<div class="floatleft">(http://images.wikia.com/dragonball/images/4/44/Olivia_Wilde_-_my_heroine.jpg)</div><strong>Who:</strong>Rybbon Latimer, mentor<br/><strong>With:</strong>Garrett Wylder, Caligus Occisus<br/><strong>Where:</strong>backstage at the table<br/><br/>Musing on Caligus’ answer and somewhat dreamy expression, Rybbon wondered if she’d become a cynic over the years.<em>Surely no one was buying into what he was selling?</em>That predator might charm his way into hearts and beds alike but she wasn’t one to believe he was so moved by the memory of an early pet as to loosen his concentration here.<br/><br/>Rewarded with a more likely question about the tactics involving training scores, she sipped from her flute, finally getting a little of the sweet-spicy crimson liquid at the bottom. Her gaze moved between the men again, judging that so long as the information was offered between them equally, there was no favoritism tilting their odds. No, the favoritism came later, when having chosen those she thought most likely to survive and offered to become their mentor. Whoever settled with her would find her voracious in defending and aiding them, feeling her heart break all over again if they died while in her care.<br/><br/>She set the glass down, her gloved fingertips toying with the stem as she composed her words. “I suppose it depends on whose opinion you trust. Does it matter if your own eyes see one thing but the rest of the world claims another?” She paused, lifting her gaze to stare directly at Caligus, another sense of being hunted rather than listened to slithering along her spine. “Whatever those points are made up of will find you fans and encourage your potential sponsors to look more closely at you, but what do you think those points really say about you? If you hide your potential survivability, do your points lower from some arbitrary number? Do you start low and gain points as you impress those observing your skills? They are an opinion said aloud, the higher the number stating that someone has confidence in you to stay alive. However,” she smiled ruefully, lowering her voice, “that’s just where everything starts. The betting is the win-win situation for the Capitol. You have to have odds in order to make a betting war over so many game pieces on the same field. That’s what you are,” she reminded them both, “pieces on a chessboard. If the gamemakers don’t like what direction you go, they force you back into play with an earthquake or a monsoon or a volcano. Play the way they want you to? They generally leave you alone no matter what your score was.”<br/><br/>Glancing between her avid listeners, she hoped that her comments were taken to heart. This wasn’t meant to shatter spirits or lower esteem, but to warn them. The odds were never in their favor to begin with.<br/>