My unicorn got run over by a tractor

"Double red-eyes . . . Straight, no chasers," Duke announced, holding up the coffees he'd picked up for Audrey and Nathan when he and his partners had hit up the shop on their way over. "And we wrote down everything we did yesterday, like you asked."

Audrey accepted the coffee Duke offered her, and the piece of notebook paper along with it. "Thank you." She gave him a smile that went wan when she looked at Octavia and Lucifer. "All of you."

( And so begins what will hopefully the worst Sunday of Duke's entire life. And not just the worst Sunday of his life SO FAR. )

[Following this. Adapted from episode 4x07, "Lay Me Down", with the fantastic my_own_advocate and okteiviakom. Warning for NPC character death. NFB, NFI, OOC welcome]

They met up the next day as planned. Duke let Nathan know what he'd heard from his contacts — nothing turned up on satellite surveillance. Nathan nodded. They'd both known it was a long shot, but they would take any shot they could get.

They rounded the corner of the building to see Audrey's deck furniture overturned, her front door hanging open. They both broke into a run, Nathan rushing right by the man lying collapsed on the floor in his rush to find Audrey. Duke wasn't quite so laser focussed.

( Arla took out one last innocent bystander. )

[NFB, NFI, OOC welcome. Adapted from Haven 3x13, "Thanks for the Memories". CW for a lot of self-sacrificial nonsense. Duke returns to Fandom tomorrow!!!!]

Duke hid on his boat.

He was self-aware enough to acknowledge that he was definitely hiding, and restless enough that he didn't spend the whole time in bed, though it was tempting. Instead, he read his family journal.

Maybe it was a form of self-punishment. Maybe he was trying to remind himself that some troubles really did require extreme measures to solve them. Maybe he was looking for hints that more of his ancestors had struggled with their fated role in Haven as much as he did.

( He found all three. )

[NFB, NFI, OOC welcome. Adapted from Haven 3x10, "Burned". CW for a mind-control trouble!]

Nathan had apparently been busy while they were away. He and Tommy had picked up a case of a woman with a resurrection trouble who'd been murdering rich people and then extorting their loved ones for cash in exchange for bringing them back. It was a hell of a con, really. Horrifying, but still. Duke had to respect it.

And, well. It was at least a little bit of a relief to know that there was a resurrection trouble in town. Even if it did apparently have a hard time limit. The woman and her sister hadn't made it to one of their victims by sundown, and they stayed dead, despite their family shelling out the cash to bring them back.

Audrey directed Duke to drive them out to some vacation cabins just outside of town. Nathan apparently needed their assistance right away, tracking the two women down. When they pulled up, it was immediately clear why. Tommy was firing after a figure retreating into the forest, and Nathan was on the ground.

Nathan was on the ground, and he wasn't moving.

Nathan was on the ground, not moving, and he was bleeding —

( Good thing the trouble du jour is a resurrection trouble, huh. )

[NFB, NFI, OOC welcome. Adapted from Haven 3x08, "Magic Hour part 2". CW for danger, death, and some psychological torture]

Duke was not wallowing. He refused to wallow. So he'd had to kill a guy. So what? Sometimes death just — happened. Sure, this time it came with Audrey lying to him, with her manipulating him into position like he just happened to be exactly the right tool for the job — But that was fine. Because he hadn't taken her orders. He'd made his own choices, weighed the options for himself, and decided to kill.

And then no one had spoken to him for three days.

To be fair, Claire had tried. Her voicemails ranged from gentle encouragement to outright anger. Then she'd finally shown up at the docks, standing with her arms crossed over her coat and staring him down as he came up onto the deck.

"Making house calls now, huh?"

"I do when my patients are idiots who refuse to talk to me after a trauma."

Duke spread his hands. "What trauma? I'm fine."

Claire didn't look at all impressed. "Audrey told me what happened. You know, I even won her over to the therapy way, I don't know why you think you can resist."

Oh good. Now Audrey was running around telling people about him. That was nice. "Sounds like you've got your hands full with her, then. Plus, you know, a timeline. She's down to what, 40 days now?"

Claire nodded. "And how does that make you feel?"

