In all my dreams I drown [Iris-Backdated] [CLOSED]

[jasonwright]

[Backdated to the morning after the beach party]

 It's a pretty normal morning, as normal as 3am at a fishing dock off the coast of Maine can be. The wind's picked up significantly since yesterday, something the boys on the boat take notice of. High winds mean more hazardous conditions for an already hazardous job.

Jason leaves Alfredo in his usual spot at the bench on the dock. A quick kiss on the muzzle and a ruffle of the dog's head and Jason boards the boat. He eats his breakfast, a large bowl of oatmeal with bananas and three muffins, in the cabin quickly as the boat's captain barks out every worker's orders for the day. Jason's job is his usual as of late. With the end of the season fast approaching, they're placing pots into the water again, a last effort to hit it rich. This means they have stacks of pots on deck, reaching ten high. This also means the old crane gets stuck and ropes get tangled together. This means someone gets to climb the unbearably high stacks to help untangle the pots and help hook the crane to each cage. And this is Jason's job.

He's not afraid of heights, he trusts his crew, and his strength allows him to quickly scale the stack anytime one of the pots gets caught. He's also one of the few on the boat patient enough to sit atop a cage and carefully untie the knots made slippery by the water. He doesn't mind this new task, he actually enjoys it. It's a weird rush to climb that high and the view? Unbeatable. He's just thankful today, the skies seem clear. Even if the wind is high.

After a few hours, the boat arrives at its fishing spot, the crew has eaten, and ten pots are baited and tossed onto the sea bed before the crane moves to pick up a cage and accidently pulls two from the stack. The man operating the crane, Miguel, gives Jason a nod, and he tosses the bait in his hands back into a bucket, moving quickly to climb the stack.

Speed is integral in this job. The quicker they are, the more pots they set, the more pots they pull, the more catch they have. The captain has a very specific schedule for each day and goals for how many pots they need to have set by the time they reach shore again. In no time, Jason has climbed the stack of cages and straddles the second pot that was accidentally pulled. He tugs his gloves off with his teeth, quickly untangling the rope and giving Miguel a thumbs up to let him know he's free. As Miguel hooks the crane onto the pot again, pulling it free, their captain gets on the bull horn.

"Jay! Stay up there and hook the pots. Have a feelin' they're a mess." Jason gives the man a nod and spends the next hour of work on top of the stack, the wind and the waves tipping their boat back and forth. 

It makes for a harder job, the ebb and flow of the waves. It's even harder when the waves pick up so much they're now splashing over the side of the vessel. Jason, like the others on deck, pulls his hood up over his head, not that it'll really do much good. He's already soaked. He reaches out and grabs another pot as the crane lifts it away from the stack. It isn't tied well and with the wind, the cage is swinging precariously over the men on the deck below. The last thing he wants is the rope to come undone. He tightens the knot, gives Manuel the sign, and moves out of the way, balancing himself on the next stack.

It's then that he hears shouting, quickly followed by the boat tilting almost completely onto its side. Jason grabs onto the metal of the pots, cutting his fingers on the harsh wire, but he saves himself from slipping off his feet and onto the deck below. The boat rights itself, but just as he gets back to his feet, he realizes he's an idiot and he's forgotten something very big and very important.

The crane.

With the drastic shift in the boat, the crane has started swinging wildly, pot still very much attached. There's not much poor Manuel can do to get it under control. And his eyes go wide and he cries out just when Jason stands because that's when the pot swings and hits the man square in the gut, causing Jason to stumble back and slip right off the side of the boat.

He hears the distant sound of a commotion before the rush of water hits his ears and his hearing is muffled. He can't breath. Jason knows he just got the wind knocked out of him and that's kind of something a human needs in the water. All he can think before he loses consciousness is "Thank God I'm not in Alaska."

Comments

[littleredsiren]

As soon as Kennedy had burst into her apartment with news of her vision of exactly this scenario, she'd flown from her home and down to the docks. Her heart pounding out a frantic beat, she grabs a sailor on the beach, asking him where the boat was.

"Yeh missed it by a good hour, lass," he growls out. "They've gone north for the day. Won't be back until at least sunset."

A desperate noise of panic slips out of her lips and her brain flies through the options. She's sure Jason won't have his phone on him, and it isn't like she can just swim out there. But... Wait, is she a siren or isn't she?

