seaoftroubles | Lost and Found

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

betterthanaplan

"What the hell does that mean?" Duke asked, even as Nathan came striding up the bluff from the trees.

"I thought you said you found the door?" he asked, voice hard.

"We did." Duke held up his hand. "Only Jennifer and Luce can see it, and they can't get it open."

From:

okteiviakom

"Apparently it's locked," Octavia added, mildly. "Or 'incomplete'."

From:

my_own_advocate

"Something else needs to be done before this-- thing will open," Lucifer said, waving at it. "And I'm not sure if it's us or it's-- well, her."

From:

betterthanaplan

"I think Audrey closed her door on her side again?" Jennifer said, shrugging.

"What do you mean she closed her door?" Nathan asked, getting somehow even more agitated. "What, did she change her mind? Is she not coming?!"

"I don't know!" Jennifer said, arms wrapping around her chest. "Stop yelling at me!"

"Nathan, that's enough." Duke pulled Nathan away from her by his shoulder. "Look, we found the door, okay? She's gonna come out any minute. We just --" He broke off, spotting movement by the trees. "Shit. How the hell did they find us?"

Armed men were walking out from the treeline, led by Jordan McKee.

From:

okteiviakom

And that was how easy it was to make Octavia very aware of just exactly where her knives were on her.

She squared her shoulders as she looked towards Jordan and her Guard goons. Wary, but not in an obvious way.

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer's eyes had remained on the door a bit longer, but the urgency in Duke's voice did eventually draw his attention away.

"Haven't you figured out by now that your goals are accomplished much more smoothly if you stay home, watch some telly, and don't show up to glower at us?"

From:

betterthanaplan

"And we should just take your word for it?" Jordan asked. She aimed he gun at Nathan. "We followed you, Nathan, in case you got cold feet. Give me your gun."

Duke shook his head, grabbing Nathan's arm as he started to disarm. "No way. Nathan, don't do this."

"You don't get a say in this, Crocker." Jordan scowled at him. Not that it was much different from any other look she ever gave anyone. "He made a deal."

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia was just looking more unimpressed by the second.

(It was only because she was.)

"Don't all of you think this could wait until after we've dealt with the door?"

From:

seaoftroubles

Jordan frowned. "What door?"

Jennifer jumped and started flapping her hands at everyone. "She's opening her door!"

And then, just like that, the door was there. Visible for all to see.

Duke opened and closed his mouth once, then pointed. ". . . That door."

From:

my_own_advocate

"Well, don't just stand there," Lucifer sighed at Jennifer. "Open it!"

From:

okteiviakom

Something told Octavia it wasn't going to be that easy.

But she turned her attention towards Jennifer all the same. (Not all of it, though: there were far too many people with guns here right now.)

From:

seaoftroubles

Nathan was already ahead of them, having grabbed for the knob the moment the door appeared. "I can't," he said, frustration written in every line of his body. He was inches from a full meltdown.

"Maybe it has to be me," Jennifer said, coming up next to him. She reached for hte knob, and --

"Nobody open that door!"

Dave Teagues came dashing out of the trees, trailed by his much larger brother.

"Dave," Vince said. "Put the gun down. I tried to stop him, but he's got some crazy notion in his head from reading the archives!"

From:

my_own_advocate

"Can we please not turn this into a whole drama?" Lucifer asked.

He stepped in front of the gun with a roll of his eyes.

From:

okteiviakom

Look, this town was all drama all the time, which explained why half the town seemed to be here, now.

Was Octavia trying to put herself in front of both Jennifer and Duke a little bit? Of course.

From:

betterthanaplan

"I'm not crazy," Dave insisted. "Or dramatic!" (Duke snorted at that, even as Vince rolled his eyes.) "Opening that door could unleash powers far beyond our control!"

Duke tilted his head at his partners. "She's a warrior from a post-apocalyptic future and he's the literal Devil. You might be underestimating our control, here."

From:

my_own_advocate

"Just put the gun down," Lucifer sighed. "As you are also underestimating my willingness to manhandle firearms away from seniors."

From:

okteiviakom

"Also there seem to be a lot more people here in favor of opening the door than... just you, against it."

From:

betterthanaplan

"You don't understand!" Dave wailed. But Nathan had already turned back towards the door, and Jennifer was turning the knob.

"Hey," Duke hissed, touching Nathan's arm. "When Audrey comes out, I'll start throwing punches. Give you two a headstart."

"No." Nathan shook his head. "The troubles end now." He lifted his chin to Jennifer. "Go on."

Jennifer swallowed and nodded and pulled the door open.

A thick, roiling wind tousled her hair. The doorway opened several hundred feet above a dense green mist, below an endless gray sky.

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer's gaze darted towards the door for an instant. "Well, that's promising," he muttered.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia's hand against the back of Jennifer's leather jacket - ready to grab for her if it came to that - might have been unnecessary, but it was an urge she went with, just in case.

They didn't want anyone falling in, did they?

Edited Date: 2022-03-25 07:46 pm (UTC)

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke was pretty sure they very much did not, yeah.

"Okay, starting to see how one might think of that place as evil," he muttered.

Nathan wasn't thinking about any of that. He leaned into the door, past Jennifer, not even noticing the wind. He couldn't feel it anyway.

"Audrey!" he shouted. "Audrey!!"

Off in the distance, far enough away that you could only guess who the people were by hair color and clothing, was another open doorway, suspended in the air. In it crouched two blondes, one with long hair, the other short.

The long haired blonde braced her hands against hte door frame, rocked back once, then flung herself across the gap.

Then both doors -- and the eerie space between -- vanished with an explosive burst of air, a shockwave hard enough to knock every non-celestial person on the bluff down and out.