An Island Somewhere Off the Coast, Thursday

[okteiviakom]

Wednesday had made it two weeks that Octavia, Duke and Lucifer had been out at sea on the OceaNyx. Things on Fandom had gone back to normal, according to Eric's texts on Tuesday, but they were still out here.

Octavia was pretty sure everyone agreed that their second week had been much worse than the first. What she wasn't sure about was whether the others were finding being on the boat to have gotten as suffocating now as she was. The only times she felt like she could really breathe was when they docked at one of the random islands.

Like at this one, right now.

She was sitting at what could charitably be referred to as a tiny stretch of beach, her shoes off, just her toes in the water. It was a grounding, sensory thing.

There had been such little room for screaming in the past week.

[ooc: NFB due to distance, open to the guys and for texts/calls.]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

They hadn't, seemed to be the thing.

Octavia still cast an exhausted look at Lucifer at his phrasing, before moving to get up and follow.

[my_own_advocate]

"Yes, no reason," Lucifer said, raising to his feet, "As in, 'you are taking this out on us for no reason'."

He was, unfortunately, intent on Lucifering this, yes.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke whirled in place, sending sand and gravel skittering.

"I'm not taking anything out on anyone! I'm trying not to hurt you, and you two are acting like cats that want to cuddle!"

[okteiviakom]

"I already got hurt," Octavia snapped, "and I have been hurting ever since."

[my_own_advocate]

"And instead of bloody listening to her about it and what she needs, you're doing--"

Lucifer tried to come up with an apt, clever description, but all he wound up doing was waving his hand at Duke and saying, "This!"

[betterthanaplan]

"You think I don't know I hurt you? You collapsed!" Duke turned, pushing his hand into his hair. "Fuck!"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia stared at him.

"I'm talking about after, Duke."

[my_own_advocate]

"Ignoring us. Avoiding us. Behaving like an absolute buffoon when you aren't." Lucifer looked deeply frustrated. "Yes, yes, we know, something terrible is happening to you, but it's hard to find any remaining sympathy when you take it as an excuse to plug up your ears and have a pity party miles away from us when we didn't actually ask you to."

[betterthanaplan]

"Gee, I'm so sorry that my attempts to deal with being a human taser don't take your feelings enough into consideration," Duke said, tone dark. (Jordan was always angry and sarcastic too.)

[okteiviakom]

Briefly, Octavia had had half a mind to ask Lucifer to quiet down for a second so she could try and make her own point. But at Duke's response, she knew it didn't matter.

She wasn't going to be heard anyway.

The words were out before she even fully had time to think them. "Go float yourself, Duke."

[my_own_advocate]

"Yes, congratulations, you're doing a very good job dealing not tasing her physically by tasing her feelings instead," Lucifer said.

It was oddly sedate, because he hadn't expected Octavia to be that-- that.

[betterthanaplan]

"Fine. Let's talk about after. Let's talk about you two getting pissed at me because I wanted to be careful not to hurt you again. Because, what, tucking my hands away -- the things that hurt you -- was somehow deeply offensive?!"

[okteiviakom]

Oh, Octavia was already stomping past him towards the boat. (Barefoot, not her best idea.) She didn't use the F word lightly. That anger needed some movement, lest she risk getting tased again just to shove him into the water.

[my_own_advocate]

"She told you she didn't want you to do that the way you were doing it," Lucifer said, rolling his eyes. "You were too busy being up your arse to hear it."

He waved a hand at where Octavia was going. "And now I'm done helping you," he said irritably, "Go see if she's even willing to speak to you again."

[betterthanaplan]

"I was trying to deal!" Duke said again, frustrated. Octavia was allowed to deal the way she felt she needed to but he wasn't?!

(Obviously, it was not that simple. But he was defensive and prickly and -- and Jordan had never been great at listening to anyone else's opinion on anything, either. . . .)

Duke let out a low, groaning sigh and stormed after Octavia. Not barefoot. Not bare-anything. He was even wearing a hat, which was definitely overkill.

But he was trying desperately to deal.

[okteiviakom]

But Octavia had not been allowed to deal the way she felt she needed to. That was sort of a major part of the issue.

Right now, of course, she was still barreling on. What was her plan? Don't ask her. She'd get to the boat and figure it out.

[my_own_advocate]

And that left Lucifer standing on the beach. He hadn't even gotten to his own hurt feelings yet - both over the way the consequences of Duke's stupid bloody decision kept coming back to haunt Octavia and himself, and...

Well, look, Duke could touch him. And yet.

[betterthanaplan]

It felt -- weird. To touch Lucifer when he couldn't touch Octavia. Also, Lucifer was clearly pissed at him so he didn't feel welcome touching him. . . .

"Octavia!" Duke called. "I'm sick of this. Talk to me, okay?"

[okteiviakom]

"Now you want to talk?" Octavia called back, glancing over her shoulder - just long enough to stumble a little, on something or other on the ground.

Whatever, she righted herself and kept moving.

[betterthanaplan]

"I haven't not wanted to talk. You keep storming off."

[okteiviakom]

Well, that got Octavia to stop in her tracks and whir around.

"You shut down everything I had to say!"

It really was a good thing it was just them on this island, because she'd absolutely just screamed that at him.

[betterthanaplan]

"What?" Duke shook his head. "When? You told me to stop hiding my hands and then got mad that I was going to wear pajamas. And stormed off."

[okteiviakom]

He was playing pretty loose on the definition of 'storming off' there, wasn't he?

Octavia was staring at him again, eyes wild and angry.

"I left because it hurt." For an extra bonus, so did this. "This isn't just happening to you, Duke, it's happening to us. It's happening to me, and I tried to get even a little bit of say in how you choose to keep me safe, and you shot me down!"

[betterthanaplan]

"Because this is all my fault!" Duke yelled back. He spun away, fisting his hands on top of his hat. "I did this to -- to all of us. So yeah, I'm the one who should have to clean it up!"

[okteiviakom]

"No, what you're doing is pushing me away."

There was a difference. Quite a big one, in Octavia's book.