Nitou and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

[infinitemayonnaise]

Who| Kousuke Nitou, a roving horde of Pomeranians, and you!
What| Nitou has picked up on the fact that Haruto's avoiding him, so he's going to try to bring his fellow wizard some donuts. Too bad some random Capitolite's dogs got loose and are making this very difficult for him.
Where| Various locations, see prompts.
When| Today!
Warnings/Notes| Possible discussion of violence and brainwashing. Definite discussion of attacks made by tiny dogs. Yakkity Sax playing softly in the background.

[A - Some Street in front of Some Donut Shop]
It had taken Nitou a while, but he finally found a donut shop that seemed willing to make the plain sugar donuts Haruto liked so much without doing anything weird, as well as a couple mayonnaise-filled ones for him. (Also, in his mind, without doing anything weird, though the shop owner had given him a long and hard look of disbelief when he'd requested that.) He was emerging from the donut shop, looking vaguely triumphant about his three bags of donuts when he heard it.

The yapping.

Some Capitolite somewhere had been taking their ten precious little baby doggies out for a walk. Said precious little baby doggies had managed to break free from their leashes, and now they were running around in a pack in search of tasty food. The donuts in Nitou's bags certainly qualify, and the dogs start charging for the strange human in the hopes of taking the bags from him. Nitou gives a yell and starts running, the horde of Pomeranians in hot pursuit. Really, he'd appreciate some help.

[B - The Park]
The Capitol was treated to the sight of a yelling Tribute being pursued by a mob of tiny dogs with bows in their fur for a solid fifteen minutes before Nitou's flight takes him through the park, where there are nice, big trees for climbing. He scrambles up one of them, finally satisfied that he's safe. The yapping dogs make a ring around the tree, frustrated that they cannot get at the Tribute and his donuts.

"Go on, get out of here!" Nitou yells at the dogs, who do not leave. He takes off one of his shoes and hurls it at them, but this only seems to egg them on. The shoe that he chucks at them is ripped to shreds by overeager chewing and an impromptu game of tug-of-war. Do they just need exercise? Are they just vicious? Nitou doesn't know, though he's inclined to bet on the latter.

And later, much later, the dogs still haven't given up, but the branch Nitou had chosen for his perch is starting to give under the weight. There's a loud cracking noise, and with a yell, Nitou falls into the dogpile below. Two of the bags of donuts do not survive, and most of the dogs' attention is focused on those. But a few of them seem to think Nitou also needs some attention, and he quickly disappears into the furry mass.

[C Training Center - Closed to Haruto]
Finally, Nitou drags himself back over to the Training Center. He knows that's where he'll find Haruto; that's just about the only place Haruto has been since getting released. Nitou could probably stand to go back to the District 5 suites to clean up a little bit. He's disheveled to the point that he's got a few twigs and leaves stuck in his hair, is missing part of one of his sleeves, and he is completely without his right shoe.

"HEY! HARUTO!" There is no getting away from Nitou this time, Haruto. He's hobbling over towards his rival, yelling across the gym floor, and waving around his single hard-won bag of donuts. There is nothing at all discreet or subtle about this. "I GOT YOU DONUTS!"

Comments

[contrarianlibrarian]

China quickly steps back as he bolts off and doesn't follow until she's sure she'll be out of splash range.

She skirts a few fleeing pups and peeks at him over the edge of the fountain. "My, you're certainly sprightly. And what an intelligent plan, too."

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nitou's just floating on his back there in the fountain, enjoying the sensation of not being a chew toy. "Ah, well, comes with the territory of being an adventuring wizard and all." He's so proud of himself of getting rid of those mutts, that's for sure.

[contrarianlibrarian]

She smiles with amusement as she watches. There's something charming about how some of these Tributes just don't seem to care for appearances. A Capitolite likely would be shrieking about their ruined clothes and dignity right now.

"A wizard, you say?" Another one? Haruto introduced himself as a wizard too. She has to wonder about the lack of subtlety these sorcerers seem to have.

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nitou has never been one to worry too much over his appearance. That's the life of an adventuring hobo wizard, after all.

"Yeah, that's right! I'm Kousuke Nitou, the Ancient Wizard!" Which sounds very impressive when coming from what looks to be a soaked hobo in a fountain who had just been terrorized by tiny fluffy dogs, certainly.

