revivalproject | Cats Hate Water, Right?

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Cats Hate Water, Right?

WHO: Robin Buckley, You
WHERE: Temba Bubble
WHAT: Clumsiness with swimming, Chased by Predators
WHEN: During MerMay
WARNINGS: Possible injury/blood in second prompt

I. Even More Clumsy

If you were always a mer, and clearly they were always mer what are you talking about, then clearly one should not get tangled up in their own tail. Right? Right. Clearly. That is the only absolute truth that one should be able to take away from all of this. There should be no clumsiness.

Except there's Robin. Who definitely pulls the short end of many sticks in her tail and fins. The tail is long, slender, graceful looking, at least when Robin's not moving. And her fins are wide, billowing, beautiful like a fancy male betta fish. In motion the dark green, gold, and bronze swirling patterns of her long tail and fins should be beautiful.

Except she's Robin. And in the moment she's somehow managed to get herself tangled up in her own too-long tail which was also then tangled in with a bunch of greenery. Not to mention the fact that her shirt was clearly caught up in some prickly sort of plant.

She's stuck. And Robin is just struggling enough to make it worse. Because of course she was.

II. The Aquakat Issue

The best part of this whole place is that it's so wonderful and safe. Super safe. Like, sure, Robin sometimes got tangled up in all mess of things because she was not the most coordinated mermaid, but there wasn't any real danger. This place was so much better than Hawkins like that. There wasn't even anyone who was really against her as a person. She almost felt like she might be safe if she shouted out to the limits of the world that she liked girls. Except for the few situations where things in Temba had gone very weird, they were safe here.

So yeah, there's no problem with Robin enjoying some time stretched out on the 'roof' of a ruin, fiddling with her communication device to try and explore more functions of it. There's no reason she should be watching out carefully, right?

Problem with that theory: there are predators in the waters. Including some that normally wouldn't range in Temba. Not that it was the first time an Aquakat had ended up in the city. Just, you know, the first time that it had arrived in a fully aquatic environment, making it even more deadly than before. Such a creature had slipped into Temba before the dome closed, and... Well...

If nothing else, at least Robin has a decent instinct for when shit is going bad. She doesn't see the cat specifically, but there's something that has her suddenly sitting up and tucking her comm device away.

"Is someone out there?" she calls, looking around. "It's not funny if you're staring and being a creeper!"

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It was supposed to be a fairly gentle and methodical move, to avoid bumping Robin against anything. That plan was rapidly scrapped as Tony gasped, "Shit!" and went jerking away from the sudden movement that was definitely a real threat and not a figment or a lobster. Instead, he was rapidly yanking them inside, then pushing away from the wall and open window. "Not to alarm you or anything," he said, breathing a little too fast to be entirely casual, "but I think there's something out there."

At least she's mostly safe. Fuck, where is Steve with his bat when she needed him?

"Oh, is there? How could you tell?"

It's said with bite and sarcasm, but not the sort that comes from disliking someone. Just the sort that people like her fall back on when they are scared and tense.

"What WAS that?"

"Fast," was the only answer that Tony had at the ready for her, and gave a shrug with wide eyes, because it wasn't something he had ever seen before. Worse, there was plenty in this city that was just baseline alien to Tony and could have been hiding around the corner this whole time, or this could have been a sign of the next horrible thing that was being inflicted on them. It didn't often happen in broad daylight like this. That didn't make it any less unnerving as Tony tried to listen for the creature, gaze roaming along the ceiling like he could pinpoint its steps. He had to get a better answer for Robin, so he went snaking his way back toward the window when he didn't hear anything, cautiously sliding out on his back.

Yeah, fast was right. She didn't even see it. It had been luck that kept them out of lasting harm. For now.

"Woah, wait," Robin says when she sees him trying to slip out through the window. "You could get hurt!"

