sith_happened | 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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"The whole process is sickening," Alex said. "Turning kids into live gladiators for the entertainment of an entire populace. At least reality television is just ... banal and insipid. No one there is starving, desperate, and trying to stab someone with a homemade shiv."

She put her hands on the back of a chair, but felt too jumpy to actually sit.

"They survived one nightmare, and they're being tossed in to round two," she said. "I know every single reason that we're supposed to sit back and let this happen, and it feels so ... entirely and completely wrong, to every fiber of my being."

Anakin nodded. "I'm not one for sitting around either, but the entire system is rotten. Going in and taking the head off of the President would be cathartic but ultimately useless."

"She said there would be repercussions," Alex agreed. "So I'd be ... making myself feel better, and making things a hundred times worse for her. I can't believe doing nothing is the less selfish option."

She rubbed the back of her neck, idly, trying to work out the tense knot that was starting.

"So what can we do?" she asked. "She mentioned packages. And support, for ... the kids here."

Anakin nodded. "I'm in contact with her handler--he'll be on the screen when they get back to District 12 because he's also a Games survivor. We can send gifts to her when the Games begin, but the longer she's in the arena the more prohibitively expensive it'll become."

He ran his hands through his hair. "And I've watched her Game," he said. "It's an extremely brutal event. There's no cutting away from the deaths, and the President is personally gunning for her to die. Frankly I will be shocked if she lasts past the first day, and we need to be ready to deal with a lot of grief."

"I have money," Alex said automatically. "The Cabots, we're Old Money. I know it'll be something obscene, but if there's any chance it'll help, it's worth it."

She closed her eyes. Katniss had said much the same, about her odds, but from her, Alex had dismissed it as the girl underestimating herself.

So they would need to be prepared.

"I don't know all of them," she said quietly. "Some, I've had in class. Does the school have a guidance counselor? Maybe we could ... bring in some kind of grief expert, just to talk to everyone?"

"I know all of them," Anakin said with a sad smile, "but I can talk with Zoe about that possibility if they'd prefer to talk to someone they aren't as familiar with. It's us and Ghanima, so the students will be looking to us for reactions. How's your poker face?"

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?"

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."

She wasn't convinced, but she was going to trust his judgment, here. He knew the students better. And maybe they didn't have the right to step in, anyway.

"So we wait," she said. "And we ... hope sounds like such a weak word, and I don't think I have it in me to pray any more."

"And then we help the students," Anakin said, nodding.

Anakin's office [from noon onwards]

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