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tampered2006-08-27 08:25 pm
tiaxdalma.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2006-08-27 08:25 pm
Log: Complete
When; A few days after the parade
Rating; PG-13
Characters; Tia and Jack
Summary; Jack is dealing with the after affects of Sands' plan to help him with Jones' deal, and Tia is worried about his state - she helps him work through some of the pain.
Log;
(Tia) As previously noted, Tia Dalma did not like being wet. She didn’t mind playing at the beach - but when doing so, it tended to be warm, and she tended to be naked. Being cold and fully clothed and drenched in freezing water put her in a right foul mood. The gypsy woman had intended to go straight to Jack, hesitation or no, but the small peephole of a window had cracked and a flurry of sleet and snow and turbulent salt water had poured in - and she found herself spending the next hour cursing colorfully in a combination of languages and performing a ritual in the mess hall (she had to kill the ship’s goat, but she felt it died for a worthy cause). It drained her of most of her energy (being angry as hell hadn’t helped), and taken the better part of an hour, but it had seemed to work - she was worried for a time it wouldn’t, because she was so cut away from her beloved gods in this awful place. It didn’t stop the cold, but it curbed the edge, and it shunted the force of the storm.
Finally finished, Tia made her way to the captain’s quarters, knocked on the locked door, and tried not too look as frazzled as she was.
(Jack) How frazzled Tia looks will hardly be a bother to Jack at all. The scent of opium still lingers in the room from much earlier in the day. The surface of Jack's desk is a wreck, as that's where he chose to curl up and sleep it off. Now he's perched amidst that mess with a bottle at his side and is taking a break from typing on the ever-frustrating machine the city had made a necessity in his life, in order to carefully roll a cigarette.
He lifts his head from his task, hunched over the paper and tobacco in his hands with a blanket drawn around his shoulders, and grins wanly at Tia. "'ello, luv..."
(Tia) "Jack..." her eyebrows knitted in concern over the state of his quarters. This was far too many times in such a short span that she'd seen him fall into such distress. This city was no place for the lot of them. He closed the door behind her and moved to him, kneeling down beside him and reaching up to adjust the blanket. "Not so cold in here, now, mm.." she said softly. She doubted he'd notice her efforts until some time later, with his mind where it was. She'd overheard a portion the quarrel with that man Sands, and while she was not privy to their entire deal, what she had heard combined with how Jack was now... things were not good.
(Jack) He grinned a bit wider and swayed a little as Tia adjusted the blanket. "Not so cold at all....no.." He really won't notice her work for a while. It's a shame, but he's far too distracted by his worries and dulled by the poisons he's killing those worries with.
"Come help keep my bed warm?" He seals the cigarette and lifts the glas from a lantern to light it from the flame.
(Tia) "All right," she murmured, and stole a taste of Jack's cigarette before rising, waiting for him to come with her. She wasn't sure if he was capable of moving without assistance.
(Jack) Jack does manage to make his way from the desk, though it looks more like a carefully arranged fall than any normal sort of climbing down. Once on his feet, he tightens the blanket around himself and moves to Tia's side, leaning on her a bit, with the cigarette now hanging loosely from the corner of his mouth. Keeping hold of Tia's shoulder keeps his swaying from letting him topple over as they move the soft, round bed and Jack collapses on top of it. "Come...it's better here. I don't think I'll be leaving my bed any longer. Just wasted effort, really. I always end up here again."
(Tia) Tia lets herself be leaned on and maneuvered over to the bed, and shakes her head at his antics. At least he was a happy intoxicant. She sinks down next to him, laying out at his side, one hand resting on his chest. She's glad, now, she wore simple clothes - her standard dresses and corsets would be woefully uncomfortable. She thought about saying something, but nothing comes, so instead she snuggles against Jack, and listens to the now-soft rainfall outside.
(Jack) The attention is nice after shutting himself off for several days. Jack sighs and brings a hand up to rest on top of hers. For as good as it feels, his brows furrow with the nagging feeling that he doesn't deserve this. Not at all. He's a horrible person, not particularly worthy of someone caring for him right now. "Thank you... How...how long have I been in here, eh? I talked with Elizabeth some time back...and I think I spoke with Ran... It's all a bit dodgey, to be honest."
