I am NOT cranky!

ooc: Hope you don't mind if I join in! I saw no one had replied to this post yet, so I figured I would hop in! If you had something else in mind, just let me know!

Character outfit here.

Naoki was grateful for the AC running in the Training Center. The weather outside was terrible. It was so hot, Naoki had been sweating buckets not even moments after he'd left the abandoned warehouse that served as his home. It technically wasn't his day to do any of the shoplifting/theft chores--not even the night ones, thankfully enough--but he'd decided to go off on his own to check something out anyway.

The Training Center. In the Capitol.

The Capitol was no short trip from where Naoki lived. In fact, he and his "family" usually went in at least groups of two, when and if they ventured there. It was just safer that way. But on this particular day, Naoki had decided to go alone. Part of being a Wanderer meant finding ways to blend in with the crowd, to not appear to be something vulnerable, even if you were, and so, quite a few years of practice in disguising had proved quite helpful.

Naoki had only just turned 18--he was still at risk for being selected to compete in the Games--but today, especially because of where he was headed, he'd made sure to dress in a way that made him look a little older. He'd had something of a difficult life anyway, so oftentimes he actually did appear older than he actually was.

But after sneaking onto a train to the Capitol and finally arriving, he realized he must have blended in well with the rest of the neighborhood as he passed through--something he couldn't help feeling pretty proud about, considering he was their total opposite and very much considered himself their enemy--because no one bothered him. Very few people even looked. He had to admit, despite the dreaded heat, he was doing well.

At the training center, Naoki paused to rake an arm across his sweaty forehead, then pushed through the heavy metal doors that led inside. The place was packed, absolutely packed. He would have admitted himself astounded that so many people were actually eager to train for the Hunger Games, if only for the attention, if he didn't already know it happened so often. Katsuo, the oldest member of his adopted family back at the warehouse had been one such victim--thankfully, he'd gotten away from that fate. But upon first glance, Naoki got the impression that Katsuo was different from the kids currently training anyway. They all looked determined to do well. And rich. Couldn't forget the rich part.

Naoki shrugged to himself. Oh well. Rich meant money, expensive things. He spotted a long line of the trainees' belongings along a nearby wall and grinned.

"Jackpot...." he muttered under his breath.

Actually, though the thought of nabbing lots of expensive little trinkets, perhaps even real money, from the likely well-to-do trainees' bags was more than appealing, Naoki had had other motives for coming to the training center. It wasn't a place he felt comfortable in at all. The entire Capitol was an area he rather feared, and at the subway station, he'd even contemplated riding the damn car all the way back to the Upper Districts......

Naoki sat back against the wall and began fishing through the nearby pockets of the bags around him. Within minutes, he'd nabbed three different purses, a few expensive-looking gadgets, and even some jewelry. He felt some remorse, but not much. Still, while he worked, he got to thinking again.

The people training......they looked rich, healthy, happy....But happy....that's the one he didn't understand. They had money. They had a life, a family....why were they so eager to train and compete in something that could take all of that away in one go? He just didn't understand it.

Naoki's thoughts were suddenly interrupted.

There was a loud BANG! from the entrance to the training center, and suddenly, a rather serious, frightful looking older woman came through. It appeared that she'd knocked down a nearby girl, but rather than do the expected and apologize, she turned to her, yelling.

"You idiot, be more careful!"

Naoki slowly slid his hand from the pocket of the bag he'd been exploring and weighed his options. He wasn't fond of anyone in the Capitol, no matter what age or gender. It was possible the girl who'd been hit was from elsewhere, like one of the other Districts, not the Capitol itself, but he got the impression that the nasty old woman who'd stepped through the doors was a bitter resident here. That practically made her Enemy #1...or #2, since it was the District 9 people he had a real bone with whom to pick.

He didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to himself, but he hated seeing a girl get hurt. And judging by the force of the doors that had swung open and the girl still lying on the ground, she'd been hit pretty hard. The old bat who'd done it ought to be singing a much different tune, he thought.

"'Ey!" Naoki got to his feet and marched straight for the old lady. If he was careful, no one would know he wasn't a resident in the Capitol. Technically, considering no one else in the room was doing anything about the frightful old hag but he, he worried he must stand out some. But he couldn't just let the lady stroll in like that like she owned the place. The girl on the floor still looked upset.

"It's your fault that girl got hurt," Naoki insisted, stepping in front of the older woman and blocking her path forward. Then, realizing he was probably acting a lot tougher than most Capitol people, he cleared his throat and added, "We're all paying a lot to be here, so if you injure her, how's she going to get her money's worth of training?"

The old woman had surprising strength. Naoki felt his feet leave the ground, but didn't even really realize he'd been lifted, or tossed back down, until he hit the floor hard. The breath was knocked out of him. Damn the old woman was strong.....

"Listen young man! Don't you talk to me like that in that tone. She is probably just faking it for attention. So back off!"

