The Cape Rouge, Tuesday... Noon?

[okteiviakom]

Right, to recap: Octavia's weekend had been replaced by one very long day. On Sunday, she and Duke had landed back in Fandom, and she'd failed to sleep much during the night, leading to her then passing out for most of the day, instead. And then she'd gone out to the Nest, gotten drunk, come back to the boat, and failed to fall asleep properly again until it had already been close to Tuesday morning.

And now that she had finally woken up again, she had no concept of what time it was, anymore.

But she knew her head hurt, and she felt nauseous and a little jittery. All of which felt like... oddly grounding things, after the past couple of days. Maybe it was the way her body finally felt fully as awful as the rest of her already had.

Anyway, she was keeping a close proximity to walls as she made her way out of the bedroom, finally, and towards the galley. Just in case she needed the support.

[ooc: Open!]

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

"I . . . suspect she's done drinking for a bit."

He really hoped she was.

[my_own_advocate]

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope so," Lucifer said. "She's miserable enough as it is."

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah." Duke heaved a sigh and took another bite of toast. "This weekend was fucked. I don't know how to help her."

He didn't even know how to help himself.

[my_own_advocate]

"Did anything happen to her?" Lucifer asked. "Or was it just the bearing witness to everything that was happening to you bit?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shrugged. “Witnessing, I guess. She took it personally.”

[my_own_advocate]

"Obviously. I wasn't even there and I take it personally," said Lucifer, just in case Duke hadn't noticed.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded. No need to rehash the argument now.

“We got separated for a bit. Not — not really sure how. We were down in this cavern, getting rid of William. . . . Then Dwight and I were in a beach. I don’t know, maybe something happened then she didn’t mention.”

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed.

"Have I mentioned recently that I hate Haven, and the entire state of Maine by association?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Be nice if it was wiped off the map, huh," Duke said.

Honey, if only you knew.

[my_own_advocate]

"Sometimes I unironically feel that way, yes."

[betterthanaplan]

"Well." Duke tilted his head against Lucifer's. "Thank you for your restraint, then."

Every now and then they had to acknowledge that Lucifer absolutely had the power to do just that.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed.

"I take violence against you very personally," he murmured.

Duke knew that, but it felt worth repeating.

[betterthanaplan]

"I know," Duke assured him. (He wasn't going to argue the semantics of 'violence', though part of him wanted to.) "And I love you. For that and everything else."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer turned his head. He pressed a kiss against Duke's forehead.

He was still incredibly angry. He was just... learning something about feeling two very strong emotions at the same time.

[betterthanaplan]

And Duke . . . was getting used to people being able to feel two strong emotions about him at the same time.

(Maybe if folks growing up had been better at showing them, he might have learned that much earlier.)

"I wish I could say we -- I was done with it all. But." Duke stopped, swallowing against the taste of copper in the back of his mouth. "I don't think Haven will ever be 'done' with me. Not until. . . ."

Until the thing all three of them were working so hard to avoid.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer was... quiet.

"You know how I feel about that," he said, after the silence had dragged on too long. "No point on wasting more words on it."

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah." Duke swallowed again. He felt so sick. Anxiety and troubles blending into a tornado in his belly. "I'm scared, Luce."

[my_own_advocate]

It broke his heart to hear that from Duke, of all people.

"I know, love," Lucifer said quietly. He stuck to his promise - no pointing out that Duke could have opted out at any point until this weekend, and chose not to. "But you're here now. Safe, for the moment."

He slid his arm around Duke. "We're going to keep it that way for as long as we can," he said. "And we're boarding ourselves up in the pillow room for the rest of the week."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke loved the sound of that. But, trying to stick to his new personal rule of realism:

“It might not be safe,” he said softly. “There’s so much I don’t know about how all the troubles in me work. If I hurt Tavi. . . .”

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed. "If something seems about to go amiss, come to me," he murmured. "I can handle a few troubles."

[betterthanaplan]

"If nothing else, we know you can take me out," Duke agreed. That wasn't what Lucifer meant, he knew, but it was what he was counting on anyway.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer eyed him. "Let's not immediately jump to fatalism on all fronts, shall we?"

[betterthanaplan]

"I mean, we've proven that it's hard for the trouble to keep going if the troubled person is unconscious." Duke shrugged. "Hopefully that'd work on, like, the stitching thing, too."

[my_own_advocate]

"What is the stitching thing?" Lucifer said, frowning.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shuddered faintly. "People who, uh. I guess told me things I didn't want to hear? They'd get their -- faces. Sewn shut. Like between one blink and the next, their eyes or their mouth or their ears would have these ugly black stitches on them."