seaoftroubles | Haven end run preplay part 2: the bloodening

Duke gets his trouble triggered by Octavia in a kitchen accident and our crew discover that post-trouble bomb, it is EVEN MORE DIRE as he goes black-eyed and can't stop himself from trying to stalk whoever set him off
Lucifer and Octavia stop Duke from doing anything bad (has Octavia make him bleed maybe so he can use his massive power supply to knock Duke tf out?). Duke recovers and says "fuck this, we need to end it" and suggests they go back to Haven one final time to figure out how to end the troubles forever.
They arrive in Haven and Duke IMMEDIATELY goes into convulsions and vanishes in a burst of green smoke. OOPS.
Lucifer and Octavia find Gloria (and Dwight maybe? And/or Nathan?), find out about the "no marks killer" who has been going around killing troubled folks -- and all the troubles that are going off like crazy without Audrey around to talk them down. I imagine there's some "okay, that sucks but WHERE THE FUCK IS OUR BOYFRIEND????"
Duke is spotted around town murking folks, but they can't quite catch him
I may or may not write a scene of Duke and Croatoan while Duke is under his control
Trap set for Duke? Not at the police station. Gloria's house or the hospital/morgue, maybe, since she's coronering. Duke takes the bait, Lucifer pounces again to keep him from, getting away. After a false start or two during which Croat!Duke is DEEPLY UPSETTINGLY CREEPY AT THEM, Lucifer and Octavia manage to talk him around. (Possibly using Duke's new joy at being the subbiest sub who ever subbed!)
Duke starts leaking troubles when Croatoan realizes he's broken his hold. He panics, and Octavia or Lucifer cover his eyes to keep the troubles in. Gloria goes "I'll get some drugs!" and scoots to find something to drug Duke with if need be (and gets out of harms way ;D). Duke takes over the eye-covering -- and goes into muscle contractions as Croat tries pull aether out by another route. This doesn't last long before Croatoan APPEARS DRAMATICALLY IN THE DOOR looking like a gremlin cosplaying as a noir detective. Duke can't even see him -- he's covering his eyes -- but goes "FUCK THIS SHIT" and starts launching the troubles he still has control over at the guy. I really like the idea that at least one of them is radioactive. Maybe Croat!Duke killed the lady from the nonsense trouble episode and got her "shooting microwaves" power. Lucifer and Octavia also fight. Eventually Croat EXPLODES (or . . . dissolves . . . or otherwise dies grotesquely) and our three spend a moment just panting for breath and looking at each other, all "omg, is that it? did we win?"
Duke collapses dead. Weeping and gnashing of teeth. Lucifer gods the fuck out, wiping out the troubles in a giant aether-nado, and resurrects Duke, who's spent maybe 30 seconds dead -- but that's [mumble mumble] amount of time in Hell so he's still a littttttle bit fucked.
They go home and have more angsty h/c times yay!
(Also probably Octavia checks on Gloria first and maybe convinces her to retire to Baltimore XP)

Aka: the on-island stuff. Octavia sets off Duke's trouble, he goes full creepy horror movie villain, she and Lucifer knock him out or lock him up, he comes to/the trouble fades out and they go "fuck this shit, let's end it"

Aka: the arrival stuff. They show up in Haven, Duke vanishes as Croatoan grabs him immediately, Luce and Tavi panic and run into someone (I vote Gloria) who tells them what's up in town.

For me to pre-write/pre-play Duke going a murking and Croatoan going a gloating

Lucifer and Octavia trap Duke and talk him around. He starts leaking troubles and freaks out. Croatoan shows up and Duke starts firing his troubles at him because fuck that guy. Croat dies, there's a moment of relief, and then DUKE GOES DOWN.

For Lucifer fining Duke in Hell

Lucifer goes full God-Mode. There are probably hugs. And team OT3 decide What Happens Next, leaning into Len's season six stuff!

I condensed the ever living hell out of my threads, trying to have them be more scene/timeline dependent than beat dependent, since if it's all in one scene we seem to just keep going in one thread. Let me know if you'd prefer more info/separation!

(Also, I figure some of the catharsis/finishing Haven threads, like Octavia and Gloria, maybe can be live played! I still like the idea of her ending up retiring to Baltimore with baby Aaron. MOAR LOCAL NPCS YAY)

Octavia's efforts at learning how to cook more things had been sort of... repeatedly starting and stopping, over the past couple of years. But now, with twice the date nights in some of her weeks, some of the motivation had been seeping back in. So, she'd asked Duke to teach her a dish. To cook it with her, in the mansion's kitchen.

And they were well on their way in doing just that.

"And now I just cut these?" she asked, with a gesture towards the small array of vegetables she'd just rinsed. "Slice and dice?"

Seemed simple enough. She was great with knives.

Octavia would be over the moon about having ~~her mom~~ ~~her grandma~~ Gloria living close by, lbr.

"That's right," Duke confirmed. "You want them to be about bite-size. Small enough to cook quick but big enough to still feel a little substantial."

"Bite-size?" Octavia repeated with a wryly amused look over at him. "Doesn't that depend on the mouth taking the bites?"

"It's an approximation," Duke said with a playful eye roll. He finished rinsing off the fresh herbs and flicked a little water at her. "Like . . ." He held his hand up, fingers demonstrating the size he meant. ". . . that big."

Octavia snorted at the flick of water, then raised her eyebrows some. "You sure you don't wanna show me how to do it?"

Too bad she'd never seen ~~meta for~~ the movie Ghost. She could've been making a direct reference.

"Do you want me to show you how to do it?" Duke asked with a grin. "I believe in you."

"Hey, if you don't want to take the excuse to get close to me," Octavia rasped, setting the cutting board where she needed it, and picking up the knife, "I'm not going to force you."

"Oh, is that what that was." Duke laughed. "That's good, I like it."

He edged closer into her space.

"You want me to maneuver your hands, too, or is this good?"

"Maneuver, no," Octavia replied, "but guide, maybe?" A beat. "Or pretend to, because I don't actually need it."

They'd had kind of an unsteady go at date nights. She was trying to bring in something a little more... playful, into things.

Duke was very glad to follow that lead. He looped one arm around her waist and rested the fingers of the other by the edge of the cutting board.

“Guidance. I can do that.”

"Thought you might," Octavia replied, and turned her head to steal a quick kiss against his cheek.

Like he'd earned something by following her lead.

Duke wasn't going to complain about that.

He was going to tease her mercilessly, though.

"Okay, so first off, let's look at what you're cutting, not your handsome snogon."

Octavia snorted, as she turned her attention back to the cutting board (where she'd kept the knife very safely against it, thank you) and reached for one of the vegetables.

"Okay, any other helpful tips?"

Of course she had! That was what made his joke funny.

"Mmm, let's see how you do," he said. "Ah, wait, hang on, there is this first."

He kissed her cheek in return.

"Now you're ready."

"Ridiculous man," Octavia huffed, not selling any sort of offense even a little bit.

She made her first cut, confident.

“I’m the tripiest,” Duke agreed. He leaned into just a little as he watched her work.

He loved watching her work. Loved watching her do just about anything, really.

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Haven end run preplay part 2: the bloodening

The bloodening and the decision

Duke goes foomp and a visit from the exposition fairy

Duke and the Croat

Trap! Confrontation! Battle! Deeeeath!

Hell

Resurrection, untroubling, and catharsis

OOC

Re: OOC

Re: The bloodening and the decision

Re: OOC

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