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tampered2006-08-06 04:20 pm
tiaxdalma.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2006-08-06 04:20 pm
(no subject)
When; August 6th
Rating; PG
Characters; Tia Dalma (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tiaxdalma) and James Norrington (heart0foak)
Summary; Norrington comes to visit Tia and ask her how the others from his universe can escape the City, and ends up being transported there permanently.
Log;
(James) "Waking up on a calm Caribbean sea after being caught in the middle of a thunderstorm back in the city was a great relief for the Ex Commodore. The relief was short lived, as when he went up on deck to get a breath of warm, fresh air, he spotted a fishing boat floating off the port bow, and an island behind it. There was a pause of about five seconds, whilst he tried to remember what was important about this, before he dived below decks, grabbed his kit bag, pulled his red naval uniform jacket out of it and onto his back, and jumped ship. Back on deck he heard one of the crew of the merchantman "Staines, what the hell are you..." before the water closed over his head and he swam like a fish with a shark on it's tail for the fishing yacht. As he bobbed up by the keel, a dark face peered over the painter at him.
"You be go to see Tia?" It said, offering a hand.
Norrington took it and used it to climb aboard. "If you're taking me there, certainly." He replied, spitting out water over the side. The black face grinned, and pulled in the sail, heading for the shore. "
The fishing boat carried him from the sea into the mouth of a dark, wide and jungle-surrounded river. Norrington, being a man of open spaces, was a little disturbed by this. He didn't know where he was being taken, and he didn't like it, but a stiff upper lip was clearly needed. One couldn't show fear to the natives, it made them get above themselves. He stood silently in the bows as his ferryman brought them in to dock beside a decaying shack on stilts marked by high water lines from recent flooding. Something clanked in the breeze and drew his attention, and then rapidly lost it when he realised it was a pair of skulls hanging from the walls. The great sweating black man gestured to a ladder. Deep in the jungle something screeched.
"I go no fuder." He said. "De lady awaits."
Norrington swallowed dryly, adjusted his jacket and climbed out onto the docks. He gave the fisherman a polite salute, which was returned with a disturbing black and toothy grin as the boat floated away. Then he faced the ladder, pushed down his urge to bolt like a frightened rabbit into the jungle, climbed the rickety ladder and brushed his way through something he hoped desperately was cobwebs, into the the shack.
"Good evening..." He said. "Miss Dalma?"
(Tia) Tia Dalma waited in her home, sitting on the floor, staring into her basin of boiling, bubbling water. She was watching, watching, but not what she'd been watching of late. She was watching the man who was swiftly approaching her from the sea... not the guest in her doorway, but someone far more troublesome. Someone who was very, very angry. She raised one hand, beckoning her visitor inside without turning. "Come in," she said, "Come in and sit before me, James Norrington."
Bending over slightly, Tia whispered to the surface of the water, and it warped and changed color, twisting until it revealed the world she had been observing for some time - not the sharp, first-person sort of observations she sent herself into in a trance, but just a faded, far-away image of the City. Torrential rain and half-ruined buildings reflected back at them. "So you have a thing to ask me," she drawled, looking up with deep red eyes and a wide smile.
(James) Norrington stepped into the room proper and saw the woman sitting there in front of a basin full of something undoubtedly noxious. He glanced over it and saw the view of the city. So it was real! In some way, at least. Despite all the things he'd seen in his dreams, he hadn't been certain. And she had been the one he'd been talking to in his dreams. As he approached the woman, he had a chance to have a proper look at her, the wild unruly dreadlocks, the coffee-coloured mulatto skin, and those teeth....dear God. He nearly balked and ran again, but steeled himself and sat down on the other side of the bubbling cauldron, after carefully checking the floor for anything disturbing. "Yes, indeed I do. But I suppose you must know about it, really. If you've been in the Dream City. Sparrow is trapped there, along with Tuner and Miss Swann, and I keep going there when I dream. The place is pretty damned supernatural, so we, that is, I wondered if there was some sort of supernatural manner of getting them back out again." He paused for a second, and then said something that had been bothering him, but he hadn't wanted to voice to anyone else.. "There's something wrong, you know. I've felt it for a while now. You don't get far in sea battles if you don't trust your gut instinct, and my innards are telling me this isn't how things should be progressing. It's as if time's gone off on a separate tangent and I know somehow it's that city's fault."
