Introspection | Action | Vocal Locket Outburst -- Open to All

[all7seas]

((The first part of this post is Jack's personal record of his stay at the Unseelie Court. The second bit is action, and anyone near Loch Noa, north of the Station, can encounter Jack. Responses to his locket exclamation in the very last section of this post are also welcome.))


The Private Captain's Log of Jack Sparrow, late of the Black Pearl, now of some blighted Castle in Fairy-Land. If found, cast it into the sea. Any sea. Bugger.

June the 1st: Arrived. Rum. Feast. Met a devastating woman who lost her throne. Might be interesting -- looks to be wealthy-ish. Scary, though. Met a fellow with a rich inner life and a hatred of slavery. Met a variety of people from a land called "Panem." Electric fences. Best not to go there.

The Unseelie castle reminds a man of Shipwreck City, just without Grandmama at its black heart. Here is to hoping she didn't cross over as well, though the place would suit her.

Lots of rum.

*****

((While there are entries for June 2nd through about the 6th, they sort of trail off sideways down the pages. There are frequent mentions of "rum" and "bottle." In fact, the entry for June 4th pretty much repeats rumbottle rumbottle rumbottle ho, rumbottle rumbottle doh dee doh doh as though Jack has been composing a song. The entries cease at June the 11th, an entry for which nothing is written. Then:))

June 13ish. Maybe. There is a mooing.

June 14. Why is there a mooing? There is a mooing and a mooing. A man can't get drunk enough. Blast this castle.

June 15th. I have primed my pistol, removing Barbossa's Shot and fixing another in its place. Captain Jack Sparrow, Scourge of Caracas, Pirate Lord of the Caribbean, has a mimbling cow to shoot. The mooing transgresses every boundary between piratedom and cowdom and demands resolution, and I, Captain Jack Sparrow, shall resolve it heretoforthwith TODAY. Bovine-pirate borders must be firmed up, blast it, and broiled steaks for all to-night.

[Thus, Captain Jack Sparrow sets off to shoot the Hedley Kow.

Outside the castle, he approaches it where it passive-aggressively chews a turnip. It moos in a low, coaxing sort of way. It is a come-hither moo, but Jack is not charmed. He aims and pulls the trigger, but at that moment, the pistol vanishes.]

BUGGER!

[The beast moos again, and now his hat -- his HAT! -- takes itself from off his head and vanishes as well! Jack is left speechless as, with a final mocking moo, the Kow itself disappears.

No....no, that's not right. The Kow did not disappear. Somehow, Jack realizes, he has disappeared and reappeared Someplace Else. There is a great dark lake before him, dark even under the sun. Trees whisper in the wind. No one else appears to be near. Welcome to Loch Noa, Captain Jack Sparrow. He opens his locket, shakes it, and bellows:]

..........................Monkeytits!

Comments

[all7seas]

"I DID."

He waited for the inevitable question: What did you find, Glorious Brave Captain Sparrow?!

[steeledskin]

Ah, well. Jack Sparrow had found luck with this one. Alayne survived by simple tenets. Namely, pandering to the egos of others and making herself as painless a conversational partner as possible. Polite and attentive, that was Alayne Stone.

Sansa Stark, too, under all those lies.

"Please, Captain. Tell me what it was a-tapping on your boat."

[all7seas]

"'Twas a man, darling -- an old, old man. Looked like winter himself! He stood up in his small lifeboat and tapped against the hull, looking for asylum from the cold waters. And what did he use to tap, you might wonder?


His hand. Only it had been frozen off, you see, and shattered off his arm, and he fished it out of the water with his other hand and then sort of..."

Jack trailed off. Then:

"Tapped with it."

[steeledskin]

She gasped. Hells had broken loose over her whole life and she still managed to gasp at a mere spooky tale. At least, she thought of it as mere. Stories were no longer things to be believed. And yet she found herself not exactly minding Captain Sparrow's tale -- it didn't have any of the nostalgic optimistic shine that made all the others sound so hollow.

And yet her compassion ruled her tongue: "Was he alright? Did you help him? Did you give him the asylum he sought?"

[all7seas]

"Reached for his other hand, and it snapped off in my own! Grabbed him by the collar, and it began to unravel, so I dropped his hand an' grabbed hold of his belt with my other hand, whereupon he dropped his other hand and wrapped his elbows around my neck.


There we hung for a bit. Had to get a good purchase to heave him over the rail."

[steeledskin]

The story was disgusting. Disgusting. But it had that fae and distant quality that reminded her of Old Nan's darker stories: the ones where heroes did not always win and spectres seemed to lurk around every corner. She felt those stories more keenly, now. They felt more real than they ever did before.

"But you did, did you not? Heave him over?"

And yet she still tried to make a hero of the pirate captain.

[all7seas]

"I don't like to admit it, child, but aye: heaved him over."

Hopefully that didn't sound too sexual.

"He fell upon the deck and shattered!"

[steeledskin]

"You speak poetically."

She pressed her claim -- hoping against hope that he does not mean the man shattered entire and in truth. But she'd already realized this was not one of those stories where imagery trumped gruesome reality.

[all7seas]

"Of course I do! I'm Captain Jack Sparrow!" He won't clear up the confusion or any of the hyperbole, of which there was boatloads. "You speak very well yourself! Highly genteel!"

[steeledskin]

"I was reared by the Faith, brave Captain. We learn our letters and our words well there."

[all7seas]

"I was reared by the Teague, wherein I learned to shoot with deadly aim and to run swiftly."

What on earth would Teague make of this place, with no Code? He'd likely either wreak havoc or join a fairy band.

[steeledskin]

"--You're an archer?"

Because what else could he have meant? An arching pirate. How novel.

[all7seas]

"A pirate." Hadn't he already gone over that with her?

[steeledskin]

"But you say you shoot. You have a good hand with a bow?"

[all7seas]

"Guns. Pistols. Rifles. But aye, a bow if I must." His pistol NOW, of course, has been taken by the Kow.

[steeledskin]

Guns. Pistols. Rifles. She didn't know what they were, but she pretended as if she did: "Ah. Of course. How silly of me to ask. You must be very formidable, Captain."

[all7seas]

This girl was possibly the least formidable one he'd ever spoken to. "'S not what I pride myself on, but I'll take it, lass. What are you known for?"

He was going to guess "knittery."

[steeledskin]

"I am known for nothing, Captain."

Sansa might be known for something -- none of it good -- but Alayne was barely a footnote in anyone's mind. "Except for what I've already said: being my father's daughter. Otherwise, I promise you I am quite unremarkable."