seaoftroubles | Season four preplay: Lay Me Down

1. Duke gets a call from Nathan to say "Duke get your ass back here Wade's activated." -- Also feat. Lucifer and Octavia

2. Duke, Octavia, and Lucifer arrive in Haven, find out only [wild handwaving because Haven is terrible at timelines] number of days has passed even though it's been months for them. Jennifer says she's settling in okay on the Sanguine Moon and is applying for a job at the Haven Herald. Duke is all "uhhhhh. . . . 'kay, that's a choice that I support I guess". Jennifer is adorkably awkward about being nervous for the interview. Wade arrives at the Gull to grab cleaning products and is cagey about the reasons. "Soda spilled in my car." He claims that he understand the trouble is terrible and isn't going to let it take over. Duke tries to talk him through it, but Wade just shoves him off and promises to head out of town. Duke tries to pretend he believes that this trip might be an easy one. Also there is a day-time drunk sleeping on the bench outside the Gull. FOR PLOT REASONS.

3. Later that day, Dwight comes by the marina to tell Duke that the drunk died mysteriously at the police station. Duke remembers Freddie, the drunk, was into watching bear documentaries at the Gull. Dwight asks about Jordan, wonders aloud if Wade's involved. Duke says no way. -- Lucifer and Octavia are welcome to join in or not

4. Duke dreams about trying to talk to Wade about their trouble and getting attacked when he gets a papercut. Wakes up when dream!Wade slashes him with a knife to discover GIANT KNIFE WOUND ON HIS ARM! Octavia has her own injurious dream. Lucifer freaks out/fusses over them.

5. Lucifer tries to insure Duke and Octavia stay awake. Audrey decides to compare Nathan and Duke's activities the day before since they both got hit by the trouble and survived. They make the connection to the Herald and call Dwight -- too late, he gets shot in a dream. We can also have Nathan fill the OT3 in on the non-dream murders at the same time.

6. Duke takes advantage of Dwight being sedated in the hospital to check what he's looking into, finds info on the murder with the broken knife. Puts two and two together and figures out it's Wade. This can happen off screen. He and Lucifer (and maybe Octavia?) head to the local boat rental he knows Wade used and gets access to the boat he used. He follows the GPS along the coast and finds Wade's dumping grounds, including Jordan's remains.

7. While Audrey and Nathan defuse the trouble, Duke, Lucifer, and Octavia go after Wade, stop him from offing a guy at a local bar. Wade goes all high and mighty, Duke yells at him. Wade tries to pull the "brothers" card to keep from being turned in. "You killed all those people, Wade. That's on me now, too." Wade threatens to expose Lexie's secret so the Guard tries to make Audrey kill Nathan. Lucifer knocks Wade out so they can lock him up on the Sanguine Moon.

8. Octavia guards Wade on the Moon while Lucifer and Duke try to figure out where to stick him and arrange their travel back to Fandom. Wade escapes and he and Octavia fight. Octavia is winning until Wade manages to draw blood and gets the upper hand. Enter Duke and Lucifer. Lucifer goes to Octavia to try to staunch her bleeding while Duke takes on Wade? (Since Duke can't interact with Octavia's blood and all. Maybe Wade managed to open her dream wound and it's worse than just a little cut.) Wade throws himself on Duke's knife and dies. The Crocker trouble dies too.

9. Duke wraps Wade's body in a tarp. When Duke reaches for Octavia's wound, she flinches back. Duke internalizes the SHIT out of that even though it's a natural move if they've been used to trying to keep their blood off him. Lucifer suggests they clear out, Duke agrees, so long as he can bury Wade first. He asks them not to tell anyone about the murder. Luce and Tavi are probably like "whatever, we don't want to talk to any of these people anyway."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

betterthanaplan

"Wade!" Duke yelled again. They'd arrived early enough in the morning that the bar wasn't open yet. He paused and peered through the windows. "Wade, come on, man, where are you?!"

"Duke!" Jennifer bounced over and opened the door. "Hey, you're back!"

"Uh, yeah. Is Wade around?"

"Haven't seen him. Hey, so." Jennifer rolled her shoulders back and dropped her chin. "Question: glasses on?" She stuck a little pair of rectangular glasses on her face. "Or off?" She took them off again.

Duke shook his head, thrown by her cheerful energy. "What?"

"Which look says that I no longer hear voices in my head and I am ready for steady employment?"

". . . At a bar?"

From:

betterthanaplan

Jennifer snorted and whacked him in the chest. "At the Haven Herald! I'm a journalist, remember?"

"Uh," Duke said. "Right. Well, they'd be lucky to have you either way."

"You're sweet," Jennifer said, smiling. "Anyway, what are you doing here? I thought you and your partners were leaving for awhile?"

"We . . . did," Duke said slowly. "How, uh. How long has it been?"

Jennifer shrugged. "I don't know. Not quite a week?"

Duke squeezed his eyes shut. "I can't decide if it's reassuring or not that Haven insists on not going too long without me."