Iris thanks the man before she takes off to a secluded cave down the shore. Shedding everything but her underwear, her embarrassment over ridden by panic, she dives into the water, scales flowing over her body even as she hits. By the time she's submerged, she's in full siren mode, tail and all, water flowing through her gills and turning into oxygen. She cuts through the waves much faster than she ever could as a human. Sending silent prayers out to the heavens, she grasps onto the connection to Jason, following it and hoping she gets there before any thing happens.

She's almost there when the connection fizzles. A gasp of bubbles bursts into the water and she picks up speed, following the last direction she'd been going. She knows something has happened, she can only hope she gets there before it gets worse.

[jasonwright]

Unconsciousness is weird. He's experienced this before. This exact situation actually. He mentioned it to Iris, accidentally upsetting her. And here he is again. Last time, it was seconds before he lost consciousness, the icy cold water of the Bering Strait gripping his every urge to fight for life and taking him almost immediately. He was out for thirty minutes after his crew had saved him and he only woke then because he was shaking so badly. Eight blankets and four men huddled and hugging him to add warmth--that's what Jason had woken up to.

This time he opens his eyes because he feels something. A familiar pull to do what he's told. His brain says "LIVE" and his body follows suit. Before he knows what's happening, Jason's gasping for breath, terrible, terrible idea when still under the water, but he's also kicking and moving his arms and legs, desperately trying to break the surface of the water. He needs air, he needs to be okay, not just because of his own desire to live, but because of a foreign desire. Someone is willing him to live.

He's just so far from the surface and has no breath. He just needs to get to the surface.

[littleredsiren]

As she nears him, she's thankful for the part of her siren-ness that lets her vision cut through the murkiness of deep water. Iris can see him start to flail and a gasp of relief fills her vision with bubbles. She shoots towards him, slicing through the water like a well honed knife, and nearly overshoots, still not used to this speed. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she pushes them towards the surface with a hard flick of her tail. Logically, she knows she should bring him back to the boat, but a primal instinct tells her both that she should avoid sailors, and that he's hers and she will take care of him.

It takes her only a few minutes of frantic swimming to find a secluded, rocky island, and she drags him onto the shore inside a small cave. Depositing him on the sand just inside the mouth, she leans over him, breathing frantic and eyes wild, to press her ear to his chest to listen for breath sounds.

[jasonwright]

He's barely aware of his surroundings when something grabs hold of Jason's body. He half-wonders if he's being taken away by a shark, but whatever has grabbed him takes him to the surface and he gasps for a breath before passing out again.

The next thing he's aware of is hitting the ground with a thud. Ground? Whatever sort of afterlife this is, it's not really what he had in mind. And then his thoughts come swimming back and he hears the waves in the distant, the echoes against wet rock, and he feels that familiar tug in his head. Wake up. Open your eyes. He's aware enough now that he feels something against his chest, hears frantic breathing. Okay, so maybe he's not dead?

He wants to sit up, to look around, figure out what the hell just happened but the only thing that comes out is a groan.

[littleredsiren]

The groan reverberates through his chest and she sits up fast, eyes going wide again. He's alive, and he's breathing, but still unconscious and that's not okay. Gently, being careful with her claws, she drags her fingers through his hair, feeling for a bump. She grazes them over the spot where the crane hit him and hisses through her fangs.

"Jason... Jason please wake up," she pleads, her voice melodic and full of siren song. She can let him sleep later but she needs to know that he's okay now.

[jasonwright]

Now he hears a voice, a really pretty voice. And he feels himself compelled to do as it asks, even though all he wants to do right now is keep his eyes closed and lose himself in nothing.

But he listens to the voice, and slowly, he opens one eye then the other.He's staring up at the roof of a cave, which is confusing. Falling off a boat, and not waking up in the water, his brain's pretty sure he should be back on the boat then. "What....?" He closes his eyes again because now he's realized his head is killing him.

[littleredsiren]

Iris leans over him as he opens his eyes, hair forming a curtain around them. "Jason! Are you okay?!" she asks, frantic now that she knows he's awake.

[jasonwright]

He looks toward the voice and his vision is blurry, but he sees...Iris. A very scaly Iris, but his Iris all the same. He manages to smile up at her. "Head... hurts," he says. "Where are we?" Jason doesn't try to look around, knowing it'll only hurt his head more.

[littleredsiren]

She's not sure what to do. She doesn't have healing powers, but maybe she can direct his thoughts away from the pain... Iris reaches for a thread of calm amongst the tangled mess of fear and worry and anger her emotions have become, and pushes it along their connection.