(Tia) Tia smiled again, just to unnerve him. She liked the look of this one - probably much prettier without all the hair, and he looked very lovely in red (that was really the only reason she'd requested it - and military, oh, how quaint). Not so young anymore, but intriguing, and he had a conflict about him that told her he would be a good one to keep an eye on.
"There be a way out," she said, twisting her fingers in the steam above the basin, "one I can give you. But it not so easy, and it not be on your terms." The scene before them changed, drifting closer, in and out of houses and up near people before darting off, as if they were seeing through the eyes of a slow-moving fly.
(James) That smile was really quite disturbing, whilst being curiously enticing. Norrington cringed back a little, but then on hearing about the way out, he leaned in forward eagerly. "Things are rarely easy for me of late, madam, I've been imprisoned, beaten to within an inch of my life, and lost in a hurricane recently, so I'd better hear it and make a judgement on whether it's feasible or not, eh?
(Tia) She laughed, something in between a chuckle and an outright cackle. "It not for YOU to decide," she said, "You not be having a choice, soon. Look!" he waived her hand again, spoke words that would be foreign to him into the basin, and the scene warped and changed to reveal the Flying Dutchman at full tilt, just off the Louisiana coast, coming closer and closer to the bayou and the two of them.
"You be thievin' and I be, as they say, meddling," - she cracked another smile, sounding very amused by the concept - ,"You be having such a time, you know the danger that lie here. As you say, something be different there. I know what these things be. But we have no time here. You free to stay, of course..." she trailed off, gesturing idly. She looked back down to the images in her enchanted puddle of water, and then over to a worn out leather bag next to her, pulling closed the latch on it after putting a few odd-looking rocks inside.
(James) Norrington peered into the cauldron. "Hell, that's Jones' ship, isn't it? He's on his way here?" He put a hand on his sword. "Well, I'll be going down fighting, that's for damn sure... Unless you've got some sort of supernatural plan that is."
(Tia) "Supernatural..." Tia partially rolled her eyes at the remark. "Nothing here be anything outside normal, you just not have your eyes open to the truth of the world." Tia poured a small handful of fine sand into the mire, and it bubbled and boiled violently, popping and fuming, until it rippled and cleared, showing a deep, beautiful cavern, as if there was no bottom to the silver pan at all. If one looked closely, there seemed to be a light from one side in the water. "If you wish to fight, fight, but you die - and when you die, you not have a chance to try again. I not see the end of your rope, and if I not know where it end, no one reach back to move it. The place you fear be the place that save you."
(James) Norrington shook his head exasperatedly, carefully not looking at whatever Tia was cooking up. "Can't you speak plain English, woman. These riddles are giving me a damn headache. Right, the place I fear is obviously that damn city. If it's saving me from Jones' men, then it's going to take me away from them, because I'm obviously not going to sleep here, that would be suicide. Am I close?"
(Tia) "I not speak in riddles," Tia said, her voice having a slight pouting edge to it. She, however, did indeed speak in riddles and knew that she did - though not nearly as complicated as some. It was not her fault if those she encountered lacked the spontaneous creativity to translate her speech patterns. She opened her mouth to speak again, and a deafening noise sounded from the coast - a boom, too deep and too long for a canon. A shock wave ... sending a beast in through the shallows of the river. "He must be mad indeed," she said softly. "The other place not so safe either, and it have a purpose, but if you need to fight, fight there. Here, I leave you shortly."
(James) "Leave me? What? You are not leaving me here to be..." Norrington felt the impact, and heard the roaring of water in the distance. "...eaten by a bloody Kraken!" He rushed to the door and stared out across the river. In the distance, something was moving, something that glistened and roiled, and beyond it, shapes moved, shapes covered in barnacles and soaked in seaweed and reeking of the briny depths.
"Oh, bugger." He said.
