(no subject)

[deadnordying.livejournal.com]

When; Saturday night/Sunday morning
Rating; G
Characters; Tia Dalma (tiaxdalma) and Davy Jones (deadnordying)
Summary; Tia invokes parley with Captain Jones.
Log;
Tia Dalma: The City was in an odd state that day - night still, really in the wee hours of the morning - as she set out, shawl around her in the chilly air. Jack would be livid when he found out, because he would no doubt believe she was aiming to stave off his dealings with the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Yet Tia was not doing Jack any personal favors on this outing. She was going for herself. To be trapped in this tiny world with Davy Jones was not anything she was looking forward to - they clashed, even when they tried not to. It was inevitable that some conflict or confrontation break out between them, and Tia felt she might be able to minimize the damage if she took the initiative to speak with him before tension build to unbearable levels. Did Davy know about her previous relationships with Jack? How affected was his by his heart at such proximity? Things she did not now, but needed... perhaps not answers, but... something. She felt conflicted as she waited on the deck of the Black Swann for the other ship to show itself for her. Part of her, a nagging, teasing voice in her mind, told her she was just curious and unable to keep away. It had been so long, after all.

Davy Jones: The sound of the mighty crash as the ship rose from beneath the water's surface would be more than enough to alert one who was already awaiting its arrival. It was a sound that did not cease for some time. Even after the ship had steadied the flow of water from its deck back to the ocean resulted in a constant din over the more subtle lap of the waves. Before the wheel (single useable hand fixed upon the thing) stood Davy Jones, the tentacles which had been used to hold the hat to his head slithering back to their original positions.

It wouldn't've been necessary for him to steer the ship then, as Bootstrap had since found his way aboard once more, but upon news that Tia Dalma would be paying the Dutchman a visit Jones had commanded him to the belly of the ship. If there were anything necessary for the two to meet it would be privacy, and as much was something that Jones would not compromise.

Near enough the Black Swann the waters finally calmed, ship still where anchor had taken but a few moments to be cast.

Tia Dalma: The ship was a terrible thing, and Tia had always thought so. Her life had been filled with men obsessed with ships, and she'd come to find them particularly loathesome. She'd last seen it shortly after Jones had wrested it from its former captain... oh, so long ago. So long had it been since they'd set eyes on each other - she knew of his progress, had watched his deeds from afar, but never met. She'd heard stories, but never looked closely. Part of her was terrified to see what he had become ... because of her.

It was easy enough to board, and she wondered if he would pull the vessel away from Sparrow's. She could feel the half-wrought protections Jack was spinning for her as she moved - it touched her heart, but she did not let herself think on it. All the men about her had their own agendas, and always would. They were not to be trusted, not to be loved.

Tia pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders as she slowed to a stop on the deck. It was horrid, and smelt of death. Without his heart, she found it difficult to sense the difference between the captain and his ship.. and so she waited still more.

Davy Jones: As soon as the woman set foot on board the ship lurched, swaying with the tide after the few moments it took for Jones to maneuver it as such. It wasn't until the thing set adrift farther than a stone's throw away from the Swann that the creature finally stepped down from his present position. It would be audible where Tia now stood, the leg long-since mutated into something more crustacean than human thudding heavily on the rotting wood. He was aware of the fact that she would hear it, and so there was no verbal greeting, no witty form of welcome to the Dutchman to be had. As much would fall on deaf ears when it came to the woman before him.

He halted with more than a few metres left between them, looking forth at her through narrowed eyes. As of that moment he knew not what to expect, claw clenching firmly shut as he waited for some reaction to his presence.

Tia Dalma: Tia was a proud woman, sometimes to a fault - in the rare occasions she was bested, proved wrong, or scared, she did not like to show it, nor admit it was happening. When she realized where Jones was, and what he had become, she felt as if she might scream and cover her eyes, but the only reaction she gave was her eyes widening in shock - she frowned again immediately, unable to quite school her face into passivity. He had been handsome, once - a gracefully aging man, hair bleached and skin tanned by the sun, face cracked and worn from the wind and his own smiles. She knew what he'd done to himself, and of the curses he bore to live how he did, but this... he wasn't even human.

She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out, and she faltered, eyes dropping and her face, for just a moment showing just how distressed she was at seeing him as such a creature.

"I come.. be speaking to you with parley," she managed, looking back up, but her voice was a dim shadow to her usual tone.

Davy Jones: "As has been discussed," he growled out. It wouldn't take a greatly perceptive man to note her reaction, and it had not gone undetected by Jones. Though he was used to it after so long, the fearful expression worn by so many before they were claimed by death or servitude under his own name, it struck as something different to have this particular woman reacting as such.

