doesn't really make anyone very happy. This is reflected in the diplomats' attitudes- Elesse, as the moderator, needs to call for frequent breaks to let everyone cool off.

Most of the time she will use these opportunities to speak to one side or the other in private, but occasionally she needs to take some time away too.

Things are tense enough that the Jedi prefer keeping a guard with Elesse - usually Anakin, while Master Palpatine works people around independently. 

Anakin feels like she's learning a lot at least - but she's getting pretty tired, too, and she uses a lot of the time they spend withdrawing to cool off and strategize talking about anything else. 

This is one of those times. Anakin flops on a couch, sighing.

"Welcome to the other side of politics from budget meetings."

Tired smile. "I prefer doing the grunt work, I think."

"It is not for everyone. Not only wisdom but patience is required."

"I have both of those," she says with a laugh. "Though I'll admit I'm still working on 'patience.'"

"I am sure this is good practice, then."

"Probably is." Shrug. "I don't mind doing it, though, and parts of it are interesting."

"The excuses to avoid the solution everyone knows we are working towards that are concocted are creative, if nothing else."

Giggle. "They get repetitive after a while, though."

"The trick is getting all involved parties to agree to that. Then the work begins."

"It'll probably get more fun as I get better at it, too - I'm pretty sure Lily's idea of fun is talking people into deciding they've always agreed with her."

"A clever trick, if one can pull it off consistently."

"She and some of the other negotiation specialists have this really long running game going on, and they've added a lot of rules around maneuvering against each other. The others keep trying to team up against her."

Elesse laughs. "That sounds like fun."

"Maybe you can ask her to explain the rules to you."

"I'm not sure I'd be able to compete on a level field with a group of Jedi..."

"You're pretty good at diplomacy stuff, though."

"Thank you for the compliment, Anakin."

She laughs. "Honestly expressing your opinion is important, when you can get away with it."

"Are you good at judging when you can get away with it?"

"That's what teachers are for. To help me learn."

"I suppose that is true. Though you should not ever feel the need to censor yourself around me, Anakin. I enjoy hearing your thoughts."

"Alright. Though I might keep a few of them to myself if there's sensitive ears in the room."

"To share later?"

"If I feel like it."

"Of course."

Giggle. "Sharing my thoughts with you is fun, though."

(Good.)

"Good," she smiles. "Already I can hardly remember how I passed my days without your thoughts."

She sticks her tongue out. "Now you're just being silly."

"Even Senators sometimes feel the urge. Do Jedi not?"

She drops into a teasingly conspiratorial tone. "They do. The stoic demeanor is actually the galaxy's longest running practical joke."

"Incredible. I truly had no idea."

"We excel at deadpan snark."

"I shall carefully review my notes and memories of interactions with Jedi for corroborating evidence."

"I'm sure you'll find everything I say is accurate."

"You have yet to give me cause to doubt."

"I'll try to avoid doing that in the future, too."

"I'm sure you will, Anakin."

Smile. "I like being reliable."

"That will take you far in life, I am sure."

"Thanks."

"Will you tell me more about what the Jedi are like, Anakin? I have always found the traditions around the Force... fascinating."

She nods. "If you tell me more about Alderaan and the Senate."

"An equitable exchange. Very well."

Grin.

She relaxes while they chat about their respective spheres - Anakin joined the Order at nine, much later than is normal for those getting training as a potential Knight rather than joining the Service Corps, so she has a bit of an odd perspective compared to most Jedi.

Her teaching line is also apparently unusual - she brags a bit about her grandmaster, Mace Windu, which leads into her animatedly rambling about lightsaber forms and then about her friends - one of them, Djedzu, spars with her a lot and is determined to develop an entirely new lightsaber form, apparently. Ze's making pretty determined headway into mastering all the existing ones, according to Anakin.

It sounds like she has about six people really directly tying her to the Jedi, and one of those is a bit of a dubious tie - her master Lily, her grandmaster Mace, her mother Shmi who joined the Jedi only five years ago (and who sounds like she's not very firmly anchored to the Jedi), and then three friends among the other padawans - Djedzu, Joul, and Kalra.

She mostly asks questions about Elesse's own life. Where she grew up. What was it like. What are her favorite places in Alderaan or Coruscant. 

(There are certainly... opportunities in cultivating this girl.)

