Cape Rouge, Thursday evening

[betterthanaplan]

Duke was looking much healthier walking back to the boat than he'd been heading into work, today. He was also looking way more frustrated.

"Arthropods!" he called as he slouched up the gangplank. "Humidifier! Guys from Rome!"

Someone had had to release a trouble at the diner today. The good news? He'd managed to control what came out. The bad news?

He had absolutely no idea how to make it stop.

[For the partners and SO MUCH SLOWPLAY please!]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

Octavia blinked.

It suddenly felt like something had turned upside down and inside out inside her brain.

"... What?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke clenched his hands into fist and took a long breath.

"Chai habit is the trombone."

Yeah, he definitely wasn't going to make sense just by sheer force of will, was he.

[okteiviakom]

"Okay, I have to check," Octavia hazarded, "are you speaking nonsense, or is my brain just...?"

She hadn't realized yet he looked better than he had this morning. Otherwise she would probably have been much faster putting this together as maybe the weirdest trouble she'd seen so far.

But instead she felt concerned she was experiencing a stroke or something.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke sighed and pointed to his face. "Ice screwing honeysuckle." He gestured at her and then around the boat. "Huge creep is oliebollen."

[okteiviakom]

God, the urge to ask 'what?' again was strong.

But Octavia managed to hold it back. "Taking that as meaning it's you," she said. And then she finally took a proper look at him. Just the way his face looked healthier again. "It's a trouble."

Of course it was a trouble.

[betterthanaplan]

The 'well yeah' tone was very strong, even if what came out of Duke's mouth was "Short shorts."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia sighed.

"How are you feeling?"

A beat.

"No, you can't tell me, can you." Goddammit.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shrugged. “Flibbertygibbet.”

[okteiviakom]

"Right," Octavia said, with a nod that felt like it should've come with a sigh, somehow. "Do you think there's any connection between what you're saying and what you want to be saying?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Down the hatch to Idaho?"

That sounded like a no.

[okteiviakom]

Tonewise, sure.

Octavia was squinting faintly, anyway. As if she thought that if she just concentrated hard enough, she could force it to make sense.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke sighed. He could tell what she was doing, because he kept trying to do it too.

"Shrunken drunk monkey dancing."

That way only lay headaches.

[okteiviakom]

"There could be a pattern," Octavia said.

Just assuming meaning from the sigh rather than the words.

[betterthanaplan]

His tone was doing a lot of work here, yes. He shrugged.

"Argue with turtles."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia couldn't help a brief glance towards the porgs.

Then she shook that off.

"And I assume you haven't figured out what brought this on, either?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded, patting his chest.

"Beezlebub! Gotcha watches."

[okteiviakom]

"... So you did figure it out?" Octavia hazarded.

[betterthanaplan]

"No graveyard, anti-war rodeo."

He knew he'd let it out, he just didn't know how to stop it.

[okteiviakom]

There was no way for Octavia to get that. Mostly because she was asking the wrong question.

So there was much confused squinting again.

[betterthanaplan]

"Tuesday," Duke said. He agreed with that expression. "Taco Tuesday."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia sighed.

And finally stepped closer, where she could at least give him a hug.

(Unless this was also another touching trouble and he'd somehow neglected to try and communicate as much...)

[betterthanaplan]

She'd have to tell him. But given that he wrapped himself around her -- he was pretty sure it wasn't.

[okteiviakom]

And Octavia didn't feel any adverse effects beyond the concern she'd already been feeling.

Her arms wrapped tight around his waist. "I'm sorry, snogon," she murmured.

[betterthanaplan]

"All fleas go sledding," Duke said. He pressed his face into her hair. "Catch breakfast."

[okteiviakom]

"Exactly," Octavia sighed, and nuzzled his chest a little.

Grateful that this part still worked.