Tony raised a hand, both reassuring and cautioning her to be patient, then was pulling himself further up to where he had been sitting. Without Robin, the roof looked empty, except for the place where the tiles were cracked. That was unnerving. On the other hand, he could call back, "I don't see anything," even as he kept searching, straight up for good measure. "Any of those monsters you know come out of nowhere like that?"

It's not reassuring. He's going to get eaten or something! Doesn't he have loved ones he wouldn't want to have lose him? What's he thinking?

"Please, just-"

SHe was going to say 'come back in', but he's asking a question. She swims closer to the window to look up and out toward him.

"I mean, yes. But demogorgons aren't good at staying quiet, and the rest attack in packs."

He did acquiesce enough then, mostly because he wasn't finding anything out here to report, to sink down where he could sit on the windowframe, one hand braced on the top to keep from floating out any further and long tail making a wide loop around Robin like marking a boundary line. "We've got to work on making you less tempting, I'm afraid," he suggested. This was one more random monster attack than she should have experienced. "I don't think that thing's going to stick around long enough to rationalize with."

"Trust me, no one calls me tempting."

And yet here she was, almost hunted or something. Unlike...

Nope. Not unlike Tony. Because another lunge was being made at him by the aquakat, this time with claws and fangs out.

He saw it in her eyes first, still not fast enough to react. Just enough to be ready to feel it hit him, and even then he couldn't have accounted for just how hard, and the claws digging into his shoulder and back. He had to let it carry him forward with a yell, ducking his head down to roll just as the teeth grazed his neck, and grabbing blindly for a fistful of skin and fur over his shoulder to haul it with him, letting his own claws shred mercilessly to keep hold. They tumbled into the room with Tony's tail lashing with a series of bright flashes, until he had wound it constrictor tight around whatever had slammed into him. He had to be efficient with his energy. He snarled, "Out!," at Robin before he lost his hold on the now panicking beast.

Oh god.

"Tony, no!" Robin says, shouts really. Damn she wishes she was armed.

But of course he has more of an advantage against the thing than Robin would have been. Claws and constricting has the beast growling through its pain. It bares its teeth and tries to lean in enough to bite Tony.

"Shit, I'll find a weapon," Robin calls, because someone has to save Tony!

It was hard enough to focus on keeping these teeth out of him without worrying about what Robin was planning, and Tony could only snap, "Out!," again as he got an arm around the animal's neck to try to pin it. It wouldn't be the first leopard he had wrestled, but the last thing he wanted to do was kill it in front of the girl, and he was rapidly running out of options the longer she stuck around.

As if she would be traumatized by that. Already has plenty, and this wasn't up there. So when she found a piece of rebar, you better bet she was hauling it loose and then swimming for where Tony was. She was going to help dammit.

She was not going to let him die!

She had been quiet just long enough that Tony had a second to consider how completely fucked he was, because there was no way he was swimming them in any direction with all of his limbs currently engaged in holding back teeth and claws, and the chances that he calculated of this creature choosing to bolt for the window rather than eat him alive were close to Eat point Shit. What would Cap do? He definitely wouldn't get startled by Robin appearing again, holding something like she was about to start swinging. He wanted to ask what she thought she was doing, if she was crazy or suicidal, and it came out as a growl that he could hardly hear himself over the snarling in his ear. He had to wrench a shoulder back to try to roll the animal away, where it wouldn't see the fresh meat running into its reach.

"Hey, I'm trying to help!" Robin protests as Tony rolls the Aquakat away from her. Let her hit the thing.

Of course now the predator is trying to squirm away from Tony. It's failed. It needs to get away. That's just the life of an ambush predator.

Right at that moment, its life was having its face crushed into the floor by Tony's elbow and its fur singed by panicked jolts where it was still tightly wrapped down the length of its body. Above it, Tony was staring wildly at Robin, really not sure what she meant to do. It felt like encouraging her was the kind of reckless move that he was going to be atoning for on all fronts, but she wasn't giving him a lot of options.

