seaoftroubles | Haven end run preplay part 2: the bloodening

seaoftroubles

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)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke shook his head, confused. He opened his eyes and stared at the space the demon had been. (Where had Octavia gone? Nothing was making any sense!)

"I don't understand."

From:

my_own_advocate

A few more steps, and there Lucifer was. Bracing his hands on the sofa, on either side of Duke.

"Darling," he said quietly, "You're dead."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke’s mouth worked soundlessly for a few moments. He wanted to cry. Or shout. Or laugh. It was patently absurd. He wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be dead. He was — he was — He looked around, trying to find — something. Proof that Lucifer was wrong. That he was lying.

(Lucifer never lied.)

They’d been at the Gull. But they were at the mansion. Octavia was here, but now she wasn’t, and —

And he couldn’t breathe.

(Dead men don’t breathe.)

“No,” he said, voice unfathomably small. “That’s. No.”

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer could not stop himself from sliding onto the sofa if he'd tried. (He had no desire to try.) As soon as he was seated, he reached for Duke, tugging him wordlessly into himself.

This was Duke. Duke, no longer in his body, but still here.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke let himself be pulled, still trying to wrap his mind around what Lucifer had said.

Dead. He was dead. He was dead and had been reliving regrets and --

"This is Hell."

It wasn't a question, but it had no strength behind it.

He was dead. And in Hell.

And he had no idea what to do next.

From:

my_own_advocate

"Yes," Lucifer said. He swallowed. His mouth felt dry regardless. Do something. "I paused your Hell loop."

From:

betterthanaplan

Paused.

Would it start again?

Duke couldn't be sure what the ball squeezing itself up his throat would come out his mouth as, whether a laugh, a cry, or even throwing up. He just knew he couldn't keep it down. He curled in on himself, balling up in Lucifer's grip, and let it out.

It wasn't a laugh or a sob, but something in between. And once it started, it didn't stop.

And anyway, Duke realized, who cared if it did or not? He was dead. And in Hell. There was no one left to impress or protect. Just him and Lucifer and the demons.

Forever.

Edited Date: 2025-03-06 09:40 pm (UTC)

From:

my_own_advocate

"Darling," Lucifer whispered, anew, brushing his hand over Duke's hair. Kissing the top of his head, wrapping his arms tighter.

Something in his chest squeezed painfully. It refused to let go. "I love you," he whispered. "I love you."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke wrapped his fingers in Lucifer's shirt and sobbed. Openly, brokenly, in a way he hadn't done since well before his earliest memories. He cried to mourn his life, mostly disappointing and entirely too short, and his death, which he could only remember in snatches. He cried for the boy he'd been and the man that boy should have become if his lineage hadn't been poisoned so long ago.

And, underneath it all, he cried for Lucifer and Octavia. For one being here, holding him through all this, and the other being so far away, so utterly unreachable.

From:

my_own_advocate

And Lucifer-- Lucifer was still in shock. It thawed only slowly, as he held on to Duke, unsure of what else to do with himself but that. But it thawed, coming loose in small chunks.

The first feeling to escape was anger. He felt it burn in his heart, slip into his skin, overtake him.

He held on. It was all he knew how to do.

From:

betterthanaplan

It felt, in the moment, like the tears weren't going to stop. That this would somehow become his new Hell loop, sitting here and sobbing into his boyfriend's shirt for everything he'd lost.

Slowly but surely though, the tears slowed. Leaving Duke feeling sore and hollowed out. He breathed softly for a few moments -- out of habit, he'd have to assume -- and tried to recenter himself.

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that the first thing he said when he had his voice back under his control was "Tavi?"

Was she alive? Alone somewhere? He couldn't stand the thought.

From:

my_own_advocate

The anger was boiling. The question broke through, but only to a point. Lucifer blinked.

"She's not here," he said.

From:

betterthanaplan

Yeah. Duke had noticed that. (He really hoped Lucifer meant she was not in Hell.)

"Is she alone?"

From:

my_own_advocate

"Yes, but not for long," Lucifer said. He eyed Duke. "Time works differently down here, remember? I could be with you for two months and it would barely be a minute up there."

