sith_happened: (Anakin: I am going to regret this)
Anakin Skywalker ([personal profile] sith_happened) wrote2011-06-16 09:20 am

Office hours [all day]

Anakin had dropped Juliet off at the community center's day care and was now putting Rory-the-cat down on the floor to explore. He scolded her lightly to stay out of his coffee as he began fast forwarding through the footage from Panem, stopping and sitting down hard in his chair when Peeta--looking absolutely fine--appeared on the screen for an interview with Caesar Flickerman. He understood the boy's anger, and pitied him for being picked up by the Capitol, but fast forwarded past him after only a few minutes of the interview--he wanted to see if there was anything else.

What he found was Battle for District 8, though to call it a battle was to overstate the rebel's chances quite a bit. It was a bombing, and the Capitol lost a few ships to sharpshooting, but they destroyed more than a few buildings, and then Snow's horrible face was on the screen, explaining smoothly that this was what happened to rebels.

Anakin was glad he'd been sitting down, and more glad that he'd been recording, because something that was obviously not Capitol-generated was now on his screen: a tiny spark flickered in the center before blossoming, spreading, silently eating up the blackness until the entire frame was ablaze with a fire so real and intense, Anakin could almost feel the heat generating from it. The image of Katniss's mockingjay pin emerged, glowing red-gold and the deep, resonant voice of the official announcer of the Hunger Games said, "Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire, burns on."

"Holy shit," Anakin murmured, his hand going over his mouth. Suddenly, there she was, replacing the mockingjay, standing before the real flames and smoke of District 8 and looking righteously angry. "I want to tell the rebels that I am alive. That I'm right here in District Eight, where the Capitol has just bombed a hospital full of unarmed men, women, and children. There will be no survivors." Anakin's eyes blinked closed for just a second before he opened them to see footage of the hospital collapsing in on itself, complete with the desperation of the onlookers as Katniss continued in voice-over: "I want to tell people that if you think for one second the Capitol will treat us fairly if there's a cease-fire, you're deluding yourself. Because you know who they are and what they do."

The camera shifted back to her now, her hands lifted up to indicate the outrage around her. "This is what they do! And we must fight back!" Then came a truly fantastic montage of the battle, and not from the angle the Capitol wanted the Districts to see: footage of the initial bombs falling, Katniss and her colleagues running, being blown to the ground--a close-up of her wound, which looked good and bloody (but to Anakin's experienced eyes, mostly fixable)--then them scaling the roof, and diving into nests, and then some shots of the rebels, Gale, and mostly Katniss knocking those planes out of the sky. They cut back to Katniss moving in on the camera. "President Snow says he's sending us a message? Well, I have one for him. You can torture us and bomb us and burn our districts to the ground, but do you see that?" The camera tracked back to the planes burning on the roof of the warehouse, focusing tightly on the Capitol seal on a wing, which melts back into the image of her face, shouting at the president. "Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!" Flames engulfed the screen again. Superimposed on them in black, solid letters were the words: IF WE BURN YOU BURN WITH US. The words caught fire and the whole screen burned to blackness again.

Anakin took a shuddering breath, then reached for the phone. At least he could confirm that Katniss was still alive.

[OOC: Specifics of what Anakin was watching NFB, as are specifics of conversations in the Hunger Games thread. Who visited is fine FB. Please hold for slight OCD.]

Re: Hunger Game Types!

[identity profile] wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com 2011-06-16 02:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Wesley watched.

And stared.

And nodded.

"She's fine," he breathed, amazed and impossibly relieved.

And on the heels of making that realization, he was gone. He had things to think about.

Re: Hunger Game Types!

[identity profile] ancientbschamp.livejournal.com 2011-06-16 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Gabrielle had a feeling Anakin wouldn't thank her for running all the way down to his office (nor, she suspected, would Xena), but she did hurry down as quickly as she could.

"What's going on?" she asked when she arrived, out of breath not because of exertion as much as because the (maybe irrational, but that never stopped her) hope she never could completely suppress was making her heart pound a little faster. "Have you heard anything new?"

[[Not "heard anything mew" as I originally typed, but with cat!Rory that would have made sense too . . .]]
atreideslioness: (No man's spoil of war)

Re: Hunger Game Types!

[personal profile] atreideslioness 2011-06-16 03:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Ghanima watched it through twice, unmoving, before giving a slight nod. "Almost too smooth to be effective," she said finally. "Someone has a flair for the dramatic."

Re: Hunger Game Types!

[identity profile] ancientbschamp.livejournal.com 2011-06-16 04:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Gabrielle glanced at the screen and immediately took a seat; she leaned forward, hands clasped in her lap, watching intently. She'd just have to remember this as carefully as possible, not having managed to grab anything to write with on her way out of her room.

"Thank the gods," she murmured, more genuinely than usual.
atreideslioness: (Default)

Re: Hunger Game Types!

[personal profile] atreideslioness 2011-06-16 05:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Ghanima glanced over at him inquisitively. "They both survived?" she answered. "Interesting."

Re: Hunger Game Types!

[identity profile] ancientbschamp.livejournal.com 2011-06-16 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Gabrielle's lips tightened into a thin line for a moment; there weren't many people she would argue were completely beyond redemption, but President Snow fell into that category. "That goes without saying. What's he done now?"

Re: Hunger Game Types!

[identity profile] kestrelswolf.livejournal.com 2011-06-16 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"What happen," Firekeeper demanded as she and Blind Seer appeared in the doorway.

[headed to work shortly, but will be around after!]

Re: Hunger Game Types!

[identity profile] ancientbschamp.livejournal.com 2011-06-16 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, see, it was things like that that put Snow firmly in the 'irredeemable' category for Gabrielle.

Her voice was quiet and a little bit shaky when she asked, "The entire District?" Because never mind that she'd recently gotten caught up in the Greco-Persian Wars -- no, she hadn't yet lost the ability to be honestly shocked and disheartened by the horrors of war.
atreideslioness: (concerned)

Re: Hunger Game Types!

[personal profile] atreideslioness 2011-06-16 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
"Unluckily for him, the Capitol has just been given a whole host of reasons to keep him alive, none of which are pleasant," Ghanima mused.

Re: Hunger Game Types!

[identity profile] ancientbschamp.livejournal.com 2011-06-16 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Gabrielle nodded; there weren't quite tears in her eyes, but she looked like she was close, if holding them back. "Enough to make it look like he could -- without trying too hard -- if he wanted to, at least." Always stretching for the best-case scenario.

Re: Hunger Game Types!

[identity profile] ancientbschamp.livejournal.com 2011-06-16 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's worked for seventy-five years," Gabrielle said softly -- almost, but not quite, bitterly. "Longer than a lifetime." By the standards of her time, anyway.

". . . but that can't last forever."

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