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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Octavia flinched at the dumbwaiter crashing down, then picked up one of the plates, and shook her head.

"Useless."

They weren't any closer to anything. She set the plate back down again.

The Chief nodded, seeming like he approved of her assessment as well.

"Was that a compliment?" Audrey asked from behind them. "You think it would kill you to lay one of them on Nathan once in awhile?"

"The troubles are back," the Chief said. "Getting all warm and fuzzy with Nathan's not exactly going to do him any favors."

"He's pretty tough."

"He's going to have to be tough as nails in order to deal with that on his own." The Chief raised an eyebrow at Octavia. "You know what I'm talkin' about, don't you. Ain't even from Haven and you've got a better handle on all this than most of us as live here."

Octavia met his gaze with a mild one of her own. "I've seen worse," she said, by way of explanation.

Inflicted worse was always lurking right under the surface, unsaid.

"None of that means you can't be friendly, though, does it?" Audrey pointed out.

The Chief shook his head. "Now, friendship, that's a burden. I don't want to be a burden." He turned and started heading out of the room. "Especially when I'm leaving him a whole world of troubles he's going to have to fix."

Audrey frowned after him, then looked at Octavia. "Perks of being a ward of the state," she said. "At least I never had to deal with a dad like him."

Duke had taken a break from radio fixing to follow a hunch. He'd slipped up to the rooms and went looking for Nathan's gun, which he said he'd left in his bag.

It wasn't there.

So he went down to the boathouse. It wasn't far from the hotel itself, and while the thunder still crashed with disturbing regularity, the rain was easing up a bit.

What he found there seemed to confirm his theory. So he headed back to the hotel, pausing just long enough to pull the axe out of the stump by the firewood pile next to the docks.

He would go identify this "chameleon". Maybe even end his trouble once and for all, if he tried anything. And then Duke and Octavia were going to sail out of here and never. Look. Back.

Funnily enough, his number one suspect just happened to greet him the moment he walked back inside.

"You stay the hell away from me!" Duke yelled, brandishing his axe.

"What is wrong with you, you freak?!" Nathan yelled back.

He didn't get any points for that. Everyone in Haven knew how he and Nathan fought.

Octavia's shrug was more tone than actual action. "Never had one, either," she said mildly, already moving, her eyes on the Chief's back. "Come on, we can't get separated."

She could mull over her thoughts on parents and leadership once they were out of this mess.

Well, that was one way to summon Octavia.

She was both alarmed and steely as she demanded, "What the hell is going on?"

She wasn't the only one. Everyone was gathering again, watching the two of them face off.

Duke propped his axe on his shoulder, not taking his eyes off Nathan.

"I went down to the boathouse," he said, practically hissing. "And guess what I found. A boat. A perfectly good boat, until you shot it."

"I didn't shoot the boat," Nathan said.

"Where's your gun, Nathan? Because I looked in your duffel bag. It's not there."

"Put the axe down."

"You're the chameleon!"

Duke was officially freaking the fuck out.

There was a part of him that had always trended towards paranoia. A part he generally kept buried under layer upon layer of humor and bravado and liquor. But though he'd kept the bottle he'd grabbed from the party room, the sense that at any moment he could be attacked from any direction was making him twitchy and angry.

He trailed behind Audrey and Nathan as they headed into the basement to trip the breakers, and really wished he still had his axe.

Edited 2020-09-18 20:23 (UTC)

We could do this preplayed or live (I have to keep reminding myself WE STILL HAVE MANY DAYS TO PREPLAY). Octavia talks to Claire while Duke and Audrey go to talk to the other Colorado Kid witnesses, and learns about the Guard.

Which . . . I can kinda just write out, can't I. . . .

Everyone (Audrey, Nathan, Duke, and Octavia) gathers at the Gull. Duke tells the group what Vanessa told him before she died. Octavia tells Duke about the tattoo. Duke and Octavia decide it's time to GTFOut of Haven already.

Not that doing so will help Duke's growing paranoia all that much.

Well. This seemed like it had been inevitable, didn't it? Certainly felt that way to Octavia.

"Chil au, jaka." She was eyeing Nathan warily, yes, but they couldn't let things get out of hand right now. "Everyone needs to calm down."

That was good advice. No one was listening to her.

"Where's your gun, Nathan?" Julia asked, starting a tidal wave of accusations and questions, until Audrey shouted to be heard over them all.

"Inside voices, please!"

"Alright, listen!" she said. "We need to figure out who the chameleon is --"

"No," Duke started, hefting the axe. "Listen, I just --"

"-- WHO THE CHAMELEON IS," Audrey said again, glaring him down. "And what we're going to do with him. Or . . . her. Alright?"