[contrarianlibrarian]

"...Ancient Wizard?"

No skepticism here, no way. She does tilt her head to the side as she considers him again, though. "You don't appear to be that old."

[infinitemayonnaise]

"But my magic is!" Nitou's pretty much beaming at this point, glad to be rid of the dogs that have wandered away in search of other ankles to nip at. "And the magic makes the wizard!"

[contrarianlibrarian]

"I see..." She nods as she files that away. Whatever the heck it means. She is curious about these wizards, though, so she'd like to learn what she can.

"What can 'ancient' magic do, then? It its age its only important quality? Does that lend it any special potency?"

[infinitemayonnaise]

"It's just different." Nitou's just going to leave out the bits about having to consume other magic in order to get it to work. "But in a better way! It's super-strong and stuff. Probably because it's so old."

[contrarianlibrarian]

"Like fine whiskey." She shrugs. "Or something."

Alcohol and magic both aren't really in her realm of expertise.

"But what can you do with it?" She inspects her nails as she thinks back to what Haruto said about his powers... "Can you make more of yourself? Can you transform?"

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Of course I can transform!" There's zero point in keeping that a secret; he'd been filmed doing so in the last Arena with powers. "Into Kamen Rider Beast!" He thinks it sounds impressive, anyway.

[contrarianlibrarian]

"Beast?"

Interesting. She has to wonder how many variations there are, if any.

"Would this be a beast akin to those dogs you scared off or something more impressive?"

[infinitemayonnaise]

"WAY more impressive!" Nitou is laughing at this idea. "Man, those dogs are nothing compared to Chimera. He's like, the size of that tree over there."

[contrarianlibrarian]

China quietly searches for the smallest tree in the general direction he indicates and points to it with a questioning headtilt. "Like that?"

"I've never heard of Chimera before."

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Nah, that really big one over there." Nitou gestures at another tree, a much larger one. "And he's so a big deal on my world. Kind of like a lion with a bunch of other animal parts on him."

[contrarianlibrarian]

China looks at the proper tree this time, bobbing her head in appreciation. "How impressive."

"Did the other animals willingly go along with being pasted to a lion?"

[infinitemayonnaise]

"That's more like a figure of speech. He's just got those parts." Nitou absently waves a hand around like this will somehow illustrate that. "They're just there."

[contrarianlibrarian]

The picture is totally clear. Kind of. Maybe. Either way, China's just going to nod as if it is. "Interesting. And are they what help make him--or you--so powerful? Like a sort of teamwork?"

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Yeah, it's kind of like that!" Simple enough. Close enough.

[contrarianlibrarian]

That information gets mentally filed away too. She still worries a bit that she's being taken for a ride, but comforts herself with the thought that, either way, she's still getting a good story.

Looking up at the clouds as if she's daydreaming, she asks, "What does it feel like to be lion?"

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Super strong and awesome!" Nitou guesses, anyway. His armor's lion-like, not turning him into an actual lion, but since she asked. "King of the beasts, all that good stuff."

[contrarianlibrarian]

She nods. "I would imagine. I'm almost envious."

"How did you come across that? I don't believe we've ever had a 'chimera' compete for us."

If it's common where he's from, that would be one fascinating world to mine for Tributes, if only they could control precisely where they took theirs.

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Found him in some ancient ruins; it was pretty cool." Nitou grins. "One of the greatest adventures I've had."

[contrarianlibrarian]

Her eyebrows rise. "Ancient ruins?"

"Did you have many such adventures? That sounds enchanting." Were she given much to traveling, a ruin of some sort is just the place she would dream of going. As it is, she's limited to what little she can extract from her books.

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Yeah, ancient ruins! I'm an archaeologist!" Archaeology student turned hobo. But archaeologist sounds way better. "I had all sorts of adventures like that, lot of monster fighting, going through strange ruins, dodging devious traps!"

...so he might be exaggerating a hair.

[contrarianlibrarian]

"An archaeologist? My goodness, I've never met one of your profession before." She almost wishes she'd actually helped him out now, to get on his good side.

Ruins and traps all sound interesting, of course, but it's the thought of what's inside them that excites her. Her eyes gleam. "What else have you discovered?"