itinere | Bonfire Mingle Post || OTA

Around the time the sun is starting to set in the early to mid-evening on Saturday, 11/12 as promised, Lydia will (hopefully with the help of Allison and a couple of others) have set up a bonfire on the beach. She's brought several bags of marshmallows, boxes of graham crackers, bars of chocolate, and s'more skewers so that s'mores can totally be a thing. There's also plenty of blankets and towels spread around, because she wants to be sure everyone is comfortable. Jill has offered to bring the alcohol.

Lydia can be found making her way around, greeting and mingling with anyone who arrives and throughout the night. She'll be doing her best to appear approachable so that anyone who maybe hasn't ever been to a bonfire and has questions will feel comfortable approaching her to do that.

[ ooc: please feel free to respond directly to this with your own top comments to play out stuff in here or you can use this as a prompt to make your own logs elsewhere, totally up to you. If you'd like to play with Lydia, please consider this her top comment. Mods, let me know if I need to make any changes to this.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It is pretty crowded and filled with people she doesn't know. She's kind of panicking about that. Priorities, Duke and as flattered as she is, her legs are not priority.

Okay. Well pants might be. After all: people she doesn't know. He gets a glare when he asks about her pants. "I was coming downstairs to see if you wanted a drink."

Note, she's not worried about Duke seeing her without pants. It's more the beach full of people she doesn't know.

Right. Priorities.

"Not a Haven thing. I mean I know that this isn't right, but I'm also pretty sure this isn't Haven."

"I always want a drink. That answer is always yes." Duke says of her coming downstairs for a drink. He nods slowly, again, his gaze dipping down to her legs and back up. It isn't so much that she's only wearing a shirt. Duke has seen her plenty of times like this. No big deal... mostly. But it's the wearing only a shirt in public that makes it different.

Right. Priorities. Not a Haven thing?

"That can't be true, Audrey. This isn't normal. All not normal things are Haven things." He gestures around him. "And if you're here, then who's back home trying to set things right and bring me back?"

Duke looks behind her in the direction she'd come from. "Where's Nathan? Please tell me he's wearing clothes or getting you clothes or...? No. You know what? I'm fine with you in just a shirt. Nathan's shirt. You need pants." Really, he can't seem to decide whether she needs pants or not. "We can't get back to Haven without Audrey pants." Right?

"Which is why I was headed down there in the middle of the night." Obviously. "I might have woken you up if necessary, or just raided your bar." Yes, Audrey notices the way Duke looks down her legs and back up. She's not blind. She just chooses to ignore it. It's Duke. That's what he does. The first time he met her he undressed her.

At least they're on the same page.

"Normally," she says pointedly, "I'd agree with you, but it doesn't feel like a Haven thing." As for who's bringing them back...that leads right into his next question.

"Nathan is not wearing clothes, but he's still in bed. In Haven, as in not here with me and you." Audrey pants. Really? Yeah, that's the expression on her face. "Pants would be good. It's a little cold to be running around without them and also people I don't know."

Speaking of...

"Do you recognize anyone here? Besides me?"

Duke almost winces at Audrey's telling him that Nathan is not wearing clothes. "Didn't need to know that." Not that it's a bad mental image. Nathan and Audrey are not bad to look at. It's the image of the two of them naked in bed prior to the lack of Audrey pants that's disturbing.

"Great. So the fate of us, you and me, depends on Nathan figuring out the Haven thing? That's just great." Yes, he knows that Audrey has a special sense for when a weird thing is a Haven thing or not. But Duke is just not quite ready to accept that this isn't a Haven thing and that there's no path back to Haven.

He pushes his hands back through his hair and then gestures at Audrey with both hands. "You know, usually I'd be a fan of no pants Audrey at a bonfire but you're being a real buzzkill."

But yes, pants. No pants Audrey needs some Audrey pants. "To add to the weirdness, the Cape Rouge showed up today. It's over there." Yes, he's offering her some of his pants. Sorry, that's all he has to offer. He hasn't quite figured out the way this place works yet. The wish magic will be helpful once they know it's there.

Which is exactly why she told him that. She takes perverse pleasure in Duke's discomfort. She just grins in response.

"Nathan will figure it out. Especially when he notices we're missing." What Audrey doesn't know is that Nathan will never figure out they're missing because they aren't missing back home. Nothing is happening back home. Audrey isn't ready to accept that this is their life for the moment either.

"Because I'm not a fan of potentially flashing everyone," she rolls her eyes at Duke. Oh yeah, if she didn't mention it, she's not wearing underwear. Why should she have? She was just going downstairs.

No pants Audrey does need some Audrey pants. Unfortunately, Audrey pants are not available right now. Duke's information reveal gets a sort of gaping, surprised look from Audrey. "Seriously?" she looks in the direction Duke points. Yup. That looks like the Cape Rouge. Hey, if his pants are the only ones available, she'll take them. Not literally off him. "Okay, let's go see if we can find me some pants on your boat."

It'll give her a chance to check out the Cape Rouge and see if it'll provide any clues to this place.

Well, even if they have to depend on Nathan to do the untroubling, Duke is glad Audrey is coming around to his side of things. Weird things are happening, they wake up in a weird place, much be a Trouble. Weird equals Trouble. And this place, with all its weirdness, is a Trouble that... apparently Nathan has to solve.

They start walking in the direction of the Cape Rouge and Duke is sort of worried about leaving the bonfire behind, worried that those people might disappear, worried that the bonfire itself might disappear.

"There's no Grey Gull here." In fact, he's thinking about applying at the local bar, The Houndstooth. "So if we don't find a way out by the end of tonight, you can stay in the guest room on the boat. I'm still trying to figure out what this place has to do with Haven. Right now the Cape Rouge is my only link."

Audrey has more faith in Nathan figuring this out than Duke does, but she expects it to take a little while. After all, he's having to figure this out on his own.

Funny, that thought had occurred to her as well. She looks over her shoulder a few times.

The idea of not having the Grey Gull there makes Audrey more than a little homesick. Duke's offer makes her feel better. She smiles at him, wraps her arm around his and leans against him. "Thanks, Duke." Her brow furrows as she listens to him. "There's got to be more than though though." Because Haven has always been Haven, even when it wasn't their Haven. "The newspaper maybe? Or the Barn?"

Thankfully, even when they get to the docks, the bonfire is still in view some ways away. Duke can take that tiny thing and feel a little bit of relief at that. Those people, if they're real, are still there.

Even if he knew he could wish the Grey Gull here, that wishing is what got the Cape Rouge here, he isn't sure he would wish it here. Maybe he would. But he'd also almost immediately found The Houndstooth. It was nice. The girl who runs it seems okay too. Since Duke has turned into the nice guy who helps everyone, he doesn't want to step in on her business. At least not right off the bat.

Also, he's kind of hoping that Nathan will get his act together and get them out.

"Nope. I've been all over this town three times already. There's just this." Duke leads Audrey into the belly of the boat in his living space. He rifles through his closet for some cut off sweat pants that will probably serve as capris on Audrey. "I know, I looked for the Herald too. No Vince and Dave. No Herald. No Barn either."

Bonfire Mingle Post || OTA

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