Elesse grew up in the Juran region of Alderaan, so living at altitude as in the Coruscant skyscrapers is familiar to her. Though of course the Alderaanian mountains offer a better view, she adds. She keeps landscapes on the walls of her office to remind her of home, jagged grey peaks capped with snow gnawing at the sky above the lush green valleys. She did a lot of hiking when she was younger, taking a full pack and a walking stick and losing herself in the wilderness for a week at a time. Coruscant doesn't offer so many opportunities in that way, but she enjoys the other entertainments it has. The opera and the ballet, the finest galactic cuisine...

Anakin loves hiking, though - people are fun, and hedonism is really nice, and she likes art and stories, too. Lily took her on a hiking trail once as a gift for one of Anakin's Life Days, that wound through some really pretty mountain valleys on a trail that connected several hundred art galleries and old theaters and dance halls... She didn't get to see them all, but it was a lot of fun. Coruscant has some interesting stuff, but... Anakin likes worlds with nature, and she especially prefers worlds that aren't just - some pretty golden foil papering over a mountain of sapient misery, honestly. 

Those are sadly becoming all too rare these days.

Anakin's - not sure it's a 'becoming.'

Perhaps not. The galactic community is less willing to ignore it when it is present, then.

A pretty big prerquisite to fixing things, though - people can't object to things they don't know about. 

True- though again as with the negotiations, establishing common knowledge of the problem is only the beginning of the process of gathering the will to agree on and work towards a solution.

"Yeah, but - the process is more begun than it was, so it's an opportunity to do that gathering."

Elesse nods. "Which may also contribute to the feeling that the problem is actively growing."

"Hm... The galaxy isn't - the type of place to be in a steady equilibrium, though, and lots of things are getting worse. But it's been bad for a long time, too, and it's important to know how recently problems started and how they've changed to know how to address them."

"Indeed."

And then the room is rattled by the blast of an explosion.

She moves to Elesse, hand on her lightsaber, and taps her communicator to ask for updates. 

"What was that?" Elesse asks at the same moment, jolting upright.

There's a lot of confusion on the comms immediately but- it seems like one or other of the diplomats' rooms may have been targeted.

"An attack," she says, and the Force twists around her, reaching out. "Lily's coordinating a response. I need to get you to safety."

"Who got hit? Where are we going?"

"There was an explosion nearby the Ossian delegation's suite, and a lot of confusion on the ground."

"We're making our way to the ship."

"All right, lead the way." She stands- just in time for another bomb to go off.

"Sithspit!" she hisses.

She doesn't wait for the comms - reaches out to Lily, casts her awareness out in a blazing net in the Force - identifies the blasts' location, and relays it into her comm with an eerily even tone.

It was pretty close to the path to their ship.

(Anakin starts trying to identify minds that might be enemies, though she doesn't relay that to anyone other than Lily just yet - she's always been faster at this than her teacher, even as a child. Lily holds herself within her own skin in ways Anakin doesn't.)

She turns to Elesse, then. "Follow me." And she starts towards a side door, following a hunch in the Force.

Elesse follows, slightly nervy but keeping things under control if Anakin checks.

She successfully gets them pretty far even as the overall situation deteriorates - and then they come up to the outskirts of some fighting. It looks like several of the diplomatic staff have been cornered, and there's not enough guards to really push away the attackers. 

Anakin and Elesse haven't been seen yet, and Anakin hesitates, visibly torn. 

(Hm. She could turn this further to her advantage...)

"We should help," she says to Anakin. "They'll be slaughtered."

She nods, jerkily, and takes a deep breath, clenching her unlit lightsaber more firmly. "There's spaces you could take shelter nearby," she says, quietly and quickly. 

"I'm not going to leave you to fight alone. And these are my staffers."

She relaxes a good bit, then holds out a hand and stealthily summons a dropped blaster to them. "Can you use this?" she asks.

"In theory." She takes the blaster, checks the safety and the charge level, sights down it, then holds it loosely at her side.

Approving nod.

And, a quick moment to plan - Anakin clearly understands combat very well, even in a chaotic situation like this - and then they're moving, Anakin igniting her deep amethyst lightsaber to deflect a cluster of bolts aimed at the staff she just jumped in front of. She fights well, too - she's using Shien right now, supplementing heavily with the Force, and she's pretty quickly altering the tide of battle. Her lightsaber blurs as she blocks further shots, and she begins to advance.

(Her attention is very much focused on the enemies in front of her, though - she's not perfectly keeping up her awareness of her surroundings right now.)

