double negative — iz & sage, day 1

[lucius branwen / 10 — fox]

🌱

there's little trails of blood in the snow, winding in all different directions. the paths scatter through the trees, anemic pines, thin and gray in the cover of frost. you know every year, there's some freak that's like way too excited to kill. my bet was on Vali, but i swear i saw Eight covered in brain back there. gross.

i'm touching the trails with my shoe, but it barely budges. the blood's ice seeped into the frozen ground.

someone's gonna have a field day hunting. the footsteps make it easy, the red lines are kinda just a marker on a map.

a gust of wind blows right into my face between the branches.

damn, it's like fucking cold.

the lodge is looking real nice now.

my girl's wandering in the woods when i see her. and there's always that group of people that literally act insane the minute they step into the arena. might be stupid to go up to her, but don't think she's one of them. like, not drenched in blood, day one, first of all. call it a sixth sense, call it whatever. just don't think she'd kill me right now.

"Sage."

arm slung over her shoulders, just like in the hall, but this time, i've got an ice pick in my hand, the little needle tip a few inches from her neck.

yea, i don't think she'd kill me yet.

and she's got nothing on her. no wounds either.

behind us, the noise is softer. turn over my shoulder to look back from where we came.

i used to always leave the buried votives in exchange for the body. we swap out crimes. it's time to pick up the grave goods in a place where corpses are just carrion.

her cheeks are pink from the cold. arm still resting easy around her, "you wanna go discount shopping?"

girl won't kill me yet. so i spin the ice pick around in my hand, hold out the handle for her to take.

besides, haha. i'm holding another one behind my back.

acts in maint

[maverick hale 🌧️ d5 [nyte]]

sage de ville

Here's the thing - I refuse to die a faceless girl. Made of nothing and blank as the snow they'd bury me under. I fucked up the whole fighting for my life thing, so what? A new lease on life starts now.

Maybe this time it'll stick.

Even the memory of blood scented air makes my stomach churn. I'm supposed to believe there's a killer in this skin, but she must be hiding beneath all this cowardice. My thoughts gets clearer the faster I run. The eyes I feel on the back of my neck send me into the forest with reckless abandon.

The frostbite will get me before a tribute can, I need to find shelter. Ignore the way that thought has claws, the beauty blue lips and snowflakes on eyelashes. I think of peaceful endings as the heel of my boot catches on a bloodstain.

"Sage."

I thought I'd have to find my gentle death, but it seems she's found me.

Haloed in pine needles, the forest reaches for her as she reaches for me. Stolen breath curls out of my parted lips -

"Izzy."

She seems like the type to play with her food. Which, I kind of like. Though I feel the weight of that blade, my attention never leaves her. My life in her hands, if I'm going to die I want her to watch.

But she doesn't, twirling the hilt toward me. I don't see it happen, I'm still trying to see past the reflection in her eyes. Not making much progress, being around Isolde Owens still makes me kind of stupid.

I fumble a few times before I take the knife, smiling like I actually know what it's like to be hopeful. It falls limp by my side, secured in an awkward grasp.

"Does that mean there's carrion to pick clean?" I make my shoulders smaller, easier to hold. If this is dying it is a creeping warmth. "Doesn't have to be dead, just almost. We could probably take them."

Crows and clever girls are scavengers.

[maint things]

[lucius branwen / 10 — fox]

🌱

she reaches up, stops for a second, then finally takes the hilt after a bit.

soft how her hand closes over the pick. hazy mist of vapour as she breathes through it. i laugh a little, kinda wonder how this world made someone like her.

guess she could just be a good actor. but Sage's looking at me still, her eyes bright blue beneath the gray sun. i loosen the hold on the ice pick, then let my hand drop to my side from behind my back.

well shit, i'll fall for it.

smoke starts rising from where the lodge is at. it's the slow burn of a fireplace, ringlets curling over the trees. this place is dire. like so bleak. nevermind dying from eating a poisoned plant, don't think i can even see a green leaf out here that isn’t the rows and rows of pine.

i'll take my chances with civilization.

she shifts beneath my arm, hum of her voice from her chest.

"yeah, someone definitely died." i think about the girl from Eight, stumbling out the doorway, the ooze of her hands as she backed away from me. sometimes a body gets so broken, the casket has to be closed. the reconstruction's too expensive. wonder if the Capitol does it anyway, like condolences to the family, or if they just ship it back in pieces.

i won't ever know.

"couple of people weren't looking so hot as they left either."

we could probably take them, she says.

i grin, slip my arm off. hold out my hand instead. "c'mon then, babe. the bodies aren't gonna loot themselves."

rolling for familiar

_kPg4COMkq1-13

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[maverick hale 🌧️ d5 [nyte]]

sage de ville

Now is certainly not the time for blushing, but it's there on my cheeks. Not like the cadaver pink of frostbite but stubborn blazing life. Her laughter does not belong among these looming trees. I get this strange urge to hoard it away, as if it were possible to protect it. As if I'm even capable of protecting anything.

There's either something wrong with her, or I'm a lot better at pretending to be a person than I thought. 'Cause I have no idea why she'd waste it on someone like me. Burnt out, barely there. Turns out wasting potential is a bad idea, go figure. I wish I had something to show her.

When's the last time I tried this hard? Even if it's just to keep from making a stupid face while she talks.

She tells me someone died, I make an effort to frown. It's a tragedy, of course, but I'm just glad it wasn't me. Or Izzy now, I guess. We're in this together until she decides we aren't.

I feel safer in isolation. I like that the forest feels empty, wind howling through trembling branches. There's no telling what's out here and that means it isn't quite real yet. Not like the smoke curling off the horizon, the blood stained snow and that damn dead body. There's a ton of shit out here that could kill us, but back toward the Lodge I know there's some shit that will.

She holds out her hand, taking me back toward the Cornucopia.

I'm a coward. We've been over this.

Isolde is not.

She's going to be the death of me either way, so there's no point going out with an empty hand.

I take her hand with more certainty than the first time, I've already figured out where our fingers fit.

And I pretend not to hear what she says instead of Sage, my brain doesn't have time to unpack that.

"In case we get attacked, you should know I've never stabbed anyone before. But I'm just gonna go for the squishy bits and hope for the best."

[familiar!]
c8tg0oK3ER1-12

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