[ Fortunately for Tony, his awareness of what's going on ends relatively quickly as he's brought in for surgery, and it doesn't seem to be returning anytime soon. By design, of course, as who wants to wake up after emergency heart surgery? Not anyone who's not a masochist, anyway.
But being sedated doesn't mean a complete lack of awareness. No, while medical staff are bustling around both during and after Tony's surgery, Tony himself is floating in some weird kind of limbo. Not literally, of course, but his mind is on some sort of overdrive, caught between some strange looping dream that he won't remember when he wakes up.
Sometimes he sees Thanos; sometimes he sees himself fighting Thanos, wresting the Infinity Stones away from him.
Other times, he sees Thanos snapping his fingers and watches as 50% of the world's entire population turns to dust before his eyes. Sometimes he doesn't just stand there and watch. He chases down his friends and the people he cares about most: Peter, Little Mermaid, Happy... Hell, even Steve and Nick Fury are there. But all of them disappear just as he manages to reach them; sometimes he manages to latch onto a hand or an arm, but all of them disintegrate into dust.
After the last one of his friends disappears before his eyes, Tony drops to the ground, onto his knees.
Then the scene changes again, coincidentally timing itself perfectly with the moment that he starts to rouse.
Except it's not an easy awakening nor an easy moment that his mind is conjuring up. There was no transition from the scene of people disintegrating into dust to this new scene in which Thanos has both hands firmly around Tony's throat.
... at least this time, it's the ventilator blaring a warning, not the one monitoring Tony's heart activity, right? Right. ]
no subject
But being sedated doesn't mean a complete lack of awareness. No, while medical staff are bustling around both during and after Tony's surgery, Tony himself is floating in some weird kind of limbo. Not literally, of course, but his mind is on some sort of overdrive, caught between some strange looping dream that he won't remember when he wakes up.
Sometimes he sees Thanos; sometimes he sees himself fighting Thanos, wresting the Infinity Stones away from him.
Other times, he sees Thanos snapping his fingers and watches as 50% of the world's entire population turns to dust before his eyes. Sometimes he doesn't just stand there and watch. He chases down his friends and the people he cares about most: Peter, Little Mermaid, Happy... Hell, even Steve and Nick Fury are there. But all of them disappear just as he manages to reach them; sometimes he manages to latch onto a hand or an arm, but all of them disintegrate into dust.
After the last one of his friends disappears before his eyes, Tony drops to the ground, onto his knees.
Then the scene changes again, coincidentally timing itself perfectly with the moment that he starts to rouse.
Except it's not an easy awakening nor an easy moment that his mind is conjuring up. There was no transition from the scene of people disintegrating into dust to this new scene in which Thanos has both hands firmly around Tony's throat.
... at least this time, it's the ventilator blaring a warning, not the one monitoring Tony's heart activity, right? Right. ]