Elesse covers her from the side, aiming high and keeping the attackers' heads down.

Until (with a subtle pulse of influence) a pair of men break off to circle around and come at Anakin from her blind spot. They line up their shots and she gets a sudden intuition of danger almost too late-

-And Elesse steps forward and drops them both, blaster bolts whizzing past Anakin's head.

Sithspit.

She flinches only a little, then sends Elesse a grateful look and turns back to the fight. 

That seems to be more or less the turning point of the fight- these men didn't think they would be against a Jedi directly, and the two that fell took the group's morale with them.

She arrests them, naturally, once they realize the wisdom of surrender. They can explain their plans to the nice polite girl with a laser sword and then go cool their heels in a locked room (with no weapons or communication devices), how about? 

They're not the biggest fans of the idea, but the girl is both very nice and polite, and very does have a laser sword. So. They're amenable.

How good of them to see reason like this. 

She also helps make sure the injured staffers are identified and triaged - and she glances at Elesse before deciding if they're also going to escort the injured to the medical area. 

"We seem a bit less needed, right now," she murmurs. 

"Are you all right, Anakin?"

"Yeah. Just..." She shakes her head. And, very quietly: "I don't like being at the edges of the action like this."

"I am glad to have you with me, if nothing else."

Smile. "I'm glad to be with you."

Elesse smiles back. "Shall we continue on?"

Nod.

She makes sure the group they rescued is able to get moving, or course, but - onwards then with her and Elesse, still making their way towards the ship. 

This goes well for another little while- there's sounds of fighting around but nothing else in their path.

And then an explosion above them collapses the corridor they're in around them.

She reacts fast, grabbing Elesse and moving her out of the way of the debris - and she grabs a significant amount of it with the Force, but there's too many moving parts for her to confidently get it all -

She gets them both against the strongest intact wall - and does her best to settle the rubble with a priority on leaving a stable pocket for them, second priority on it being relatively easy to dig them out, third on size -

They'll have plenty of air. She's successfully left some circulation. And they have room to move if things shift, and they're not at high risk of being crushed.

But, well. Space is a bit tight, especially comfortable space, and Anakin is still pressing Elesse against the wall, breath coming hard and fast and her fear just now catching up to her.

Elesse is shocked, for a few seconds.

"That was... sudden."

Anakin starts shaking.

Luckily, she's already settled everything. (She'd already settled everything before she consciously processed the explosion.)

She laughs, dryly, almost hysterically, and presses her face into the middle of Elesse's chest, her knees going weak.

(Very nice.)

Elesse wraps her arms around Anakin. "You have good reflexes," she murmurs.

Weak giggle. "If you think those were good, you should see me podrace." She's still shaking, though, and resting even more of her weight on Elesse.

She shifts to a marginally more comfortable position as best she can without disturbing things.

"I wasn't aware humans competed in that particular sport."

"How do you think Lily figured out I was Force sensitive?" Another weak giggle. (And - they should be able to sit down safely, actually... Anakin would kind of like to.)

They certainly can.

"Did you race for her?"

She goes a bit quiet.

"No. I raced for Gardulla the Hutt."

"But I helped Padme when she and Lily landed on Tatooine, and they both promised to free me, and - then they saw me racing."

"I have never liked the Hutts. It is good you got out."

"It is." Shiver. "It's - I don't like thinking about having ever been Gardulla's slave, though. It sucked."

"Let's talk about something else, then."

Nod and cuddle.

"...You're a really good shot," she says.

"Thank you. I think that was the first time I have ever shot at a living person."

"Impressive."

"Do you practice a lot?"

"Several times a month, since I joined the Senate. It was the recommendation of my head of security. I will have to see about giving him a bonus, I suppose."

"Yeah."

"Being able to fight's good."

"However distasteful the necessity. Alderaan is traditionally pacifist."

Nod.

"War and violence are bad, but - if it's happening, it's good to be able to defend yourself." Then, quietly: "And do so well enough you don't have to kill anyone."

Hug.

"That would be ideal."

Snuggle. (Elesse gives very good hugs, too.)

"People should just - cut it out. Stop attacking others over - stupid shit."

"If that were possible, I would be entirely out of a job."

Mmrph.

"Doesn't mean we shouldn't - work towards people stopping. Even if we can't get all the way there."

"I would, to be clear, appreciate the chance at early retirement."

Giggle. "You'd deserve it."

"Finally get a chance to work on my librarian skills."

