sith_happened | Anakin's office [from noon onwards]

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Anakin's office [from noon onwards]

Anakin had spent the morning over at the Trooper Station ~~interrogating~~ interrogating his new staff: since he'd worked with various clones before (and was uniquely aware of their more...esoteric programming), he'd spent time with each one individually, asking about their duties at the Trooper Station, their thoughts about Fandom, and what happened if he said "Implement Order 66."

Turned out, nothing, but it was worth checking.

He went over to his office at the school around lunchtime, flipped on the link to Katniss's world (a habit he'd gotten into since she'd left), and was getting ready to write down his impressions about yesterday's class when he realized that he wasn't listening to the usual noises from Panem.

He was tuned into the Reaping. District 9, it looked like. Cursing under his breath, Anakin reached into a desk drawer and began leaving ~~handwavey~~ messages for the list of people Katniss had left for him to talk to.

From his spot behind his desk, he reached out through the Force to close the door. Today's office hours were by invitation only.

[OOC: For those who are watching the Reaping, and NFB.]

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Gabrielle huffed. "Of course not," she muttered. It wasn't a cynical statement; for that, she'd have had to sound a lot more accepting, instead of like someone who still hadn't come to understand why people would do things like this. "Separate people's emotions from their sensibilities and you've got them. And what better way to do that than with the most drama you can manage?"

It seemed like a horrible corruption of the art, to her.

"This isn't right," she added, as if they weren't all aware of that fact already. "They say the gods are petty for playing with people's lives, but what does it make mortals who do the same thing?"

"We are still quite sure that an accident and new puppet dictator are not acceptable solutions?" she asked, slipping in almost silently. "Sensationalized slaughter leaves a foul taste in my mouth."

"Evil, generally," Anakin replied flatly.

"Mine too," Anakin said, "but I think in this case, the rebellion has to come from the districts, not from the outside."

Much as he'd love to take a lightsaber to Snow. It'd be justice.

Karla slipped inside, realizing as she did that she hadn't seen Anakin since before Ben had left. No matter what she thought of Daala, at least she hadn't sentenced Luke to something like this.

"Hi," she said quietly, glancing over to the teevee. "Thanks for letting me know."

"Only if we get to throw popcorn at the screen," Karla decided. And by 'popcorn,' she meant knives. And by 'the screen' she meant President Snow. "Everytime I think I've heard the newest low possible for people to sink, someone always has to take that as a challenge to sink even lower."

"I know," Karla said glumly, resting her chin on her hands. "I wish I could say that wasn't true for my universe, but..." She shrugged. "They need to teach more classes on starting revolutions. I took one, once, but I feel like it's something that could bear repeating."

"Of course," he said, looking sympathetic. It wasn't like she'd needed more bad news. "This is only the Reaping. We already know the outcome."

If anything, it was at least reassuring to see someone he was somewhat acquainted with in this room. As for the rest of the people here, he only knew them in passing, if that.

"Hello," he said softly.

Wesley was hardly in the mood to socialize right now, but he did catch Gabrielle's nod. He returned it with an uncomfortable little nod of his own, then directed his eyes immediately back on the screen.

"Oh." Well, at least he hadn't missed it.

"Thank you, er, for the call," he said. Because yeah, Wes, like he was going to forget to call after that impromptu little visit the other day.

"That simply means we cannot get caught, Master Skywalker," Ghanima pointed out. She was an Atreides; therefore she could not resist meddling. "We will simply have to come up with ways to support the districts covertly."

She assumed there was already a tentative idea of some sort in place to assist Katniss. Anakin was not one to sit idly by and wait.

"True, but..." Karla shrugged, looking somewhere between resigned and uncomfortable. "If we were there, I'd want to watch. Just so she'd know we were there with her. I don't see why being a universe or two should be any different."

She looked up at him. "How're you doing?" she asked. He'd also had a pretty rough few weeks.

Luke nodded in agreement. "I'm not surprised they've managed to keep people scared for so long. Hopefully Katniss managed to change that."

"Couldn't agree more," he said, frowning slightly. "I guess I shouldn't blame people for being scared, though."

He shouldn't, but he did.

Yet another reason for her not to have kept walking.

"..." She was at a loss for what to say. Even her reassurances were empty. There was no comfort she could give when she knew what Katniss had planned; her every step in training for these Games hadn't been to increase her odds to get back home, but to survive long enough to have Peeta win.

Katniss wasn't coming back to Fandom and anything she said to Wesley that made it seem like she was would feel like a lie.

Eventually, she just admitted the obvious. "Okay, this is an incredibly stupid question, but how are you holding up?"

"It's hard," Karla agreed, looking down at her hands. "It puts such a burden on you. You have to be the one to fix things for everyone, and sometimes you just want to stop and scream 'Why me? Why not you?' But you can't and people go on being scared and doing what they've always done and you've got to step up and take all the risks and all the dangers."

Okay, that was maybe more to do with Karla's situation, not Katniss's.

"But sometimes it's just so hard, because you're scared, too, but there's no one who's willing to step up for you."

"The horror lasts because the contestants are so young," Anakin replied. "It's not enough to age out of the pool yourself: you have to fear for your children as well. And as this Quell proves, not even winning is enough to keep you out of the Arena permanently."

He tapped his fingers against the desk. "And the districts are forbidden contact with each other. Without communication, it's easier to stomp down a rebellion ruthlessly and without cameras to film it."

Anakin nodded. "Of course. From what the commentators are saying, the entire broadcast will repeat if you need to see all of her opponents."

He wasn't sure if Wesley would prefer to know all of the faces or just concentrate on Katniss's.

"Oh, if we were there, we'd be required to watch," Anakin said. "It's one of the many charming aspects of Katniss's government." He gave her a slight shrug. "And I'm fine."

And anyone who spent time with a Skywalker knew what a lie that word always was.

"I haven't booked Portalocity," Anakin said, though there was an unspoken "yet" to that statement, "but I've made contact with the man who will be Katniss's handler in the arena. We'll be able to send her some form of assistance while she's in there. Of course, the longer she's in there, the more prohibitively expensive that becomes."

Alex heaved out a sigh, before giving him a wry sort of smile.

"If we had to play nice to whoever's in charge, I'd say horrible," she admitted. "Something like this, I'll be fine. My background is in child abuse and sexual assault. Traumatized kids ... are good at reading cues."

She shuddered, slightly, trying not to put faces on those particular memories.

"Are we sure ..." She trailed off, not even sure how to ask this. "You said it's brutal. Is this an unedited feed? And if so ... should we play censor?"

The way her eyebrow flew to her hairline probably suggested that Karla was passing acquainted with Skywalkers, yes.

"Oh, excellent," she said, voice dry as their new surroundings. "I am always so comforted and assured whenever I hear a Skywalker say things are 'fine.'"

Alex reached out to lay a hand, gently, on the girl's upper arm.

"It's reassuring," she said, and her tone was trying for that, as well. "I understand. None of this is going to be good, but it helps that none of us have to face it alone."

For that matter, she was considering handing out her home phone number. She wasn't sure how appropriate that was, but at times like this, appropriate was not the most important factor.

Anakin glanced down at the list of names and thought about it. "I don't think we should play censor," he said finally. "Katniss deserves for her friends to see how it happens."

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Anakin's office [from noon onwards]

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