Office #2 at the school, Thursday mid-morning.

[biotic_psychotic]

[CW/TW: Jono's thread goes some dark places. Torture/etc.]

Jack had decided on office hours so once she hit the coffee shop for the largest to-go cup they had she went and camped out in her spartan school office. After about twenty minutes she became bored and out of coffee. Examining the lock on her door, she pulled a multi-tool from her pocket and began disassembling it. Once it was off the door she took pictures of the whole rig and reassembled it. It was tossed carelessly into the bottom desk drawer.

The door was propped open with the wastecan. From another pocket came a tennis ball. Leaning back in her desk chair, she began doing a slow bounce with it from floor to wall and back to her hand.

The teacher is in.

[Open office hours!]

Comments

[sharp_man]

Hannibal chuckled. "From what I hear on the radio, some of them may have a head start. What do you do when you have a bigot in front of you, out of curiosity?"

[biotic_psychotic]

"Depends on the bigot, what they're saying and who they're saying it to," Jack answered after a moment of thought. "If they're standing on a street corner ranting their shit to the air and the almighty? I'll go over and shout 'em down until they run away home crying for their mommy. They're bein' specific to a stranger? I'll get in their face until they back up and off and shut the fuck right up and leave. They wanna step? I'll step right up and beat them all the fucking way down."

She looked at him so he could see the absence of anything but a deep and abiding seriousness. "They say it to one of mine? To one of my students?"

Jack smiled. It was sharp and it was cold and it was cruel and it lacked anything speaking to the ability to have remorse. "I will kick open the gates of hell. I will usher them right the fuck on through. And I will do it all with a smile on my face."

[sharp_man]

Hannibal smiled back. It was mostly pleasant, but there was enough of an edge to keep it from being bland. He had, after all, recently done the same.

"Around here, that protectiveness will stand you in good stead."

[biotic_psychotic]

"I'm a teacher," Jack shrugged a shoulder, "They're my students. Didn't really figure they hired me for my professionalism and wardrobe."

[sharp_man]

Hannibal chuckled. "They rarely do. You're teaching a useful skill and willing to protect your students - that's two large points in your favor and more than some of the instructors."

[biotic_psychotic]

"Heard of one student pitched under a fucking bus," Jack drawled.

A beat.

"Probably not a literal bus but fucked if I know. Not too many vehicles on the island but it wasn't said as it happened here."

Her smile went just a little colder. "Anyone tries that with one of mine, they're going to find out just how much damage I can do to a bus. Then I'm goin' after them."

[sharp_man]

"A bus?" Hannibal frowned. "Who was this?" He couldn't recall anything recent.

[biotic_psychotic]

She lifted a shoulder and lied as easily as breathing, "My buddy Sparkle mentioned it. Don't know who."

Jack knew who. It wasn't hers to out. It would be nearly impossible to read that on her face or in her tone. Lying was something she did best.

[sharp_man]

"Ah." Hannibal nodded a touch grimly. "Yes, that one I'm familiar with. I attempted to sway Skywalker, and he kicked me out of his office. We don't speak anymore."

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack tilted her chin at him. "Sparkle wouldn't say what it was about." She hadn't asked because something in the set of his face had warned her away from those questions.

She didn't care what it was about. You didn't throw your kids under the bus. That wasn't what teachers were supposed to do.

[sharp_man]

"So far as I can tell, at the heart of it, ideological differences," Hannibal said. "Regardless, allowing one of your students to be arrested for nebulous 'war crimes' and shipped off to prison in another universe when you can't be certain of their treatment certainly seemed beyond the pale to me."

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack listened and had no feelings one way or the other about 'war crimes' because war was goddamn war and you did what you had to when you had to so you could get yourself and your people through it alive and hopefully in one piece.

"So.. he's a dick," she said, "Did he go with him? Did anyone?"

[sharp_man]

Hannibal's lips thinned. "Not only did he not go with him or send anybody along, he refused to contact them to attempt to see if visitors were allowed, or to determine what sort of representation the boy might be permitted. When I suggested that ideological bias might keep him from receiving fair treatment, I was thrown out."

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack's eyes went flinty. "That.. is not something any motherfucker wants to try with one of my kids. Not once, not never. The motherfucker who tries that is the motherfucker I leave in parts. Good you were there to step the fuck in and try for him. That's basic goddamn decency."

Which the Dean had lacked though that was no real surprise to her since she never really expected anyone to have it. Atton was fine. She'd just seen him a couple days prior.

"Who busted him out?"

[sharp_man]

"I'm honestly not certain," Hannibal answered. "We were never close. Sparkle seems satisfied to have him back, but neither of us were able to help, so I don't know if anybody did, or if he made it out himself."

He smiled grimly. "Please don't believe I wasn't tempted, but I seem to be one of the few here without greater than natural powers, so I'm somewhat at a disadvantage against a Jedi."

[biotic_psychotic]

"He's a Jedi too, huh," Jack mused. "Lots of those fuckers around." It helped mitigate her sudden rage. Atton was a Jedi too. If he wanted Skywalker in parts, she was pretty sure Skywalker'd have pranced his pretty ass right into an ambush by now.

She examined Lecter. "I'd believe you were tempted. I'm just the type doesn't got a whole fuck of a lot between temptation and action, you might say." Not when her kids were involved. Never then.

[sharp_man]

"Whereas I give a lot of thought to everything," Hannibal said, smiling. "And yes, there are quite a few Jedi around, some of them better than others."

Kanan was fairly interesting. Skywalker was just rude.

[biotic_psychotic]

"Yeah, you seem the type," Jack said and gave him a flash of a genuine smile so he'd know maybe that it was meant as a compliment. She could appreciate a good tactician.

"I like the ones I've met," she noted, "which is a little fucking strange for me. Haven't met the prettyboy yet, just know he's the Dean and he looks like he spends more time making real goddamn sure every curl on his head is the same damn length than I do on most anything."

Also that he'd messed with two of the Jedi she liked but both of them seemed ok now. She liked Lana too and wasn't real clear what made someone a Jedi or what made them a Sith but she didn't really care. Lana hadn't thrown anyone she knew under a bus.

[sharp_man]

Hannibal smiled and nodded at the compliment.

"Not one to spend too much time on your hair, then?" he asked, grinning.