"Talk is to take place here on deck or in mine own quarters, Miss Dalma. I'll not have you about the Dutchman on your own terms." Like it or not, this was not her territory, and if she did not respect that fact Davy would be ambivalent toward sending her off as quickly as she'd arrived. As much as he could have hoped to trust her he knew that she was one of the few threats that remained to him, and so he would be taking what precautions he felt necessary.

Tia Dalma: It did not take long for Tia to get her emotions back under pristine control, though she knew her slip-up would cost her dearly. She was not afraid of Davy - not in that sort of way - but she was almost mournful, to know he'd gone to such lengths to destroy his former self.

"Your quarters be fine," she said, voice as steady and silky as always, "Captain Jones."

Davy Jones: Not a word further was spoken before Jones started in the direction that would lead them to the Captain's Quarters of the Dutchman. It was unlike anything that one would assume could really be considered a living space at all, consisting of little more than the enormous pipe organ and seat before it and what few personal items managed to maintain any form of importance to him. There was no light within the dank reaches of the thing, save for that which would have been offered by the few (presently unlit) candles scattered about.

The putrid air from the inner cabin was already evident as he pushed open the door, a result of constant humidity and ever-present moisture and decay. He entered, though what guise of forced politeness he maintained was enough to have him hold the door in his own wake.

Tia Dalma: Tia followed, and entered his cabin, her face and motions reflecting none of the revulsion she felt. It wasn't even the smell, or the appearence, but that the ship was alive-but-not, an organic thing, growing, and yet it was dead. She could feel it all around her in a particularly terrible way. The lack of light did not hamper her much, and she looked around the room, taking it all in.. and finally looking back to Jones. His eyes were the same as always ... it was difficult to look into them, but she did. Absense was sweeter, or whatever it was that was said - and while Tia knew she had made the right decision, and would never take it back, it still pained her to see him, see Davy, like this. Somehow, in a twisted way, it was almost flattering that he would choose such disfiguration of his body and soul over the pain of not being able to have her.

"How you be coming to this place?" She asked into the darkness, knowing he would understand she meant the City.

Davy Jones: "Someone saw fit to claim my heart and bring it here, or so it would seem," his tone was cold. He had assumed that Tia would have known as much, amidst what other knowledge he was sure she'd come to bear. "I know not whether it's left me dead or alive, but it's brought me here, and thus far it seems that neither should matter in a place such as this."

His footfalls could be heard once more as he moved from the now-closed door, the sound echoing in what was primarily empty space.

Tia Dalma: "I be aware of that," Tia said, sounding vaguely annoyed. "I mean how you get here.. physically. Be it a magic doorway or death, this place not something you just be sailing to." She sighed, and turned away, arms crossed. "It not be a place those like us used to being in. It be very small, and full of magic none of us be controlling." Tia was quiet for a moment, and then turned back to Davy once more, stepping closer to him in the darkness. "This not be the place to be fighting. Even if you be dead, it not more than wrong turn on the path to elsewhere. WRONG turn, mind you."

Davy Jones: "It would seem that I sailed to it just as well, Tia Dalma, though I do not know for certain. Whatever the instance it occured in slumber," There was a momentary pause, but Davy was quick to carry on. "Be it a place for fighting or not I will do as I am meant to. What conflicts do exist are no fault of my own but those of foolish men who make foolish bargains of their own accord."

Tia Dalma: "Make what bargains you will," she said, gaze steeling. "I not interfere with that beyond what be asked of me, as much as I may like." She made a slightly sour expression at that - oh yes, she would love to tie Jack down and not let him anywhere near the cursed captain of the Dutchman, but she knew it simply would not happen. She did not want Jack making any more deals with him - she did not want anyone making any deals with Davy, for that matter. All people made deals that favored them, but he took it to an extreme, cheating and lying. There was a time he did not, but his heart took too much from him. "I ask you to leave me be, leave those with me be, unless they go forth first. Cease fire. I know you not be accepting any truce."

Davy Jones: "I could do so much as to ask the same, Tia Dalma. I could ask you to return my heart to me and assume that all will remain as well once you have, but what reason have I to believe that you will? What bargains I intend to make are for no reason save to reobtain that which was stolen from me in the first place." That much was the truth. Were it not for the fact that they still held his heart, it was very likely that Jones would not have bothered with them in the least--what need to was there in this place? Sparrow's death had settled their debt, that he wouldn't deny, but the Captain was retaining his heart and as such he would not hesitate in taking whatever measures necessary to get it back.

