the devil is a gentleman // tune v brody, day 7.

[✨ zozo.]

♪ you ain't nothing but his prey

Everything is calm in that cave, deathly still. Brody and all that he brings looms in the dark and Carly sleeps softly next to Tune, breaths shallow and steady in the lantern light. And she knows what she has to do, had decided the moment her axe had flown into Kiptyn Nott's body and they had run as fast as they could. 

It still hurts, forging her own plan. Leaving Carly behind to save her.

Her sickle lies crossed over her friends in the same way she had crossed Andrew's hands over his chest. Carly will know what it means when she wakes up - and she will be furious.

And it hurts, and it hurts, and it hurts - but she cannot be responsible for another of their deaths. Andrew weighs heavy on her chest, and when Tune walks through the dark on her own she can hear the low rumbles of the song they danced to. So she makes her own plan, hidden in plain sight, and leaves Carly slumbering to emerge alone.

Brody looms and her steps are heavy. Broken glass and a sign that the tavern is closed forever, only then does Tune let out a groan. How silly to think she could shelter from the world this late on in the games, all by herself. She is alone - and the arena knows. It punishes her for her sins, and Tune takes it on the chin - the field, Texas, you shouldn't have helped me. Andrew's throat split open and drained, crying in the dark, Carly, she turns from the tavern and hears the ghosts of friendship laughing all the way to the river.

Brody looms - and then he is there. Tune raises her head and clenches her fists around Alice's axes. Masked and tall, malice in everything he is, Tune knows what she has to do the same way she had known to hide by the river and plunge her sword into Lux's chest. 

She throws, hard, with a great cry - and then takes heed of a dead boy's words:

Run.

Away from the cave,
away from Carly,
toward her inevitable death.

tune attacks brody, throwing axes 1/6


3rQMu1RMgRthrowing axe

throwingaxe

[sidney]

 

It is peaceful for a bit. Quiet and serene, with only the sound of the river lapping against its edge to keep him company. Like a lullaby, it sings him to sleep softly. Sweetly. But his rest is anything but. Instead it is filled with unconfronted pain and ill-advised omens.

Large winged beasts and slit throats. An ominous roar, the blast of a canon, limbs scattered on the ground.

Brody has made it this far without losing his mind, and that's saying something. Slumber tonight, however, threatens to split him at the seams. The unconscious mind shows one what they desire, yes, but it also knows exactly what one fears.

And no matter how many times he says he is not afraid, something deeper, darker, knows better.

•••

With a jolt, he wakes before sunrise. But only just. He watches it with reverence, noting just how many times Alice would have said how beautiful it was. Her voice echoes, rustles through the trees, and fastens itself around his throat like a noose.

He'll never hear it again.

Brody stomps out his campfire in a huff, the toe of his boot digging into the rocks and sand. He gives himself the task of gathering his supplies to distract from the few tears that roll down his cheeks. As long as he doesn't acknowledge them, they didn't happen, right?

Fuck it, as long as the cameras don't see.

He angles away and hunches over his bag, shoving shit deep inside before standing back up as if nothing had happened. Looking ahead, he squints at the edge of the forest, but then his eyes widen as blurry figures come into focus. Tex and Carly. He looks behind him, his gaze landing on a few others. They start to fight, weapons clashing and slicing into flesh in the distance.

So, this is it, he thinks to himself, tired and in need of a plan. And then a twig snaps behind him and an axe sinks itself into his stomach as he turns around to face his ambusher. And he grins beneath his white vraven skull mask at the sight of her.

"I was hoping to see you today," he says, a bit muffled but that's okay. She doesn't need to hear him for this. Brody inhales and wraps his palm around the handle of the axe in his torso, then pulls it free quickly. He waits for the pain but it doesn't come. Blood soaks into his clothes and spills down onto the rocks beneath his feet, but he can't feel anything.

Only rage.
This time all his own.

As soon as she realizes he isn't going down quite that easily, she turns on her heel and runs away. "You can run all you want, but you can't hide!" Brody's grin widens, teeth bared and sword held out.

He's always loved the chase.

[ brody attacks tune, bone sword ]


G5gL9rDl7Vsword


[ 4 ]

sword

[✨ zozo.]

♪ you ain't nothing but his prey

"I was hoping to see you today,"

As was she. But Brody is smiling beneath the bone, something so horrible it needs to be masked - and Tune is shaking, a frightened little thing. Her body is tired, so goddamn tired - every wound, old and new, aches. Her heart twists at the sound of his voice, panting to the tune of her rapid pulse as she splashes through the water.

