seaoftroubles | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

my_own_advocate

"Right, well, if that's all, you lot should probably leave," Lucifer said, frowning as he turned around in the entrance. "Especially you, love. I don't want to risk you freezing the whiskers off that ridiculous moustache."

From:

seaoftroubles

"Get out of here before you freeze to death," Nathan said, nodding faintly.

"This cold is affecting you just as much as it is us," Duke pointed out, rubbing his hands together furiously.

"I can't feel it," Nathan said. "I'll last longer."

"I really didn't miss your stubborn martyr streak, Nate."

From:

my_own_advocate

"Get out," Lucifer told Nathan. Helpfully. "Your ability to forget that you are dying is adorable in an insufferable sort of way, but also completely unnecessary, and I don't want to deal with Duke losing someone he inexplicably cares about."

He gave an idle sort of wave with just his fingers. "Shoo."

From:

seaoftroubles

Nathan bristled. "No, no, she knows me. I should talk to her."

"Dammit, Nathan," Duke said, leaning over how as his body tried to curl up for warmth. "Luce is literally immortal, let him take this one!"

"Marion!" Nathan called again, trying to elbow past Lucifer. "Marion, it's Nathan Wuronos!"

From:

seaoftroubles

One of the forms in the chairs moved with a crackle of ice as Marion opened her eyes. "Nathan Wuornos," she hissed, soft as a whisper and faintly shuddering. "You came back."

"Marion." Nathan stared down at her. "What happened?"

"My trouble came back too. Because of you!"

From:

my_own_advocate

"Right, well, she clearly doesn't want to hear from you, that settles it. I'm getting extremely tired of your inability to bloody listen to anybody," Lucifer said, his hands snagging hold of Nathan's jacket with an easy grace. "And by anybody," he added, as he lifted Nathan off the floor, "I mean me."

And with an effortless thrust of his arms, he sent Nathan Wuornos flying through the doorway.

What? At least he wouldn't feel the ground when he hit it.

From:

seaoftroubles

". . . Wow," Dwight said, and headed after him.

"I really wish I could do that." Duke gave Lucifer a tight grin. "You're definitely getting a kiss when I can feel my lips again!"

And then it was just Lucifer and Marion.

[I will do all the icon things in post, bleah]

From:

my_own_advocate

"Right," Lucifer said, peering after Duke perhaps a moment too long.

(He wasn't worried. He had-- things to do.)

He turned towards Marion, slowly. "So you're mad at the idiot. I can hardly blame you for that, but is that truly reason enough to set the fury of the weather loose on this previously me-forsaken town?"

No. That didn't make sense.

He took a cautious step into the living room.

From:

seaoftroubles

The creaking and cracking of ice continued as Marion sat up in her chair. Her breath rasped like her own vocal cords were frozen.

"Who. The fuck. Are you?"

From:

my_own_advocate

"Lucifer Morningstar," Lucifer said lightly, casting an idle glance towards the other chair. "Nathan's ex's boyfriend, to put it in terms that would give you some context. May we chat for a moment?"

From:

seaoftroubles

Marion just stared at him for several moments.

"No," she rasped. And turned away.

From:

my_own_advocate

"I was just asking for politeness' sake, I'm going to talk anyway," Lucifer told her. "Who's your friend here, by the way? Looks a bit frozen."

From:

seaoftroubles

Marion jerked upright again, and frost crept further up the walls. "Don't touch him!"

From:

my_own_advocate

"Ah," Lucifer said. He turned towards her again, a few steps from the man's chair. "Someone you care about. Deeply."

He tilted his head, thoughtful. "You do realize he's dead?"

From:

seaoftroubles

"Shut your mouth," Marion hissed. The frost raced towards Lucifer now, as if she was hoping to freeze his mouth shut herself. "Don't talk about -- about --"

She sobbed roughly, then shuddered.

The temperature in the room dropped another several degrees.

From:

my_own_advocate

"You can't hurt me, darling," Lucifer said.

He slid his hands into his pockets.

"Is this the lad Nathan was talking about?" he asked, carefully. "... Curt-- no, Conrad, was it?"

From:

seaoftroubles

Marion flinched, which as close as he was going to get to a yes.

"The troubles were supposed to away," she said, slowly standing. Outside, thunder boomed. "When Audrey left. That's what everyone said."

From:

my_own_advocate

"They were, and then Mr. I-Feel-Nothing buggered it all up, I get why you're angry," Lucifer said. He looked at her, nearly frozen, like a stiff puppet of some kind, and asked, "Did your trouble kill him?"

From:

seaoftroubles

Marion trembled, her body trying to cry through tear ducts frozen shut. "Never!" she cried. The whole house shuddered as the storm outside picked up speed. "Never. I would -- I would never."

From:

my_own_advocate

A thought dawned on him, and Lucifer's face softened in spite of himself.

Bloody feathers on the floor.

"He just died," he said. "You wanted to keep him, didn't you? To put this moment on ice so you wouldn't have to live without him."

From:

seaoftroubles

Another sob ripped through her.

"Two days ago he was working on the porch. Fixing the damage from the meteor storm. He came inside and said -- that his arm had gone numb." She stared at the chair, at the back of her lover's frozen head. "Then he collapsed."

From:

my_own_advocate

"A stroke?" Lucifer said.

He took another step closer.

(Tried not to think about Chloe's face, overmuch.)

"What an excruciatingly normal way to go."

From:

seaoftroubles

"He'd had a heart attack a couple of months ago," Marion said. "But he was -- he was doing better." The temperature was holding steady again, and the storm hadn't picked up or thundered in a few minutes.

The talking was, perhaps, doing her some good.

Edited Date: 2022-01-19 07:44 pm (UTC)

From:

my_own_advocate

"Sometimes life has a habit of working out that way." Lucifer sighed. "There was a woman I love... d," he said. "She's still alive, mind you. But life would deal us a blow, and then we'd come back from it. And it would deal us a blow again, and we'd come back from it, and... for the longest time, I thought we'd come back from the latest one. So much so I stubbornly clung to the thought even when my life moved on."

He came to a stop.

"It hurt some people that I cared about deeply, when I let it come to a head."

From:

seaoftroubles

Marion stared at him, uncomprehending.

"Who are you? Why -- are you here? Why won't -- you leave me -- alone?!"

The wind wailed in time with her, an enormous crash like an explosion outside. (In fact, were Lucifer to look through the windows, he'd see an old van on fire down on the verge, the Teagues', which had just been struck by lightning.)