301 preplay
Oct. 16th, 2020 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seaoftroublesNathan immediately suspects Duke of doing it. Duke says that's not in his wheelhouse. Nathan says he just threw him across the room. Duke explains the rush his trouble gives him. More arguing, then Nathan locates his chill and agrees to let Duke and Danny help look for Audrey.
We covered all this in the other post.
This stuff gets summarized before the first OCD thread: They find out that the magnetism thing happened all down main street in town. Nathan asks Dwight to take care of it while he focuses on finding Audrey, finds out another woman has been abducted, the owner of an inn outside of town. Nathan and Duke head out there to go find out if it's connected to Audrey.
OCD starts here with the son of another abducted woman: The woman's son is a conspiracy nut with a hard-on for UFOs, and claims his mother was abducted by aliens. Duke plays along to try to get the guy to go to the police station, but he runs off on a motorbike, and Nathan, Duke, and Danny give chase.
Second OCD thread: Nathan's truck dies, as do all the phones and radios. Nathan stubbornly tries to fix the truck, resulting in an argument with Duke about not being able to fix everything (which Danny is sure to be highly amused by), capped off by either Nathan or Danny getting dragged off by their ankles into the middle of a crop circle.
Then a UFO floats by and crashes into the ground not far away. The phones and truck start working again, and they decide to go check out that UFO. It landed right next to UFO guy's house, where he's gone to get his alien fighting equipment.
Summarized, not played out: They discover all sorts of clippings and news reports taped up in the house, all about aliens showing up around the country. It's all the things that have been happening in town. There are two that haven't happened yet: strange lights in the sky, and a big blast from a UFO taking out an entire town. RUH-ROH. Meanwhile, Audrey has managed to escape from her kidnapper and finds a phone. She calls Nathan, tells him she and other woman were being held in the basement of the Inn.
Next OCD thread: Nathan, Duke, and Danny rush over. Duke finds Audrey first, tries to calm her down, but when she sees Nathan she all but flings herself at him. Duke has very visible Feelings about this.
Lights appear in the sky. Followed by a massive, threatening UFO. TOWNWIDE DESTRUCTION IS IMMINENT. Audrey tries to talk UFO guy down from his trouble by empathizing with having your entire world view and identity turned upside down. It doesn't go super well. Duke starts wondering if he's going to have to use his trouble to save the town, which freaks Nathan out. Instead, Nathan talks the UFO guy into letting himself get abducted so the aliens go away.
Last OCD thread, mostly me until the end: Duke has a whole "wtf, how was that plan better?" conversation with Nathan that ends with "You're a hypocrite, Nathan" and Duke storming off. He decides that, yeah, he's getting the fuck out of Haven again. He tries to talk Audrey into doing the same, up to and including offering to take her to Fandom with him, but she refuses. She still has too many questions. Duke hates it, but he understands. He heads back to his boat to sail home, offering Danny a ride, though I'm gonna guess Danny will just portal back to Fandom instead. ;D
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 09:36 pm (UTC)And that comment about his grandfather was sort of niggling at the back of Danny's brain.
"Swear to god, some kind of registration for these things. Maybe something helpful in situations like this."
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 09:41 pm (UTC)He was way too aware of all the people who wanted to kill the troubles, right now.
Nathan poked at the engine again. "Try it now!"
Duke sighed and turned the key. Nothing happened. He hopped out of the truck. "It's not going to work, Nathan. The phones are busted too."
"So, what, I'm just supposed to blame this on aliens?"
"Maybe! Would that be the weirdest thing to happen in Haven?"
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 09:58 pm (UTC)"Oh my god, how does Audrey get any work down with you two?"
Because, see. Him and Steve functioned even when they were at odds.
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 10:12 pm (UTC)Nathan sighed. "Just try it again."
"Okay, maybe it's not aliens," Duke said. "Maybe it's a trouble, like Danny says. But I am telling you, it's not an engine problem."
"Go back," Nathan bit out, "and try it again!"
"Nathan," Duke said, voice going quiet as he recognized what was going on. "You can't fix this."
Nathan was doing exactly the same thing he did, when Octavia had gone missing. When she'd come back all broken inside. Focusing on the stupid shit, just to be able to say he'd done something.
Duke reached for his arm. "Hey, listen to me."
Nathan jerked upright, smacking Duke's hand away and shoving Duke back. Duke put his hands up, trying to avoid another fight.
"You've been telling me what I can't do since we were kids!" Nathan shouted. "Now Audrey's missing, we're stuck in the middle of nowhere. . . . Do not tell me I can't fix this! I'm going to fix this."
"This is not helping!" Duke yelled back. Look, Danny! He's trying to pay it forward! "Will you please stop acting like a love-sick child!"
Nathan blinked. "What?"
"You are in love with Audrey," Duke said. Nathan scoffed and looked away. "What, did you think that was a secret?"
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"No, I do! I understand how you feel!" Duke tried to explain it, to talk about what he'd learned from Octavia, from Danny, from Claire, but Nathan talked over him.
"You don't understand anything!"
"I understand that if you --"
"When Audrey touches me, I can feel it!"
Duke reared back a little, his eyes wide. "What?"
"She's the only one I can feel." Nathan backed up a few steps, looking embarrassed. "She's the only one."
Duke had no idea what to say.
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 10:41 pm (UTC)"Hey, guys--" he started, because they were definitely having A Moment(TM) there. But then something yanked him down by the ankle and pulled him away much faster than anything really ought to be able to.
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 10:49 pm (UTC)Feet first, face-down, Wesley had said. Standard.
If Duke had gotten Danny abducted by aliens, Steve was going to murder him.
Nathan lagged behind a little as Duke barreled full speed after Danny, who was being dragged along a dusty, grassy trail between the trees. He dove to the ground when Danny finally came to a halt in a clearing, trying to get a good look at him.
"Danny! You okay?!"
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 10:53 pm (UTC)Because he sure as hell hadn't.
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 11:01 pm (UTC)"Uh. Guys?"
Duke looked back at him, then did his own bit of staring around. "Oh shit. We may have to rethink the whole 'aliens' thing."
Whatever that was, it had dragged Danny right into the middle of a crop circle.
Make that a lot of crop circles.
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 11:09 pm (UTC)Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 11:19 pm (UTC)"So the truck should be working again," Duke said. Then looked up as something odd moved in his peripheral vision.
A large silver orb drifted slowly past through the sky.
". . . And then there's that," Duke said, pointing.
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 11:21 pm (UTC)Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 11:25 pm (UTC)"What?" Duke spread his hands. "This is not my fault!"
The orb drifted off towards the inn -- then slammed into the ground with enough force to be felt from miles away.
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 11:34 pm (UTC)Danny grabbed Duke's arm both as a support. For either of them, honestly. Both. Because this was all just gonna keep trying to break his poor brain.
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 11:37 pm (UTC)"That looked like it was near the Inn," Duke said.
"Yeah." Nathan started back towards his truck. "Best go track it."
Duke refrained from shouting after him that he didn't get to be mooning over Audrey and jealous of Danny at the same time. For Danny's sake. He was going to try very hard not to bicker too much now. Poor shortstop had been through enough.
Re: The chase and the crop circles
Date: 2020-10-17 11:44 pm (UTC)Ever.
"If this is actually aliens, I swear to god," Danny grumbled, gesturing for Duke to go ahead of him.