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:

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?!

From:

my_own_advocate

Yes. Yes, he was.

"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.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke hardly needed to be yanked. He was only just managing not to cower behind Lucifer.

“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?”

From:

my_own_advocate

"Lord Morningstar!" the demon cried.

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!"

Edited Date: 2025-03-11 12:39 pm (UTC)

From:

betterthanaplan

Dan was stuck in a police station playing ping-pong. Duke shuddered faintly. This place was so much creepier than the fiery caverns Dante had described.

“Hi,” he said, giving a little finger wiggle with his free hand. “How’s it, uh. Going?”

From:

my_own_advocate

The ping-pong ball hopped over to the other side and fell right off the table on the police officer's end. Dan spun around, his face lighting up. "Lucifer!" he said. "You're back! What's the plan? How are we going to do..."

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."

From:

betterthanaplan

“Thousand —“ Duke went faintly green. “In a police station??”

He was going to have so many nightmares about this. You know, assuming he ever slept again.

Edited Date: 2025-03-11 12:52 pm (UTC)

From:

my_own_advocate

"I had to pause his Hell loop and he's comfortable here," Lucifer sighed. He looked at Dan. "Daniel, I have commanded the demons to not torture you. You are the first soul ever in this 'purgatory.'" He gestured irritably. "I've invented an entirely new afterlife for you, so I apologize if Belios' serve isn't up to snuff."

"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!"

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke didn't know who Lee was or why his door was a big deal, so he stuck to what he did know.

"So you could just, like. Not be in a police station."

Duke, some of your best friends were cops. Calm down.

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer half-turned to face him. "Darling," he said, "That we're in a police station has been amply established. Can we focus?"

From:

betterthanaplan

“I am literally dead and in Hell,” Duke said. “So, uh. ‘Focus’ is asking a lot.”

He felt he was doing very well here. He’d only broken down sobbing once so far and hadn’t even started screaming!

From:

my_own_advocate

"I want to say you get used to it, but you don't," Dan sighed. He looked at Lucifer, a hint of accusation in his eyes. "You know, I don't even know why I'm down here. You know as well as I do that I've dealt with all my guilt. So why am I still here? Why was that guy able to make it into Heaven and literally no one else? Why not me?"

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.

From:

betterthanaplan

Heaven was also not Duke’s preferred afterlife, so he would encourage Lucifer to think selfishly.

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.)

From:

my_own_advocate

"Well, it seems pretty simple to me," Dan said. His tone was getting a lot sharper. "Just stop screwing around and go be God. Then you can just, like, beam me up."

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.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke frowned at the trailing off. Were he not quite so distracted by the “dead and in Hell” of it all he might also be connecting dots and doing math, but, well.

It wasn’t like this place was meant to be soothing, you know?

“Luce?”

From:

my_own_advocate

"Your heart stopped," Lucifer said, his eyes widening at... nothing, as he blew through years of experience stalking the Detective from murder to murder. "But it takes a minute before your brain starts to die. Much longer for it to finish doing so."

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."

From:

betterthanaplan

“I don’t have to be dead?” Duke asked.

He was going to feel so bad for Dan later, having to see Duke have a chance he never got.

From:

my_own_advocate

Well, Dan would have his own problems soon enough. For now, though, he was thinking the exact same thing. "Wait, he gets to come back and I don't?" he screeched. "What the fuck, Lucifer?!"

"I wasn't God when you died," Lucifer pointed out. He felt. Cold. And-- something else. He was God, wasn't he?

... He was God.

Oh. God.

"I'll see you," he managed, and then found himself rushing out the door, extending his wings. Back back back to Duke's body quick quick--

He'd think later about the wisdom of leaving Duke stranded at a police station with Daniel, but... oh well.

From:

betterthanaplan

“Luce?!” Duke’s tone was very different now. “Luce! Shouldn’t I, like, go with you?!”

He was too late to catch up, though. He turned back to Dan with a deeply awkward smile, terror bubbling behind it.

“So, uh. Ping pong, huh?”