playing with fire ; open, character development

[fancypost bgcolor=; bordercolor=; borderwidth=0px; width: 400px; color:#99CCFF ; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;][font=georgia][size=8]Toni's crystal eyes opened widely, her nonexistent brows raised. She rushed forwards at the sight of the serval, sliding to a stop and kicking up dust as she did so.

"Heather! Is everything okay?" she asked, somewhat loudly thanks to the alarm in her voice. She didn't know the female well - but she knew that she was her clanmate - and that was all the incentive she needed to be concerned for the female.

[size=8]Imperialstar was unaware of her paranoia. Yes, Primalpaw meant much to him, but not in the way Heather might believe her to. Whenever he was swallowed up by the abyss of torment, he would steal her booze and she wouldn't complain, and in thanks, he'd follow her around and sit on her to aggravate her purposely. It was a good system; they had interesting conversations when drunk, and she was far more comfortable than he'd expected. He believed her to be a friend of his, but for him, that was it. There were no more feelings felt in the bag. She was his shield...sister, but that was the end of it. A close friend and ally, iconic bartender, and that was that.

Perhaps if he'd known of how Heather felt he'd have tried to soothe her troubled thoughts, but Imperialstar was aloof in that sense, oblivious, and often needed it directly pointing out to him, whether verbally or physically. The only way, therefore, that he'd realise why Heather was so upset, was if she either told him upfront or beat him until he couldn't walk for it. The former would be easier than the latter, admittedly, and preferred on his half, but he rarely got what he wanted with the trio of ladies that made up his two highest ranks. They ruled him more than he ruled the clan, he swore.

Hearing Toni voice concern, the serval pivoted on his heels, halting in his idle patrol through the city and sprinting in the direction of the sound. He came to stand beside the white lioness, head tilted, olive eyes on Heather. " Heather? " he asked sharply, wondering if she was still capable of answering to her name, or if she'd been pushed down to resorting to wordless screams.
[color=transparent][size=2px] #rabimperialmind

[fancypost bgcolor=transparent; borderwidth=0px; bordercolor=transparent; width: 450px; height: auto;][justify]When she was younger, Primal was a completely different person. She was energetic, happy, and quite oblivious to her surroundings. She was not, however, lazy, nor did she even have a temper at all. That was because of the good life she had been living. Knowing that both her mother and brother were still alive and well, that she was safe in a clan that cared for her, and that she was training to become a bodyguard initiate too.

Things obviously changed when the deaths started happening.

Her personality began to alter. She started to drink, have random one night stands, and she started to become somewhat paranoid of the places she stood in. The latter hadn't really been shown, because Primal had learned how to keep that hidden away from the others. Showing the world that she, the clan's blackblood at the time, was scared of her everyday surroundings? The last thing Prim wanted to be called was a weakling. Unstable. Afraid.

Fortunately she had come to terms with it recently. Her deepest fears - such as being scared of ghosts - had been shown, with the arrival of a ghost known as Shortstuff. Of course, that was only one of her many fears, but it was a start, right?

However, it seemed like another one of her many phobias would be displayed for public view today.

The lioness' eyes were wild as she ran up, having heard the cries from afar. "Move," she mumbled to herself, shoving past anyone that was in her way. The female came to a stop beside Imperialstar, looking down at Heather worried though her hackles were quite obviously raised. She was scared of all spirits, all ghosts, so it was hard for her to exactly go up to her girlfriend without wanting to teleport the hell away from here.

She tentatively stuck out a paw to touch her shoulder, only to retract it back a few seconds later. Primal started to wonder what exactly caused this. Maybe she had done it. Maybe she had caused this supposed injury, just like how she had caused her brother's death, and her older brother's death, and her mother's -

Ivory claws dug themselves into the crumbling ground to assist her in the stop of her thoughts. No, this was not a time to be scared of the fact that she might have had a play in this. It was not. It. Was. Not. This whole thing was not her fault, it was not caused by her, and it especially wouldn't be her that would be the reason why Heather could possibly die from this. Little did she know, this was all caused by a simple little thing.

Truth be told, Primalpaw used to have a crush on Imperial. When she was barely just six months, the little lioness had started to find herself being attracted to him. At first, it was just a tiny piece of heart that had feelings for the leader, who had been the captain at the time. Then, it bloomed into something else. Something...bigger, really.

