[Gunnar/Theresa] - Sploosh

[deathbell]

Who: Theresa and Gunnar
When: Tuesday, August 2
Where: Theresa's place --> closest Fall City river
Before/After: --
Warnings: Transformative diseases, ATTEMPTED MURDER

In which Gunnar shoves Theresa into a river.



She just hadn't been feeling well lately.

Another fever, milder this time, a cough that seemed to take up most of her air, leaving her gasping. She was familiar with getting sick, but this was unlike anything she'd experienced before. Normally her hands weren't itchy, and taking several showers a day wasn't a usual symptom, either. Maybe it was the steam helping her breathe a little easier? She didn't know. It didn't seem to be enough, but by the third day, all she could think of was water, and how nice it would be to be in water.

Funny, because she didn't even know how to swim.

It was at its worst when, in a haze, she simply turned the shower on and climbed into the bathtub, fully dressed, uncaring so long as she could be under the water. It wasn't enough- something told her it wasn't enough, but it wasn't very helpful beyond that.

News traveled quickly on Earth if one kept up with the related websites. Gunnar had already read cautions about avoiding illnesses and being careful around the city. There was that quiet tendency-- hope-- that went on believing misfortune was something that happened to other people. Then a fever. Struggled breathing. Gunnar considered it might be another cold, though it had not snowed. The showers were strange, but he could brush them off as cutting the fever, and he was beginning to see the appeal water had. Maybe he should consider venturing to the public pool when this passed over...?

But the shower took too long. Gunnar looked up from his phone from his spot on the couch, expecting any moment for it to open. He scratched his neck, vaguely aware of how hot his flesh was, and brushed away a few dry flakes.

Gunnar stopped and felt over his neck again, eyes wide with realization. When had Theresa's fever started?

Too long ago. Gunnar pushed himself from the couch and pressed up against the bathroom door. "Theresa?" His voice was too soft to be heard over the running water. He knocked, but again, too gentle to be heard. So when there was no answer, he forced his way inside.

"We have to go," he said.


She looked up to Gunnar, reaching up to her hair, to push it aside, soaking wet, over to the other shoulder. "Go?" she repeated dumbly, breathing in deeply, but not getting near enough air to satisfy her aching lungs. Breathing was making her tired, nevermind the burning fever or the restless itching.

Or the forming gills on her neck, or the shiny, frog-like webbing become visible between her fingers as she ran her hand through her hair again. Slacks and shirt and sweater, all of it soaked through, but it didn't seem enough. She hadn't even thought to fill the tub.

"Go... what for?" she asked, too focused on the water and her weak breathing to consider anything else strange.

There was a moment Gunnar wondered if he couldn't plug the tub and solve the problem that way. He scratched his neck again. No. That would not work. It would be cramped, besides. Food... that was an issue. He still had some time to work this out. Theresa did not.

You're unwell. He considered before he said it. Her previous fever left her dazed and afraid. His own concerns were making him afraid. Could she breathe? (How long would he?)

Gunnar crept to the edge of the tub and offered his hand to help her up. "A walk," he said. "The river."


Her eyes had shut while she waited for an answer. So tired... it was only the idea that it wasn't a good idea to sleep in the shower that kept her from nodding off then and there.

She heard his voice again and she blinked her eyes open, looking at his hand. "...walk?" she asked, again with that stupid tone reserved for the exhausted and vacant. Automatically she reached out for his hand, but there seemed to be no sign of her getting out from the spray of the shower. "Now?"

She didn't know what time it was, couldn't remember how far they were from the river. It seemed a strangely specific place to go, but it didn't sound like a bad idea to her. River... no, that sounded perfectly fine, actually. She shifted, a hand to the side of the tub, struggling to stand up again. How had she gotten into the tub in the first place?

Dripping wet, she belatedly turned once she was out to turn the shower off. Her breathing was laboured again, an audible wheeze. Her throat hurt from the exertion.

"Now." Gunnar didn't usually have command in his voice, and much less so around Theresa, but that was exactly what it was. He buried his worry under a growing confidence. This was something from Zenderael. He was from Zenderael. Much as he preferred to pretend to be an Earth boy, Gunnar already promised himself that when pieces of Zenderael became the threat, he would be there to deal with it.

Now he was being tested on it. He took a firm grip on her webbed hand and steadied her, waiting until she was entirely out before turning the water off. Gunnar was getting better with his numb arm, but still overcompensated and pressed too hard, leaving an indent on his palm.

She was dripping... Ah. It did not much matter at this point, but he pulled down a towel for a token patting down, careful to avoid her head and neck. Water dripping from there was probably for the better.

Once that was done, he tossed the towel over the shower to dry and led Theresa from the bathroom. What would they need? Did he have time? He looked to her again, tensing with each breath she took. No. He would have to come back. Or call for help. Yes, there were others who could help him now, and he had learned how to accept that.