Duke opened his mouth to give her a biting comment when his radio scanner bleeped. Laverne's voice crackled through it. "All units be advised, there is a — oh hell, what's the code for 'sea monster in the swim center'?"

( Is there even a code for that? )

[NFB, NFI, OOC welcome. Adapted from Haven 3x04, "Over My Head". CW for watery traumas, including shark attacks and drowning. And all the usual death you get from a horror fandom.]

Duke woke to the ringing of a phone. He'd gone to sleep snuggled up all cozy between his two favorite people, and he was reluctant to wake, but it was loud and very insistent. So he grabbed for it without opening his eyes, and after a fair amount of fumbling, managed to answer it and bring it to his ear.

"Yeah?"

"Duke, hey. Did I wake you?"

"Nah," Duke answered automatically. The voice was familiar, but it took his sleep muddled bran a bit to recognize it. ". . . Audrey?"

"Yeah. Sorry to do this, I know you probably had a late night, but um. I was hoping you could come change my locks?"

Duke wasn't really listening. He was sitting up sharply in bed. His much smaller than normal bed, in his much smaller than normal cabin. On a much smaller than normal ship because this was not the Cape Rouge, where he'd fallen asleep, but the Sanguine Moon, which should have been docked in Haven.

And he was alone.

( The multiverse just loooooves to fuck with Duke )

[NFB, NFI, OOC fine, etc. TIME FOR MORE CANON. Post adapted from Haven episode 3x02, "Stay"]

Audrey was avoiding him. Considering their last conversation had been over a box of murder weapons and a note from Duke's dad telling him to murder her . . . that was at least a little bit fair.

It was also pissing Duke off.

He tried telling her that he wasn't going to do it. The only decent thing his father had ever done for him was arrange for him to get his boat before he died, so yeah, Duke was happy not to live up to that legacy.

Or any legacy, in fact, that required him killing people in cold blood.

She dodged him with a blase joke. Duke was very familiar with that particular defense mechanism. Hell, it was one of the reasons he liked her so damn much (loved her, apparently, judging by what had slipped out in that last conversation). That didn't stop it from getting on Duke's nerves when she aimed it at him.

Nathan spent all his time vacillating between hating Duke and trying to save him. Now Audrey could barely even look at him. With Octavia gone and Evi dead, Duke was rapidly running out of people in Haven who were even nominally on his side.

Maybe he should just give up. Head back down south. Try and patch things up with Octavia. He still had no idea what he'd say to her, how to get past the things he knew now about her, but — well, his past wasn't all that much better, was it. He was a liar, a cheat. A petty thief at the end of a long, long, long line of murderers. There were more descriptions of kills in his father's journal than Duke wanted to think about, going back hundreds of years. Every generation, a new period of active troubles. Every generation, a new Crocker to try to kill them all.

He hopped into the shower, trying to clear his head, but it didn't help. Just made him wet and conflicted. He was just slipping his old whistle back over his head when a voice came out of the shadows.

"Very impressive, Duke."

Duke froze, every muscle in his body locking up.

No.

"Like what you've done with my place."

He stood in the middle of Duke's galley, looking around like he belonged there. Like he belonged anywhere but at the bottom of the grave they'd dumped him in, after fishing his corpse out of the water.

Duke swallowed. "Dad?"

( This was not a happy reunion )

---

( A Jersey boy walks out of a cafe. . . . )

[NFB, NFI, OOC welcome. Adapted from 2x12, "Sins of the Fathers", with special guest hatesparadise! ONE MORE POST TO GO.]

It took a little while for Duke to convince Evi to come with him to the station. He'd spent the last few days playing nice with her. Letting her think that, with Octavia gone, she really was starting to win him over again. Keeping an eye out for any hints about what, exactly, she had planned with the Rev. And when the day of the boat show came around, and most of the local fuzz would be out closing down streets for the parade that came with it, he let her follow him down to the station.

( Just another of his many mistakes )

( Haven folk popping into Hell was beginning to become a habit )

[NFB, NFI, OOC welcome. Adapted from 2x09, "Lockdown", with special guest star my_own_advocate. CW for contagion and TV-style quarantine. Also, violence and minor character death. Haven is a trip, yo]