[note to self, you can file these threads together neatly later, DON'T WORRY 'BOUT IT.

note to you two, ping off this comment whenever you're ready, I like having Tavi and Luce taking a moment to be all like "oh fuck, we're doing this again" without Duke around to get his manic all over them both. . . .]

From:

okteiviakom

At least when Octavia and Lucifer finally made it to the bar, it didn't look like Duke had found trouble just yet. Or Wade. Octavia supposed that was reassuring.

And of course then she saw Jennifer, and remembered -- a rage, a numb feeling, and then a deep loneliness after there were no more arms around her, not holding her back, not holding her.

The creeping-towards-stony mildness on her face wobbled a little.

From:

my_own_advocate

"How much of a disaster did we miss this time, and how much is still impending?" Lucifer asked, as always the more verbal of the two.

His hand gripped Octavia's.

From:

seaoftroubles

"Hey guys!" Jennifer greeted, bouncing a little on her toes. "Octavia, you look . . . better?"

Than the flailing ball of fury she'd last seen. It . . . wasn't a high bar.

"Um, no disasters," she said, shrugging. "But I guess it hasn't been as long for us."

"A week," Duke said, shaking his head. "Apparently the multiverse thinks this place can't function without me."

From:

okteiviakom

A week, since Octavia's control had fully slipped. It was a weird thing how knowing that seemed to bring it closer to her, too, even though it had been months.

She looked away, feeling her shoulders tense.

From:

my_own_advocate

"It's probably better off not functioning," Lucifer said, mouth set in a thin line.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke bobbed his head in a silent "fair" at Lucifer, then looked back at Jennifer. "Have you seen Wade?"

"Not in awhile. Is there something wrong?"

"He, uh. Activated."

"Oh." Jennifer frowned. "I take it that's . . . bad?"

From:

okteiviakom

"It might be," Octavia put in.

Trying to re-focus back on why they were here, instead of how things had been when they'd left.

From:

my_own_advocate

"Potentially homicidal," Lucifer agreed.

From:

betterthanaplan

"Oh," Jennifer squeaked faintly. "Yes, I'd say that's, uh. Bad."

She looked past Duke up the hill and let out another squeak. "There he is! Um, good luck!"

She darted off into the restaurant, clearly not excited to be hanging out with 'potentially homicidal'.

"Wade!" Duke shouted as Wade's black SUV shut off. "We gotta talk!"

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia only glanced towards Jennifer again once her back was turned. She probably had the right idea, right now - though it would've been even better to just leave Haven altogether.

Then Octavia turned her attention back on Duke, and Wade in the distance.

"This should be fun," she muttered.

From:

my_own_advocate

"Or cause an enormous headache. The man's a wanker," Lucifer muttered.

He hadn't let go of Octavia's hand yet. "Well, here goes."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Duke," Wade said. He seemed . . . pretty normal, for Wade at least. "You're back. Gonna argue with me about running this place some more?"

"Actually, I'm here to drag you the hell out of Haven," Duke said, jaw tight. "You can't stay here. You get that now, right?"

"Look, can you find me some rags while we fight?" Wade asked. "Soda spilled in my car --"

"Nathan says you almost killed a troubled guy! The only reason that you are standing here and not in jail is because I told him I would handle it!"

Wade dropped his gaze and nodded. "It won't happen again," he said. "I was acting crazy. I just wanted what you had. . . . What Dad gave you."

Edited Date: 2022-09-29 06:14 pm (UTC)

From:

okteiviakom

Oh, right, this guy was a wanker. And unlike with Jennifer, Octavia had no problem with whether Wade remembered she'd gone feral in front of him or not.

"You don't want that."

From:

my_own_advocate

"You realize Duke has spent an innumerable amount of time hoping to get rid of it," Lucifer said flatly.

From:

betterthanaplan

"No, actually," Wade said, getting riled up. "Seems to me like he's spent all that time making sure I don't know anything about it."

"You're right," Duke said quickly. "And that was a mistake. I get that now. But Wade, you and I both know how troubled blood makes us feel. You really think you can control it?"

Wade deflated a little. "Yeah. Look, I -- I messed up. I get that. Just . . . give me a couple days to figure out where I'm going to go, okay?"

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia eyed Wade.

It was a harsh look, and she didn't seem convinced.

From:

my_own_advocate

"Or we could lock you up in the trunk and drive back to Fandom," Lucifer said, helpfully, "Where troubled people are in rather shorter supply."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Which we don't want to do," Duke said. "But we will if we have to."

Wade rolled his eyes and shook his head. "I can take care of myself. No kidnapping necessary. Now, do you mind? I have soda to clean up, and it looks like you have a customer to wait on."

He tipped his head towards a bench just around the corner from where Duke and the others had come from. Duke frowned and went to look.

A drunk man was passed out on a stack of Heralds, snoring faintly.

"Goddammit," Duke muttered. "Freddie! What part of 'you don't have to go home but you can't stay here' don't you understand?!"