Tia Dalma: "And get the same were it in my power to give," she said sternly. "I not be controlling that boy, you know it. You as much a fool to make deals with him as him be for dealing with you - even if you be collecting in the end, he find a way to make you bleed for it. Jack Sparrow be dead, but him take your heart and trap you here." She shook her head slightly, turning away to look at the intricate pipe organ at the other end of the room in the dim light.

Davy Jones: "Should he act upon what barter I intend to make I hardly think he'll have reason to maintain whatever grudge he choose to hold. And if he does it is of little matter when we are, indeed, trapped in a place such as this." None could say that he was an optimistic sort, and it did not hold true now. Perhaps once, though that had been a time that few could recall now. While Tia took the time to examine the cabin, Jones's gaze was fixed quite unblinkingly upon her. Be it out of paranoia, caution, or little more than curiosity he would remain wholly attentive.

Tia Dalma: Tia sighed inwardly. So, Jack would trade the heart for his Pearl. Did he realize he would not be able to take it with him once he was outside the walls of this City? Or would he be able to barter a way to force Jones to revive it in the event he was returned to the living? She would have to remind him about that... because Davy would certainly neglect to inform him, then laugh about it. Forever.

"I thought you not be wanting your heart," she said quietly.

Davy Jones: "There was little reason for me to care about having it at all until your friend Sparrow chose to dig it up. And now I've to worry at every moment that at any moment I may fall dead--though for all I know such irrationality may not even apply any longer, aye?" He snorted, though it was a sound that lacked any sort of the humour it should have held. "I want naught to do with my heart, so long as it's in no other hands, and that is the source of this conflict."

Tia Dalma: Tia was used to the bitter words - and she knew Davy would not be exactly pleased with how his heart had been treated. Norrington had wanted her to 'use it' to aid him, but she could barely bring herself to look at it, much less touch it, except to save the ship she was on from being blasted to pieces, and even then, it was minimal. She could sense the feeling locked inside of it - she knew why he threw it in a box and burried it away. But soon he would have it with him. Would it change him?

"Rational..." Tia trailed off, deciding partway through speaking that telling him about the rule of death in the City might not be in her best interest. "Rational thought have no place here," she decided on, and glanced over her shoulder at him, braids falling softly on exposed brown skin. "Your eyes be the same, still."

Davy Jones: "I've noticed," came the reply to her opinion on rationality, though he fell silent when she did continue. He moved forward, past her, for the first time allowing said eyes to focus elsewhere, if only to hide the glare suddenly present within them.

"Nothing is the same, nor will it ever be. I needn't tell you that." He shot a glance over his shoulder and watched her for a moment longer. "What is your purpose in coming here? Be it to bargain on his behalf or have you already learned what you wanted to?"

Tia Dalma: Tia was quiet for a long moment, just watching him. There were plenty of reasons why she came, but none were as true as the fact that she'd only wanted to see him with her own eyes, to know for sure what he'd done. To see what had become of him. He wanted so badly for the past to return and another future to present itself - it was humbling, to see the madness some men could be driven to over ... a woman.

"I not bargain on anyone's behalf but my own," she said quietly, "I never have. You be knowing that, best of all. I come... I come to see if you be the same man."

Davy Jones: "Then you needn't bother bargaining, and you needn't have come at all. I am no man any longer," it was evident that the conversation's turns were putting him in some state of unease, he near pacing as it were, though his trail remained short. By this point it seemed enough to say that she had no malicious intent, though that didn't stop him from taking quick glances in her direction every few moments. "I can pose no threat to you--the Kraken is dead, and mine own devices be far inferior to anything of which you're capable."

Tia Dalma: At the mention of her capabilities, a slight sense of anxiety bubbled inside of Tia. No one was aware of the full extent of her powers but Davy... but she knew he was telling the truth. His ship was still a weapon in the extreme, but this was not his sea to command. But Tia did not want to speak about her other life. It was not relevent, and it was not time for such things.

"Then we be finished."

Davy Jones: We were even before it began." One last turn and Davy would start back for the door that would lead him again to the deck of the ship. "I will return you to the Swann." He had little more to say.

Tia Dalma: Tia's curiosity was satisfied, in a way, but it left her feeling cold. She knew that, in some way, she had done this to him as if she'd used her own hands. But at the same time, most ex-lovers simply moved on. Even without his heart, things like hate and bitterness were visably clinging, like weeds in the soul. She silently followed him, lost in thought.