seaoftroubles | Preplay, ep 4x01 Fall Out

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Preplay, ep 4x01 Fall Out

Duke already did the very first scene, so the trick here will be to connect him -- and Luce and Tavi -- to Jennifer. I'm thinking that maybe, the same way I relocated Duke's mom to Baltimore, Jennifer could be in Baltimore for handwavy reasons, too? And she could go see this new therapist in town. Who listens to her story about hearing voices, recognizes the same things Duke has told her about the meteor storm and the barn, and goes "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so here's a thing you probably don't want to hear and I might lose my license but can I put you in contact with someone?" and clues Duke in?

Duke talks to Jennifer, figures she must be troubled, and tries to contact Haven again -- this time getting through only to be told that Duke Crocker's been dead for six months. He calls Dave, who he finally gets to listen, and finds out that Nathan is on the run. He talks Lucifer and Octavia into coming with him and Jennifer up to Maine to see if they can find Nathan and Audrey and find out what's going on

They find Nathan outside a biker bar, letting people punch him for money. Jennifer is apalled. Octavia is, I'm guessing, unimpressed. Maybe Lucifer makes the first move to say "hi" instead of Duke? I can totally see Duke getting ready to go over and Lucifer being all like "NAH LET ME GET A SHOT IN, THEN" and getting Nathan's attention

Arrival in Haven. Jennifer has caught Nathan up on what she heard from the barn bout how to end the troubles forever. There's a welcoming committee in town made up of Guardsmen with guns, led by Jordan. Duke catches Jennifer up on who's who in the crowd as the Teagues and Dwight show up to try to defuse the situation. Nathan tells the Guard that he's going to get Audrey to kill him to end the troubles forever. Enter a MFING TORNADO. Everyone takes cover, Vince convinces the Guard to clear out and let Nathan help defuse the weather trouble, Dwight offers to take folks back to the station to clue them in

I'm picturing the group splitting up here. Duke gets Jennifer to head to the Gull to get something to eat while he and Nathan work on the trouble. Octavia could go with her, show her the way to the Gull, maybe meet Wade? Or would she be unwilling to leave Duke with Nathan and Dwight? I'm guessing Lucifer will go to the station to find it deeply country and lacking in comparison to the LAPD. Anyway, either way, Dwight gives Nathan and Duke (and anyone who tagged along) a rundown on the weather events happening in town. Nathan remembers about Marion and her weather trouble. They decide to go check it out.

At Marion's house. There's a GIANT FUCKING STORM overhead, so it's hard to miss. Nathan, Duke, and Dwight go in to try to talk to Marion, but it's like the inside of an over-clocked meat locker. Ice and frost coat every surface. Dwight and Duke are immediately shivering. Nathan can't feel it though and sends them out so he can talk Marion down. This might be a fun place for Lucifer to step in and help out? I kind of like the idea of freshly capable of saying ILU Lucifer seeing a woman completely freezing up over her loved one's death. Nathan tells her that she has to learn to let go, uses his own example of not being willing to let Audrey go and thus ruining the end of the troubles as an example for this. Lucifer . . . responds like Lucifer? Anyway, Marion is eventually talked down (though not before trying to freeze Nathan solid). Meanwhile, outside, Dwight, Duke, Vince, and Dave watch the storm head towards town and lightning blow up Dave's old camper van

At the Gull: Duke expected it to be closed down since he wasn't around to run things even over the phone for six months (also they think the owner is dead), but the place is hopping. If Octavia has come with Jennifer, then maybe she texted? Maybe the text got lost/delayed due to Marion or maybe Duke is less nonplussed on arrival, either way. Anyway. Wade shows up all "OMG DUKE YOU'RE ALIVE" and Duke is all "oh fuck my brother is here, we have a killer trouble and he's a total nincompoop, he's doomed"

At some point during/after all this, Duke tells Lucifer and Octavia he needs to stick around at least until they find out what happened to Audrey. Nathan is a self-destructive wreck, Haven has lost its collective goddamned mind and appointed DWIGHT as chief of police, it's a shitshow! He brings them to his in-Haven boat (Lucifer is unimpressed with its tininess I'm guessing), and they talk about being stuck in yet another shit situation in someone's homeworld.

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"I'm Lucifer Morningstar, dear, I told you," Lucifer said, pushing his jacket back as he slid his hands back into his pockets. "I'm Duke's boyfriend, and I'm here to make you snap out of this, because much like me, you're hurting people."

Beat.

"With a bit more of a hint of manslaughter."

Marion would have been horrified to hear that last bit, but she was a little too busy being horrified by the first part.