(Tia) "Since the parade," Tia said, her fingers moving idly in a soothing motion. Should she tell him she'd learned of his predicament? Would he assume she knew? It was difficult for someone such as her to miss such violence and emotion when carried out so close to her. "Some time." She fell silent for a moment, and entwined her fingers with Jack's. "Feel your heart hurting in a bad way."
(Jack) The pirate's heart -which he'd tell you was black and dead long before now, as any pirate's should be- but since the day of the parade, Jack's felt as if he's been falling. As if his heart were caving in. He swallows thickly and grips Tia's hand. "Sands... he... he's gone mad. ... Maybe I have as well..."
(Tia) She stayed silent for a moment, and then shifted so that she could speak easily. "Some men have a madness about them always," she said slowly. "I see in him a potential to be a great man... but him not see it. You see in him a reflection of yourself. But maybe you lead astray by this city. If you look close, you see reflections and threads binding all people. You see his face so like your own and you see these things so well... but you not be so similar."
(Jack) "Am I a fool for wanting us to be alike? It's a strange thing, having a twin outside of blood... I rather liked feeling I had a brother." He brings her hand up to touch his lips softly to it before returning it to his chest. Jack's eyes stay fixed on the beams and tar of the ceiling, though his vision is far away. "Perhaps we are more alike as time goes... Perhaps it's only a sign of what I've got ahead of me?" He chuckles because it sounds so stupid out loud, yet it keeps him awake nights.
(Tia) The talk of future madness sends Tia into quiet thought, worries of days past creeping up into her. Jack did have a sort of madness about him, one that was partially his own disposition and partially a disease that had burned through his body and his mind with a viciousness that had terrified Tia to see. The emotions that had coursed through her when she'd realized what it was, then, had been and still remained unsettlingly unique. Cold, small echoes of those feelings came to mock her and keep her awake at night when that man, Sands, spoke of certain things... it was like she was being haunted. To this day she did not know how much Jack recalled of those events.
"I think if you not want it to be so, it not be so," she said, her voice soft. "You lost, here. Your family not with you. Your Pearl, your crew... them, you know what to expect. Pirates do as they do, do as you do. This man be of another world, Jack. You not know him, no matter what you may see in him."
(Jack) It was a dark time for him and much of it is gone now, but there were days that slipped into weeks and hours spent laid out on deck wishing for death. By the end it was all the blur of a nightmare with faint fragments of words in Tia's voice. He's be more grateful if he knew...and he might question his thinking more.
"'e's not like me...not like I am ... but maybe like I was...only far more mad." His arms go up and he watches the jerking movements of them as his gestures give meaning to his words...or are simply a strange show for his splintered mind to focus on. "Or...or...bugger. Maybe the others are closer. ... Maybe Norrington? No... Just a thought, and an ugly one... I... you know, I can't be sure anymore. I've lost what I was like... S'funny..." And he laughs. But it's not too funny at all. His hands fall to his sides again as he finishes what mostly amounts to talking to himself.
(Tia) Tia would tell him, if he asked... but he might never ask. If it came up, if she could discover what struck her as so wrong about those needles, maybe she'd tell him. It's not a subject she embraces. It still struck her as a little embarrassing to think such a thing had affected her so deeply - she held herself as a woman who would belong to no one man, but Jack had struck something deep inside her. There was something about knowing that she could love him, in a way, and he could love her - in a strange way, where neither held the other close, so it really wasn't love at all. But something, something about the way she knew she could trust him with that strange, strange thing, made him too damn important. It made him a liability that she simply wasn't ready to let go of.
She sat up a bit so that she could look at Jack's face, and took his hands in her own. "You always been a man to adapt to survive," she said. "This place pulling you in too many different ways. You want to know all there is, see all there is. But some things you were not meant to see..." she trailed off, not sure how to comfort him. Could he go back, after this? After making so many close ties, and seeing what the wonders of other words and futures held, could he just go back to his life as it was?
