The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Sunday Evening

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was still planning to try sailing to Haven. She was just doing it concurrently with trying to figure out how all the places she'd been on the Ground fit on what the east coast looked in this time. The table she was sitting at in the galley was a mess of charts and notes, and in the middle of it all, there was a hand-drawn map. Octavia had sketched out the coastline, and had spent most of the day marking down both the present-day names she could find on her map app as well as the approximate locations of places from the Ground.

It was getting late, but she was still working on it. Right now, she was hard at work trying to figure out whether it could really be as simple as this time's Annapolis turning into Polis by her time.

... Okay, right now, she was kind of slumped over the table, her head cushioned on one arm.

Just resting her eyes, just for a little bit.

[ooc: For that guy that's returning. The tall one.]

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[okteiviakom]

Octavia looked at the gray on his temples again, in his beard.

Her eyes were wide.

"But nothing happened when she was here," she said, because she couldn't help it. Even though she knew there were probably dozens of possible reasons for that, including just Fandom bullshit.

And that Jean's Duke had already been dead.

[betterthanaplan]

"Guess the troubles were over by then?" Duke shook his head. "Maybe -- when her version of me. . . . That sounds like it counts as 'saving the world' to me."

[okteiviakom]

Yeah, Octavia was really regretting having said that, now.

And yes, the sudden wave of nausea made this feel even more like her concussion.

She didn't know what to say.

[betterthanaplan]

"I know." And she wasn't dealing with post-trouble soreness on top of it all. "I --" He swallowed and laughed softly, his eyes going wet again. "I might be screwed."

[okteiviakom]

"Hey, no," Octavia told him, immediately but with her voice soft. She wanted so badly to cradle his face between her hands, but wouldn't. "You can't think that. We can't think that."

[betterthanaplan]

It was pretty hard not to, right now.

Duke nodded anyway, eyes falling shut again. He swayed faintly into her. He was so tired.

"Yeah. Yeah, we make our own destiny, right?"

[okteiviakom]

"Yumi throu daun ogeda," Octavia murmured, as she wondered how long it had been since he'd gotten some actual rest. "Remember?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah." It had pretty much been since the last time they'd gone to bed together. Unless you counted being unconscious in the ambulance. "I'm just . . . so glad to be home."

[okteiviakom]

"I'm so glad to have you home," Octavia replied, unable to keep the words from being a sigh. "Have you eaten anything?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Not for . . . awhile."

He couldn't actually remember the last time he'd had a decent meal.

"Nearly dying's tough on the appetite."

[okteiviakom]

"You need to eat something," said Octavia, who hadn't been eating super well during his absence, but he didn't need to know that. "There's some leftovers, or I can still order something...?"

Maybe? She didn't really know what time it was.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke didn't really know, either.

"Leftovers are fine," he said, moving a little stiffly away from her so he could sit down at the table. He sat back with a wince and a hiss, then frowned down at all the maps. "What's all this?"

[okteiviakom]

"I was gearing up to take the Samsara and come get you," Octavia said, just a little dryly, as she headed for the fridge.

That did not explain the hand-drawn map with scribbles all over it in her handwriting, no.

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah?" It was a terrible plan. Duke didn't think she needed him to tell her that. "If anyone could, it'd be you."

[okteiviakom]

It had also been a desperate plan.

"I barely know how to sail," Octavia replied flatly as she dug out a few takeaway cartons.

She was more willing to say that to him, now, than she'd been to Lucifer when it had been the only plan she could come up with.

[betterthanaplan]

"And the Samsara's not built for that kind of distance," Duke said. He leaned his arms against the table and sort of draped himself across them. The stretch through his upper back was just the right side of painful. "Still. You'd figure something out."

[okteiviakom]

After checking it was the right one, Octavia tossed one of the containers into the microwave, and leaned her hip against the counter.

"I was trying to, anyway."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke rested his head against his arms and watched her. "I bought a boat," he said softly. "I couldn't stay in the hotel anymore. The Sanguine Moon."

[okteiviakom]

"The --"

You know what, Octavia couldn't even repeat that. Too on the nose, you could tell by the faintly wry shift in her expression.

"Okay."

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah." Duke's laugh was a little more real this time. "I know. Haven's not always very subtle, is it."

[okteiviakom]

As always, Octavia didn't smile. But her lips did curl just a little bit.

Still wry, though.

"Is she a good boat?"

[betterthanaplan]

“She’s no Rogue,” Duke said. “But she treated me pretty well.”

[okteiviakom]

"Good."

The microwave dinged. Octavia grabbed a fork, and brought the carton over, setting it down next to him on the table. It was from Ching Tai, and he was about to find it was actually still full - Octavia had screwed up her order a few days ago, and ended up with something with beef in it.

It hadn't been a great experience.

She brushed her fingertips against his arm. "Eat up, jaka."

[betterthanaplan]

“Sha, gona.” He sat up slowly, swallowing a groan. After CPR on stone stairs, his back was going to be pissed at him for a week. He opened the carton and paused. “. . . Beef?”

She didn’t eat beef anymore.

[okteiviakom]

"Yeah," Octavia replied, almost absently, as she stepped away from the table again, to go heat up the other carton for herself. "Wrong order."