Office hours [all day Tuesday]

[sith_happened]

Anakin had spent yesterday at Jan's third birthday party.

Today he was working on an extensive list of how Juliet's party (in June, so he had a finely honed sense of perspective here) would be better in every way.

He wondered how much it would cost to buy a circus...

The door was open.

[OOC: Up early for great SP and time zone justice issues]

Comments

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"The Twenty-Fifth Hunger Games had an election, rather than a lottery, so people had to choose which children to send to the arena," she said, not bothering to hide the disgust. "The year my mentor won, the Fiftieth Games, there were twice as many tributes as usual. Forty-seven children sent to their deaths."

[sith_happened]

"Calling this terrible seems like such a small thing," Anakin said finally, "but it is. Top to bottom, the Games are wrong."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"I know," Katniss said quietly. "I had to win them. I know in and out how wrong they are. But there's little we can do to change them -- I'm a living example."

[sith_happened]

"It's been almost 75 years," Anakin said. "Aren't the districts tired of watching their children get slaughtered?"

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"Of course," Katniss said with a shrug. "But defying the Capitol means retribution worse than the Games themselves."

[sith_happened]

"Obliteration," Anakin surmised. "But the harder they squeeze, the more will slip through their fingertips."

Leia had been right about that all those years ago.

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"And how many more people will die?" Katniss replied.

[sith_happened]

"A lot," Anakin said quietly. "Your government doesn't believe they have any value except as a bargaining chip."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"Including me," Katniss said, biting the inside of her cheek. "If I return to Panem and I'm not -- what they want, I'll be killed. Along with my family." She shook her head. "My time here should be spent practicing, but I don't know if I'll be able to maintain it."

[sith_happened]

"Would you like some help?" Anakin asked, then smiled a little ruefully. "I spent several years hiding my marriage from a group of people who could practically read my mind. I'm an excellent liar."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

Katniss' lips quirked in a humorless smile. "Funnily enough, I have the precise opposite problem. I'm a terrible liar, and the only way Peeta and I were able to stay alive in the arena was because we pretended to be in love. When I called him my boyfriend, it was because I still thought I was being watched. He's my friend, but back in Panem, I need to act like I'm driven crazy by love in his mere presence."

[sith_happened]

"Because being a hormonally driven teenager makes the dual-suicide attempt romantic," Anakin guessed, "and not a calculated undermining of the system. How long do you need to keep up the act?"

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"Forever," Katniss said softly. "The country loves us. As long as I'm a lovesick girl who couldn't bring herself to kill her boyfriend, the Capitol can use me. And Peeta. And our relationship, and eventual marriage, and the children we'll be forced to have."

[sith_happened]

"I'm sorry," Anakin said sincerely. "At least here you have a break from all of the pretense? And perhaps his absence will make you appreciate Peeta more when you see him again."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"It's sincere, for Peeta," she told him, shaking her head. "As much as this might be a respite for me, as soon as I go back, I have to convince everyone that my love's as genuine as his. And I don't mean to bog you down with the trivialities of a sixteen year-old's love life, but if I'm not convincing enough, they'll kill me. And my sister. And my mother. And Peeta." And Gale.

[sith_happened]

His lips quirked up. "I don't mind hearing of it. It's more tactical than gushing." He paused. "Which might be part of the problem."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

Katniss sighed. "That's what Haymitch always says," she said, shaking her head. "That I'm not emotional enough. That it doesn't seem real. 'Convince me, sweetheart,'" she drawled in an approximation of her trainer. "He's our mentor."

[sith_happened]

"He sounds delightful," Anakin said dryly. "Have you ever convinced him?"

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"Once, I think." Katniss thought back to the cave, and the food that had arrived by parachute. "He sent us food in the arena when I was convincing enough, I think. But he spends most of his time drunk."

[sith_happened]

"So his judgment isn't always reliable," Anakin said. "He was withholding food until you acted in a way he found proper?"

No wonder the girl couldn't find a genuine emotion. It would feel like mating in captivity.

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"It's very expensive to send things to tributes," Katniss said, shaking her head. "We're expected to find things ourselves in the arena. He wasn't withholding so much as...waiting for a performance he could show our bettors."

[sith_happened]

Anakin didn't look entirely convinced. "So it's not enough to survive," he said. "You also had to perform."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"The Hunger Games are the most-watched event in Panem. Children get the days off from school to observe," Katniss said dully. "Athletes in this world are prescribed to be entertaining and beautiful, aren't they?"

[sith_happened]

"But not because someone will kill their families if they aren't," Anakin replied. "That makes a large difference."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"Normal tributes don't get that privilege," Katniss said. "Just me, because of a handful of berries."