not as crazy as I thought || Raseri

Sunlight crept softly through the thick canopy of leaves, casting spotted shadows on the forest floor. I leaned back against the moss-covered trunk of a maple tree, enjoying the feeling of rest while I had it; I knew it wouldn't be long before I had to get back up again and keep marching home (or what I considered home for now, anyways). I didn't know whose land this was--it could belong to someone who wasn't too fond of trespassers, and in that case, I didn't want to be around if they decided to take an evening stroll through the woods. I was only passing through--taking a shortcut--but sometimes people just weren't very understanding.

My head snapped up at the sound of a nearby whinny, cracking hard off the bark behind behind me. "Shit," I cursed under my breath, reaching my hand under my hat to rub the back of my head. The crackling sound of dead branches breaking underfoot echoed in the hush of the woods, and soon there was a kid standing in front of me, probably fifteen or so. I had to stop myself from sighing aloud in relief; it wasn't an angry landowner. The boy stopped humming when he saw me.

”Hello?” he said. Or was he asking? I couldn't tell.

"Hello. Sorry, I was just passing through," I told him cautiously, standing up and brushing the dirt off the seat of my jeans. "I can, uh, leave, if you want." And I hoped he didn't, because I just wasn't in the mood for more walking right now.

{ooc- okay so this is arguably the worst blitz post I've done in months, I apologize}

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He shook his head. "You don't have to," the boy said, and I relaxed, grateful to be granted another moment's rest. My feet and legs had begun to ache after walking a while, but I didn't sit back down--it always made me indescribably uncomfortable when people stood over me, so I leaned back against the tree instead.

"What is your name?"

"Hatter," I replied, courteously tipping my hat. "It's a nickname, of course." I hadn't spoken my given name aloud in so long that I sometimes had to remind myself that I had one. "And you are?" I asked politely.

"I am Travis Winston," he replied, sticking out a hand. I dutifully grasped it and returned a firm handshake. "It's a pleasure." I grinned at him, revealing a full set of stained teeth.

"The pleasure's all mine, Travis. So, this is your farm, eh?" I inquired, craning my neck and looking around.

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"Yeah, it's not much but it's home," Travis said. That seemed to be the general opinion of everyone here about where they lived, as most of the houses in the area were small hovels or run-down farmhouses that had been passed down through families for years. My own childhood home had been fairly small--too small, actually, for my large family.

I followed Travis's gaze to the outline of a barn in the distance, and wondered if that might be a potential place for me to sleep tonight. This kid seemed nice enough, I might be able to bring it up in conversation later on, and who knows? Maybe his parents needed another hand on the farm.

"Are you from around here?"

"Yeah," I answered. "I am. I left for a while, but I'm back now. I can't go home, but I'm back." It had taken me 11 years, but I realized that it was good to be home. At least in District Ten I was around familiar faces, familiar surroundings.

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I don't know why I shook my head when he told me I was always welcome home. He might even have been right; maybe my family would welcome me back. But every time I thought about going back there, I thought of another reason to not go back there. What if they didn't want me back? I had changed a lot since the last time I had seen my family; not just on the outside, but on the inside as well, and there was always a chance that they wouldn't want anything to do with me now. I was a grown man anyways, and it was time to live my own life.

"Wish I could leave District 10 sometimes. No one treats me like they used to."

No you don't, I thought. "It's lonely out there," I told him. I still remembered how it had felt, running away. You start out thinking everything's gonna be fine and dandy, and that you're doing the right thing, but then night time comes and it's dark and you hear things rustling in the bushes, and you wish you had your mother there to hold you and tell you everything's alright, but she's gone and you've lost your way home. Then again, I was only ten.

"Welcome back to District Ten. Is it how you remember it?"

"For the most part," I replied. The people were different; I didn't recognize most of them at all. But I knew the places--the market, the farms, the shortcuts I used to take on the way home from school. "Either way, it's good to be back. I think I'll stick around here for a while, find myself a place to stay."

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"Well you know me so that's one less new face," Travis said, smiling. It made me smile too, peeling back two thin lips to reveal a set of yellowed teeth. It felt strange; I didn't genuinely smile like this too often--I didn't tell the truth like this too often, either--but maybe it was different, since I was talking to a kid. The lying didn't come too easily when I was talking to Travis; maybe cuz I just didn't need to lie to get what I wanted this time around.

"Are you going back to where you used to live?" he asked. "If not, you could maybe stay here... I mean if you would like."

There it is, I think with satisfaction. Manipulation was an art, really, and it wasn't necessarily about lying; sometimes it was about giving the right little tidbits of information where they were needed, and planting little seeds of ideas into peoples' heads without them noticing. I hadn't directly told Travis that I had nowhere to sleep tonight, but he'd gotten the picture and asked me himself anyways. Honestly, I'd had so much practice at it, sometimes I did things like that without even realizing it myself.

"Really? That sounds nice." I paused a moment. "But I mean, I don't wanna freeload or anything. I can work, if you need another hand on the farm or something."

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