Damir Novak doesn't manage to hide his surprise when Kiernan actually puts his hand back on his shoulder. "I..." He has to take a second to reel it in and find his words. "I am not afraid of him, but...-" He tosses a quick glance around, making sure they're not drawing any unwanted attention, before turning a very earnest gaze back on Kiernan. "I do not know," he admits with a sigh. Incrementally, he probes along the psychic link, like he's very carefully asking for permission. "We will figure something out, right? Is it that bad...?"
Kiernan "Akemi" Rourke sets his jaw and nods. "...look I ain't gon'ter show it all, jus'... jus' so ye get th'picture..." he says and shuts his eyes, all the better to focus on properly remembering what he wants to show so he doesn't accidentally sow Damir... well, everything. The first bit comes through, along with what Lex did to transform someone's novel of a dissertation into a geranium planter. He shows Lex explaining the process, the lighting of the first few candles, the ... manner in which Lex speaks to him. When the candles are placed under bell jars he pauses, refocusing himself as the memory goes on. Water dunked on his head. Degrading speech. A bamboo cane, striking him, something cutting into the backs of his knees. He stops there, abrupt full stop. The arousal he'd felt at the whole thing wasn't terribly easy to hide, especially from someone in his head.
Lily O'Keefe was oblivious to the tense scene going on at the end of the docks between the two men. Lily had her eyes on the water and the coastline, squinting as she tried to remember what she could about the cliffs of her home and apply it to Callisto's manufactured geography. After a few moments of pacing down the dock, not yet noticing her classmates, she crouched at the edge of the pier to squint through her glasses and look along the shore for odd eddies in the water. SHe might not be a good constable, per say, but she did try her best and honestly, that was better than most of the force anyway.
Damir Novak nods and glances away. Unlike Kiernan's, his eyes stay open. They stare out into the water, following the soothing pattern of the ripples of the sea. Across the link, he seems to be openly and passively observing what Kiernan shows to him. But as it continues, there's a sense of bubbling anxiety and an attempt to make some kind of /sense/ out of it.
"That is, um...," he pauses, swallowing. Trying to reconcile the images with what Kiernan seems to be feeling is clearly proving to be a challenge for him; Kiernan can probably feel his confusion, too. Rather than looking back to the redhead, he looks along the docks, trying to find something to occupy his attention while he processes it all. His face is red. "I do not know what to say. Clearly, he is testing you, though his methods are...a little medieval. Did you..." His eyes catch on the movement of someone nearby and he drops his voice to a whisper. "...Do you feel physically unsafe?"
Kiernan "Akemi" Rourke certainly seems affected by it. He has to pivot and adjust and tries to do so without dislodging Damir's hand. In the witch's mind there's little use to hiding why he's adjusting considering what Damir can see and SENSE from the memory. "...medieval an' feckin'... perverse aye?" he spits out, swallowing a lump that's formed uncomfortably in his throat. He pauses as Damir lowers his voice to a whisper, his focus wavering as he scours the docks, expecting to see a worker that had wandered too close.
When instead he sees Lily of all people he lets out a groan, a hand coming up to Damir's chest to push rather insistently so he might urge the man toward the nearest wall. "Yes, alright?" he hisses quietly. "I do. But I... I kinna like it aye? I don't know how ta... dunno how ta feel 'bout that." He pulls back from the other boy, nodding at Lily. "Don't... don't tell anyone what ye saw, right? Please? Don't wanna be known fer bein' the whippin' boy, Novak."
Lily O'Keefe remains oblivious to the pair, narrowing her gaze on the coastline as if finally finding something that she's looking for. Lily straightened up then, reaching up towards the worn leather holster holding her badge and pistol and began to unclip them and start wriggling out of the harness. She hesitated, glancing around for a safe place to stash it and only then finally noticed her schoolmates. "Oi!" Lily offered with a friendly wave, "Y'mind watching my gun t'make sure no one wanders off with it?" She remained cheerfully oblivious to the terse uncomfortable nature of their conversation, thankfully, so Rourke would have no good natured teasing from his friend, at least today. As she asked the question, Lily began to do that awkward little shuffle one does when trying to toe off leather boots. "Oh, an my spectacles?"
