Lost and Found

[seaoftroubles]

We're skipping the trouble here (I am SO EXCITED to skip this trouble!), so this one should be a bit quicker. Basically:

1. Octavia wakes up the boys with a nightmare and they are cuddly and supportive and maybe also awkward because Haven sucks for EVERYONE

2. Jennifer heard Audrey hear that she needs to go through a door or she'll die. Duke agrees to help her try to hear more from the Barn while Nathan helps Dwight deal with a missing kids trouble (so, basically, we set up the structure of the ep here)

3. Duke, Octavia, and Lucifer all try their own methods to help Jennifer relax so she can hear what's going on in the Barn properly. Duke tries yoga/meditation. The other two are welcome to try their own methods. Canonically, it's playing quarters for beer that works, which I figure Lucifer will roll his eyes at the low-brow nature of but otherwise approve?

4. Jennifer hears that they need to find a door in Haven that they'll have to open at the same time as Audrey opens her door in the Barn, or she's screwed. She also hears fog horns. Nathan tries to butt in via phone and Duke is all "YOU ARE THE OPPOSITE OF CHILL GO AWAY". They work out that the fog horn that Jennifer is hearing must be coming into the Barn through the door in Haven, so they can triangulate the door's location from that.

5. SHOW DOWN ON THE BIG EMPTY HILL! Jennifer found the door, but no one else can see it (unless maybe Lucifer can?) until Audrey opens here door. And Jennifer can't open it. Jordan and the Guard show, and then Vince and Dave, and there's lots of yelling as Dave claims that they can't open the door without letting out a great evil (I'm SURE Luce and Octavia will have Opinions on this!). Nathan opens the door anyway, and they can see Audrey in her door past the Void fog and Audrey jumps -- AND BOOM. Splosions.

6. 'Splosion knows them all over (except maybe Lucifer? Though he would then probably see William coming through too? Unless he's blinded and/or distracted trying to rouse Duke and Octavia. . . .), and when they come to, the door is gone, but there is an Audrey shaped person in their midst! Yay! Nathan immediately hands her a gun and tells her to kill him, because Nathan's gonna Nathan, and Audrey goes "wtf, I'm not going to kill a complete stranger, who tf are you people?" DUN DUN DUN.

Ep out.

Comments

Nightmare thread!

[seaoftroubles]

After staying up a bit late with Jennifer at the Gull, hearing her recap word for word as best she could for Nathan what little she'd heard from Audrey -- literally just that she was somewhere that wasn't real, and that she had to get out or she'd die -- they'd finally managed to convince Nathan that they were too tired to do any investigating about it that night, and they'd work on it again in the morning.

And Duke, Octavia, and Lucifer headed back to the Sanguine Moon. It was too small a boat for the tensions still radiating between them, but they still managed to tumble into bed together anyway.

For a night of restless sleep, and uneasy dreams.

[let me know if this summary/modding needs adjusting!]

Re: Nightmare thread!

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had been uneasy all evening long, but had miraculously fallen asleep pretty quickly once they'd retreated back to their cramped bed on the Sanguine Moon.

That was about where her luck had ended, though. Uneasy dreams was right, because tonight, she found herself somewhere she hadn't been in a long time.

She was always here.

Watching over the pit as its floor got splattered in fresh streaks of crimson. Watching him as he tore apart everyone that had once been her people, who would hope to once be hers again, who would never be because there was no match for him.

And when there was no one left, when it was just him, covered, drenched in blood, he looked up towards her on her throne, his eyes glowing silver --

And she was down in the pit with him, face to face.

The silver dimmed. He fell to his knees, and she stepped up, cradling his face. Bloodying her hands - then painting his forehead in red, with her mark, her warpaint.

Sending him collapsing to the floor, shaking, convulsing --

Octavia woke up with a start, a gasp, and found herself trembling.

Re: Nightmare thread!

[betterthanaplan]

The gasp and tremble were enough to shake Duke's own sleep -- thought not quite enough to wake him entirely. So while he rolled over to face her and wrap his arms around her, he didn't really open his eyes or register exactly why he suddenly had the urge to hang onto her.

Re: Nightmare thread!

[my_own_advocate]

Duke was moving, and Lucifer-- had reached that part of his sleep where he drifted closely near waking, if not close enough to wake up.