He turned back to the door, and swallowed, dryly again. "Right. The city it is. Holing up somewhere safe seems like a sensible idea. Till we can escape properly. Absolutely.. Lead on."
(Tia) Tia frowned slightly at a noise, a creak from beneath her home. A short moment later, a scaled hand burst through the wooden flooring, followed by the wriggling, growling body of one of the crewmen of the Flying Dutchmen. Tia's eyes widened, but he only looked at her, skittered back, and went after Norrington. She turned back to her basin and poured something else into it from a bottle at her feet, muttering to herself, and from the back of her home, another entered, and loomed over her, sword raised threateningly. She glared at him, and whipped her head around. "James! Come!"
Annoyed at being ignored, the crewman before her lunged, and Tia threw the remaining contents of her bottle at him, and he staggered back, face burning and melting. Tia stood and hefted her bag, impatient.
(James) Eyes equally wide in fear, Norrington stepped back away from the scabrous creature before him.
"Return ittttttt........ return the heaaaartt......" It moaned at him.
"Over my dead body!" Norrington yelled, drawing his sword, and aiming for the throat, as he dodged out of the way. As the liquid splattered across the other creature's face, he used the distract to slip past his adversary around it, slashing as he did for good measure, and ending up by Tia's side.
"I sincerely hope you know what you're doing." He said, as the two horrors advanced.
(Tia) "Jump in," she urged, pushing him toward the basin with the apparent lack of a bottom. "Jump in and swim to the light at the other side." One of the creatures jabbed its weapon at them - they were clearly under orders to return with a captive, but were wary of the talented swordsman and the priestess. Outside, a roaring, squelching noise drew closer. Loud cracks and splashes and screams of the others who made their homes along the water heralded the Kraken drawing closer to punish Tia by destroying her dwelling.
(James) Norrington balked at the bottomless cauldron. "Jump in? In there? Are you insa.... no, sorry, silly question really. Aye aye, ma'am." He sheathed his sword, and saluted the barnacle-covered creatures. "Good evening, gentlemen. Give our regards, and those of Captain Sparrow to Captain Jones, and tell him he won't be seeing us for a while now. Whether he likes it or not."
And for the second time that evening, he dived like a flying fish into unknown waters.
(Tia) Following him, bag and all, Tia plunged into the water and narrowly avoided a large tentacle crashing into her home - it stung, to know the place she had put so much time into would be crushed by that man... but she'd have her revenge, in time. It would not do to get ahead of herself. She pulled the shallow basin in after her, and floating about, stuffed it into her bag, which did not seem like it would be able to fit it. Slightly hampered by her extensive clothing, she floated and swam, bit by bit, along toward the light, which on closer inspection, seemed to be the crackle of lightning. She broke the surface, gasping, and found herself in a thrashing sea in the midst of a violent rainstorm, thankfully not too far from the beach. She looked around for her companion.
(James) The shock of the cold water knocked the breath from Norrington, but he was used to getting soaked, so he kept his eyes open and swam like the very devil for the light ahead of him. He broke the surface, spitting and cursing a navy streak just ahead of Tia, and bobbed around on the stormy waters. Shortly afterwards, the lady emerged from the water beside him.
"Good job!" He called, over the gale, pointing in the distance to where the Black Swann bobbed and strained against her mooring ropes by the docks. "I'm not even that far from my quarters." He swam over to where Tia floated, and caught her arm to help her float and prevent her from sinking amongst the various petticoats and fripperies, and made to strike out for shore.
(Tia) Tia was grateful for the help, and paddled as best she could with her clothing weighing her down. She did not particularly like being wet, and liked swimming even less, but it beat dealing with the ex - and so she swam, knowing that the charms she carried with her would at least keep them safe from being sucked under and drowned by the waves. She didn't spend long looking at the ship, but knew she'd end up there soon enough - Jack might be miffed, after all, if her first stop back in this place was not to see him.
(James) As soon as his boots struck the semi-solid sand, and they were able to struggle upright in the water, Norrington sent up a silent prayer of thanks to God for deliverance from both Jones' minions and the stormy waters (although it was more likely Tia he should be thanking). He splashed out of the water and onto the beach.... and found himself in front of some rather unexpected people.