Damir Novak tries not to watch what exactly Kiernan's doing but it's not much use at the moment. He knows. The emotions are all swirling around his brain, getting tangled in his own, confused and unsettled. "Perverse, yes," he agrees, a little hastily. When Kiernan's hand comes up to his chest, the blush on his face deepens, and he goes easily to the wall, looking up at Kiernan with round, wide eyes. "O-of course I will not tell anyone, I -"
His head snaps over to Lily when she calls out for their attention. "Oh. Hello. Okay." His gaze roams over her accessories, trying and failing to put the pieces together. He feels like his brain is slowly turning into soup. "Eh...What are you doing?"
Kiernan "Akemi" Rourke lets his hand slide a little down the front of Damir's chest before he actually pulls it away. It's more an absent-minded movement than anything but a little of it, a tiny fragment of it Damir can probably tell was a bit deliberate - if only in the way he glances back at him. As he moves toward Lily his other hand tucks in at the small of his back to move the other boy with him - sorta like a security blanket at this point, in the raw vulnerability of having shared that particular memory.
"Oy... what in the... world ye doin'?" he calls out to the other redhead. "Don't ye know there might be shite in there what'll tear ye up?" he says with a jerk of his head toward the ocean.
Lily O'Keefe blinked at Kiernan's scolding tone, "Oh, yeah. People end up washin' up on th beach all sorts of tore up and bloated sometimes. It's a risk," Lily agreed cheerfully and not nearly enough concerned for her own well being. She finished toeing her boots off and went to stuff the side arm in one of the shoes before her fingers went up to her tie to start wrestling with it. "Hey, Novak. How you been? You look a little pale. I mean... pale-ER. Burnin the candle at both ends." Lily blinked then and squinted at Kiernan's red hair then. Her dimples flashed in her cheeks, "Copycat," she teased, well aware that pink had probably not been his natural born color. "So can you watch it for me? I'm gonna take a quick dive an' check somethin' real quick. We're still lookin' fer that missin' lady, you know?"
\Damir Novak kind of feels like he's on fire. The combination of the strange memory, the anxiety, Kiernan's emotions, his own -- weird and fraught feelings both toward his roommate and his mentor. The feeling of the other boy's hands on him - in public no less! - the wrongness of all of it. It's a lot, and he definitely is not experienced enough of a psychic to prevent all of it from bleeding through before he manages to sever the link.
He shuffles alongside Kiernan as bidden. Not totally sure what to do with his hands, he picks at the fabric of Kiernan's sweater. When he looks at Lily, it's with a sort of bleary, confused expression. "I, um...well, very busy, with homework and fieldwork," comes his response. It's true, but manages to sound almost bullshitted. "Yes, we can watch your stuff." Then something occurs to him, and he straightens up, looking a little more clear-headed. "Oh, be careful in there. Especially around the rocks. I got bitten by worm the other day!"
Kiernan "Akemi" Rourke crosses his arms, making a face at Lily that is mostly playful but partly actual UGH from the mishmosh of mental mess going on from the memory-share. "Had me hair like this way before I met ye," he retorts, then he's glancing back at Damir to catch the expression on his face and the general struggle and the... sweater-picking. It's then that he notices the sweater. "....ah shite, this ain't mine is it?" he says and just... takes it off, leaving himself shirtless and that sweater smelling like forest grass and the tinge of a lit match. He's peering down at it when the comment about the worm finally registers. "...wait, hell, were ye bug huntin'?" His eyes dart between Lily and Damir like the redhead might know the answer. "Was it with Miss Cutie?? C'mon Novak, I spilled some beans ye may as well too! And ye ought ta listen O'Keefe, don't wanna come back up with worms latched ta yer bits!"
Lily O'Keefe wins the wrestling match with her tie and gives Damir a little shrug, "Oh, I jus' ask em not to," Lily says like that's the most natural thing in the world to do. "An they pretty much listen most of the time. Worms are pretty biddable things by an large. They're not feisty like birds." Lily offered as she tossed her tie on the shoes and then followed it with her vest before she was standing there in trousers and her shirt. She considered for a moment and then decided to shed the pants too, dropping her hands to the fly. "Aw, you went with a date with your girlfriend. That's sweet, Novak. She seems like a nifty lady. Met her at the tea party, I think right?" She blinked at Kiernan as he stripped. Her dimples fully flashed then though she quickly averted her gaze with a slight flush. "You sure you're not a copycat? Now you're tryin' to beat me to strippin. Thanks, Novak, you're a peach. I really appreciate it. I won't take long, promise." And with that, Lily shucked off her trousers in a small heap and dove in a surprisingly graceful dive into the sea water below. It helped her avoid the fact that beneath her bare toes, the deck had started to thicken with moss when one of the young men had stripped to the waist.
