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 had been hanging out on the deck. Originally, it had been to do some yoga, but then Polly Lobster and some of the other porgs had been experiencing some sort of a... porg conflict, which she'd then been attempting to sort out. Mostly by gently separating them while muttering in exasperated Trig at them.

Which may have explained why the weird things Duke was saying didn't immediately register. She was just happy to hear his voice, straightening up from the porg-minding to look over towards the gangplank.

"Ha yun, jaka."

[betterthanaplan]

"High cringe, dreamboat," Duke said in return. And flinched. "Echo lodged a bumblebee."

Oh god, this was going to get old very fast.

[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.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer had been on the mainland, dealing with the Baltimore club. He came home relatively late.

"Hope I didn't miss dinner," he called, as he stepped onto the deck.

[betterthanaplan]

“Knobs cobble down,” Duke told him, resigned to his nonsensical fate. “Glutton for catnaps.”

You didn’t miss dinner, Luce! Just Duke’s new trouble.

[my_own_advocate]

There was... a pause, as Lucifer stopped, squinted at him, and tried to figure out if he'd heard that properly. "Sorry," he said, "Is that a euphemism?"

Duke had said 'knobs'!

[betterthanaplan]

Duke rubbed his forehead. “Square fish.”

[my_own_advocate]

"... Now that's just rude," Lucifer said, tilting his head quizzically.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke sighed. There went his hopes of Lucifer understanding him. This must’ve been one of those physical affect troubles, hitting even the immune.

“Flocks scream.”

[my_own_advocate]

"Why are we bringing all this wildlife into the conversation?" Lucifer asked.

He was so confused.

[betterthanaplan]

"Anthropomorphize agony aunts," Duke told him.

He was fully not in control of the variety of nonsense that came out of his mouth.

[my_own_advocate]

Yeah, Lucifer had nothing. (He was also not as quick as Octavia to make the leap.)

"... Right, I'll just pour you a scotch, then?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke closed his eyes and nodded.

"Bottled dice."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed.

He wandered into the galley, and popped up moments later with a bottle and two glasses. "Sit down."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke sat. He'd found a pen and a pad of paper while Lucifer was gone.

Artificial sweeteners?

Yeah, that didn't help.