tampered | Log: Ongoing

Current Mood: blank
Current Location: The Flying Dutchman

Log: Ongoing

When; Evening, August 14th
Rating; PG
Characters; Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones
Summary; Sparrow agrees to meet with Jones on his ship for what he hopes to be negotiations of a trade and the alteration of a contract.
Log;

Captain Sparrow had asked to meet with Davy Jones to discuss offers each could make. This was the second time in his life he had made such arrangements. He was less confident this time around, but he would never let that show. Jack was always sure he was right. He had been sure this time as well, until he learned that he had been so wrong about Tia. And she said he shouldn't do this. What if she was right?

The Flying Dutchman came closer and there was no time to be uncertain. This was a thing that had to be done. And so Jack slid a plank between the decks and made his way aboard that cursed ship. Somehow, the atmosphere of the Dutchman made the night air seem much colder, but Jack refused to shiver. He closed his black-spotted left hand into a tight fist, willing himself to forget the mark, and pulled his hat down low.

He walked deckboards slick with algae and growing like coral, never showing the way the living ship or its dead scent disturbed him. Jack stopped at the edge of the quarterdeck to look up to the helm.

"Captain Jones? I believe there were things you wished to discuss in person?"

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"Aye, but not before there's some distance between you and that bloody ship," came the reply, nonchalantly as it could for one so cold. Unlike Sparrow, who now tread unfamiliar (or at least fairly so) territory, Jones had very few worries of his own. He was rather confident in the bargain that he did have to offer, but even were things to go differently than he had planned the Devil of the Seas felt that there was little for him to fear. It would put Jack in a position that was all the more dangerous, alone (or near it, with Bootstrap present as it were) aboard the Flying Dutchman with one so quick to anger as Davy Jones.

That wasn't even to mention Jack's debt--or supposed debt--or the fact that he had taken the opportunity to make a further enemy out of Jones through the act of stealing his heart. Nonetheless, Jones had yet to launch himself at Jack with raised sword, and now even he was hoping that it would not come to as much. He desired more out of this discussion than bloodshed.

Far enough from the Swann to deem comfortable and Jones made his way toward sparrow, eyes narrowed as he limped over the deck. "It would seem that we've both something of considerable worth to the other, Captain Sparrow."

The requirement that they move further from Jack's ship and any means he had of aid or escape wasn't entirely unexpected. This did not stop it from being discomforting. Every second spent on the Flying Dutchman forced Jack to contemplate a lifetime spent serving aboard the rig.

"That we do." Jack wore a false smile to accompany the false air of civility. He began unwrapping the cloth over his left hand. "Firstly, I would like your mark removed." He held up the marred hand. "I no longer have the ship that was your end of the bargain, and my life was taken...which should serve well enough for my end." He did his best to keep his voice calm and his features schooled. It was a thing he could do when it was needed.

"Beyond seeing an end to our former contract -and I do think we'd both rather be done with each other- I believe there was mention of my ship?"
He did so hope Jones would have little interest in a dead man, and that perhaps the cursed sea Captain would loathe him enough not to desire his service aboard this awful ship. Jack knew he should limit his requests to simply ending his debt, but Jones had mentioned the Pearl...and Jack could now ignore that.

"You would like your mark removed as I would my heart returned to me, Mister Sparrow. If our debt is settled--and I do believe you wish it so, likely more than I do--you've no reason to retain it any longer." He came to a halt feet from the other man. Something of a smirk graced his features at mention of Jack's ship.

"Aye. She be here, in this world. Nigh split in two, no less, but here. And I believe that I can return her to you once more, for a price--this time not on your own head as you've little more to offer."

Jack held his hand palm up, waiting the slick and disgusting feel of Jones' grasp to slide over it and take the horrid mark from him. His fingers closed slowly and he tilted his head as the heartless Captain stopped short.

With word of his ship being within the City, Jack's careful facade of calm began to crack. His brows came together in disbelief and he leaned in quick and sharp.
"She's...here?" That carefully schooled stillness left Jack's hands and he pointed erratically at the deck below them or, more over, the waters deep below that. "My ship is below these waters, within this city?"

Though it took effort, he pulled himself back together, leaning away from Captain Jones just a little warily and watching the man from along the bridge of his nose.
"If not for the heart or for my servitude -and I assure you, you'd be disappointed with that, were you to give me any position but captain- then what is it you want of me? What is it you want in trade for The Black Pearl?"

"Oh, the heart will be necessary, Mister Sparrow. The heart is what will see to it that the spot there is removed," his gaze strayed to Sparrow's closed hand. Jones was pleased with the man's reaction; it meant that things were going in his own favour. "You will bring me my heart, and you will bring me a crew--not one hundred souls, not your own, only enough of a crew enough to man this ship and leave room for some to die in the process. Perhaps--twenty." Beggars couldn't be choosers, as it was said.

"Twenty able-bodied men and my heart delivered to me, and you shall see the Pearl again and be free of your curse. Should you disagree, I shall see to it that she undergoes a timely demolition--one that even I will not have the means to reverse."