Damir Novak pauses with an inch of the fabric pinched between his fingers when Kiernan makes that comment. "Oh?" He leans in to squint at the fabric for several long seconds, and then breaks out into a nervous laugh. "I think you are right. I wonder how that happened." He immediately lets go of the fabric, pats Kiernan's arm, and straightens up to pace over toward Lily. His intent is to dutifully stand watch over his belongings. Instead, he freezes about halfway over there. "Uh...," he says, intelligently, eyes flashing between two people who are both stripping. His eyes end up just staring down at the pile of stuff.
"She is not my girlfriend! I was hoping, maybe, but, ah...," he trails off, anxiously fiddling with the sleeves of his cardigan. "We uh...did catch a couple of beetles, yes." He doesn't look up when Lily thanks him, but he does give her a thumbs up nonetheless. It's not until he hears the splash that he looks back up to Kiernan. "...it is okay, you can wear the sweater if you want. I do not mind." It's a valiant attempt to reassert his heterosexuality. "That...that Miss O'Keefe seems nice."
Kiernan "Akemi" Rourke is among maybe a handful or so of shirtless men on that dock. The weather is warmer today and some of the workers have doffed their shirts while carrying cargo crates to and fro so it isn't TERRIBLY out of place. Lily however, is certainly the singular stripping female. Kiernan has to scramble to try and stop her only to fall short as she dives into the waves, leaving him to stare gaping at the water below. "Fer feck's sake," he says exasperated before turning to holler at some cat-callers among the working crowd. "Keep it in yer pants ye lot!"
He's still clutching the sweater when he looks to Damir. Instead of putting it back on he just slings it over his shoulder. The cool air feels nice against his heated skin and he isn't terribly eager to get it back on and layer up. Kiernan sighs. It's his turn to reach out and put a hand on his roommate. "That but sounds awful heavy lad," he says with a squeeze of his shoulder. "Least ye got the beetles yeah? Do ye wanna talk 'bout what happened? I mean... she jus not lookin' fer somethin'?"
Lily O'Keefe is a strong swimmer and always has been. Diving into the water is a lot less frightening than facing class after the few days she's had. Lily's red head bobs up, the water turning her bright locks a much more ruddy red and she gives the pair of men a wave to show she's fine before vanishing below the surface to search for... whatever it is she's looking for. The salt water stings Lily's eyes and it takes effort not to flinch them closed. Fresh water is more comfortable to her - always has been - than the brine of the sea. She's under for long stretches - almost unnaturally so, searching along the sea floor for whatever she's looking for though emerging often enough to not make the men think she's drowned. There are certainly more than a few curious looks but Kiernan's pugnacious attitude is more than enough to turn away any curious dockworker about the girl with a death wish.
Damir Novak's expression twists into an uncomfortable grimace, what with the catcalling and the hand on his shoulder and the probing questioning. He sighs and pops down into a squat next to Lily's stuff, before taking a proper seat and swinging his legs over the pier. "Not heavy, no, just....very awkward and weird," he replies, grumbling, glaring out into the water. Lily might think that he's glaring at /her/ when her head pops up roughly in his line of sight. Oops. He sighs again, clearly not wanting to say more. He has to force the words out. "I was just very stressed the whole time." He places his palms on the dock just behind himself and leans back a bit, tilting his head to look at Kiernan. "....Do dates with girls always feel very...uncomfortable and...hrmmm...forced? I felt like I wished I had just looked for the beetles by myself."