To be continued here.
Rating; PG
Characters; Tia Dalma (
tiaxdalma) and James Norrington (heart0foak)Summary; Norrington comes to visit Tia and ask her how the others from his universe can escape the City, and ends up being transported there permanently.
Log;
(James) "Waking up on a calm Caribbean sea after being caught in the middle of a thunderstorm back in the city was a great relief for the Ex Commodore. The relief was short lived, as when he went up on deck to get a breath of warm, fresh air, he spotted a fishing boat floating off the port bow, and an island behind it. There was a pause of about five seconds, whilst he tried to remember what was important about this, before he dived below decks, grabbed his kit bag, pulled his red naval uniform jacket out of it and onto his back, and jumped ship. Back on deck he heard one of the crew of the merchantman "Staines, what the hell are you..." before the water closed over his head and he swam like a fish with a shark on it's tail for the fishing yacht. As he bobbed up by the keel, a dark face peered over the painter at him.
"You be go to see Tia?" It said, offering a hand.
Norrington took it and used it to climb aboard. "If you're taking me there, certainly." He replied, spitting out water over the side. The black face grinned, and pulled in the sail, heading for the shore. "
The fishing boat carried him from the sea into the mouth of a dark, wide and jungle-surrounded river. Norrington, being a man of open spaces, was a little disturbed by this. He didn't know where he was being taken, and he didn't like it, but a stiff upper lip was clearly needed. One couldn't show fear to the natives, it made them get above themselves. He stood silently in the bows as his ferryman brought them in to dock beside a decaying shack on stilts marked by high water lines from recent flooding. Something clanked in the breeze and drew his attention, and then rapidly lost it when he realised it was a pair of skulls hanging from the walls. The great sweating black man gestured to a ladder. Deep in the jungle something screeched.
"I go no fuder." He said. "De lady awaits."
Norrington swallowed dryly, adjusted his jacket and climbed out onto the docks. He gave the fisherman a polite salute, which was returned with a disturbing black and toothy grin as the boat floated away. Then he faced the ladder, pushed down his urge to bolt like a frightened rabbit into the jungle, climbed the rickety ladder and brushed his way through something he hoped desperately was cobwebs, into the the shack.
"Good evening..." He said. "Miss Dalma?"
(Tia) Tia Dalma waited in her home, sitting on the floor, staring into her basin of boiling, bubbling water. She was watching, watching, but not what she'd been watching of late. She was watching the man who was swiftly approaching her from the sea... not the guest in her doorway, but someone far more troublesome. Someone who was very, very angry. She raised one hand, beckoning her visitor inside without turning. "Come in," she said, "Come in and sit before me, James Norrington."
Bending over slightly, Tia whispered to the surface of the water, and it warped and changed color, twisting until it revealed the world she had been observing for some time - not the sharp, first-person sort of observations she sent herself into in a trance, but just a faded, far-away image of the City. Torrential rain and half-ruined buildings reflected back at them. "So you have a thing to ask me," she drawled, looking up with deep red eyes and a wide smile.
(James) Norrington stepped into the room proper and saw the woman sitting there in front of a basin full of something undoubtedly noxious. He glanced over it and saw the view of the city. So it was real! In some way, at least. Despite all the things he'd seen in his dreams, he hadn't been certain. And she had been the one he'd been talking to in his dreams. As he approached the woman, he had a chance to have a proper look at her, the wild unruly dreadlocks, the coffee-coloured mulatto skin, and those teeth....dear God. He nearly balked and ran again, but steeled himself and sat down on the other side of the bubbling cauldron, after carefully checking the floor for anything disturbing. "Yes, indeed I do. But I suppose you must know about it, really. If you've been in the Dream City. Sparrow is trapped there, along with Tuner and Miss Swann, and I keep going there when I dream. The place is pretty damned supernatural, so we, that is, I wondered if there was some sort of supernatural manner of getting them back out again." He paused for a second, and then said something that had been bothering him, but he hadn't wanted to voice to anyone else.. "There's something wrong, you know. I've felt it for a while now. You don't get far in sea battles if you don't trust your gut instinct, and my innards are telling me this isn't how things should be progressing. It's as if time's gone off on a separate tangent and I know somehow it's that city's fault."
