The Devil's Nest, Monday, April 22, 2024

[texted3times]

"Tiny, I don't care that it's Earth Day," Eric told him. "If you don't wash those glasses out, I will murder you and then fire you."

The Devil's Nest was open! We'll save water some other way.

Comments

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had barely slept during the night, only to then pass out like the dead for most of the day, instead. So now, when evening came, she was feeling disoriented and sore and like she desperately needed to escape the boat (like she could run away from herself), at least just for a little while.

She turned up at the club looking like death warmed up, and headed straight for the bar.

[texted3times]

"Well, you look like shit," Eric said, gesturing for Tiny to get the good bottles out. "Someone I could kill for you?"

Other people started with "hello", Eric.

[okteiviakom]

Luckily Octavia didn't much care about that on the best of days, and this definitely wasn't one of those.

"How about an entire town?" Octavia rasped.

(Or maybe her. The guilt in her was acting melodramatic enough.)

[texted3times]

"This one or a different one?" Eric asked evenly.

[okteiviakom]

"Haven."

So a different one, whether the name meant anything to Eric or not. Octavia wasn't too concerned about it, leaning against the bar to gesture for Tiny to just bring her the brandy.

[texted3times]

"I'm a little rusty at full village slaughter," Eric said, "but I'm sure it'd come back to me. Why does it need to be done?"

[okteiviakom]

"Because it's destroying Duke."

Maybe that explained the healthy portion she was pouring into a glass as soon as she had the bottle.

[texted3times]

"Physically or metaphorically?" Eric asked.

[okteiviakom]

"Both." With the latest developments, Octavia was pretty sure it was both. "Used to be mostly metaphorical."

And oh, look, there went the brandy, down her throat.

[texted3times]

"Something changed recently?" Eric guessed, gesturing to Tiny to refill the glass.

[okteiviakom]

"We got kidnapped by Haven over the weekend." Again. "It didn't go well."

Surely that was a surprise revelation after the past few moments.

"It spit us back out yesterday."

[texted3times]

"And Lucifer hasn't razed it to the ground already?" Eric asked.

[okteiviakom]

"He wasn't there," Octavia muttered, eyeing the freshly re-filled glass. "And now he can't get there," she added, heavy on the rasp, "because I guess that's just how Haven operates."

[texted3times]

"And you think I'll be able to?" Eric asked, signalling for some vodka for himself. "Or you're just hopeful?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia finally looked at him. (Funny, no, she hadn't realized she hadn't really done that since coming in.) There was something a little off about her dry look. Something more... wobbly.

(It was the brandy.)

"Normally people don't mean it like an actual possibility when they offer."

[texted3times]

"Those people probably weren't Vikings," Eric said with a tight smile.

[okteiviakom]

"No," Octavia agreed, and swiftly followed it up with a hearty glug from the glass, instead of thinking about how much that had to do with why she'd come here, of all places. Especially after an absence of... however long it had been since she'd shown up last.

(She wasn't the worst person here, was the thing. Or part of it, anyway. And the odds of her getting judged - at least in a way that would genuinely hurt - were low.)

"Anyway," she rasped, after swallowing, "Lucifer's technically God, so if he can't get there, no one can."

[texted3times]

Eric blinked. "How can someone technically be a god?"

[okteiviakom]

"By being God's son, then winning a war when he retires." That drama felt like it had happened approximately a thousand years ago. "Then freaking out about it and transporting everyone back here again, and never actually taking on the title."

[texted3times]

Eric blinked again. "So he could be a god, but instead he co-owns a bar on an interdimensional nexus. And even being a god can't give him payback for something hurting his partners. I see why you're here and not near Lucifer right now."

[okteiviakom]

Oh, Octavia's glass seemed to be looking particularly interesting to her now.

"I'm here," she said, quieter now if still dry, "because I failed him."

[texted3times]

"Which him?" Eric asked, sipping from his glass.

[okteiviakom]

"Lucifer."

Octavia took a sip, as well.

"Duke, too, but Duke's never gonna see it that way, so..."

[texted3times]

"And how did you think you failed Lucifer?" Eric asked.

[okteiviakom]

"I was the one who was there, and I couldn't keep Duke safe."

From himself, but somehow that part was too private to spill, even though the rest didn't seem to be.

"That was all I was there to do, and I didn't."