Kiernan "Akemi" Rourke blinks down at the man and his very no-good mood. He's unable to help but feel responsible for a lot of it even though the current conversation is very much not about him - he is prying though, and that must be uncomfortable. He doesn't sit by Damir so much as crouch, feet flat and hands grabbing at the end of the dock, knees up at his chest. "...errh... nae, wouldna say they do," he says with a scrunch of his nose. "I mean... supposed ta be uncomfortable sure - but ... the sorta uncomfy where yer chest is all fluttery-like, and ye feel like ye might spew cause ye ate summat raw and it's wrigglin'. Not... not STRESS-bad, not... like that. Shouldn't feel like ye wanna be alone if yer with someone ye like, Novak, yeah?" He peers down at the water, several times frowning at Lily's disappearing form as if worried she won't pop back up again. When she does each time he sighs in relief, yelling out, "Would ye come up fer air more often ye salty tuna!" he shouts at her before laying his head sideways to peer at Damir. "Maybe ye ought ter be bug buds. Don't got ter be 'round all the time that way, aye?"
Lily O'Keefe kicks up to the surface, sputtering and shaking water out of her face. "Don't shout, ye'll scare 'im." Lily yells back, just as bad as Kiernan though she's somewhat muted by the ambient sounds of the sea and working to stay atop of the gentle waves. 'Him' is unclear until a sleek brown head pops up alongside Lily. She turns back to the seal, her tone dropping lower and conversational in a way that might carry to the men but could just as easily be ignored. "Now. Where d'you say the swimmin' holes are for hidin?" Lily asked, her voice falling into a soothing tone that no longer sounds... quite like her normal tones although it has no effect on human ears. She listens intently to the soft honking of the seal like she understands it, asking a few more softer questions before offering a dead fish that she managed to procure at some point under the waves. The seal honks a few more times before taking its well deserved reward and diving back under the water to vanish and take the prize far away from men and boats.
Damir Novak squints as Kiernan as he details the way one is 'supposed' to feel on a date. He can think of a couple of times that he had felt that way, but it had been when he was alone with Rourke, or Professor Dashrix, or one of the boys from his neighborhood back home. Which seems...weird, and probably not something he should say aloud. Instead, his eyebrows just twitch in consternation, and obvious effort to understand what Kiernan's talking about. "I see. Is that what you meant by...," rather than finishing the question, he trails off to observe the shouted exchange between the two redheads. Watching Lily seems to have him brightening up a bit, if only because his curiosity has truly been stirred. "...What in the world is she doing? Did she say a person went missing in this harbor?"
Kiernan "Akemi" Rourke squints right on back at Damir. "What! Ye asked! I swear it's what it feels like if I'm 'round someone like that!" he says with a pointed rub at his abdomen. The half question leaves his mouth hanging open like he wants to chase after the rest of that sentence but he's equally concerned about the crazy woman in the drink, so when Damir asks about Lily Kiernan shifts his attention. "...somethin' like that aye," he answers before blinking. "...she's chatterin' with a sea pup is what she's doin'," he says, half in shock and half awed. His hand goes out to grab at Damir's arm without looking, ending up patting at his abdomen and chest. "Ye got any recordin' devices on ye? If she starts honkin' I wanna git proof."
Lily O'Keefe: /me squinted up at the boys, not quite sure what they were talking about but suspicious enough with the slight smirk she manages to catch through the blur of missing glasses. "What are you-?" Her words cut off with an abrupt sound of inhaled water as Lily is caught and yanked by something under the water. The witch is caught by surprise. She is usually aware of the natural world but did not, perhaps, account for the *unnatural* world that is part and parcel of life on Callisto. Enough so that she wasn't aware until a boney claw closes around her ankle and yanks her abruptly under the water with the sort of thrashing that has not denoted any of Lily's previous dives. There is a sting as claws dig into her leg and Lily is reasonably certain that she is bleeding though it is hard to tell as the rapid descent towards the ocean bottom stirs up enough silt that it is hard to see. Blindly, she kicks out with her bare heel and connects with *something* though she isn't sure what.