"Eccentric old bat," Naoki muttered under his breath. He'd officially decided that this was the worst kind of old hag on the planet. Ugly, self-righteous, and stupid. There were a lot of other nasty words coming to mind, but he couldn't properly put them into place anyway, he was so frustrated. The old woman had actually passed right by the girl to practice archery.

Naoki scowled and got to his feet, dusting himself off. He didn't mind a little dirt--he got dirty all the time, considering his lifestyle--but he had to keep up with appearances. Rich people didn't get dirty. And he didn't even mind the fact that he'd just been swept off his feet and tossed aside like a ragdoll, even if it had been something of a blow to his masculinity.

Bitter old hag, aren't you? Naoki thought to himself. But he didn't say it out loud. Instead, not particularly caring what others thought (it seemed to him that they were more on his side than hers anyway), he said to the older woman, "Isn't it about time you went to see the District 2 doctors....check and see if you're officially senile yet?"


Now that he knew how much strength the old woman had, Naoki prepared himself for another attack. A lot of his life was spent fighting off people much stronger than himself, so he knew dealing with her shouldn't be a problem.

Then it dawned on him.....Fighting an old woman? In the Upper Districts? This was attention he didn't need.

Naoki pivoted on one foot and left the old woman behind to go help up the girl who'd fallen. If the woman had something else to say, she could say it. He really couldn't be drawing any more attention to himself when he ought not to be here in the first place.

ooc: Oh man, Gretel is amazing! >.<

Naoki didn't turn around to see what the old woman would do, and if it was possible, he would have plugged his ears so he didn't have to hear anything she might have to retort with either. Instead, he approached the girl who had been hurt by the door and offered her his hand to help her up.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

The girl sort of just looked at him funny, but she did take his hand and nod quickly to him to gesture some kind of awkward thanks before limping away to a changing room at the other end of the training center. Naoki watched her go and shrugged. He could only take it as it was. So far, it seemed to him that Capitol people were not only Grade A snobs, but Grade A jerks too. No one else had helped the girl up, and even when she had been assisted, she'd looked as though muttering something as small as a "thank you" was a chore.

It was.....kind of pathetic. Naoki ran a hand through his hair. Hopping that train to this training center was seeming more and more like one of his "grand" ideas gone very wrong.

By this point, turning around, Naoki realized that a cloud of silence now hung over the room. People had stopped in their tasks to see what all the commotion was about, and while much of the gaze was on the old woman, who, Naoki noticed, was now cowering in a corner of the room, an equally good amount was on him as well. He had the strong urge to yell at the people around him, tell them they looked just like the drooling, emotionless robots he'd always thought Capitol people looked like, but he refrained. That was the equivalent of pulling out all the stolen trinkets and things from his pockets and waving them around for everyone to see.

Naoki avoided the gazes of the onlookers and sighed. Why had he come here again?

Oh yeah, to pick some pretty pockets and get his mind going on a topic it obviously ought not consider.

"Waste of my damn time..." Naoki kicked some kind of sports racket out of his path and made his way for the same door that had caused the problems to begin with.

That was when she spoke again.
"Aw, is somebody angry? Do they need their mommy?"

Naoki actually stopped short in his tracks, he was so surprised to hear the woman's voice. Hadn't she just been cowering in a corner a moment ago? He turned.

"Don't worry you can have your pacifier, to shut you up!"

Naoki turned just in time to see the old bat facing him, doing the unthinkable. Remarkably, she was holding a bow in her hands, with an arrow nocked perfectly in place, and she was holding the whole darn thing perfectly steady too.

"It's the hag from hell..." Naoki muttered it under his breath, unsure whether or not the woman would actually attempt to hit him. With so many onlookers around, if she actually killed him, she would be arrested, most likely. Didn't she know that? Or did she know that he was just scum? Street trash in wolf's clothing.....? If that was the case, she would know that killing him wouldn't mean anything bad for her at all. In fact, if the officials were happy enough, it might even mean a profit for her.

Naoki raised his hands, wondering just why the hell other people around him weren't even attempting to help out, when he saw a quick movement, the old woman's finger releasing the arrow, and he ducked.

When another moment or two of pure shock had passed, Naoki pressed a hand to his face then his chest, wondering if he would feel the unpleasantness of an arrow sticking out from somewhere it shouldn't be, or the pain, or something else, but....there was none.

Instead, Naoki heard someone cry out, which was followed by a loud thudding sound. Pivoting on the spot, he turned to see that a boy likely somewhere around his age had fallen to the ground. The dreaded arrow was sticking up from his back like some kind of twisted flag.

"Oh no...." Naoki's heart sank. "I killed him...I..." If he hadn't ducked, if he'd taken the blow, the other boy would be okay. But he hadn't. He'd dodged the attack and sacrificed that other boy's life. How did that make him any better than the ruthless officials? How did it make him any better than the District 9 Hunter who'd taken his father's life?

That was it. He was done with this woman. If he didn't do something, someone else was going to get hurt.