"I think you'd be really awesome at that. Your memory's super good."

"Memory submits to training, much like your muscles."

"So you've gotten some of the skill development done already, then."

"A headstart on my competition."

"Give you enough extra time to travel and look for books."

"Or indulge in additional hobbies."

"Take a vacation somewhere nice and politically unimportant."

"Maybe find a new mountain range to hike."

"You'll need to invite me if you do."

"It would be my pleasure."

Giggle. "Maybe I can suggest some places, too."

"I welcome your expertise."

Snug! "There's lots that goes into a good hike."

"Do tell," Elesse chuckles.

"Beautiful scenery... Good temperatures, and the right amount of challenge... Somewhere nice and remote, where it feels like you're the only person in the world... Interesting and new things along the route, too, and good places to camp..."

She hums agreement, her hands beginning to massage slow circles on Anakin's back.

She shivers and relaxes into Elesse. "But crossing near towns - small ones - every now and then is good," she murmurs.

"To restock on supplies?"

"And to see something else new - like museums."

"In a small town?"

"Sometimes! That artsy trail I mentioned earlier was between mostly smaller towns, with small museums... Though it wasn't as remote as some trails."

She smiles. "Clearly I have much more yet to learn."

"I'll be happy to teach you."

"Thank you, Anakin."

"Assuming, of course, that we escape this collapse."

"We will."

"Lily knows where we are, and - once I'm calmer, I can start moving the stones on the outer layer away..."

"That is very good to hear."

Snug, and deep breaths.

"I'm - a lot calmer than I was..."

"If help is coming from outside, then there is no need to push yourself. We seem to be quite safe for the moment."

"...Well, no one's going to shoot us in here... But I'd be worried about further destabilization, if there's other explosions."

"A fair point."

"I should at least expand my awareness of what's going on..."

"Can I do anything to help?"

"I should meditate."

"Just - keep holding me, I guess? And don't - move or make a lot of noise while I'm meditating?"

"I can do that."

She shifts a little to make sure she's comfortable.

She shifts, too, straightening her back and settling into a more comfortable position. Her breaths even out, her emotions calm even farther - turn into a warm, pleasant haze - and she stretches her awareness out, evaluating the area around them, the movement of minds, whatever danger she can sense from the future (when she's focused like this - Anakin is very good at precognition), where Lily is and what she's doing...

There's no one in the immediate area, and it seems like the fighting is dying down everywhere. She feels Lily next to a clump of simmeringly-hostile presences, likely the ringleaders of the attack.

There's one piece of rubble that's going to start slipping some time in the next five minutes, and two more that will tip over because of footstep vibrations when Lily comes to get them...

And, faintly, almost missable even by her, a strange tingling around Elesse. A potentiality draped over her like mist, ever-so-lightly darkening her destiny, hinting at a danger to come. (A shatterpoint yet to form, if such a thing were possible.)

...Huh.

She mentally notes the not quite shatterpoint, but sets aside the urge to poke it in favor of gently reaching out to resettle the loose rubble. This creates some soft noises audible from inside their bubble, but she doesn't drop anything or mess up, so.

(She finishes, and very gently pokes at the potential danger around Elesse, trying to explore it more.)

It vanishes under her scrutiny, like fog in the morning sun.

(Probably very far off then... But it's interesting.)

She comes up out of her meditation, shifting and snuggling into Elesse.

"Did you find success?"

"Yeah. I was able to stabilize more of the rubble, and..." She summaries what she sensed elsewhere in the facility. (She doesn't mention the weird feeling around Elesse, though.)

"It sounds as though things are turning out well."

"Yeah. Though everyone's still pretty busy, and we're not injured or in immediate danger, so we might be here a while if I don't dig us out..."

She starts rubbing Anakin's back again.

"If you feel up to it, Anakin. Though I do feel quite safe with you here."

Tiny blush. (Fortunately Elesse probably can't see it, because it's very dark.) (It does not occur to Anakin that Elesse might be able to pick up on Blush Feelings in the Force.)

"I'd feel up to it."

Little squeeze.

"Very well."

Shiver! (...Anakin does not want to move. But it would be so embarrassing if her teacher had to rescue her because she was too busy cuddling the Senator.)

