Anakin's office [from noon onwards]

[sith_happened]

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.]

Comments

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle's face fell just a tiny bit, but she knew what tended to happen to those who just happened to be thorns in the side of the people in power.

"Xena always taught me that the moment you pick up a weapon, you make yourself a target," she murmured. "I don't think the people behind the Games realized that eventually their targets might aim right back at them. That's arrogance for you."

[sith_happened]

"I think they are overestimating their strength," Anakin agreed, "but I can't tell from the feed how scared the people in the distracts are."

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle leaned forward to peer a little more closely at the screen, then shook her head. "No. We'd like to know, but the Capitol probably isn't interested in showing that part of it. I don't think it's part of the story they want to tell." She bit her lip. "I can't help picturing them, though. Maybe I'm wrong, but I keep thinking of . . ."

She'd seen it often enough, but she still wanted to phrase it delicately. "Villagers taken captive, waiting to see if any of them are going to get singled out for special treatment, and -- and knowing 'special treatment' doesn't necessarily mean anything good."

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded, knowing exactly what she was talking about.

He'd inflicted it on a planet, after all. Poor Topwara.

"This is the special treatment," Anakin said. "The one chance in 24 to live with enough food that your family won't starve to death. The only catches are having to kill 23 other people and then having to train the next two sacrifices every year for the rest of your life. What a deal."

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle hadn't realized the surviving tributes were expected to mentor all the district tributes who came after them; that revelation hit her with visible pain.

"And it wasn't enough to put this year's tributes through it once. By the gods, this has to end somehow."

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. He was just hoping it wouldn't be on live television while he had to explain it.