Chilly Weather for a Swim

[kore_npc]

Who: Maggie, Tony Stark, Kid Blue, Lydia Martin and OPEN
Where: The docks and the surrounding area
When: Late afternoon of day 19
What: Some rumblings, some people falling into the water and getting scraped up. The usual.
Notes: Feel free to have multiple threads, thread-jump, etc!
Warnings: -


The shaking started slowly around the docks, building up in intensity until the wood began to clatter against itself in the water. The waves crashing up on the shore were getting more and more agitated and choppy as the shaking persisted.

Comments

[afallenstar]

It's hard to make out the words amongst the fit of giggles Anna is currently lost in, but it's something along the lines of 'I can't carry you' as they wander down to the harbour. It had been her idea to go to the docks in the first place - Tony is well and truly drunk at this point. It's partly her fault, it wasn't exactly a fair competition when 'lets get drunk' turned into 'who can drink the most', but in all fairness she hadn't quite realised how much they had consumed.

Now they're staggering along with Anna's arm wound tight around Tony's waist for support. She's swaying a bit herself but it's mostly just for show. Her grin is loose and easy going. She's laughing and it's genuine, and that can be put down to the pleasant buzz from the alcohol she's consumed - easily enough to put a regular person in hospital with alcohol poisoning but barely enough to get her tipsy. As they wander out closer she's vaguely aware of the tremor, but it doesn't really register. It's not until the shaking begins to really set in that she actually grows concerned, and the giggling and playing cuts off immediately.

"Tony, I think we should-"

And then the docks collapse under their feet, and Anna is suddenly back on the after of solid ground, very noticeably minus one Tony Stark.

[manofiron]

Mind safely ensconced in what feels like a cushion of fizzy bubbles, Tony isn’t paying attention to where they are. It’s taking all of his concentration to put one foot in front of the other and keep pace with Anna; he can’t be bothered with orienting himself or noticing when things start to go amiss. For the moment, fleeting though it is, he’s happy, so numb that while he can’t quite forget the things that had upset him, he’s too far removed to feel anything. And that’s what he needs. He needs peace from his demons, a beautiful girl in his arm, and fun, all three of which he has in spades right now.

Until the ground slides out from beneath his feet.

He’s too drunk to realize what’s going on, and even if he were sober, it happens so fast that it’s likely he wouldn’t have known then either. There’s an instant of weightlessness, a dizzying blur of color, and a stunning blast of frigid cold that knocks the air from his lungs and doesn’t give it back. It’s when he tries to gasp for breath and feels water pouring into his lungs that he realizes that he’s underwater, that it’s water that’s making his vision blurry, not the alcohol. A brief, heart-stopping moment of panic seizes him, flashbacks of being repeatedly dunked and held down in a barrel of water making him thrash in the mindlessly urgent need to breathe, to get away.

It doesn’t last. None of it does. An instant later, something sharp collides with his head and mercifully, everything goes dark.

[afallenstar]

It actually takes a moment for Anna to realise what has happened. She stares out at the rough water and her hand reaches vaguely towards the side of her where Tony had been just moments ago, and then everything falls into place. She's gotten herself out there, panicked and saved herself without it even occurring to her, and Tony's still in there. It still isn't quite sinking in though, and Anna really isn't the best person to have in an emergency because after the horrified silence which feels like it might drag on forever, she just screams out his name.

With no response and no sign of him resurfacing, she frowns and starts to shed some of her heavier clothing. Her jacket, jeans and shoes get thrown unceremoniously to the side and she peers into the water, trying to narrow down where he is. He's been in there too long already though, she doesn't have time, so she just sucks in a deep breath before diving into the freezing cold water. She's unaffected by it, and starts turning under the water as she tries to locate him, and then she catches sight of a faint glowing a little below her and grabs out. Her hand curls around his forearm, and that's all it takes. She's not going to waste any more time.

Instantly they're back on shore, and Anna doesn't even have time to hope that no one else has seen them appear or heard the sound of fluttering wings that accompany her flight. She's too busy laying Tony down carefully, and quickly checks his pulse as she brings an ear down to his mouth. She's willing him to be breathing, to be okay because she's already been too obvious, already done too much in saving him. She can't just have him be magically okay, someone will piece it together soon the way Mina did.

[manofiron]

He isn’t dead. He might wish that he was later, when he’s battered and hungover and completely miserable. But at the moment, he’s alive. His heartbeat is strong, surprisingly so, considering that it’s defective and broken, easily felt when Anna checks his pulse.

There’s a cut on his forehead, right above his temple, that bleeds freely but not dangerously. He won’t bleed out from it, and while the knock to his head may have resulted in a concussion, it hasn’t cracked his skull or sent him into a coma. His clothes are torn and thoroughly soaked, and if she looks, she’ll notice the faint glow of the arc reactor from beneath his shirt.

For a moment, it seems as though he’s not breathing. His chest doesn’t rise or fall, no air passes through his nose or his mouth. But then, as the seconds tick by, he starts coughing, weak, sluggish coughing that ends with him turning his head and retching up the salt water he’s swallowed. His eyes open once, unfocused and dazed, not really seeing her even though they turn in her direction, before they close again and he falls limply back against the ground, unconscious but alive.

[afallenstar]

Anna drops his wrist the moment she feels the pulse, it's strong and that is nowhere near her main concern now. She's sure he's not breathing, and she presses a hand to his chest as she leans in closer. She's been around a long time, she thinks she can do CPR, but she's never actually had to administer it before. It's hardly high up on the list of job requirements for the Host, after all.

"Come on, come on- Oh thank God." She quickly pulls away enough to rest a hand behind his head as the water comes up, but no sooner than that happens he's gone again before she can say a word. A deep frown setting in, she slides an arm under his legs as she works the other under his shoulders and Anna picks him up with surprising ease.

She shouldn't be able to carry him, not like this, and certainly not without struggling. Barely tipping 5'5 and just over a hundred pounds, there's no way someone her size would be able to gather someone up in their arms like that, let alone a fully grown man. She does it all the same though, and it doesn't occur to her that she's going to have to explain to someone, that it's going to raise as many questions as if she'd just taken him their through flight. All she's thinking about is getting Tony back to his house and making sure he's going to be okay.