She had tried to distract herself from this, since she knew that he did not return the love, no. For the last time they had properly spoken with each other, they had fought over a pathetic matter: colours. She had thought that green was the best colour out of them all, while Imperialstar had stated that gold was more superior. Primal knew that had sparked an annoyance within him when it came to her, but that had also been the time where it had ignited the sudden feelings she had.

A long time ago, when Prim had first met Heather, she had been somewhat attracted to her too, at the same time she had feelings for him. Primal had seen this as a way to help destroy those feelings for him, so when the female serval had told her, in a way, that she was in love with the lioness, she took that moment so that it could be turned into a sword that would stab her as soon as she tried to make an advance on Imperial.

Things seemed to be going alright, when she had chosen to do such an act that most would frown upon. Heather seemed to not notice the slight lack of affection for her, nor the fact that they never spent that much time together, especially at night. Even if she did, it was possible that she had simply chose to never say anything. That was one thing she really appreciated about her. When she thought (Primal believed that she did, anyways) how odd it was that Primalpaw didn't sleep with her that often, or try to go on dates.

Though she had meant to break off the relationship quite a while ago when she realized that those feelings could not be suppressed, Primal realized that, well, she couldn't. Something that was not exactly apart of her plan, yet at the same time, it was. It was unfortunate in a way, as she had an odd need for such feelings. Still, however, the crush began to die out, as her affection towards Heather grew with each and every day.

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse when she began to grow a bond with the leader. When he sought her out for a drink in return for his company (though she assumed he never really knew about the latter), her buried emotions suddenly appeared. Though at first she had thought that this feeling was just a result of their sibling-like connection, it was not.

These days, it was a constant conflict in her mind whenever both were here. She was trying to drown the...supposed passion for the male serval, but at the same time, the selfish side of her still craved a close connection with him. Thus her playfulness towards him. Thus the nights they spent drinking together. Thus...the reason why Heather was most likely dying here, right now.

Her eyes rested on the serval, and she wondered for a moment, what it would be like to live in a world without either of them.

[ 1025 words oops ]

[fancypost bgcolor=black; border: none; width: 269px; height: 230px; background: url(https://31.media.tumblr.com/37…ine_n5f49gfnrY1r21091.jpg); background-position: center; border-radius: 100em 100em 0em 0em;][/fancypost]
[fancypost bgcolor=; bordercolor=; borderwidth=0px; font-family: georgia; font-style: none; font-size: 36px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-top: 2px; letter-spacing: -2px; text-align: center; color: snow; text-shadow: 0px 0px 10px orange;]LADY SAURON[/fancypost]
[fancypost bgcolor=; border: none; width: 300px; padding: 0px; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px; text-align: justify; color: silver; font-family: verdana; margin-bottom: 3px;]Sauron sighed and made a tutting noise at Heather. "No, you're not, dear. Get her a glass of wine," the Dark Lady of Mordor ordered Toni imperiously, batting her orange eyes.[/fancypost]

[size=8]" Obviously, says the one howling on the ground. " Imperialstar all but scoffed, forcing his voice to sound calmer, more tolerant, open to her troubles. It was difficult, however. Even though he was a victim of bottling emotions up, his tongue could easily be loosened with a plethora of tactics, and he was always irritated by people who hid things from him. If she wouldn't let him help him then why should he worry about it, worry about her? Why should he care? If she wasn't letting him push towards assisting her then he was hardly about to lose sleep over somebody's stubborn desires, just as he expected people to do for him. Ignore it.

His eyes watched her without pity, because pity was for the weak and he did not believe that Heather was weak. She was simply having a weak moment, of which he had had many. So he did not judge her for that. He judged her for not speaking her issues when those close to her were around; if not him or Toni or Sauron, then surely Primalpaw constituted as trustworthy? Little did he know she -- and him, unfortunately -- were the roots of Heather's problems. If the Lieutenant Commander admitted to her paranoia, the Commander would maybe laugh, caught off guard. It would have maybe evoked true, terrified amusement, then confusion, then disbelief, then scorn, then concern. He had no feelings for Primalpaw like that. He had no idea she'd ever had feelings for him like that. He had no idea that, in a sense, her suspicions were very, very true.
[color=transparent][size=2px] #rabimperialmind