The Streets of Fandom, Monday Afternoon

[okteiviakom]

Right now, Octavia's homebase was the Cape Rouge. Someone needed to look after Lucy, right? And neither of them were great at cooking (in fact, one of them was outright banned from using the stove), so Octavia had set up food deliveries from town. Big portions, three times a day, until she'd tell them otherwise. Handling that had been something specific and concrete Octavia had been actually able to do to help things, to help someone, but whatever relief she'd gained from it was already gone.

The fact remained that there was nothing to fight.

There was nothing to fight.

And yet Octavia was walking the streets with her sword strapped to her back, because she didn't know what else to do. She was no good at research, and couldn't use her tracking skills to find people who'd disappeared into thin air. The last time this had happened to her, the way she'd fixed things had been to take a clan's healer hostage and then recklessly use him as a bargaining chip until Lincoln had been returned to her.

The same white-hot anger that had let her barge into Indra's camp yelling 'Ai laik Okteivia kom Skaikru and you have something I want!' was building itself up this time, too, but the difference was that there was nothing to barge into recklessly, here. No bargaining chip to be found, no direct danger to throw herself into, and no one whose life she could threaten in exchange for Duke's safe return.

There was nothing to do but to wait until the people with the books figured something out.

And so she walked.

[ooc: Open! If angry.]

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[firstofitskind]

Liam, meanwhile... Liam hadn't slept since coming home Saturday afternoon to- well, his apartment was never empty, technically- an apartment with a colony of very upset mice. And it was maybe beginning to show just a bit, especially since he was avoiding going back home and instead making endless loops of the island.

Verity's tracker was still transmitting, but every time he tried to actually triangulate the signal? Nothing. So whatever had them probably had magic, or something, which was the one thing Street hadn't really been able to account for when she'd set those up.

But much like Octavia, his particular skillset wasn't of much use right now, so he was falling back into familiar habits, needing a direction, a task, something... a tool without a purpose was fucking useless, after all.

[okteiviakom]

Out of the two of them, Octavia was the one who actually needed a decent amount of sleep, but she hadn't gotten much of it last night, either. Large chunks of her night had been spent tossing and turning on the couch, her mind looping in on itself to find anything she could do to help this situation.

She knew she could've slept in Duke's bed, but she doubted that would've made a difference.

Might've just been worse.

"Liam!" As she called out to him, her tone sounded clipped, somehow. "Any news?"

[firstofitskind]

Liam could function without his typical three or so hours a night, but it would catch up with him eventually. Like it was maybe starting to now just a little.

He shook his head. Nothing. Absofuckinglutely nothing. He’d handwavily checked in with both the Station and the school’s library, and so far... no one had anything.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia nodded. It was a very tense, very small gesture.

"Let me know if that changes."

Please let it change soon.

[firstofitskind]

Words were a struggle when he got like this, so she got an answering nod in response. He’d keep her updated. As soon as there was anything to update her
with.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia eyed him for a second. And then she said, "Get some rest, Liam."

She was better at telling other people to take care of themselves than she was at taking her own advice.

[firstofitskind]

Liam just shook his head. He’d go back to the apartment long enough to reassure the mice that he hadn’t also disappeared, but he couldn’t sleep. Not now. And especially not in their apartment.

[okteiviakom]

"You're not speaking," Octavia pointed out. Not softly, as such, but there was definitely some sliver of emotion there. "It's not a good sign."

[firstofitskind]

Because it was something he could control, however small. Even if he didn’t consciously realize that was what was going on.

He just tapped the gun holstered to his side lightly. Didn’t need to speak to shoot things. Or stab them, for that matter.

[okteiviakom]

That was not convincing her he didn't need rest, for the record. It didn't even have to be sleep!

Octavia kept her urge to sigh mostly internal, but her voice dropped lower when she spoke again. "Don't make me have to worry about you, too."

[firstofitskind]

A half-shrug. He’d be fine. You know, once his wife was no longer missing.

(Everyone else too, but let’s face it, just as Duke was at the top of Octavia’s list of priorities, Verity was at the top of his.)

[okteiviakom]

Octavia glowered at him, because she was already worried about him, because he wouldn't talk.

Also because - without words - that half-shrug just felt like a direct dismissal of her worry.