"Make noise!" he instructed brusquely through his teeth, with a vague toss of his head towards the wall facing the window. If Robin could make herself big and scary enough, they might just have this beast convinced to run in the opposite direction and back the way it came.

Make noise? Well hell, that's something Robin is very qualified for. She nods and flares her massive tail and fins out, swims for the nearby stone of a building, and starts beating loudly and vigorously on it.

Which of course sends jolts of pain and numbness up her arms, but she doesn't care. She's trying to help, and this guy is CLEARLY an idea man. SHe's going to trust him.

Either it was a great idea or an absolutely terrible one. That same vibrating force that was numbing to Robin was a panic-inducing pitch to the animal's ears, a completely foreign metal clanging that had it straining in a new, thrashing frenzy that Tony couldn't hold much longer even if he wanted to. And he did desperately try, tasting blood as he clenched his teeth, trying to ready himself to grab and restrain it again if it went the wrong way, and sure he wouldn't have the strength this time. He released the animal all at once, with a last whipping lash of his tail on its flank to send it bolting.

Apparently, a great one. The creature, once released, bolts. Helps that Tony strikes it as a parting thing. Robin, she doesn't even wait. She drops the metal rod and swims right at Tony.

"We should get you to a medic, now. Please."

Tony was a little slow to look her way, staring after the creature to make sure it was well gone and not about to come back for the afterparty, hand up and hovering until he could actually tear his eyes away from the window. Then he was touching her face and her arm to make sure they were properly intact and she wasn't too rattled, leaving static sparks with each brush of his fingers that made her hair start to flare up. "It's fine, I'm fine," he said quickly, like his back hadn't been clawed open, and it was a much better use of his time to accuse, "Why didn't you warn me?"

Of course she's rattled. The sea version of a saber tooth tiger with a mane just ATTACKED THEM. She's very rattled. She's upset and more worried about him than about her.

"I didn't know it was there," she says, on the verge of panicked tears. She doesn't even care that she's getting lightly zapped. "What even was that?"

"Hey, hey," Tony tried to redirect that energy, holding her face again to help her as he said, "Focus, I'm messing with you, you did great, you did warn me, that's on me, I wasn't taking it seriously enough. You saw it coming, and then you stood your ground, and you scared it off, job done, couldn't have gone any better." He only released her to glance toward the window again, like the thing might have left some hint for him to be able to answer her question, but his shoulders were already hitching up in an apologetic shrug. "Well, here we go, we can put it to the test: monster or animal?" One of them meant they were still on the clock, despite Tony's reassurance.

Oh. Messing with her. That's not nice. She frowns severely at that. But doesn't smack his arm. Small victories.

"It wasn't any monster I know. So I can't answer one way or another for sure."

Not a demo-beast. Perhaps just a beast beast.

"Guess that was what was watching me."

The frown only made Tony smile, effectively pushing some of that anxiety off of her face like he had intended for him to greet in a murmur, "There she is."

He made a move like he might return to the window, considering the evidence that they had and unsettled that he couldn't confidently answer the question himself. That might have been their first warning that they were staring down the barrel of another humiliating test from their voyeurs. "My god, I hope so," he replied, "or you're really going to have to confront your sense of self, you've got creatures in every corner staring at you, you can't keep pretending you don't."

There she is? Robin doesn't know what he's talking about. But she definitely looks concerned about him.

"I'm pretty sure people don't stare at me all that often unless they're going to eat me, and that's usually only a once a year thing, so this is weird. Fuck. Listen, please just come with me, okay? You look hurt and someone should patch you up."

Tony snorted at her tenacity, then gave a nod that was more of a bow of his head, hands up in surrender to Robin's insistence that she wasn't the one on the menu, and to her concern, because being clawed by some kind of tiger was extraordinarily painful and Tony was rapidly running out of the fuel it took to keep smiling for her. "I'm okay, really, not as bad as it looks," he still insisted even as he made a limping swim for the window. It was still the quickest way out--that was why the animal found it so convenient, after all.

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