seaoftroubles | Season one catchup preplay

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Season one catchup preplay

There'll be more detail in the OCD, but the basic shape is this:

As You Were: Duke and Octavia head back to Haven for Audrey's surprise birthday party (braced for troubles). They head out to a remote island off the coast where everyone's gathered at an old, closed down hotel. The proprietor turns out to be a shapeshifter that kills the people it turns into. Everyone wonders who the baddie really is. The ME dies, Lucifer sends up a demon to possess her body and yell at Duke for dragging Octavia back into his world's bullshit. Audrey is revealed to be the shapeshifter, but didn't die because She's Different. They all go back to the mainland, where Duke reveals that he's the kid in the Colorado Kid murder picture, and Audrey emotionally blackmails him into sticking around longer to answer some questions.

The Hand You're Dealt: Duke and Audrey hunt down and question a couple of the other people in the Colorado Kid photo. Meanwhile, Nathan and Audrey try to track down someone with a fire trouble. Duke's old babysitter turns out to have death visions when she touches people, and after getting blown up by the fire trouble, tells Duke how he's going to die right before she dies herself.

The Trial of Audrey Parker: ~~Audrey talks Duke into hosting a poker game before leaving. Two of the other guests hijack the boat to try and get something Duke's smuggling for a client.~~ Honestly there are a lot of holes in this thanks to the way things are shaping up with Fandom in the mix. Why would Octavia let Duke stick around when now they KNOW someone in Haven is going to kill him? Octavia isn't a good replacement for Julia, Julia's a ninny. Octavia would just beat the shit out of the baddies for being mean to Duke. And getting the boat cracked delays them too much in going back to Fandom. Maybe we should skip this one. It doesn't really add much to Duke's character development that hasn't kinda been covered by Fandom anyway.

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"Not that I know of," Octavia replied, with a brief glance towards Duke before her gaze settled on Audrey. Her voice was on the lighter side of dry. "He wouldn't dare."

Debatable.

Duke gave Audrey a wide-eyed look of innocence. She rolled her eyes at him.

"You know, he told me about you," she told Octavia. "While he was stuck here. Wouldn't shut up about you, really."

Octavia knew there was a stock answer to that. 'Good things, I hope' rising from the depths of her memory, like an echo of countless bad movies on the TV. She definitely couldn't say that, though.

"Is that so?"

The softness in the rasp was subtle.

"Mostly it was in the middle of the night," Audrey said. "While he was drunk."

"That's because the middle of the night was the only time you were home," Duke pointed out.

"Is it true you throw swords?"

Again, Octavia's eyes flicked briefly over to Duke, as she felt a little pang of -- something or other. Not looking at it too closely right now.

Her head tilted, just a fraction.

"Not as often as I used to," she said, "but yes." Considered for a beat, then added, "Sometimes that's quicker."

"In a lot of situations that involve swords, are you?" Audrey said. She sounded like she was teasing. But that was how she said just about everything.

Whereas Octavia's dry tone kept making her sound vaguely sarcastic all the time.

"Not as often as I used to be," she said, again.

Audrey watched her for a long moment, then looked up at Duke again.

"I can see why you like her. She sounds like a true Mainer. You know . . . monosyllabic."

Duke cleared his throat and pointed at the horizon. "Oh hey, we're almost there."

"To go harass a poor hermit about his spectacular resort." Audrey smirked and shook her head. "What fun."

Hey now, Octavia had offered up at least one thing she hadn't directly been asked about!

She also did something of a mental version of Duke's throat-clearing as she looked towards the horizon. (There were just so many thoughts to avoid, today.) "You don't know," she said. "Maybe he likes distractions, too."

"Is that it?" Audrey asked. "Did we get invited by this hermit?"

"Would that make you feel better?" Duke asked.

"It'd make me a little less likely to want to arrest you for trespassing."

"No one's getting arrested today," Octavia noted. Lightly!

But, you know.

"Audrey won't arrest me," Duke said with great confidence. "She likes me too much."

Audrey snorted and flicked him a broad smirk.

And now they were pulling up to the docks, just as the clouds started to roll in.

"Well," Duke said, offering Octavia a hand up. "Let's go see what we can find."

The hotel on Carpenter's Knot was a grand affair, enormous and sprawling, and surrounded by wild, overgrown gardens. Duke led them all up to the front door and into a small, but well-appointed foyer.

"This place gives me the creeps," Audrey noted. Duke didn't say a word, just stopped at the foot of the stairs an turned in place, looking around.

