what a precious basket case || halfshade

[betonyfrost]

Even with the comfort of time between Betonyfrost and that horrible meeting, she cannot stop thinking about it.

How dare they, how dare they! Her claws itch with a want to do something, to tear something apart. She wants to break something that couldn't be fixed. Betonyfrost has been burning for so long, she isn't certain she knows how to do anything else. There isn't anything she knows to do with her fire than to swallow it or spit it at anyone who stands too near. Today, it is sharp and pointed towards one individual.

Betonyfrost moves with purpose when she strides Halfshade's way. She feels, somehow, more like herself than she has ever felt before, and like someone new entirely.

"You think you can threaten me?" Betonyfrost snaps when she comes to a stop, crowded into Halfshade's space, "And then what? I'll be simpering to get on your good side again? That isn't who I am anymore--" Her teeth flash, Betonyfrost isn't sure what she is anymore, but she knows whatever she is now is better than what she was before, "--and I sure as hell am not going to let you walk around thinking you've got me sleeping with one eye open! We're settling this right now!"

@Halfshade​

shadowclan warrior | blue mackerel tabby | 15 moons | tags​

 

[Halfshade]

She is sunbathing, or as close to sunbathing as one can get when the sky was usually so dreary, but Halfshade had found a nice dry spot beneath the open sky where a few flimsy rays of sunlight were trickling down through gray clouds; it was honestly quite depressing but she would take what she could get and for the moment the world was comforting and peaceful. For the moment. Then she heard Betonyfrost speak and while it was the trivial sort of nonsense that wouldn't ruin her day it certainly made her utter an audible sigh as she rolled to her side to lift her head up.
The pale molly was going on about-whatever. It was a wonder she tuned in enough to realize the other ShadowClanner was angry because she'd started to just doze back off without much of a care.
The torbie smiled placidly, listening, unsure how to reply immediately because it was all quite a lot. Suppose the little nose scratch put her in a poor place, perhaps she took the mud hole joke a bit too personally; well, that was fair really, it had not been a very subtle remark and she fully stood behind it.
"Darling, do take a breathe." She stretched, slowly, back arched and tail flicking upward into a neat loop in the air above the dirt as she stood, "What is there to settle? Do you want to take a wittle swing at me~? Want to get back at me for being mean to you?" The torbie she-cat cooed in amusement as she stood there unwavering and expression devoid of animosity.
"You're not worth my time and I pray you take that as the pity that it is. I kill my enemies-no hesitation and you're not important enough to be one of them-you're an annoyance at best."

​

 

[betonyfrost]

It takes Betonyfrost a long moment to understand what Halfshade means.

"You don't get to decide what I pose to you," She growls.

Betonyfrost steps closer, close enough that she would only need to right herself to touch noses with Halfshade. Her head is held so low that the sharp points of her shoulders become mountains on her arched and bristled back. It was just her rotten luck that Halfshade would tell her no— it seemed everyone was telling her no as of late. It seems her life is nothing but a long series of nos.

"Next time you try one of your— your little remarks on me I wont ask before settling things. Think on that."

Betonyfrost has never had dignity before. She's never had any part of herself worth letting her temper out to protect. Letting moons worth of that temper pour out of her now is a strange sort of relief. The pursuit of catharsis has made Betonyfrost into this: someone worthy of being defended, if even only by herself. Otherwise the urge would not be this overwhelming.

Betonyfrost does right herself then, to better look Halfshade in the eye. She's always had a curious face. Betonyfrost could look at Halfshade on either profile and have a different impression on what she looks like, right down to her odd eyes. Despite this, Halfshade is terribly and unfairly symmetrical. Betonyfrost turns to leave, there isn't anything left for her in this conversation and she's done waiting around for permission to do so much as breathe.

But then Betonyfrost pauses, forepaw held midstep, and that momentary halt is the only warning given before Betonyfrost pivots on her hindlegs and aims to slice Halfshade over her blue eye. ​

shadowclan warrior | blue mackerel tabby | 16 moons | tags​

 

[Halfshade]

TW: When you gatekeep girlboss too hard (There’s self-mutilation mentions)

Halfshade blinks and there is blood in her eyes, vibrant red and filtered over the snow covered territory. A crimson veil collapses over her, a sting settles over her left eye with a sharpness like thorns; a bramble crown nestled atop her head.

Part of her expected this, fur prickling in disappointment as the sodden gray molly turned to leave, but the speed with which Betonyfrost decides against her spineless retreat is electrifying; the cry that leaves the torbie’s mouth at the strike of ebony claws rings more delight than pain.
The bicolor she-cat staggers back, but the surprise is fleeting and she is smiling her sultry, all-knowing smile once more with just the faintest shine of teeth as her lips quiver. But there is no follow-up, only a single swing on impulse and the other remains a stone figure before her; unmoving and blocking her path. For a moment, her eyes give a faint sheen as if brimming with tears only for it to fade as quickly as the snowflakes dispersing across the ground around them. Halfshade gives a light laugh, then slowly rises and warps into something a little more shrill and unhinged. Fine then. If she wouldn’t do it..

“It’s just a scratch! Walk it off!” She says, voice breaking in a fake jeer, practically screaming. “IS IT?!” The snarl on her face twists her usually pretty features, pulls them back into something unrefined and metallic, black gums presenting curved incisors but she’s still smiling as she raises her pristine white paw up, splayed and hooks unsheathed to her own chest before sinking them in through plush ivory fur and dragging them down; the result is immediate, red rivulets streaming into a cascade marring every pale and pristine surface it touched in burgundy stains.

“You’re gutless...” Her voice drops, a low purr of a sound mocking and rumbling; river over stones. Halfshade scoffs, flicks her tail and raises her head with a swift whip of a motion, droplets of red scatter in her wake. Her posture does not adjust to the claw wounds now pinching and pulling at her chest as she strolls forward and leans in just close enough she could almost push her cheek into the side of the dreary colored woman’s shorthaired face.
“But I’ll make a legend of you~”
The torbie queens steps strut, her tail sways and she eerily and calmly pressed onward past the other ShadowClanner, rippling pools of red in her wake like the petals of a rose.
​

 

[betonyfrost]

This isn't anything like last time. This isn't a momentary lapse of reason, but something deliberate and pointed.

Betonyfrost hadn't even expected her blow to land, and yet Halfshade recoils and bleeds. There is a vicious, giddy joy that flutters in Betonyfrost's chest; a reflection of when Betonyfrost had her very first thoughts of love. She's missed this feeling — like she is untouchable by the world, and like she is a breeze away from leaving it all behind.

But then Halfshade shifts and shouts — to herself? — leaving Betonyfrost to back away a startled step.

She's never seen anything quite like whatever happens next. Halfshade turns her claws on herself and Betonyfrost is left wordless. If Betonyfrost had any expectations on what was to happen after she'd scratched Halfshade, it would have been for the two of them to fall into a tussle, for Betonyfrost to finally find an escape for the smoke of her anger or for Halfshade to make good on that promise to make Betonyfrost disappear.

Before, it had been Betonyfrost pressing closer. Now, Halfshade is crowded into Betonyfrost's space, and it feels entirely different now that her confusion has won out against her anger. She's left watching, waiting for Halfshade's next move. Nothing feels connected anymore, none of it follows any sort of logical next step. A bird folds its wings to its sides and yet it doesn't drop out of the sky.

Until Halfshade is leaving, and then suddenly it does.

"Better make me a good one!" Betonyfrost shouts after Halfshade at the same time as her heart sinks.​

shadowclan warrior | blue mackerel tabby | 16 moons | tags​