The Cape Rouge, Somewhere Along The East Coast, Monday Afternoon

[okteiviakom]

The days at sea felt like waves. There were moments where Octavia felt settled and patient, ready to ride it all out until the multiverse decided to spit Duke back out again. And there were other moments where the wait just felt like it was crushing her.

She liked coming out on the deck sometimes, when the latter happened. Something about looking out towards the horizon could sometimes help center her. And that was what she'd been doing when she suddenly caught movement in the sky, out of the corner of her eye, and turned to look. It was a bird, an albatross. Carrying something in its beak, something -- very oddly shaped.

As the bird flew closer, Octavia could make out what it was: a squirrel.

A squirrel wearing a hat.

And then the squirrel waved at her, with some -- white piece of paper? A piece of cardboard? Without thinking, Octavia waved back. "What --" she muttered, right as the albatross flew directly over the deck, above her, and the squirrel dropped whatever it was it had been holding.

On instinct alone, Octavia rushed to snatch it out of the air, before it even had time to land on the deck. And it wasn't just a piece of paper, or cardboard. It was an old and battered envelope, addressed to her and Lucifer, care of the radio squirrels on Fandom Island.

And it was in Duke's handwriting.

Octavia looked up, but the albatross and its furry hitchhiker were already gone.

She looked down at the envelope again. Her hands were shaking.

"Lucifer!"

[ooc: NFB, and for the one.]

Comments

[my_own_advocate]

Leaving Lucifer free to go to the liquor cabinet, where he retrieved one of the expensive bottles of scotch he'd picked up on the mainland, and the rest of the gin.

Perhaps he should have bought more gin.

He set them both down on the table, beside the envelope, along with two glasses. Then he sank into a seat next to her.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia leaned against his arm a little. The one good thing about being stuck out here with no one else around was that unless she wanted to hide something from him, there was little reason for her to hide at all.

She could lean without second-guessing herself.

[my_own_advocate]

And Lucifer shifted, until his arm was around her. He used the other one to pour their glasses, one clear, one darker.

"Cheers," he said, putting down the gin.

[okteiviakom]

"Cheers," Octavia agreed mildly, reaching for her glass.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer lifted his whiskey.

And took a very big gulp.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's sip was far more moderate.

"I would've assumed she'd say vodka," she muttered after a moment of considering her glass. "But I guess gin is really more her thing."

[my_own_advocate]

"I believe a comedian once put it perfectly when he said that gin is a drink for older women to sip on the stairs as they bellow, 'Everyone shut up! This song is all about me!'," Lucifer said, attempting to make a joke out of it.

[okteiviakom]

It didn't land.

"She's not like that," Octavia muttered. (Well, the 'everyone shut up' part may have been accurate.)

[my_own_advocate]

"I don't think you've ever really talked about her," Lucifer admitted, after a moment.

[okteiviakom]

"No, I guess I haven't."

Octavia set her glass on the edge of the table, but held onto it.

"She helped get me out of jail the first time I was in Haven, even though she barely even knew us yet."

[my_own_advocate]

"Why?" Lucifer asked. "Was she bored, by any chance?"

[okteiviakom]

"No," Octavia rasped. "She's just... good." A beat. "Also she was there when I got arrested."

[my_own_advocate]

"Which was why, exactly?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia wasn't sure which 'why' he was asking. But that didn't matter.

"We'd run into her at a diner," she said. "Next day, we met up with her so Duke could sell her weed, only we happened to run straight into a trouble with these... living toys. Turned into a fight."

And, well, at that time Octavia and a fight equaled the use of a sword.

"And then Nathan showed up."

[my_own_advocate]

"Oh, him," Lucifer said, with the conviction of a man who had never met the man in question but still knew he wasn't going to like him much.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's tone didn't exactly convey affection, either.

"He did his usual thing, I decked him, and I got thrown in a cell for it."

[my_own_advocate]

"He is rather trigger-happy, isn't he?"

[okteiviakom]

"So anyway," Octavia said, "Gloria talked to the Chief. Even though she really didn't need to."

Even though she'd only met them randomly at a diner the day before, where she'd also stood up for them, completely unprompted.

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, that's just strange," Lucifer said, taking another sip from his glass.

[okteiviakom]

"She's just good," Octavia muttered. "And takes no shit."

[my_own_advocate]

"Good qualities in a human," Lucifer allowed.

[okteiviakom]

"I've only met her a handful of times," Octavia admitted, considering her glass again. "But I trust her completely."

And that was not easy thing for her, especially now.

Maybe hence the big gulp of gin that followed.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer blinked.

"Big words, coming from you," he said.

[okteiviakom]

"She calls me wildcat," Octavia muttered.

It didn't actually explain anything, and she knew it. Even if it meant something to her.

[my_own_advocate]

"Mhm, so?" Lucifer said, more curious than anything else.