Until Duke was moving, at least.

He mumbled something indecipherable to himself and pressed his eyes shut even harder, in the hopes of going back to sleep.

Morning regroup

[seaoftroubles]

This doesn't need to be a long thread, just getting some exposition down about why the larger group is splitting up and our folks are sticking around the docks to try and get Jennifer to remember things.

Re: Morning regroup

[betterthanaplan]

Last night had been . . . rough. To say the least. But they were still apparently on a clock when it came to getting Audrey back in Haven -- and that was still one of Duke's ultimate goals even if his partners found her problematic. So he'd brought them and Jennifer out to Kick'Em Jenny Neck, the place where the Barn had vanished, and called in Nathan to join them.

"I hate this place," Nathan grumbled. "The Barn crumpled to nothing. How can Audrey still be inside?"

Duke gave him a Look. "The magic, time-traveling, bigger-on-the-inside barn that works like something out of Mister What? That Barn?"

Re: Morning regroup

[my_own_advocate]

"You're from a town in which everyone is cursed with homicidal superpowers, she's from a post-apocalyptic future, and I'm the Devil," Lucifer added brightly, and sing-songed: "Don't overthink iiiit."

Re: Morning regroup

[okteiviakom]

Octavia said nothing. She hadn't been saying much all day, so far. It was half the lack of sleep, half the... everything else. Too tired to, inside and out.

She was sticking by Jennifer. No reason.

Relaxation montage!

[seaoftroubles]

Do we want to do three sub-threads or just roll right along and in one? I can see either, really. When it doesn't work, Jennifer will be pretty quick and open about it not working (see canon, where she nearly kicks Duke in the face trying a handstand during the yoga bit, and he's like "uhhhh, moving on.")

Re: Relaxation montage! - Duke!

[betterthanaplan]

"And breathe in." Duke raised his arms in time with his breath, stretching them up over his head. Across the rug from him, on the deck outside Audrey's old apartment, Jennifer swung her own arms up in the air gamely.

"And breathe out." Duke lowered his arms, exhaling audibly. Jennifer flopped her arms to her sides. Duke didn't let it bother him. "Yoga is about the mind controlling the body. That's why we don't feel the cold right now."

Jennifer sighed (she really wasn't trying very hard to do the breath work). "But do you really think this is gonna help me hear things?"

"Absolutely," Duke said. "You see, by focusing on your breath, you can do anything!"

He dropped into a forward fold, lifting his legs into the air into a careful, steady handstand.

It felt amazing. He hadn't done nearly enough yoga of late.

Re: Relaxation montage! - Duke!

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had her own makeshift mat out. It was a decent moment for trying to get some of her own sorely neglected practice in. If that happened to encourage or distract Jennifer into relaxing a little, good.

... Though, of course, right now she was just watching Duke. But could you blame her?

Re: Relaxation montage! - Duke!

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer could have told Duke the yoga would be utterly useless, but as he stepped onto the deck, he... paused.

And tilted his head.

Ooh. Pretty.

Re: Relaxation montage! - Lucifer

[my_own_advocate]

"Right, so, relaxation," Lucifer said, pouring something hot pink into a shaker as he gestured with the other hand. "I see two ways to do this. There's the easy way, which is where we get you drunk and possibly dancing to the Spice Girls or a similarly cheerful 90s bop."

He shook the shaker thoroughly.

Re: Relaxation montage! - Lucifer

[seaoftroubles]

Jennifer, who had been wilting steadily since they started with yoga, perked up a little. "Like college!" She turned her head and looked at him sideways. "What's the hard way?"

Re: Relaxation montage! - Lucifer

[my_own_advocate]

"The literal hard way," Lucifer specified casually. One last shake, and he popped the cap from the shakers. "We all have sex until you can't feel a single bone in your body."

He poured a glass.

Fog horns!

[seaoftroubles]

Nathan calls Duke to ask what's taking so long and Duke snarks at him -- only to realize that maybe the fog horns are coming through the door yada yada yada.

Re: Fog horns!

[betterthanaplan]

[I'm just going to roll through this -- we're dragging on this post and I feel like this conversation especially probably doesn't need a LOT of interaction. And anyway, we want to move on to the DOOR and the POSSESSION and then FINALLY GET THIS BITCH POSTED.]