"The Adversary," she whispered. "No. No, you can't have him!"

More thunder, and the wind picked up even further. Outside, Dwight had to wrap his arm around Duke's waist to keep him from trying to storm his way back in and see what was happening.

Lucifer paused and stared at her with a bit of indignant horror.

"I have no say in where he goes, I assure you," he said. "That's his own decision. One you're likely not improving upon by leaving a trail of destruction in your wake, mind you."

"What are you talking about?" Marion hissed.

"What, the bit where I have never had any bloody interest in collecting any souls and you lot just show up on my doorstep if you want to be punished, or the bit where you've been killing people with your trouble, which may wreck your chances for heaven?"

Lucifer liked to be clear.

"N-no," Marion whispered. "No, I -- I didn't know --"

She hadn't thought about anything outside this house in days.

(He could feel Hell from here, he realized. For the first time in... a year, Lucifer could feel the presence of Hell...)

"Perhaps it's time to start knowing, then," Lucifer said, tilting his chin up. "Before you eradicate the entirety of the town outside of this room. He's not the only one who matters, is he?"

"He is!" Marion wailed, staggering over to the chair where her love lay dead. "He's the only one who matters to me!"

"Well, he can't be!"

Lucifer was-- surprised by the strength of his own voice as he turned around.

"There are people outside this door who are suffering while you roll about in your own world. People who are also losing those they care about. As long as your powers affect them, you have to care too."

"You don't -- understand," Marion said lowly, clutching at Conrad's frozen hands. "He's the reason I could control it before. I can't do this without him."

"Why not?" Lucifer asked her, both pointed and a bit helpless. "Did he have some kind of magical trouble-managing trouble of his own?"

"Because he loved me!" Marion said. She dropped her head and sobbed into Conrad's knees. "Even when I never noticed him. Even when I didn't know I loved him back. He's my -- my rock."

Lucifer sighed. He shut his eyes. Took a deep breath.

And then approached her, reaching out to touch her back. Gently.

"That made him your support," he said. "A place where you could learn to harness yourself. But you did the work. You realize that, don't you? You were the reason, not him."

Edited 2022-01-20 18:53 (UTC)

Marion let out a long, wordless sob into Conrad's lap, but didn't pull away from Lucifer's hand.

"So perhaps it's time to stop wallowing in the past and do right by him, eh?" Lucifer said, sinking down slowly to her level. "Don't let what he helped you learn die with your relat-- with him."

"I don't think I can live without him," Marion confessed softly. "I loved him so much."

"You're going to have to, my dear," Lucifer said.

His earlier attitude had all but evaporated in favor of a small smile.

"There will be a second chance, some day. I doubt he'd rather you follow him."

Marion slowly tore herself away from Conrad (literally, her tears had frozen her skin to his frosted knees) and looked up at Lucifer. Her voice was rough and low with despair.

"How?"

Lucifer didn't mean for that tiny noise - a hint of a desperate little giggle - to come out of him.

"One step at a time, I suppose," he said. He cleared his throat. "Begins by accepting that you have to. That you can."

Marion sobbed again, nearly doubling over with the force of it, and looked back at Conrad's pale, frozen face.

He looked . . . at peace. He almost never looked that way.

Outside, the wind died, and the gray clouds shriveled to nothing. Inside, the temperature slowly began to rise, as Marion wrapped herself around her dead lover's legs and finally let herself properly grieve.

Lucifer patted her awkwardly on the back. "Right."

He rose slowly to his feet. After a short silence, he added, "Ah... let Duke know I won't be long, will you?"

Marion picked her head up and frowned at him, confused.

"Wh-what?"

"I have something to do," Lucifer said, his smile wobbly. "Tell Duke I'll be back."

He spread his wings.

Within a moment, he was gone.

(Don't ask how. It was a celestial little secret.)

Marion gasped, eyes wide, and stared at the spot he'd been standing.

A few moments later, the door flew open as Nathan rushed in, followed closely by Duke.

"Marion?" Nathan called.

"I told you, Nate, Luce has it han. . . ." Duke trailed off as he looked around. ". . . dled. . . . Um. Luce?"

"He." Marion choked faintly on another sob. "He said . . . he'll be back."

Nathan rocked back slightly on his heels. "Huh."

It took a full fifteen minutes before Lucifer could fulfill his promise. He descended onto the lawn just outside Marion's home, looking a bit frazzled. There were flecks of ash on his shoulders, and he smelled faintly of sulfur.

"Duke?" he called.

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc

Re: The police station/Marion's house, Duke, Nathan, Lucifer, Marion, etc