Damir Novak follows Kiernan's example by raising a hand to rub uncertainly at his own, somewhat-fluttery, stomach. He quickly looks back over to Lily's direction. "Chattering with a...oh, wow, she is." He smiles over at Kiernan when the boy grabs his arm, and laughs cheerfully. "No, I thought I told you I do not. Maybe I bring a camera next time." He leans forward to grip at the edge of the dock and squints to get a better look. With the setting of the sun, and the way it reflects off the waves, the details aren't entirely clear. Suddenly, the smile drops off his face. "...that does not seem right," he mumbles. After a second more of squinting, he starts tearing off his own sweater. Well, sweaters, plural. "Can you swim?" He asks Rourke as he yanks his turtleneck off and drops it on top of Lily's pile of belongings. Without even waiting for an answer, he dives into the sea. Swimming in his corset and slacks probably isn't the best idea but hey, it seems like an emergency.
Kiernan "Akemi" Rourke can't help but grin at the other boy as he laughs, even if he doesn't have any way of taking evidence of Lily yammering with a seal for future perusal. He's slow to realize something is wrong. It takes Damir starting to strip, which is shocking in and of itself, for him to look back at Lily and notice both the sudden disappearance and the.... bubbles of struggle. Damir's question's answered with a "WELL ENOUGH!" as he quickly kicks off his boots. It's a good thing being flustered by his stripping roommate contributes to his body heat in this case... it's easier to heat up prepare and gather his Aether for offensive use. He's at least minorly aware of where they are too... this isn't some Grotto in the middle of who-knows-where. He doesn't let his skin shift but the heat that comes off of him is palpable, gathering at his hands as he takes a running leap off the dock. It's less a graceful dive and more a canonball-adjacent thing that gets him in the near vicinity.
Chance ambles down the dock at a leisurely pace and offers a wave to the fellow students blissfully unaware that it was in fact Thursday not his weekend. "Hey bug bro!" he calls out to Damir and nods with a friendly smile to the student he doesn't recognize on account of the change in hair color. He watches Damir strip and blinks with a shrug and starts to shed his clothes as well, "Going for a swim eh?" he asks as he shucks hsi shirt and shorts stepping out of his shoes leaving himself fully nude before he steps off the edge to plummet feet first into the water after the other students still convinced it's a casual swim.
Odette di Benedetti had been concerned since the Aethernet conversation, and the brewing irritation. Knowing the boys were headed into town made it relatively easy to establish where they might go, so Odette just....creeped. Like a creeper. Popping in and out or alleyways, hiding in shadows so her speed would not be detected.
Finally, she heard a familiar set of voices down near the waterfront, though she did not make her presence known right away.
Odette felt pretty ridiculous worrying about him, and if he saw her, he might just lose his temper with /her/.
She ducked into the wharf garage and took a moment to consider how silly she felt.
For whatever reason, Kiernan's yell of "WELL ENOUGH" snaps her head up, panic surging through her, and she pokes her head round the stantion in time to seem him splash into the water right behind a dark-haired young man...Damir, she thought.
Employing her natural speed, she is at the edge of the dock before he can strike the water.
"Oy!", she chits, her black eyes fastened to the bobbing head as she kicks her shoes off.
To Kiernan, she'd think, /'I'm here'/.
She's the only one who doesn't need to breathe underwater.
Lily O'Keefe can hold her breath a good long time but Lily can't actually breath sea water and she took in a lungful when she was yanked downward. Her chest is burning already and the grip on her ankle is implacable despite the few kicks she's managed to connect with something that feels like a skull. Despite her effort to hold onto what oxygen she still has, another burst of bubbles escapes her as she can't contain the instinct to scream when that boney grip pulls her close enough to some toothy maw to take a proper chunk out of her calf. There is serious blood in the water now though it is deeper than the surface as Lily has been pulled down a decent ways now towards the bottom. For a moment, part of Lily's brain, the part that is not fully engaged in the fight to live lets the thought, 'Oh, so this is how I die' flickers across her thought. The dull emerald on her finger, that forgotten gift from Dinah flashes with a dark defiant energy and that seal on Lily - what Lily really is- cracks just a little bit wider.
For those jumping in the water, Lily's body is suddenly oddly illuminated despite the gloom of water and silt and the dark blood starting to cloud it, her body seems to flicker white and silver like cool moonlight deep below the waves. Enough, at least to give people an idea of where they're aiming for.
Damir Novak is blissfully unaware of the series of events, including fully nude man, that has unfolded behind him. He is single-mindedly focused on getting to Lily, though...the blood in the water is certainly somewhat alarming. As soon as he sees that light in the water, he darts toward it, reaching blindly for O'Keefe. Fortunately, growing up in swimming in the Adriatic Sea means he's a fairly strong swimmer.
