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:

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.

From:

betterthanaplan

He had! But then his ex had tried to blame his friend's kidnapping on him so he could murder him. Made it a little hard to see the nuances.

"Makes sense. The not-selfish plan would have been to murder that guy, right? Instead of just. Letting his trouble eat him or whatever. But hey, he doesn't have kids, and his mom's literally toast. So everything's a-okay now."

Pour the bitterness on a little harder there, Duke. Tell us how you really feel.

From:

hatesparadise

Yeah, but Nathan was a moron.

Danny whirled on his heels to give him a look for that. "No, everything is not a-okay," he snapped, also letting that frustration out. "You wanna wallow? Fine. You can wallow. You wanna do something about it? Actually look inside and see what's going on there instead of ignoring it to focus on everyone else around you."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke was really glad they'd made it a fair ways away from the crowd at the inn. He didn't need Nathan and Audrey to see him fall apart.

"I'm scared, okay?! Is that what you want to hear, man? I've been alone my whole life and I'm terrified of what's inside of me!"

From:

hatesparadise

"It's okay to be scared." Danny said, not backing down, but his tone gentling a little. "We all are. Anyone who says otherwise is a freakin' liar."

From:

betterthanaplan

"I wanted to kill that guy," Duke hissed. "Nathan was right. My whole family is full of murderers, do you know what that feels like?"

From:

hatesparadise

"No," Danny said softly. "No, I don't. But I know killers. And I like to think I know you. What happened there was a choice that should never be forced on someone."

From:

betterthanaplan

But it would. It would be forced on Duke again and again and again.

"It's in my blood," Duke said, digging his hands into his pockets even deeper, as he tried to resist the urge to hug himself. "The trouble from Dad. Addiction from Mom. How am I supposed to resist this shit when there are people who actually need it?"

From:

hatesparadise

Danny sighed and reached out to put his hands high up on Duke's arms. "You are not your family. You're you. Don't give up on yourself, you hear me?"

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke twitched his head away, but didn't try to make Danny let go. After a moment, he nodded.

"If it had really come down to it. If Nathan hadn't come up with his weird, 'let the aliens take him' plan. . . . Would you have stopped me?"

From:

hatesparadise

"Yes."

From:

betterthanaplan

That wasn't what Duke had been expecting.

"His trouble could have killed thousands of people."

From:

hatesparadise

"Then I would have stopped him too," Danny said calmly.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke was not even a little bit calm.

"How?! He thought an alien mothership was going to level the town! You don't even know how troubles work, Danny!"