"You got hurt. Knocked off the boat and I guess you m-must have hit your head," she stammers, trying not to cry. "Kennedy h-had a vision. I swam to warn you b-but I must've been too late... We're, um... I don't know exactly. A little island. I c-couldn't take you back to the boat. I wasn't thinking straight..."

[jasonwright]

"You saved me." He says it with a lopsided grin, coughing roughly. He hurts. His body aches. But he's more focused on the fact that Iris just saved his life. And then he feels calmer and his muscles relax, the pounding in his head subsiding a bit.

He hears about half of her words. All he knows is someone named Kennedy had a vision and Iris saved him. Without anyone's help. He's proud of her, even if it's a weird time to be proud of someone. "Bless Kennedy. Bless you." He chuckles, closing his eyes again, and he may be a bit delirious, because this feels sort of like a miracle to him. His hand reaches out and without even realizing, he's grabbed her arm. More to reassure her that he'll be okay than anything else.

[littleredsiren]

She manages to hold it together, right up until he grabs her arm. Then the anxious tears, that she'd been working so hard to hold back, fight their way out. Sobbing, she practically falls on top of him, wrapping her arms around him and clinging to him as she sobs.

"You almost died," she manages to choke out, her words muffled by his chest. "You almost died and if I haven't been there you probably would have!"

[jasonwright]

Jason wraps his arms around her, smoothing her hair. "But I didn't. I didn't because you and Kennedy are amazing." He manages to twist around to sit up, resting his back against the cave wall. He pulls Iris back into his arms, holding her tightly. In his experience, physical contact is the best for her when she gets upset or a anxious. So he holds onto her, reassuring her that he's okay.

[littleredsiren]

She cries into his chest for awhile, ignoring the fact that they're both soaked to the bone, until she can feel herself calming down. Taking a deep breath, she pulls back and wipes at her eyes. "I'm sorry. You're the one who's hurt, and you're probably freezing and just want to get back to shore, huh?" she asks, getting on her knees to check the bump on his head again. "How does your head feel?"

[jasonwright]

"I'm pretty good here," he assures her, tilting his head so she can get a better look. "It's sore, that's for sure. I kind of just want to lie down?"

[littleredsiren]

"Lie down first? Or get back to town first? If you hold onto me, I can get us back pretty fast like this," she explains, gesturing down at her tail. "But if you're not up to it, I think we're pretty sheltered here for now."

[jasonwright]

He's probably loopy from the hit on the head, because Jason isn't usually like this. He grins, waving a hand. "I'm good with either. As long as you're here. This cave floor isn't too comfortable though."

[littleredsiren]

Iris feels her face heat up at the 'As long as you're here' comment. "I could... um, get some seaweed to pad it or something. Or we could move further onto the island to find a better place to rest?"

[jasonwright]

He's really in no state to be making decisions, so Jason just smiles brightly at her. "Whatever you want."

[littleredsiren]

Her stomach is turning at the thought of being in charge right now, but she knows she has to do something to keep them safe and comfortable until he's more... lucid. Waiting until he's distracted by something else, she wills her tail back into legs, keeping the scales because she'd feel really weird walking around in her underwear without them.

"Will you be okay here on your own? I'll go get seaweed and see if I can't find something to make a cold compress for that bump."

[jasonwright]

He's easily distracted right now so he doesn't even notice Iris change. "I'll be fine. I'll stay right here and no move an ince."

[littleredsiren]

She gives him a wary look before kissing his cheek and heading out of the cave and onto the beach. She gathers up armfuls of wet (but then, so are they) and squishy (good padding for the cave floor) seaweed before she comes back, dumping it onto the rocky floor.

"Jason? How are you feeling now?" she calls, busying herself spreading it out.

[jasonwright]

He nods off a bit while Iris is gone, slumped against the wall of the cave. Jason cracks an eye open when he hears a rustle and sees she's returned with....seaweed?

"Fresh as a daisy," he replies. His head is still pounding and his eyes are getting heavy.

[littleredsiren]

She glances over at him and frowns, watching as his eyes slide shut for a second before snapping back open. Crouching next to him, she gently holds onto his chin, mindful of her claws. "How does your head feel?" she asks. "I'm worried you have a concussion..."

[jasonwright]

"It feels poundy?" he answers, prying his eyes open to look at her. "How's your head feel?"

[littleredsiren]

She scrunches up her face, confused. "My head is fine... You're the one that hurt yourself, silly," she says, leaning down to slide an arm around his ribs. "Come on... We'll move over to the softer place and sit, but you can't fall asleep, okay?"