Calm Before The Storm {Finnick Odair}

Evaluations

"You did what!?" Ambrosia shrieked, filling the large apartment echoing at the sound of her voice.

She wasn't exactly pleased with Hebe's telling her she had ruled out an alliance with the careers so early on, but she was downright furious at her rudeness.

"I just told them that I didn't think the alliance was going to work out! I'm not abandoning Luca for some arrogant, self centred, pampered morons! If anything they're dragging us down!" Hebe shouted, wildly gesturing with her hands. She was getting sick of Ambrosia acting like she had any real say in what they did. It wasn't like she had ever gone through the games.

Ambrosia stormed out of the room, exasperated with her tributes. Hebe sometimes wondered why she even took this job if she couldn't deal with children.

Luca just sat in the corner glumly. Hebe looked over at him, feeling awful for having to put him through this. Mags had a neutral expression and hadn't reacted at all to Hebe's defiance of the careers. Finnick on the other hand, seemed to be having the time of his life, practically pissing himself with laughter.

"What do you want?" Hebe asked bitterly, glaring at him.

He burst out laughing at that, and for a second she had half a mind to start shouting at him too, but the hilarity of the situation overtook her and she joined in his infectious laughter.

She eventually stopped laughing, confusion slapping her round the face. Wasn't her mentor supposed to encourage her to find strong allies like the careers?

"Wait, why aren't you mad? I thought we were supposed to join the careers?"

He just looked at her like she had just said something glaringly moronic. "Why would I want you to do that? Yeah, they're strong, but you said it yourself, there's not much going on up there. If you wanted to ally with them I'd have no problem, but I think this is a better move for you both. Although I didn't expect you to do it in such an abrasive way..."

"Yeah, but doesn't it just put us higher on their kill list? Aren't they gonna be pissed?" Luca piped up.

"You were both already targets, with that entrance at the tribute parade they were certain to be watching closely. This doesn't change much from a strategic point of view. And it's hilarious." He grinned at Hebe.

Luca seemed to have relaxed at his reassurance, sinking back more comfortably in his seat, adopting a neutral expression.

"What else did you do today? Other than insulting the careers?" Mags asked, smiling at Hebe, clearly seeing no problem with her newfound enemies.

"Well we spent the morning with the pair from 11, and before you sigh, the girl's 18 and she's smart. And good with a scythe. Not super strong but I feel like we could trust her."

"Yeah she helped me out loads with a scythe, and it's not that different to a sword, so I could probably use one now if I needed to."

Mags nodded, "What about the boy? He's very young isn't he?"

Hebe hesitated at that, remembering the frail sightless boy that had to be helped around the training centre.

"Yeah um... he's blind?"

"Seriously Cross? You've got to be kidding me! You spent the whole day playing nice with the blind boy from 11!?" Finnick cried, holding his head in his hands, looking like he was about to storm out along with Ambrosia. Mags put a hand on his shoulder, a gentle reminder to calm down and not lash out unnecessarily.

"He's got a great sense of smell?" Luca piped up, Finnick groaning again.

"Did you two at least learn anything? About the other tributes? Or did you show off at all? Anything?" He asked, looking for any hope that he could salvage this trainwreck.