With some effort, he re-opens the psychic link he'd initiated with Kiernan earlier. <I think something has her. If I get her and stop the blood can you get the thing off of her?>
Kiernan "Akemi" Rourke feels a great many things at once. First, the water is fuckin COLD and he heats up immediately to make up for it, making the bit around him feel either like someone has voided in fear or like it's under some temperate sunshine... either way, the water warms, perfect for Chance to dive in and feel like they're all on summer break. <"Careful. Something down here,"> gets sent back to Odette when he feels her reaching for his mind. There is... perhaps a muddle of connection too when Damir connects back to him, some of the other boy's words filtering over and Kiernan's response coming through to Odette too. <"Absofuckinlutely,"> he replies. He's not a terribly efficient swimmer but he's fast, able to make it over to Lily when she lights up like an underwater glow-worm. He doesn't wait for Damir to get a hold of the thrashing redhead, he's already reaching for whatever it is around her leg, searing hands moving to clutch at the tendril or limb or... hell even if it's just really sharp seaweed, fully intent on burning the thing until it lets her go or simply turns to wet mushy char. His location's projected to anyone in his head, as are his intentions... both Damir and Odette are fully aware of where he is and that the water around him's likely to get jacuzzi warm.
Chance splashes down next to Damir and bobs there for a moment looking down, "Hey bug bro you don't dive if you don't know how deep it is." he warned and seeing the blood grabbed for Damirs foot to pull him back up toward the surface, "You hurt man? Sailors drops stuff down here sometimes." He looks up at the dock at Odette, "Hey my lil buddy mighta hit his head you got like some string?" he probably meant rope it was a long way back up to the pier.
Odette di Benedetti did not recognize the last man to jump in, though it seemed to her he was not as alarmed as the other two seemed to be. She really had no clue was was going on, other than Kiernan's adrenaline shot through her like a wildfire, and her own nerves were strung taut.
Odette crouched at the edge of the dock, one hand gripping the splintered and worn wood and she poised to dive in at the first indication she was needed.
She felt Kiernan latch onto her awareness, the sensation like a nod of recognition.
His response is...clear, at first, then not.
/' Careful. Something down here. Absofuckinlutely'/. Her head shook in dismay as she squinted to see them.
Initially, she blinked several times, convinced she was seeing things- tricks of the setting sun perhaps- as a white glow flickered and blossomed deeply in the water.
Odette couldn't be sure about the light, but she sure as hell knew the smell of blood, and that hit her in the amigdala like a freight train.
Someone was bleeding down there.
It was at that moment, third man- the very naked one- called up to her about someone bleeding and asked for...string. String?
"...fuck.", she hissed.
The only 'string' she had was holding up her stockings and would be useless.
She blinked down at the naked man, trying to see which of the boys he was talking about. The fragrance was overwhelming and, mixed with the scent of salt from the water, her pupils dilated, the iris widening to obscure the sclera completely.
/' Blood in the water. '/
Lily O'Keefe can just make out Damir's shape and feels the brush of his fingertips before she's reaching back with all her strength to try and grab onto the hand that's offered. The thing that is holding her is *strong* and it is *gnawing*. Her lungs are burning and the agony is fading in a way that Lily knows is a bad sign just as she knows the dark in the corners of her vision is also a bad sign. She knows how long she can usually hold her breath even in a good situation - which this is not - and she knows she is pushing past pain into numb and beyond numb is death. Damir is close and she uses her strength to reach for him. In the churn below, the men may make out a face that might have been humanoid but is bloated and ravaged and rotting. The ghouls are not just in the cemeteries and the wilds but apparently, they are in the caves as well. Lily's blood tastes like the life that this creature lost long, long ago and its hold on her is desperate and hungry. As Lily's vision starts to flicker, she can just make out Chance as a shadow beyond Damir reaching for him. She assumes between the murk of the water and the threat that he, too, is dangerous and she has gotten not only herself in trouble but two classmates she's rather fond of. Those under the water might be close enough to see Lily's eyes turn pure glittering black in her too pale face and above them the clouds that have hung heavy over the island turn dark and angry, roiling with a sudden onset storm that defies all auguries of what the weather SHOULD be tonight. Odette's keen senses may catch the scent of chrysanthemums as that power hidden deep inside Lily surges out blindly to stir up the weather in the last ditch flailing efforts of the dying girl pulling on powers that she does not understand and cannot control.