"Bye, Liam," she ground out, and stomped past him.

(It was so much easier to spot the questionable stress reactions in other people than it was to spot them in her own behavior, yes. Almost tragically so.)

[firstofitskind]

He'd been aiming for reassuring, not dismissive. Not that he could clarify that, when his tongue refused to let anything resembling actual words spill forth.

Looking back, when this was over and done with, he'd be able to see that he'd upset her, and feel properly guilty about it.

(There were probably apology-cookies in Octavia's future.)

Right now, though, he couldn't find it in himself to do anything but watch her storm off, and then check his Global for the who-knows-what-number time, to make sure that tracker was still on and transmitting, even if it wasn't transmitting a location.

[thatwaslucky]

Rey had spent a lot of time since Saturday pouring over books. Anakin was gone, she still didn't know how to articulate her weird feelings to Leia over the comm, so the books were where she needed to go to see if she could figure it out.

And by now she needed a break and to get outside for a while.

"Hey."

[okteiviakom]

"Hey." Octavia's tiny nod was so tiny it might actually have been just a conveniently timed yet otherwise fully unrelated little dip of her head. "Any news?"

She was going to be asking everyone that every time she saw them for the forseeable future, yes.

[thatwaslucky]

"I doubt I'd be the one to hear news if there was any," Rey said. "Everything... feels the same, though, so I'm guessing not."

[okteiviakom]

This nod was a little more obvious, though no less tense.

"Right." She also sounded tense, though that was probably not surprising under the circumstances. "Well. If that changes, let me know?"

[thatwaslucky]

Rey kind of figured she wouldn't need to.

"I will," she said anyway. "How are you doing?"

She also didn't really need to ask.

[okteiviakom]

You would've thought Octavia's expression couldn't get stonier, and yet...

"Duke's missing." That was how she was doing. "And there's nothing I can do about it."

[thatwaslucky]

"I know." What Rey was learning was that it was deeply weird to notice the absence of the two people she spent the most time with here when she normally didn't look for them, which she figured would make zero sense to anyone but her. "It might be easier to prepare for when we can. At least it gives something to work towards."

[okteiviakom]

"I am prepared."

Well. She was prepared for a fight, anyway.

And that came out a little snappish, and even Octavia could hear it. She shut her eyes tight for a second, breathing in. "Sorry. I'm -- frustrated." And angry.

And scared, underneath the rest.

[thatwaslucky]

"I get it," Rey told her. "I'm worried, too."

She was just weirdly calm about it.

[okteiviakom]

It was better that way. Octavia would've preferred to be, too, instead of having to wrestle with a mess of feelings that seemed like it would squeeze the air out of her lungs if she gave it half a chance.

She rubbed a hand over her eyes. "I just want him back," she muttered, tone mild but voice significantly quieter.

[thatwaslucky]

"And we'll get him back. Duke's good at taking care of himself."

She worried about Duke in a lot of ways, but she had faith in him here.

[okteiviakom]

"I know." Her particular issues just didn't want to listen to her there.

Octavia dropped her hand and opened her eyes again, and it was like pieces of armor were clicking back into place: her expression was getting more blank, her voice more even.

"In the meantime, I have Larceny set up with takeaway on the Rouge for however long this takes."

[thatwaslucky]

Rey nodded. "Do you want help checking in on her?"

[okteiviakom]

"Probably wouldn't hurt," Octavia replied. "I'm staying there, too, but..."

As Rey could see, she wasn't currently being great about just staying put.

[thatwaslucky]

Pretty much.

"Okay. Anytime you want me over there, even if you just want additional company, I'm there."

[okteiviakom]

"Thank you." It was sincere, for all that it sounded also pretty flat. "Let's hope this goes quickly enough that I won't have to take you up on that too many times."

[thatwaslucky]

"I don't think it will," Rey assured her. "That's part general feeling, and part knowing that this town isn't great at letting these things go on for too long."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve was out for a run with Patriot and not just because sitting inside the apartment without Tony was stifling and awful.

"Anything new?" he asked.

[okteiviakom]

"Not a single thing."

The way Octavia managed to make 'single' sound like she might as well have said 'fucking' probably said enough about where her mood was at right now.