Nodding to himself, Gunnar locked the apartment behind them before moving close to give Theresa as much support as she would need. "We will go slowly, but we cannot stop." It was the only warning he gave her before he led her on.


Now. She nodded in response. He sounded very sure, and a walk to the river- the idea was strangely obsessive. Surely she shouldn't be out, she was sick. Even she knew she was sick, but Gunnar was there, so it was all right. She trusted him. Ah, but should she say something? She didn't feel that well...

There was only a pause to put her shoes on before they left the apartment. She walked, but it was slow and unsteady, her focus on breathing, not on walking. Her arm around him, her grip on his shirt was clumsy at best. Down the elevator, out the front doors... not enough... not enough. She tried to breathe in deeper but it was only wheezing, coming up short of what she needed. It was making her dizzy.

"Am I dying?" she asked numbly, her voice barely audible. It simply felt no matter how much air she took in, her lungs wouldn't accept it, with barely a rise to her chest to prove it. Ah, that would be terrible. She'd survived this long... it seemed a shame to go now, now that she had Gunnar, now that she had Duncan...

He watched her more than he watched the path ahead, having to remind himself to check the streets. With his good arm, Gunnar gripped Theresa a little tighter for his own comfort. Each breath of hers was at once worrying and a relief. She needed to keep breathing until they reached the river.

"No," he said, voice fallen soft again. "You're all right. You will be all right." But he should have noticed sooner.

Once the river was on the horizon, Gunnar's pace quickened with the goal in sight. He tugged on Theresa to keep moving and paid no regard for any sign warning him to keep off the grass. A few ducks began to wander away until that wandering turned to panicked waddling, then to flight.

Gunnar had been hoping for a more natural incline where the earth met the shore, but when he went to step into the water, he instantly pulled back, realizing it was a sheer drop molded by stone. Once he caught his balance again, he stared into the water another another struggled breath from Theresa turned his attention to her.

"You need to get in."


There were several moments of outright stopping, moments where she simply couldn't move, or remember to move, and his momentum would make her stumble forward, making it even worse to catch up to him.

When they stopped- when he let her stop- she clutched at the back of his shirt, legs giving out. Her vision was going dark. Part of her had been hoping there would be some relief in stopping, but now she only felt like collapsing.

It took a moment to register where they were. The river. A walk, he'd said, but even she could tell something was off. She couldn't even bring her head up to look to him as he spoke, but her expression shifted to concerned.

"I... can't swim...?"

Gunnar stopped and stared. He had not considered that Theresa couldn't swim. He just assumed--

Gunnar looked to the river, then Theresa. Her breathing was worse. She could not stand on her own, and her mind was fuzzy from the fever and lack of oxygen. It was not precisely necessary she be able to swim...

"I'm sorry."

Gunnar pressed his hand against her and shoved her into the river.


It wasn't like it was hard to do. Actually, it was very simple to do. Theresa, while taller than average, had always been too thin, and even in soaking wet clothes wasn't difficult to manoeuvre. She was so dizzy, so tired, that there was no resistance to the push. One moment she was looking at Gunnar, and the next she had stumbled back and lost her footing over the edge.

The fall didn't startle her. It was the cold shock of water. It wasn't fast-flowing this time of year but it was still cold. All of her senses came alive- sight sharpened, her ears hurt from the sudden rush and roar of the water. It rushed into her mouth and without thinking, she breathed in.

It came easily. There was tearing sort of pain in her neck, the strange sensation of water coming in- but after the initial flailing, slowly continuing to sink towards the bottom, she realized that she was breathing.

She was breathing underwater.

There was a strange clarity that came with the realization. She reached up to her neck- the pain was already fading- and caught sight of her hands. More fascinated than concerned, she took a long moment to inspect her new situation, before remembering Gunnar above.

It was awkward to get back up to the surface. Strangely, it was Reilanin's swimming lesson she remembered. She broke the surface and gasped-

No air.

She let herself go under again, finding now to be the time to panic. If she couldn't go back up-??

Gunnar watched her flail and sink with a steady expression that hid his dread and his guilt. Rationally, he knew it was for the best, but he had shoved the only family he had into a river and was standing there witnessing her panic and struggle without being able to offer explanation.

He stooped down at the edge, trying to resist the instinctive urges to reach into the water and yank Theresa out. That was what would actually drown her. He felt over his neck, knowing he would get a turn, and not before long.

Gunnar finally slid into the water, clothes and all, and hung on the edge with his dead arm. It wasn't so difficult now with water to carry his weight, and the good arm could take Theresa to help her stay afloat. As long as her neck stayed submerged in the water, she should be able to breathe.

"It's temporary." He felt that was the most important bit to get out of the way.


She was much more cautious the second time in surfacing, careful to keep mostly submerged. The water lapped at her ears and his voice came and went, but she go the gist of what he said.