Nathan, being the physical embodiment of lack of chill that he was, had called Duke repeatedly throughout the day. Somehow, the fact that Jennifer had actually heard something didn't make it any easier to take this particular call.

"Duke, what's Jennifer heard?" Nathan asked, the moment Duke answerred.

"Lots of good stuff!" Duke said with false enthusiasm.

Jennifer popped up on her toes to call "We have to find a —" only to cut off when Duke jerked his hand up at her.

". . . Duke, are you there?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah, could you just hang on a second, please?" He pressed the phone to his chest and looked at her. "You've met Nathan."

Jennifer nodded. "Yeah."

Duke nodded back at her. "Now, do you think we really want him to know that if we don't find the door that Audrey dies?"

Jennifer's eyes went almost cartoonishly wide. "Probably not."

"Probably not," Duke agreed, and brought the phone back up. "Nathan, find the kids. We're doing great."

Nathan bit back a sigh. "Okay, I'll call you back." The sound of his police siren came through the phone loud and clear, and Duke tried not to flinch.

"We're doing great," Duke assured him again, then widened his eyes and hung up as something occurred to him. "Son of a bitch. The foghorn."

Jennifer shook her head. "What?"

"The foghorn," Duke said again. "I thought I couldn't hear it because I'm used to them. But what if only you can hear it because it's coming through the Barn?"

"Why would the barn play a foghorn?"

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not from the Barn, through the Barn." Jennifer still looked confused, so he hurried on. "Look, I'm saying the Barn is located near a real-world foghorn." Nothing. "Okay, just now I could hear a police siren coming through Nathan's phone. One way to find Nathan would be to find the actual siren."

He could see the moment Jennifer caught on. "Find the foghorn, find the door."

"Find the foghorn, find the door," Duke agreed.

"Great." Jennifer nodded. "How?"

Duke raised his finger as he thought. ". . . I need my charts."

[if you want to have your guys interject anything in all this just let me know what and where and I'll add it in post!]

Re: Fog horns!

[okteiviakom]

And that was about when Octavia strode over. "Duke, where around here would someone actually hear fog horns?"

So, hey. They were all just about on the same page.

The door on the bluff

[seaoftroubles]

They find the door! The Guard shows up! The Teagues show up! How does LITERALLY ANYTHING IN THIS TOWN REMAIN SECRET IF THERE'S A GIANT SECRET MILITIA SHOWING UP ALL THE TIME AND PEOPLE YELLING????

Re: The door on the bluff

[betterthanaplan]

The fog horn had led them to a bluff not far from Kick'em Jenny Neck. Really, Haven's surroundings had an abundance of not-yet-developed bluffs to choose from, so Duke couldn't even be surprised. He stood next to Jennifer not far from an electrical pole in a broad, open field of grass, and stared at . . . absolutely nothing.

"Nathan's on his way, and I'm still not seeing the door," he said, then glanced at Octavia and Lucifer. "Anyone else seeing this door? Luce?"

[I leave it up to you guys whether you can see the magic door before it's Time. I figure Lucifer maybe could, especially. It's a perfectly ordinary white interior door with a brass knob, standing in a free standing frame right in front of where Jennifer is standing.]

Re: The door on the bluff

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer had already raised his hand by the 'anyone else' part. "It's very dull," he offered, "But it's definitely a door."

'Splosions and SURPRISE!

[seaoftroubles]

This maybe doesn't need to be a separate thread at all? IDK. Whatever.

Re: 'Splosions and SURPRISE!

[my_own_advocate]

... and sent a large gust of wind flying into Lucifer's face. "Oh for--" His hands shot up to shield his face, instinctively.

The shockwave had left as quickly as it had appeared, and Lucifer was left standing exactly where he had been standing all along. Desperately trying to work his hair back in order. "Really?!"

Re: 'Splosions and SURPRISE!

[betterthanaplan]

Meanwhile, the rest of them were all sprawled across the grass, angled out from where the door had stood.

Duke let out a faint groan, having landed face first. It'd take him a moment to get his bearings back.

OOC

[seaoftroubles]

I tried to find the handstand gif for this thread but Duck Duck Go, while better at privacy and security, is not great at gif location. *sads*