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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)
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-07 09:34 pm (UTC)Do something, Octavia had said.
He should do something.
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-07 09:42 pm (UTC)"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 --"
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-08 05:10 am (UTC)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.
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-08 05:44 am (UTC)“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!”
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-08 05:47 am (UTC)"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!"
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-08 01:57 pm (UTC)“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!”
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-08 02:13 pm (UTC)"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.
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-08 02:24 pm (UTC)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.
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-11 10:05 am (UTC)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.
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-11 12:21 pm (UTC)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?!
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-11 12:26 pm (UTC)"Perhaps Dan, even with his regrettable intellectual capabilities, might be able to help inspire us," Lucifer said. He gripped Duke by the wrist and yanked him past the demon. "Yes, yes, of course you're happy to see me," he pushed out between his teeth. "No time."
The anger was fading. Despair was straight ahead. He couldn't let himself give in to it.
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-11 12:35 pm (UTC)“We’re going to see Dan,” he said, feeling foolish. His anger had faded too, but the other side of it for him right now was more terror. Especially if demons kept walking by. “Goody?”
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-11 12:39 pm (UTC)Lucifer rolled his eyes. "It's so hard to get good help that understands instruction," he muttered, stopping before a tall black door.
He yanked it open, and revealed...
... a familiar LA precinct police station. A large ping-pong table sat at the bottom of the stairs. Dan and another police officer were trading volleys back and forth.
"Daniel!"
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-11 12:43 pm (UTC)“Hi,” he said, giving a little finger wiggle with his free hand. “How’s it, uh. Going?”
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-11 12:47 pm (UTC)He spotted Duke, then, and faltered, frowning. "...this."
Lucifer let out a frustrated noise, yanking Duke inside with him. "I don't have one," he said. "Duke here just died and I'm completely lost. I was hoping you could inspire me."
Dan blinked slowly. "Inspire you with what?" he said. "Everything's been the same for the last thousand years. Hell still sucks." He waved his ping-pong bat at the police officer. "Belios here still sucks. Ping-pong is not his game."
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-11 12:51 pm (UTC)He was going to have so many nightmares about this. You know, assuming he ever slept again.
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-11 01:03 pm (UTC)"It's more my backhand that's weak," Belios said. Weakly, waving his bat around.
Lucifer reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Look, I'm sorry. I know you're the one stuck here. But I'm trying to find solutions to extremely difficult metaphysical problems, all right? And now Duke's dead!"
Dan stared at him. "Don't look at me," he said. "I've already tried every door in this place. I even tried the one that guy Lee walked through."
"Well, Lee's door was a metaphor for his own guilt," Lucifer pointed out.
The groan he got was certainly-- something. "I know it was a metaphor, Lucifer!"
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-11 02:06 pm (UTC)"So you could just, like. Not be in a police station."
Duke, some of your best friends were cops. Calm down.
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-11 08:18 pm (UTC)Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-11 09:05 pm (UTC)He felt he was doing very well here. He’d only broken down sobbing once so far and hadn’t even started screaming!
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-12 04:30 am (UTC)Lucifer rubbed at his face. "I don't know."
If he did, this might be easier. Though sending Duke on to Heaven was also not really-- okay, that was a selfish thought.
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-12 04:38 am (UTC)He started to say something about Lucifer’s dad being a dick, or maybe something about expecting Hell to be fair . . . but Lucifer had just fussed at him about being focused. So he just kind of hung back instead, trying not to look like he was hiding behind Lucifer’s shoulder (though he was absolutely hiding behind Lucifer’s shoulder.)
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-12 08:26 am (UTC)Meanwhile, Lucifer's pinch around the bridge of his nose suddenly upped in pressure. "Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, we have been through this," he sighed. "If I act against your wishes, no matter how unconscious those are, then that is the end of free will, which I cannot do."
He waved vaguely at Dan. "I can't just blip you to heaven, and your body has been dead and buried for-- months? Years? So even if I thought it would be a good idea, I can't put you back in there for a new spin even if I now that I have all these God powers, so--"
He stopped talking abrupty. He dropped his hands.
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-12 12:26 pm (UTC)It wasn’t like this place was meant to be soothing, you know?
“Luce?”
Re: Hell
Date: 2025-03-12 12:29 pm (UTC)He whipped around to look at Duke. "Your soul has left, but Octavia had been doing chest compressions-- your body may not be fully dead yet."
Re: Hell
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