She leans into Elesse and starts carefully removing rubble from around them - there's a lot, a good bit more than one floor of debris' worth, enough it's actually pretty impressive she'd gotten the pile as stable as she did that quickly. So with her current ability to multitask and the fact she and someone she's protecting are under the rubble, they'll still be under here for a while... (Anakin had gotten 'size matters not' down pat very quickly. That doesn't make 'hundreds of varyingly small pieces of broken rubble' any easier, especially when she's also trying to prevent clouds of dusted rubble from entering their air pocket.)

(If it were her, she would simply blast her way out. But Anakin's method is impressive in a different way- incredibly fine control and situational awareness, not to mention the endurance needed.)

Elesse stays still and tries not to disturb her work.

(Anakin's under the impression she's currently snuggling a squishy non-Force user, so that's probably influencing her approach a lot.)

A good bit more than one floor's worth of debris had collapsed on them, and it had come straight down rather than spreading out, so there's enough she does need to take a few breaks. She's working fast, though - obviously not as quickly as blasting their way out, but still quickly enough she'll be done well before any emergency services reach them. 

(Cuddling Elesse is very good for her brain's ability to recover during her breaks.)

(An excellent beginning.)

Elesse murmurs quiet encouragement while Anakin rests.

(More blush.)

The encouragement works, getting her back on task even faster. 

Then perhaps they won't be stuck too long.

Perhaps not. 

Anakin does, in fact, get the rubble off them decently quickly - though there's still a deep pile of uneven rubble on the floor the hallway. 

She can keep clearing that, though it'll take longer, or - Anakin could just navigate that, if Elesse doesn't mind being carried? 

If Anakin can manage it.

"I can."

"Show me, then."

She stands and offers Elesse a hand to get to her feet. 

She takes it, standing.

And: scoop! Into a bridal carry.

"Goodness," she remarks. "You are rather strong." Elesse fills Anakin's arms rather nicely. She hooks her arm around the back of Anakin's neck.

Giggle. "The Force helps, and I like working out," she says as she plans her path and tests how Elesse's settled - and then she's off, jumping quickly between several perfectly stable points until they're clear of the long stretch of debris.

Does she put Elesse down at that point?

After a moment. 

Shoulder pat. "Thank you, Anakin. That was much easier than trying to make my own way across."

Grin! And a light blush, actually visible this time. 

"You're welcome, Elesse."

She grins.

"Which way to the others?"

Hum and focus, then she outlines their path - she'd jumped out of the rubble in the direction they needed to go anyways. 

Onward, then.

By the time they meet up with Lily and the other survivors, a picture of the situation has developed. It appears the attackers were a splinter faction of hardline Kersans, unsatisfied with the outcome of the war and the likely direction of the peace talks. The explosions were modified droids, smuggled in to the conference as suicide bombers.

...Ugh.

She's able to help with any ongoing rescue efforts now, at least...

There are lots of those.

And meanwhile Elesse needs to redo almost all of her wrangling to try to salvage the peace talks here.

Master Palpatine had gotten a good start on it, at least - and she's throwing herself far more intensely into the negotiations. (This involves a good bit of observing the Force, looking for shatterpoints...)

Between the two of them, they're able to get decent progress - even flip it into a harder call for peace.

It's difficult, and no one is entirely happy with the compromise finally agreed on. But they can leave with fair confidence there is not another war imminent.

On the trip back, Elesse gives Anakin her personal comm code.

She grins, brightly, and gives Elesse hers in turn. 

"I will keep it close," she promises.

"I'll keep yours, too."

"Comm me whenever, okay? Even if you don't - need help with something. I liked talking to you."

"Of course, Anakin. I enjoyed our conversation as well."

She ducks her head, grinning. 

Cute.

(Tiny blush.)

She keeps seeking out Elesse the rest of the trip back, of course - not constantly, but she's definitely enjoying the older woman's company a distracting amount. 

Elesse is more than happy to indulge her in this whim. They can have many more conversations and simple quiet times together before Senator Vendar must bid her Jedi escorts farewell at the journey's end.

Anakin manages appropriate restraint for the public part of the farewell (the less public part involves an exuberant hug).

Elesse returns the hug with feeling.

Later that evening, she sends Anakin a link to a collection of cute ferocious tooka-kitten pictures.

Awwwww!!!!!! They're adorable.

I was unaccountably reminded of you.

:P

I've befriended a lot of the Temple cats, and they're pretty awesome. So, I'll take that as a compliment.

Excellent. Take care in your studies and future missions, Anakin.

I will! Good luck with Senate stuff! 

Thank you.

