15 ⚓ Video/Spam ⚓ Gather yourselves, with all your heart and strength

[hearrrtofgold]

[Video]
Duke Crocker of the Cape Rouge calling Haven P.D. Anyone out there? [He’s got only small hope that anyone will answer, almost certain that Audrey and Nathan won’t. But still, he’d come through the last time the network glitched (before he showed up on the Barge), as had she. Maybe it could happen again with them, or anyone he was familiar with from back home.

He pauses for a long time, mulling over what he’s about to share, and suddenly blurts it out.] Oprah Winfrey.

[Gym Spam, evening]
[After the last of the messages had trickled in, Duke had shaken himself off and tried to calm himself walking Brownie, fixing himself a very heavy chicken salad for supper, and tried to do some yoga poses. None of the activities had provided him any peace, and he eventually decided to just embrace the discomfort and beat the crap out of something.

So here he is, standing in the gym with knuckles bound in tape and taking out his frustrations on a punching bag. He’s more than competent in street-fighting, not exceptional but still practiced and forceful. He doesn’t even remember his first fistfight, although he’s sure he lost it, and that drives him on.]

Comments

[gym spam]

[hearrrtofgold]

One thing you learn fast in Haven is that no one wants a Trouble. [He thinks of Nathan, which flickers into thoughts of Jordan, then to dozens of other Havenites. It circles back on Audrey, of course. James, the Barn, the Hunter storm. Nobody had wanted any of that. Ignore the crazy Troubled people who used Curses to their advantage.] Well, almost nobody.

[There were people like Harry Nix, like Arla Cogan, who had been amoral even before their Troubles kicked in, and had become monsters after they did.

And Allison is starting to sound like Simon, like the Rev's men did when they pushed Roy - not always wrong but far too black and white for the varied spectrum of his morality. Duke doesn't agree, just nods a little.]

I don't know if your world has Troubles. If it does, it makes sense there would be Argents, and in Haven there's a reason there are Crockers - but hell, wouldn't it be great if they didn't need us?

[He doesn't stop smiling, but his face loses its humor.] You should see what happens with a splash of Troubled blood.

[gym spam]

[theresalwayshope]

[She doesn't hesitate: for her primarily cut and dried view of the world, with very subtle shades of grey not obvious to the casual observer, she nods emphatically at Duke's version of a perfect world.]

Not being needed would be...amazing. But at the same time...I might also go crazy, you know? Dad and I...he's from the point where we gave it up. We retired, we were just done. Living normal lives, staying out of the supernatural crap. [She pauses, wiping her forearm across her forehead.] His call came from an abandoned bank, where a pack of Alphas fought my pack. He probably had just figured out, before he got my call, that I was there to protect my friends when I wasn't supposed to be.

I just...I couldn't stay away. [And when she'd fired that first shot after so long...

She's never done drugs, but she imagines that's what it has to feel like. A rush, a sense of peace...a certainty about everything in the world, including her place in it.

His remark about blood, though...the way the light in his face sort of drains away...she stills, planting her hands on her hips for a moment. She's torn...but she's also curious.

Swallowing hard, she takes a deep breath.]

What happens?

[gym spam]

[hearrrtofgold]

Someone was threatening your friends. You have an obligation to help them. [Duke doesn't like admitting it but it's unfortunately true. Allison couldn't let her pack face danger any more than he could duck out on Audrey and Nathan during a disaster. That need to help, to defend even if you didn't want to, is one thing they have in common.

Like their reaction to the violence.

He hesitates, glances toward his jacket on the edge of the mat. There's a vial of Troubled blood in the pocket, one he keeps just in case he needs to fight. He could take it, uncap it, pour it into his palm - then tear the punching bag off its carabiner and hurl it across the gym. He could. And it wouldn't hurt anything, but he shakes his head and looks back at Allison.]

When a Crocker touches Troubled blood, we get powerful and violent. We're supposed to kill the Troubled and our Curse gives us an extra weapon and incentive.

[It's an unpleasant subject, and he tries to turn the conversation away from it.]

So, you don't think a normal life's for you?