JULY EVENT: SCREAMING, AND THEN SILENCE

[sailmods]

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cw drowning

[prince_of_beasts]

The ship drags everything with it on its way down. Even without Phil's help, Dimitri's not sure he could have kept treading water the way he'd feared he would. He seizes a last gasp of air before they slip beneath the waves. Everything goes quiet.

Phil keeps hold of him, as he'd promised. Dimitri's strength finds no traction in water, and what little he had left soon deserts him. The current is too strong, the combined weight of their bodies too great. His limbs burn, leaden, rimed with ice. The risen sun fades as they sink beyond its reach.

Spots drift in front of his eyes. Eventually his chest seizes, crushing a gasp out of him. Seawater hits his soft palate -- and for the first time in his life, Dimitri breaks.

His frozen lungs flood with fire. There's a grip on him that only registers in desperation; he thrashes, a failed effort by his dead leg to kick free, uncomprehending anything but how far he is from breath, from light, from life, how weak his twitching flailing efforts against emptiness --

"You've done enough. Rest."

...

It's alright, isn't it? He had to do this. He wanted it. If they had to face it, so does he.

"That's it. It's over now. Hurry back to us, poppet."

His body goes limp.

They sink.