She is prey, he predator. And as his footsteps approach, the slosh of water churning beneath their feet, Tune whines - she won't die in that cave, no. She will die here where it all started. Foreseen - nine years old and sitting in front of the television screen, Juliet Monaghan held under until she goes horribly still. Core memory, Tune didn't sleep for a week after that. She had learned a terrible lesson: girls from District Twelve have no chance.

And neither has she.

A slash flares across her back and she cries out from the pain, losing her balance as her right side plunges into the water. Ice-cold, the air is knocked from her lungs and she gasps anyway, pulling in a scream that the water consumes. 

"You can run all you want, but you can't hide!"

Tune thrashes in the water, scrambling on to all fours, and twists with the current - it is strong, it is powerful, it will ruin her. It will ruin her, like she has ruined everything else.

The clear water turns murky, weighing down the fabrics of her coat until the cotton turns to stone. Perhaps it would have been more peaceful to die in the dark. Just she, Carly, and all of her ghosts. At least then Tune wouldn't be alone. She stands on shaky legs, limping through the shallows, and selfishly wishes for the strength of Carly. Her blade, her embrace, her fierce, unbridled pride. Carly would not run. Carly would stand and fight.

But Tune is not Carly - she's not even Tune anymore. She's angry, of course, but most importantly she is afraid. Brody Loomis knows this - it gleams in his eyes, wicked.

Tune looks back at him and hisses, hurling another axe in his direction before taking off down the riverside once more.

tune attacks brody, throwing axes 2/6

47IT2VvS4Fthrowing axe
miss 0

throwing axe

[sidney]

 

His sword makes less than stellar contact, but the sheer force of his presence is enough to send her toward the ground. The water breaks her fall with a splash, but like a buoy, she bounces upright and seems unphased.

She says nothing and that infuriates him.

Does she have no questions? No inquiry as to why he would hunt her down? Surely Tune had seen him with them. With Alice. December's death wasn't her fault, and Brody really didn't care - she had that going for her, at least.  But Alice... she had meant something to him. He wasn't sure what exactly, but he was beyond livid that Tune had taken her away from him before he could ever find out.

"Just make this easy." 

He huffs, reaching out to grab her by the bicep, but she wiggles free with ease moments later. The water was on her side, it would seem. And with a fresh axe brandished, she runs a few feet ahead of him, then turns back. It sails in his direction, followed by a hiss, but he merely steps to the right, closer to shore, and it flies past him.

She says nothing, again.

"Really?"

Brody groans and it reverberates beneath the vraven skull he adorns. He was already tired of his, of all the effort she was eliciting from him by fleeing. By making him chase her. 

Didn't she already know?

Tune was going to die today.

"GET BACK HERE!"

[ brody attacks tune, bone sword ]


DJYzBCiKiMsword


[ 3.5 ]

sword

[✨ zozo.]

♪ you ain't nothing but his prey

"Get back here!"

Tune - sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, twelve. Ten, eight, five. She's been running all of her life, fastest kid on Meadow Lane, from Keepers and bullies and her parents. Her own fears. From Andrew and Carly and Kiptyn and Alice and Tex. From herself, if she's honest.

From death, although he's close. A breath, a water-logged shoe, green cape discarded as it weighs her down. She watches it become swept away with the current and Tune sprints after it, thunder in her ears and Brody on her tail.

“Gotta catch me first!” but for all her faux bravado her voice cracks, fear spilling out of her like blood into the water.

tune attacks brody, throwing axes 3/6

WKJr_yvbMuthrowing axe

throwing axe

[sidney]

 

There is nothing he would love more than to just shove her head beneath the waves and hold her there until she stopped moving. Until the last breath she took seized and her lungs filled with water. In fact, he would relish in feeling her give up in those final moments under his weight. 

It would feel like heaven.
Like a sweet release.
Like justice served.

Instead, she flails. She escapes his grasp. And she runs. Farther and farther away, heading up the coast of the river. He isn't sure where she thinks she's going; there aren't many places left in this forsaken place. The Gamemakers have made sure of that. They've flooded areas with purple smoke, laced the water with a purple liquid, and completely sundered the Tavern. 

So, where the fuck does she think she can hide?

Another axe wielded in her hand, she turns for a brief moment. Gotta catch me first! It's almost as if she's teasing him, acting as if this is a game and not her life in his hands. She rears back and aims for his head. It falls short, but makes purchase against his chest this time. 

Like a cornered animal given no other choice but to lash out, he growls and lunges at her.

"That actually fucking hurt. You're gonna pay for that."

[ brody attacks tune, bone sword ]


gVUoUb8lhAsword


[ block ]

* accuracy *

sword


[ 8 + 1 blades + 1 rivalry ]

sword·sword

[✨ zozo.]