From:

betterthanaplan

"She shouldn't be alone."

Duke had a lot more trouble wrapping his head around that than he did his own death.

"How long has it been? Since I . . . I died?"

His voice cracked faintly on the word. How could it not?

From:

my_own_advocate

"A minute. Less."

Do something, Octavia had said.

He should do something.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke was out of tears. So the sound he made had to be a laugh. He pressed his face into Lucifer's shoulder again, muffling it. His body wouldn't even be cold yet.

"So this is it. This is my . . . forever." That word still terrified him. "You'll go there for minutes. And I'll be here for months."

Until Octavia died. Or Lucifer got tired of splitting his time, maybe.

"You should just go. I can't --" His breath came faster again, panic and grief washing over him in another wave. "I can't --"

From:

my_own_advocate

"I won't."

Ah, there was the anger. Lucifer was trying to keep the rigidity out of his spine while he held Duke, but he just... he was so angry.

How dare Haven. How dare that little snivelling bastard. And Duke, sacrificing himself again. It felt like a sick game, the kind Father had always loved to play.

From:

betterthanaplan

Anger. Oh yes. Anger was a much better emotion than the mass of pain Duke was feeling right now. It was so much simpler. Duke latched onto it hard.

“I’m not even supposed to be here! I’m supposed to be starting over as a seagull or a fish! And you think I want to stay here with you for months at a time if it means she’s alone for even a minute?”

He tried to shake Lucifer, though he didn’t have the leverage, the way he was still gripping Lucifer’s shirt.

“This is your stupid afterlife, Lucifer, fucking fix it!”

From:

my_own_advocate

Do something. Fix it. Do something. Fix it.

"I always told you the bloody seagull thing wasn't going to happen, didn't I?" Lucifer snapped, veering up off of the sofa.

Not away from Duke, mind. He hauled the man right to his feet. "I told you you'd wind up here, and if you think I'm going to abandon you, you're absolutely out of your nautical mind!"

From:

betterthanaplan

Yes. Lucifer had always said that. And Duke had never wanted it, so he’d refused to believe it.

“So what are you going to do then?” he demanded. Still hanging onto Lucifer’s shirt even as he was hauled to his feet. “Because we are not doing this forever!”

From:

my_own_advocate

It was funny, how much time Lucifer had spent convincing him-- both of them-- to let him do something. To let him fix things when they broke. And yet now, when it was most important, he didn't have a bloody answer.

"I don't know," he said, through gritted teeth. "But we are leaving this room. I need to go somewhere I can think."

He dragged Duke towards the door. When he pushed it open, there was-- dark walls, rising high up towards the sky. Ashes, drifting down. The real infrastructure of Hell.

Do something do something do something do something. Something roiled in his stomach. The world swam.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke couldn’t help him. Because he’d just been dragged from — okay, not actually Lucifer’s living room, but basically Lucifer’s living room into — into something that actually looked like Hell.

He stared. Head whipping around and craning up as he tried to take it all in at once (but had never been meant to take it in at all).

It was like the Anti-Barn. All darkness where the Barn had been blinding white, though both seemed to extend forever (oh how he hated that word).

He spotted a giant, towering seat rising above it all in the distance and swallowed.

No wonder Lucifer liked to surround himself in luxury, if he’d been forced to live here for millennia.

From:

my_own_advocate

"I've left Daniel sitting in his own paused Hell-loop," Lucifer was saying, caught up deep in his own thoughts. "But you don't want that. And Octavia--"

He paused in the hallway, and stared at the demon - dressed in a nurse's outfit, holding a bloody blade, whose eyes lit up as she saw him - and let out a groan.

"Octavia wants me to do something," he said, whipping around to look at Duke before the demon could come to him.

From:

betterthanaplan

“Daniel,” Duke echoed faintly, still staring, then “oh fuck —“ when he saw the demon.

He wasn’t afraid of medical professionals, but damn, now he might be.

“Yes, do something. That’s — yes please.”

. . . Wait, was Dan still down here?!