seaoftroubles | 301 preplay

Duke and Nathan fight in the galley. Nathan gets Duke pinned and starts choking him, then sets Duke's trouble off and he throws him across the galley. More fighting. They're both on the ground, trying to reach a gun first, when suddenly everything metal in the galley flies up and sticks to the ceiling.

Nathan 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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

seaoftroubles

Nathan just walked away, heading for where Audrey stood by the door to the inn, shivering faintly in her camisole.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke watched them for a second, then turned away to give them their privacy. He'd sowed the seeds of destruction for his relationship with Octavia in no small part because of the two of them, because of the way he felt about them. What he fantasized about being able to have with them.

But there was no room for Duke there. Audrey and Nathan weren't pirates. They weren't people who bucked tradition, rejected the rules. When the chips were down, they'd always choose each other. Duke just had to get used to that.

When Audrey drifted over a moment later, though, he couldn't help but let that last little ember of hope in his heart burn.

From:

seaoftroubles

"So. What now?" Audrey asked. "Danny's heading home, right?"

From:

betterthanaplan

She didn't say it out loud, but Duke heard it in her tone, anyway. "He's just a friend," he said, and gave her a small, crooked smile. "One of the only real ones I got left."

From:

seaoftroubles

Audrey watched him for a long moment, tugging Nathan's jacket more firmly over her shoulders. "You're leaving."

It wasn't a question. Duke nodded anyway. Audrey nodded back, looking down at her feet. "That's, uh. That's a good plan. If you're not around the troubles, then. . . ."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Come with me," Duke said, startling even himself.

From:

seaoftroubles

Audrey shook her head. "Duke. . . ."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Come on." Duke gave her a weak grin. "What's here for you, huh? Just . . . a bunch of traumatized people falling all over themselves to destroy each other. Why's saving them gotta be on you?"

From:

seaoftroubles

"I — I don't know." Audrey pressed her hand to her cheek, rubbing at her eye. "But it is."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Fandom's a good place," Duke said. "It's got all the weirdness, but people work together to fight it. They don't go to war over it." She started to turn to look at Nathan and Duke rushed on. "Or we could go somewhere else. Somewhere warm, with gorgeous beaches, where no one ever does anything. Or wears anything."

From:

seaoftroubles

"I can't." She sounded sorry, and Duke's heart broke a little more for her. "The man who took me, Duke, he knew more about me than I do. You found your answers. And — they're terrible. And you're right, you should go. Get away from all of it. But I'm still looking for mine."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke bit his lip and nodded. He reached out to tug her into a hug. "Call me," he said. "I can get a portal back up here any time you need me. You know that, right?"

From:

betterthanaplan

"You volunteering to go running into the line of fire for me? Bet Williams will love that."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Not Danny I'm worried about," Duke admitted. "But — yeah. I'd do anything for you, Audrey. I love you, remember?"

"As a friend?"

"As whatever you need me to be."

From:

betterthanaplan

Audrey squeezed him hard. "Go find Octavia," she said. "And apologize." Duke started to protest, but she cut him off. "I don't care if you don't think you're at fault, Duke. You need a warrior woman to keep you from doing something stupid."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Yeah," Duke said with a little laugh. "Yeah, maybe."

Audrey popped up onto her toes and kissed him on the cheek, then pulled away. Duke hung onto her hand, not letting go until both their hands were out-stretched, until she slipped through his fingers.

And headed back to Nathan.

Duke squeezed his eyes shut and ran his hand down his face. Then turned to look for Danny.

It was time to go home.

From:

hatesparadise

Danny watched him out of the corner of his eye, debating when and where that conversation should occur. And possibly even if it should.

"This place better let me go, you know. Unless you wanna explain the annoyed SEAL that'll show up."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke shrugged and shook his head sheepishly. "I haven't even checked, man. Feel like I've been running full speed for weeks."

From:

hatesparadise

"Yeah, I noticed that one," Danny replied dryly, giving him a very pointed look.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke rubbed the back of his neck. "Gosh. Thanks."

He shoved his hands in his pockets and started heading down the hill towards town.

"If it makes you feel better, I'm definitely heading back to Fandom now. I can give you a ride on the Rouge if you want, but I'm guessing Steve would have an aneurysm."

From:

hatesparadise

Steve most certainly would and Danny would have to do something to make it better after triggering those abandonment issues on him again.

"I'm not gonna lie to you about this stuff," Danny replied, falling into step with him. "You gonna listen to any of that advice?"

From:

betterthanaplan

"Which advice?" Duke asked. "Being selfish? I just said I'm leaving, didn't I?"

That certainly felt pretty selfish to him right now.

From:

hatesparadise

That did earn him a smack upside the back of his head. "You're bein' a putz. I never said selfish. I said focusing on yourself. It's not the same thing. Don't be difficult."

That was Steve's job.

From:

betterthanaplan

"Not seeing the difference," Duke said, leaning out of the way of that smack. Though not fast enough to actually avoid it.

From:

hatesparadise

"Of course you're not," Danny sighed, rubbing his eyes like he was very tired suddenly. He really thought he'd gotten somewhere with Duke before the whole alien thing happened.