Anakin keeps up her end - sends Elesse pictures of the Temple cats (including one that decided to have kittens under her bed), her opinions on legislation and news (which grow increasingly more sophisticated), gossip about her friends, chatter about what she's studying or doing... A reminder to Elesse to keep up with her blaster practice, comments about how well Anakin's been doing with her own weapons training...

Perhaps they could get together to practice their weapons sometime?

She'd love that. 

Elesse gives her the time of her next appointment at the range, and its location.

I'll be there. 

Excellent. I look forward to seeing you again.

She's a bit early, even, when the time rolls around. She seems excited.

Elesse is dressed more casually than Anakin's seen before, her hair up in an informal bun.

"Hello, Anakin."

"Hey, Elesse." She's less polished - her hair's in a sloppy ponytail, nothing as proper as it had been during the negotiations, and she has several colorful bracelets on. "You look - good."

"Even for exercise, I must maintain certain standards. My maids almost riot for this outfit as it is."

Giggle. "Do they insist you dress properly even when hiking?"

"They would if I took them along. Which is why I do not."

"Very sensible of you."

"I have my moments," she agrees.

"An awful lot of them."

"It does seem so. Let us see if I will have any more today."

"I'll try to have a few of my own, too."

"I hope that you do, Anakin."

Heee.

Then on to the day's shooting.

Where it turns out that Anakin is a very good shot.

Elesse is sure to compliment her on this.

"You are better than I, I think."

"I'm good at fighting." Grin. "You're keeping up really well, though."

"That is quite a comfort for these old and creaky bones, to be told by someone almost a third my age that I am keeping up well."

"Good!" Impish smirk. 

"Impudent youngster," she laughs.

She sticks her tongue out. 

Cute.

"Maybe you can give me some tips on my form?"

"Sure."

She demonstrates her stance for Anakin's critique.

She's got a few minor tweaks - showing a very keen eye, and a good ability to explain how to move, how to focus, and a good ability to identify what others are doing and how they could do better.

Elesse puts her tweaks into practice, and demonstrates a better grouping on her next round of shots.

"You are a good teacher, Anakin."

She blushes. "Thanks! I've only gotten a chance to teach little kids before... But teaching's really fun."

"I would be happy to learn from you any time."

Tiny wiggle and more blush. "I'd like that."

"We shall have to find what other areas you excel in that make good activities, then."

"Shouldn't be too hard."

"You are a very talented young woman, after all."

"I am," she says with a laugh. "And there's many fields I excel in."

"As expected of a Jedi."

"I was super talented even before the Jedi found me - but they've definitely helped me grow."

"I think you have gained a centimeter or so since last I saw you..."

Giggle. "I don't need help getting taller."

"They are feeding you well, at least."

"Yeah. I really like the variety of food they've got... There's always something new, and eating in the cafeteria's fun."

Elesse is something of a gourmet herself, and draws Anakin into a conversation about their favorite foods.

Her conclusive favorite seems to be 'something new and interesting.' But she's got a pretty big fondness for spicy foods, and lightly sweet or fruity stuff, and sour fruits...

Helpful information for Elesse to select a restaurant for them to eat at after their training- if Anakin has the time?

She does!

Then Elesse will treat her to a nice meal. Not too fancy, but good quality nonetheless.

It'd be embarrassing to go somewhere fancy in her exercise clothes...

They'll have to set up a separate appointment for visiting a high-class establishment.

"Or get takeout from some yummy hole in the wall and have a nice picnic."

"If you would prefer."

"We can do a fancy dinner sometime? Especially if you really want to." She shrugs.

"I do enjoy choosing occasions to dress up for, from time to time."

"Dressing up is different from going somewhere fancy," she teases. "I can dress up and then go have fun."

"I would like to see that."

"Your staff might get upset about respectability, though."

"And your Jedi will not?"

"The august reputation of the Jedi Temple can survive the occasional joy ride."

"Joy riding? Really?"

"Yoda came to get me last time I went street racing, so I need to get my kicks elsewhere until the embarrassment from that dies down."

Elesse laughs.

Bright grin. 

"That does sound like an interesting diversion. Perhaps you can teach me to race."

"I'd love to."

They can start making plans for that over food, then.

Heee!

Though if Elesse is concerned about her image, they might need to plan around that...

She'll have to come up with a suitable alibi.

Learning to race is really best done away from people, anyways, so they could do this on one of Elesse's vacations...

"The current session of the Senate is ending next month. I was thinking of taking a few weeks to myself then."