"'Ey! Old hag--chotto!" Naoki rushed towards the old woman and grabbed onto the bow. If she tried to nock another arrow, she'd have a much harder time setting that one off. "You really are crazy! You just killed someone, you just killed someone who did nothing to you! If you have a bone to pick with me, then take it outside with me. Don't start attacking innocent people here! You got it!?"

ooc: Hey! Lemme know if I gave you enough to work with--otherwise I can try to add more in! Hope it's good! >.<

For a moment, just staring at the old woman in front of him, Naoki felt scared. The way she was just staring back......he couldn't place it. Almost like she truly believed she owned the place. Or like no life was more important than her own. Something really pitiful like that....The sound of crying filled the room, and Naoki turned quickly to find that a small group of people were now surrounding the boy who had been shot.

Naoki felt a lump in his throat...His stomach even seemed to have twisted itself into knots. Despite the summer heat, he had suddenly broken into a cold sweat.

Someone had died.

Naoki felt a considerable amount of weight leave the other end of the bow, then frowned deeply when he realized why. The old woman had let go. She was moving hastily in the opposite direction, further into the room. Naoki was still holding the bow in his free hand. The old woman seemed to have abandoned it.

But where was she going? To get another weapon? Maybe she was going back to her corner to cower again?

What Naoki most disliked about people like this particular old woman was that they were so unstable and strange, they were entirely unpredictable. He got the impression that one second the old lady could be peacefully drinking a cup of tea, and then angrily smashing everything around her the next. It was....pretty frightening. And she'd already astounded him with some kind of unheard of, unfounded strength. Who was this lady?

"He is the one who did this! If he didn't yell at me in the first place I wouldn't have gotten angry!"

The old woman's voice was rather loud and almost unsurprisingly strong. Her words shook Naoki from his thoughts, and he immediately looked up at the sound to find that the woman had climbed onto a nearby table. She seemed to be trying to win the favor of the crowd.
Naoki had no idea who this lady was or how much authority she held in a place like this, but he didn't particularly care to find out, either. No matter what, if the two of them were arrested, it was he who would be the one in trouble when the authorities found out who and what he was.

The old woman was continuing with her speech against him. "If he would have shut up, I wouldn't have shot the arrow. If he didn't duck, the arrow wouldn't have hit the boy! So if their is anyone to blame here, blame him!

Naoki stood silent and still, the bow remaining in his hand. The silence in the room was a killer. He scanned the entirety of the training area, searching the eyes of those looking for something even remotely close to an emotion--even those people surrounding the boy who had been shot were suddenly looking unpleasantly distant--but he seemed at a loss.
Was it his fault? Of course it was. But it was the old woman's fault too. It was the boy's fault for standing there. It was the other girl's fault for getting hit with the door in the first place. It was the Capitol's fault for creating such a heartless sort of people. There were so many people, so many things to blame........was it really going to come down just to him?

Naoki threw the bow down to the floor and turned his attention away from the onlookers. If everyone decided to just jump and attack him right now, all at once, he didn't stand a chance anyway. But he got the impression that even though he was getting all manner of icy stares, people were just as puzzled by the old lady as they were by him.

He decided there was little more he could do than try and talk some sense into this woman or bolt. Either way, he knew he was going to end up having to flee at some point. He also had the option of tackling the old cow and giving her a run for her oddly lucky money in a fight, but somehow, that didn't seem all that appropriate at the moment.

"They can blame whoever they want," he responded, as loudly as he could manage. "They could blame me for moving. They could blame you for shooting the arrow. Or for hitting the girl with the door in the first place. They could blame themselves for coming here. There's a lot of things that could be blamed."

He sighed.

"What do you want? Why did you come here? By the looks of things, you're not here to pick up a grandkid or anything like that. You're just.....here."

Naoki hesitated from saying any more. Looking around, he actually felt a little relieved. A lot of the people in the training center were leaving. The family of the murdered boy were still looming around, however. Naoki wondered if maybe one of the family had gone off to get the authorities or some other kind of head figure. It was certainly possible....Which also meant that he didn't have much more time here.

Naoki returned his attention to the old woman in front of him, just staring, waiting for her answer to him.

She really was a piece of work. For being an old grandma, she looked like she had the kind of build a bodybuilder might have.....just at the age of 90 or so. It looked so wrong. Naoki actually wrinkled his nose.

"I am going to be in the Hunger Games! So I have to train for it, duh."

Naoki was momentarily stunned.

Maybe he'd heard her wrong. Granted, this woman seemed to be full of all kinds of odd surprises and frightening possibilities, but there actually was a flaw with her ideas this time.

The Hunger Games were for kids. Naoki was technically still eligible to be in them, as was his brother and likely many of the other kids in the room. But an 80-something-year-old? It wasn't even like she could pretend to be younger and be able to pass for a younger age.

"You really are crazy...." Naoki couldn't stop himself. The words just slipped out. He looked around at the people who remained in the room to see if any of them agreed, but the place had gone eerily silent, with the exception of the weeping sounds coming from the corner of the room where the other guy had been struck. "How can you--"

That was when the doors burst open. Naoki swiveled around.