♪ you ain't nothing but his prey

If she doesn't laugh, she'll cry. But the blade catches at her leg just as Tune twists her body to hurl the axe and she stumbles, soles of her shoes slipping against slime. For a second she is falling, balanced, falling again, all of her weight on one foot - then she slips and hits the water with a great splash, knocking the laugh that had twisted into a scream out of her lungs.

The riverbed greets her unkindly, the water stinging and furious. It swallows her two axes as she scrambles up for air, gasping - up again, but her clothes are soaked and her limbs feel like lead and the water steals her weapons. Instinct, her hands grasp for the glaive in her belt and catch nothing but air and lost hope.

She, in the water. Wounded and hissing up at Brody's bone-white mask. A canon fires, she cannot see Carly.

If she doesn't laugh, she'll cry.

"Make it quick then!”

tune attacks brody, throwing axes 4/6

PH4_A|MnPpthrowing axe
throwing axe

[sidney]

 

“Now why the hell would I make it quick?”

He grabs her by the throat now, watching with a smirk as the last of her axes sink beneath the water and float out into the river. She is weaponless and flailing, like an animal who was just caught in a trap. Eyes wide and heart racing, walls closing in and the instinct to survive laying in wait.

“That would take all the fun out of it,” he breathes heavily, invading her space so his nose is nearly touching hers. 

This is about power now. And control. He wants her to be scared. To feel like there's nothing else she can do. To feel helpless. Like this was it - her last chance. Because it was, but the difference was Brody had no intention of doing anything other than ending her life. Everything else? Just for show.

“And I want this to be fun, don’t you?”

[ brody attacks tune, bone sword ]


lbWW_9v3Frsword


[ 3.5 ]

sword

[✨ zozo.]

♪ you ain't nothing but his prey

Spitting up river water and blood from her lungs, Tune looks up at Brody and grins like something manic.

Canon fire once more. Carly, the world swims. Please not Carly. Tune is underwater but breathing, a blur of green and white and blood red.

"As long as it takes," and Tune tries to sound brave - but really she's crying, fear a prison keeping her body limp and heavy in the river. Good, she thinks in her final few moments. A distaction. He will enjoy watching her suffer, penance for the sin of killing Alice Ballinger.

She knows it as much as he does: this is what she deserves.

Rushing water, flooding pulse, Tune screams and thrashes out with all she has left to protect the last good person left in this terrible, horrible world.

tune attacks brody, unarmed (kicks at him)

Z_LjrmFk_xunarmed
0

unarmed

[sidney]

 

“It’ll take as long as I want it to,” he grumbles, his arm jerking left and right as she bucks and kicks from under him. “There’s nowhere to run anymore, Tune.”

He smiles, an evil and twisted grin. It widens as another canon sounds. Brody looks over his shoulders, half expecting to see a body fall. But there’s no one around them, and no way for them to know who it was.

“I hope it was her,” he tightens his grip on her throat, “and I hope it was painful.”

[ brody attacks tune, bone sword ]


5gL_huq0RJsword


[ 3.5 ]

sword

[✨ zozo.]

♪ you ain't nothing but his prey

“Doesn’t matter,” tears filling up the river. “Avenging her won’t bring her back!”

Tune shakes, praying to all that’s left that Carly is okay. “I die,” and she’s gasping, hissing, trying to keep her head above water as the current steals what’s left of her energy, “she stays dead. They all do.”

Her palms find skin and muscle, and Tune shoves with all her might.

“And even dead, I still won’t regret killing Alice Ballinger.”

tune attacks brody, unarmed

2VpWHcuDM7unarmed
0unarmed

[sidney]

 

amfjfkskdk

he just wants to snap her neck at this point so just let him!!!!!

“You’re right,” he offers to her, but he doesn’t loosen his hand on her windpipe. “It changes nothing.” It’s a bittersweet realization - that Tune Walker may be wise beyond her years. But it doesn’t make him want her dead any less. Brody knows it will do nothing. It probably won’t even make him feel better. But he doesn’t care.

wip wip i’m late for dnd scream

[ brody attacks tune, bone sword ]


VBMutCyRY|sword


[ 3.5 ]

sword

[✨ zozo.]

♪ you ain't nothing but his prey

prob sees carly’s body lift into the sky

pls brody PLS END ITTT

tune attacks brody, unarmed

pBmTmaUJrpunarmed

unarmed

[sidney]

 

i just

pls

im working on filling this in

[ brody attacks tune, bone sword ]


m8jFrociAGsword


[ drowns her in the river ]

sword