"And how do you propose we do that?"

That sound sarcastic because her tone was so dry, but... Honestly, Audrey, she was all ears.

Audrey sighed. "I don't --" Then her eyes hit the presents and lit up. "I have an idea." She headed over to the pile, setting her purse aside. "We can't really know what the chameleon knew about the person that it took. But we have to start somewhere. So each of you brought a present to the Knot. And I'm assuming you didn't take the time to tell Mr. Carpenter what that was. So if you can say what's in your box, then we'll chalk one in your favor. And if not . . . we have a problem."

"Worth a shot," Octavia rasped, with a brief glance towards the presents.

There wasn't one from her on there, but they'd get to that when they got to that.

(She'd brought one, but it was still in her bag up in the room, because -- Didn't matter.)

Duke flicked a glance over at her, but mostly kept his eyes glued on Nathan. "I'm going last."

Nathan scowled. "Why does he get to go last?"

"Because he has the axe."

"Can you two keep it together for two seconds?" Octavia drawled. It sounded a little more tense than usual.

She nodded at Audrey. "Get started before everyone starts shouting again."

"Hang on," the Chief said, cutting Audrey off as she reached for the first present. "What about cueball over here?"

Dave sputtered. "I got her the dress!"

"And the killer shoes," Julia noted.

"And-and the purse!"

"Well, exactly," the Chief began. This time Audrey cut him off.

"We're going to start with. . . ." She read the tag on the box in her hand. "Dr. Carr."

"Earrings," Eleanor said confidently. "Emporer penguins!"

Audrey opened the box and pulled out an enormous, tacky penguin earing. "Alright! Those are beautiful. Thank you."

Eleanor beamed.

She moved on to Vince's present, next, ("'Misery Unchained,' first edition. Sighed by the author, just before that lady chopped off his foot"), then picked up Nathan's.

"It's a sweater," Nathan said quietly. "Blue. Cashmere."

Audrey opened the box and stared down at it. Her expression said everything as she looked back up at Nathan, lifting the blue fabric from the box. "It's a scarf."

Everyone began talking at once, backing away from Nathan, who after a single aborted attempt, didn't even try to explain himself. He went for Duke first, who was once more brandishing the axe.

Duke didn't attack immediately, just danced around Nathan as he grabbed for him. Chameleon or no, Nathan was troubled, and Duke was way too riled up to maintain control right now if he got any blood on him. . . .

Edited 2020-09-17 21:16 (UTC)

All of which Octavia knew. That made the decision easy, especially since neither of them were paying her much attention right now. There was a flash of metal right before she struck Nathan in the back of the head with the butt of her remaining knife.

Yes, she was both ruthless and still armed. That should not be coming as a surprise to anyone who'd actually paid attention to her so far.

The Chief had a gun out to do much the same thing, but Octavia had gotten there, first. He tried to tuck it away before anyone noticed, and might have managed it with everyone staring and yelling at Octavia for being armed -- but Duke wasn't surprised by her.

He wasn't really surprised by the Chief, either. But he was keeping a very close eye on him.

"Tie him up," the Chief ordered the room in general. Vince and Dave immediately moved to do so.

Duke moved to the opposite end of the room and grabbed a bottle that looked alcoholic, taking a big swig without ever taking his eyes off the cop with the gun.

Octavia had not noticed the gun, but - ignoring everyone else's looks and yelling - she did notice where Duke's attention was.

Which meant her own eyes were drawn to the Chief, too.

"Chit's gon daun, jaka?"

"He has a gun," Duke said, gesturing towards the Chief -- with his booze rather than his axe, which . . . maybe was progress?

"Yep," the Chief said on a sigh, holding the weapon up.

"You lied," Duke said.

"So maybe I did."

"Chief, Octavia." Audrey looked between the two of them. "Hand 'em over. We all play by the same rules."

"Says who?" the Chief asked.

"Says the whole room that's about to go Lord of the Flies on your asses."

"Means nothing to me," Octavia noted, unimpressed. "But I wasn't about to argue in the first place."

She was, however, going to stab the knife deep into the wood of the nearest available tabletop. (Wasn't like it mattered when the owner of this place had turned up the way he'd turned up.) "Suggest you don't either, Chief," she added, as she straightened up.

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Page 7 of 11

Season one catchup preplay

Re: As You Were - the search part two

Re: As You Were - the search part two

Re: As You Were - the search part two

Re: As You Were - the search part two

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - the search part two

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - MOAR DEATH

Re: The Hand You're Dealt - Octavia explores Haven

Re: The Hand You're Dealt - Duke and Audrey investigate

Re: The Hand You're Dealt - After disaster drinking

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one

Re: As You Were - accusations part one