Damir Novak grasps Lily's hand tightly in his. And now that he has that grasp, he's able to reach just a bit further to wrap another arm tightly around her middle. He is not particularly strong -- not even in human terms -- but he is /determined/ to not let go.
Even when he makes eye contact with that thing in the water, and then something grabs his foot, and terror takes hold. That terror rapidly morphs into confusion when he realizes that he is being pulled up...up...and out of the water by a reasonably large, unreasonably handsome, and incredibly naked man. Unfortunately for Kiernan, his psychic link with the other boy is still active and he is probably getting all that feedback, even as he's valiantly fighting the sea creature down below.
"I am not hurt- But Lily, she is-" Damir's voice is clipped, gasping, and desperate as he tries to explain to Chance (and Odette, though he doesn't know that yet) exactly what's happening. Hopefully he was actually successful in holding onto her, in which case he'll be clutching her close to his chest. "We need to get out of the water. Rourke- Rourke is still down there."
Kiernan "Akemi" Rourke is having none of this. The water is chaos. Something snatches Damir and Kiernan briefly turns, letting out precious air in an expletive that bubbles up around him. He's going to run out of breath soon. Glamour be fucked, his skin has that dark red-orange, lines of bright blame running over his arms and chest. He's likely visible to the little group on the dock as he shoves both hands down into that rotten mess of a head, focusing Aether and heat form his body into an angry blast that roasts the drowned zombie, making some large bubbles in the water above that let steam out into the air humid, stormy air.
The last of his conscious effort is put to coiling seaweed and kelp around the sinking body to drag it further into the depths, away from Lily and from himself. Then he's passing out, lack of oxygen and exhaustion - luckily he floats toward the surface and is very easy to find.
Chance frowns at the suddenly choppy water as he pulls Damir and Lily up to the surface and sweeps his free hand over the surface stilling it. "Oh Scottish girl bummer!" he exclaims and tugs each of them up in to opposing arms powerful legs churning the water below to keep them afloat. "Hey you find string we can climb up?" he asks again still meaning rope but english was not his strongest language. The mer frowns deep in thought "Uh or cord? yarn?" he's running out of words. "Did he get hurt too? They leave fishing gear down there people do that some times." As he catches sight of Kiernan Chance gasps, "Who what happened to him!" he exclaims thinking the markings must be wounds of some kind, "Oh wait I got it!" he explaims with a grin as the water surges around them answering his silent call to action a waterspount forms under himself lifting him and the two students he held to the dock while tendrils of water grasp Kiernan and lift him to lay gently and drenched on teh pier nearby. "Probably faster than a ... Oh! Rope!" he beams at the two he held to his dripping chest not remembering for the moment to put them down.
Odette di Benedetti: /me blinked as the air snaps with ozone and something...floral and spicy. Mums.
Odette swears again when Damir's head bobs to the surface beside the naked man's chest, followed by Lily's, and instinctively she plunges headfirst into the water
Odette had learned to swim in the North Sea, so this harbor's water was not alarming to her. She kicked, hard, and shot down in the direction of the light. The water was thick with silt and murk, bits of seaweed and kelp churned loose and clinging to her outstretched hands as she clawed efficiently deeper.
The temperature changed dramatically, the iciness dissipating into that familiar hot-bath clime and she knew Kiernan was close.
Her eyes stayed open underwater, and she kicked furiously toward the where she'd thought the glow had been, and she feels him before she can see him: Kiernan who was clearly running out of air as streams of bubbles left his mouth and nose, now glowing his fire-red like a beacon.
Whatever he had grappled with was not happy, and the once human-now ghoulish face leered and gnashed in torment before sinking below.
Once close enough, she hooked her forearm under his armpit and tugged, kicking back toward the surface with all her preternatural might.
As she swam, she reached out to him,
/' Hold on...almost there. '/
Suddenly, he is snatched from her grasp and...seems to float out of the water and over her head, as if lifted by something.
"What the bloody hell...."