(Tia) Tia smiled again, just to unnerve him. She liked the look of this one - probably much prettier without all the hair, and he looked very lovely in red (that was really the only reason she'd requested it - and military, oh, how quaint). Not so young anymore, but intriguing, and he had a conflict about him that told her he would be a good one to keep an eye on.
"There be a way out," she said, twisting her fingers in the steam above the basin, "one I can give you. But it not so easy, and it not be on your terms." The scene before them changed, drifting closer, in and out of houses and up near people before darting off, as if they were seeing through the eyes of a slow-moving fly.
(James) That smile was really quite disturbing, whilst being curiously enticing. Norrington cringed back a little, but then on hearing about the way out, he leaned in forward eagerly. "Things are rarely easy for me of late, madam, I've been imprisoned, beaten to within an inch of my life, and lost in a hurricane recently, so I'd better hear it and make a judgement on whether it's feasible or not, eh?
(Tia) She laughed, something in between a chuckle and an outright cackle. "It not for YOU to decide," she said, "You not be having a choice, soon. Look!" he waived her hand again, spoke words that would be foreign to him into the basin, and the scene warped and changed to reveal the Flying Dutchman at full tilt, just off the Louisiana coast, coming closer and closer to the bayou and the two of them.
"You be thievin' and I be, as they say, meddling," - she cracked another smile, sounding very amused by the concept - ,"You be having such a time, you know the danger that lie here. As you say, something be different there. I know what these things be. But we have no time here. You free to stay, of course..." she trailed off, gesturing idly. She looked back down to the images in her enchanted puddle of water, and then over to a worn out leather bag next to her, pulling closed the latch on it after putting a few odd-looking rocks inside.
(James) Norrington peered into the cauldron. "Hell, that's Jones' ship, isn't it? He's on his way here?" He put a hand on his sword. "Well, I'll be going down fighting, that's for damn sure... Unless you've got some sort of supernatural plan that is."
(Tia) "Supernatural..." Tia partially rolled her eyes at the remark. "Nothing here be anything outside normal, you just not have your eyes open to the truth of the world." Tia poured a small handful of fine sand into the mire, and it bubbled and boiled violently, popping and fuming, until it rippled and cleared, showing a deep, beautiful cavern, as if there was no bottom to the silver pan at all. If one looked closely, there seemed to be a light from one side in the water. "If you wish to fight, fight, but you die - and when you die, you not have a chance to try again. I not see the end of your rope, and if I not know where it end, no one reach back to move it. The place you fear be the place that save you."
(James) Norrington shook his head exasperatedly, carefully not looking at whatever Tia was cooking up. "Can't you speak plain English, woman. These riddles are giving me a damn headache. Right, the place I fear is obviously that damn city. If it's saving me from Jones' men, then it's going to take me away from them, because I'm obviously not going to sleep here, that would be suicide. Am I close?"
(Tia) "I not speak in riddles," Tia said, her voice having a slight pouting edge to it. She, however, did indeed speak in riddles and knew that she did - though not nearly as complicated as some. It was not her fault if those she encountered lacked the spontaneous creativity to translate her speech patterns. She opened her mouth to speak again, and a deafening noise sounded from the coast - a boom, too deep and too long for a canon. A shock wave ... sending a beast in through the shallows of the river. "He must be mad indeed," she said softly. "The other place not so safe either, and it have a purpose, but if you need to fight, fight there. Here, I leave you shortly."
(James) "Leave me? What? You are not leaving me here to be..." Norrington felt the impact, and heard the roaring of water in the distance. "...eaten by a bloody Kraken!" He rushed to the door and stared out across the river. In the distance, something was moving, something that glistened and roiled, and beyond it, shapes moved, shapes covered in barnacles and soaked in seaweed and reeking of the briny depths.
"Oh, bugger." He said.
He turned back to the door, and swallowed, dryly again. "Right. The city it is. Holing up somewhere safe seems like a sensible idea. Till we can escape properly. Absolutely.. Lead on."