There was a second's pause before Octavia let him help her up. It wasn't hesitation, it was just... A pause.

And then it was gone, and her hand was in his.

"Sha. Let's go."

"I've seen worse," Octavia said, with a vaguely, faintly joking tone that Duke was probably more likely to interpret correctly than Audrey - or anyone else in earshot - was.

She tilted her head up, as if to look towards the top of the stairs, but her eyes flicked back down to Duke almost immediately.

Audrey turned to respond, but before she could do more than open her mouth, someone grabbed her from behind. She spun, ready to defend herself --

Only to see a whole crowd of people in party hats with noisemakers, led by Dave with his camera, all cheering and shouting "SURPRISE!"

Audrey damn near had a heart attack, but managed to scrape up a grin for them before turning an amused glare on Duke and his girlfriend. Duke already had a party hat out and ready for her.

"Got ya," Duke said softly, as he put the hat on her.

Octavia really didn't like sudden things, even ones like this where she was in on the surprise. She hadn't been obvious about the way she'd braced for it, though. Only flinched internally when it happened.

She gave Audrey's look a little shrug, then watched the two of them, watched Duke's face -- Then turned her attention on the small crowd, instead. She didn't know the two women. Everyone else sparked memories of annoyance past at varying levels.

Maybe she should have stayed in Fandom. Or at least on the mainland side of Haven.

The party-goers all chattered happily at each other as they made their way back into the living room area where they'd set themselves up. Duke probably should have looked over at Octavia at least, made sure she was still doing okay with the whole 'lots of loud people' aspect of this whole deal, but his eyes were still on Audrey instead, reaching out to chuck her chin playfully as he caught sight of the moisture in her eyes.

"Are you crying?" he teased. "Because crying will not be tolerated today."

"Shut up." Audrey smacked him back. "I am so armed."

Duke did look back at Octavia then, with a conspiratorial grin. "And we're not?"

Octavia had already drifted into the doorway, her shoulders squared, her chin up. Her face impassive. Parties with strangers were kind of like battle, right? And she didn't shrink away from a fight.

(Especially when she could use it to distract herself.)

For a second, she considered pretending she hadn't heard Duke, that she hadn't even been listening. Then she glanced back over her shoulder.

"Always."

". . . Forget the hotel," Audrey muttered. "She's creepy."

"Yeah," Duke agreed fondly, smiling at Octavia.

The rest of the party guests were focused back on Audrey again, who was pulling her hat back off with a laugh. "No one's ever thrown me a surprise party before," she mused.

"Well, after all you've already done for Haven," Vince said. "It's the least we could do!"

Octavia hung back, watching. Quiet.

She found she was having one of those moments where things felt a little surreal. Like she could've found out this was all just a cryo sleep dream, and wouldn't have been surprised.

"I never even expected it," Audrey said. "I didn't even know you guys were plan --" She cut herself off with a shake of her head as she realized there was another younger brunette here along with Octavia. "I definitely didn't expect it from the girl I don't even know! Hello!"

The woman stepped forward, shaking Audrey's hand. "Julia Carr. I'm Eleanor's daughter, I just got back in town."

"She was in Ethiopia," Eleanor said proudly. "With the Peace Corps!"

"Darfur, actually," Julia said. "With Doctors Without Borders."

"Well, thank you for coming," Audrey said. "And Octavia, thank you, too! Guys, have you all met Duke's girlfriend?"

Julia looked over at Octavia with a faint expression of disappointment. "You actually managed to nail him down, huh?"

Right, she wasn't just a spectator going unnoticed. Octavia blinked, faltering for just a second before pulling back into her mask of mildness.

She swallowed the first two words she almost said, and chose "Seems that way," instead. Then she gave the room at large a small nod of greeting. "Hi."

It was the best she could do.

Duke went to go put his arm around Octavia. "Don't mind Julia," he said, shifting into a faint Irish accent. "She had the biggest crush on me when she was just a wee lass."

"Please," Julia scoffed, covering not nearly as gracefully as Octavia could. "I put up with your hipster chin fuzz so you would tell me cool traveling stories."

"She looooved me," Duke teased, then tugged on Octavia's arm as Nathan swung into the room with a hotel luggage cart full of presents. "We're just gonna. . . ."

Give Octavia a break from all the people while also avoiding the hell out of Nathan!

Well would you look at that! Octavia had zero problem with that plan. She said nothing, just went with his tugging.

That bit of awkward could wait.

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Season one catchup preplay

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