Jones silenced, then. The offer was laid out, and it was up to Jack now whether he chose to accept it or not. Comparatively Jones thought that it should have been a relatively easy task to complete. Then again, this was Jack Sparrow, so he made a point of expecting nothing in particular.

He could have his ship back or he could lose her forever. This was not a proposition Jack was altogether prepared for. Losing the Pearl meant losing everything he had built his life around. It would mean that all the hardships he had been through were for nothing at all and that good men had died for something that lie useless at the bottom of the sea.

As much as Jack hated the idea of giving innocents over to a life of servitude, it was better them than himself. He only wished he still had someone like Gibbs to do the actual contracts for him. It helped him feel less dirty about it. Ah well. Sands would make a good first-mate for that task.

After a long, stunned silence where all Jack could do was roll these thoughts over in his mind, he finally spoke.
"Ten. Ten sets of able hands should be enough to get this corpse of a ship set to sail, if you add in Bill and yourself. With that skeleton crew, you can surely recruit more for yourself. .... And I need to know The Pearl will be able to leave this cursed place when I do."

For what he would need to do, he would never be forgiven. But Jack saw no other way.

"I might settle for fifteen, Jack Sparrow, be they conditioned enough for what hardships they will endure--At least five to compensate for your belief that you could piss on my deck with no form of retribution. Twenty it stays if you can find none in such a state, but fewer'n fifteen and there are no negotiations to be made. I'll see to it that you're right bound to your ship--" A pause, and Jones chuckled lowly. "Figuratively speaking, of course. Ye'll not see the Pearl nor removal of that mark until I've both my heart and my men, however."

Jones fell silent for some time, debating whether there was anything else to add--or anything he was willing to further negotiate. There was not. "Have we an accord or not?"

A calm settled on Sparrow's features. He may have been mad, but he had never lost a bit of his intellect. That mind worked fast and found his leverage where he could.
"Ten. At the most." He would be willing to accept fifteen. He'd have accepted twenty. But this was all part of the bartering.

"As to an accord, Captain, it still seems a bit ill-balanced from my vantage. You see, way I figure it, I could easily take or refuse this offer and -however it may go- return to my ship where I can set my boot upon that three pound annoyance beating away aboard rather than make returns. I'd not get my ship back, certainly, but no further harm would come to her, eh? And I keep this ugly mark, but it would lack a great deal in meaning."

His hands went up before Jones could interrupt or threaten, calling that he be heard out just a bit further.
"Of course...you could run me through where I stand for making mention of such things... but I'm sure that might earn some retribution on your vulnerable little heart, as well. In this place we'd be back, both you and I, in no time at all, but trapped here to keep to slaying each other over and again til eternity. I've better things to do, m'self. Don't you?"

He let his smile slip across his lips slowly.
"Ten. ... And that's generous."

"The Sea is the Sea, Sparrow. Be it here or there I've little preference. Your generosity goes for naught in this place. An eternity spent is one spent, locked in battle with another or otherwise."

Jones would not compromise. He had been kind (for himself) to offer five from the price--but Jack was haughty, and that was enough to change the Devil's mind.

"Twenty souls and that three pound annoyance--still beating away, mind you--and you have your ship. You accept it or you leave now, unless you'd rather die a second time. You've naught to lose but time in this offer, Sparrow, and you've more than enough to spare."

Jack Sparrow's bluff was called. There was never anything he would not gladly give up...except one. The one thing for which he'd given all. The symbol of all his life had earned or lost. And the Devil of the sea had his tentacles tight around Jack's prize. It was enough to break the pirate's composure.

His lips curled and he bared his teeth for a second, an almost inaudible hiss as he pulled stagnant air sharply between the gaps in filthy white and gold. Then his expression fell lax and Jack sighed.
"Twenty -with each copy of myself counting double on principle, of course- and my ship is returned in sea worthy condition. ... And my former contract is void... Then, Jones, ...I believe we have an accord."

With some hesitation, Jack held his hand out to shake on the unsavory agreement.

"Twenty, and each be countin' for one, lest you choose to serve yourself. Ye'll have your ship ready to set sail and no longer be a marked man, I'll have my beating heart and a crew to serve the Dutchman."

His hand collided with Sparrow's, though this exchange was without the unpleasant sensation of the tentacle winding about and so would likely be rather more tolerable.

"Ye've as long as you need to gather them, then. I don't believe either of us are to be disappearing any time soon, aye?" He released Jack's hand and stepped back. "I'd advise that you make some haste, though--I'll be repairing the Pearl, not renovating."

At his least his time was not to be limited on this task. Twenty souls with all the time he needed was a bit better than one hundred in three days. The whole offer still grated on Jack terribly.

There was precious little he could do just yet, however, so he shook what passed for Davy's hand and made his agreements.

"The souls here are already damned, eh? Why not set them to a cause?" His grin was wry and his eyes hateful, but the thing was done. Just a few names in ink and his ship would be back to him. He'd given more for her in the past.

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Log: Ongoing

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