"What... What is it?" she asked, swallowing. She could feel the gills opening and closing. It was more comfortable to go all the way under but Gunnar wouldn't be able to hear her.

Yes, strangely comfortable. Maybe she could learn how to swim now. Strangely amusing to think about.

"Ah- Duncan-" She'd best not use a phone, for fear of dropping it in the river.

"Gill fever," he said, and he gave a little tilt of his head in a helpless effort to gesture to his neck. "I'm sorry. I thought it was another cold..."

Gunnar looked to the shore, where he had left his phone. "Would you like me to tell him?" He frowned. He was lucky, incredibly so, that his infection had not come with a high fever. Or unlucky? Missing common symptoms made disease harder to detect. "We probably should," he added, hesitant. "We will need help."


She lifted up a bit, as though to see what he gestured to- both of them had it??- but it was like getting a mouthful of water and she spluttered a little, returning underwater for a moment before resettling by the surface. She still felt somewhat ill, but in all other respects she felt much better. Her hair fanned out behind her, tugged at intervals by the weak current.

"What else happens?" Theresa asked after a moment, nervous. "Does it- how long does this last?"

"This is the worst of it." There were other symptoms Gunnar wasn't caught up on, but he still imagined gills replacing the respiratory system to be the biggest concern. "It should pass in a few days' time."

He pulled himself from the water, ignoring his dripping hair and guiding Theresa's hands on the edge so she could hold herself up at whatever level was comfortable. His neck itched more after being in the water, but Gunnar clenched his jaw and ignored it. Scratching never helped anything.

"Water-breathing enchantments will help..." There was the alchemist Gunnar was in contact with, but who could he get to deliver it? There was much he hadn't thought through, but it was easier to think now that Theresa could breathe.


"A few days..."

She considered it while he pulled himself out. The sudden rush of adrenaline passed has left her feeling more tired than before, but clearer-headed. Maybe the fever's broken? For a little while, anyway.

Ducking down, she watches as best she can with her nose underwater. Is she supposed to sleep here, too?... what about food? She isn't quite sure what to say, since it all sounds plausible, but it also sounds extremely silly to point out. Awkwardly she glances aside. Would other people show up? Would others die because they didn't know, didn't have someone around who knew?

She shivered.

"What-" And she paused, speaking underwater. Remembering she lifted her head out slightly. "What about you?"

All questions Gunnar himself was moving through in his mind. Rather, he knew some of the answers, but they would have felt as silly to give. Sleeping in the river...

Food was his main concern at the moment. He was tired himself, and perhaps not as unaffected as he thought. Or perhaps it was worry that drained him. But how did one eat in the water...? Maybe he could order a pizza or take out and have it delivered to the river if those establishments were still running. Gunnar was still contagious, but it wasn't as if he planned to lick anyone.

"Gills will form soon," he said, matter of fact. "I cannot be sure." He frowned and felt over his neck, pressing against the heat and shifting flesh. "By tomorrow, perhaps...?" Without the fever, he had no frame of reference.


She wasn't big on fish, but it didn't sound like a bad idea right now.

What else... vegetables or fruit would go well underwater. Nothing to get soggy. She blinked, realizing she was starting to nod off.

"Could you phone Duncan?" she asked, pressing her lips together as she put her nose and mouth back under the water. "I suppose... just to tell him, at least..." She should have said something earlier, but it was a strange concept to let him know she wasn't well. She hadn't the last time, either, but this time she would be missing, unable to answer her phone. (It was still in the apartment anyway, wasn't it?)

"Is it very common? This... this?"

Gunnar nodded. "I will," he promised. He did not hold phone conversations often. There was a certain novelty in the anticipation of that, all their other troubles aside. Mostly, he liked the thought he had been asked to do something, and it was something he could do.

He prepared to send a call, pausing when Theresa spoke again.

"Ah... No. Quite rare." He glanced back to his phone, thoughtful. "It originated from a monster that no longer exists. Its tears and spit are highly valued as alchemy ingredients..." Gunnar frowned. "...I am not sure what might have introduced it to Earth..."


She bit her lower lip. How on Earth had she caught it, then?

She kicked her legs a little, slow and languid. She couldn't imagine being in the water for several days, but...

"I... suppose I'll be staying here, then... you'll come back when you need to?..."

Gunnar's shoulders sank. He looked back at her, hesitating. "I will call Duncan and get some food. Then I will stay."

He wanted to stay.


She glanced away briefly before back up to him.

"It's all right," she said, reassuring. "I may even get some company."

...h-hopefully not in the form of river monsters.

How awkward that she had so few friends at a time like this...

"Perhaps you ought to hurry..."

Gunnar frowned again, but nodded. "Yes. I'll be back soon." He rose to his feet and squeezed the excess water from his hair. There was another nod, as if he forgot he had already, before he left on his way.

Hurry. She was right. The sooner he got what he needed, the sooner he wouldn't have to leave her alone. He dialed up Duncan and quickened his pace.