(Tia) Tia frowned slightly at a noise, a creak from beneath her home. A short moment later, a scaled hand burst through the wooden flooring, followed by the wriggling, growling body of one of the crewmen of the Flying Dutchmen. Tia's eyes widened, but he only looked at her, skittered back, and went after Norrington. She turned back to her basin and poured something else into it from a bottle at her feet, muttering to herself, and from the back of her home, another entered, and loomed over her, sword raised threateningly. She glared at him, and whipped her head around. "James! Come!"
Annoyed at being ignored, the crewman before her lunged, and Tia threw the remaining contents of her bottle at him, and he staggered back, face burning and melting. Tia stood and hefted her bag, impatient.
(James) Eyes equally wide in fear, Norrington stepped back away from the scabrous creature before him.
"Return ittttttt........ return the heaaaartt......" It moaned at him.
"Over my dead body!" Norrington yelled, drawing his sword, and aiming for the throat, as he dodged out of the way. As the liquid splattered across the other creature's face, he used the distract to slip past his adversary around it, slashing as he did for good measure, and ending up by Tia's side.
"I sincerely hope you know what you're doing." He said, as the two horrors advanced.
(Tia) "Jump in," she urged, pushing him toward the basin with the apparent lack of a bottom. "Jump in and swim to the light at the other side." One of the creatures jabbed its weapon at them - they were clearly under orders to return with a captive, but were wary of the talented swordsman and the priestess. Outside, a roaring, squelching noise drew closer. Loud cracks and splashes and screams of the others who made their homes along the water heralded the Kraken drawing closer to punish Tia by destroying her dwelling.
(James) Norrington balked at the bottomless cauldron. "Jump in? In there? Are you insa.... no, sorry, silly question really. Aye aye, ma'am." He sheathed his sword, and saluted the barnacle-covered creatures. "Good evening, gentlemen. Give our regards, and those of Captain Sparrow to Captain Jones, and tell him he won't be seeing us for a while now. Whether he likes it or not."
And for the second time that evening, he dived like a flying fish into unknown waters.
(Tia) Following him, bag and all, Tia plunged into the water and narrowly avoided a large tentacle crashing into her home - it stung, to know the place she had put so much time into would be crushed by that man... but she'd have her revenge, in time. It would not do to get ahead of herself. She pulled the shallow basin in after her, and floating about, stuffed it into her bag, which did not seem like it would be able to fit it. Slightly hampered by her extensive clothing, she floated and swam, bit by bit, along toward the light, which on closer inspection, seemed to be the crackle of lightning. She broke the surface, gasping, and found herself in a thrashing sea in the midst of a violent rainstorm, thankfully not too far from the beach. She looked around for her companion.
(James) The shock of the cold water knocked the breath from Norrington, but he was used to getting soaked, so he kept his eyes open and swam like the very devil for the light ahead of him. He broke the surface, spitting and cursing a navy streak just ahead of Tia, and bobbed around on the stormy waters. Shortly afterwards, the lady emerged from the water beside him.
"Good job!" He called, over the gale, pointing in the distance to where the Black Swann bobbed and strained against her mooring ropes by the docks. "I'm not even that far from my quarters." He swam over to where Tia floated, and caught her arm to help her float and prevent her from sinking amongst the various petticoats and fripperies, and made to strike out for shore.
(Tia) Tia was grateful for the help, and paddled as best she could with her clothing weighing her down. She did not particularly like being wet, and liked swimming even less, but it beat dealing with the ex - and so she swam, knowing that the charms she carried with her would at least keep them safe from being sucked under and drowned by the waves. She didn't spend long looking at the ship, but knew she'd end up there soon enough - Jack might be miffed, after all, if her first stop back in this place was not to see him.
(James) As soon as his boots struck the semi-solid sand, and they were able to struggle upright in the water, Norrington sent up a silent prayer of thanks to God for deliverance from both Jones' minions and the stormy waters (although it was more likely Tia he should be thanking). He splashed out of the water and onto the beach.... and found himself in front of some rather unexpected people.
To be continued here.