(Jack) Living only in the moment, Jack is only even aware of how deeply he cares for Tia when he's in her presence. At a distance, he can easily forget...though he'll often be drawn back. It's a level of emotion that both frightens and intrigues him when he thinks to long on it. Still, though she can hold him in her hand, she never closes that hand around him. She never keeps him, and so he's safe.
Jack's eyes are unfocussed as they meet Tia's, but somewhere beneath the haze there's a sadness and worry he can't drown away; there's guilt...a thing he never allows himself. But somehow, he can't let it go this time. "But I want to... God, it's all so...so... The world, luv, it's so much bigger than I'd ever hoped...so much more.... If there are other men, the same as me in other worlds, then there is no end at all to possibility.... The map has no edges... None at all... Not even death... A fine thing to know... I'd rather not spend all eternity in hell, given the option.." He keeps his gaze on her eyes and offers a fragile smile that's mostly a lie as he tries to pull her down closer. Talking is confusing.
(Tia) Tia gives him a little sigh, but lays back down anyway, head resting on his chest. She wanted to tell him that he can't have both - he can't have his Pearl, he can't have his life back if he wants to run about in this fairyland for eternity. He wasn't meant to be here - none of them were. It was created for something unnatural. But trying to force reality on Jack Sparrow was not an easy task. He took no lessons in life; he would only learn for himself.
"You not be bound for hell," she whispered.
(Jack) Eventually, Jack will learn for himself. He will learn the hard way, as he always does. But in the end, there's no saying if this will help when he's forced back into his own world with the lingering knowledge of how much lays outside his grasp. If he has his way, however, he'll return home as the only eighteenth century pirate wielding a semi-automatic pistol.
He sighs softly and puts his arms around her. He wants so much to believe that she's simply infallible and, therefore, this stands as proof that he hasn't damned himself. However, Jack knows there are facts Tia may be missing. Things that are eating away at him. "I'm not so sure...I've done terrible things... things certainly not deserving of a toned and beautiful harem at my beckon call." For Jack has grown fond of that image as his heaven.
(Tia) "Tell me," he said, moving to cuddle closer, rubbing her hand on his chest. "What the call it... confession." She knew Jack did not like having guilt, did not like letting himself feel it, but it was eating away at him now, she could feel it. He was alone in his pain for what he was doing now, and probably always would be, and she knew he would try and keep it all inside. After a pause, she said, voice even quieter: "I hear you argue with him... when the girl be here."
(Jack) Desperate attempt is made at clinging to the blessed numbness that was his just a few short hours ago, but the opium has left Jack and the alcohol haze is fading as well. Confession to one he can trust may be good. Funny that it should be a priestess of sorts that he'll be confessing to...
"You heard?.... I ... I didn't know what he had planned. Not til it was far too late. ... He wanted to give her over to Jones...wanted 'er as the first of my offer to that devil. Christ... He thought 'e was helping me an' that I'd fancy the idea as well..." He rubs at his eyes, trying to clear the image of that girl left standing alone on the deck of the Dutchman.
"I saw t subduing him. Bound him and left the miserable git in his own flat to free himself or rot... But I couldn' just let her go, Tia... He'd sworn to make it worse for her if I did, and I trust him. He'd do it for revenge on me... So... so I took her to The Flying Dutchman. I left her there... It's better, isn't it? She's alive... .... S'only temporary an' then I'll set things right for her..." He swallows thickly and his hands begin to shake.
(Tia) "You done right by her as best you can," she said, and held his hands tight in hers. "You done as best you can, Jack. These not be things we meant to handle." She could tell he was nearing a breaking point, and her heart ached for him. "This be a bad thing, that be a terrible place to send her. I not lie to you and tell you that you be of no blame. But you be blindsided by this. You can make it right. It not damn you. Still a way out, for you."
(Jack) "Jones won't....he won't kill her, will he? I made my offer clear, I think...that she's only to be a placeholder...a token...til I can get the men for his crew..." His eyes are wide and his worry clear. If she's going to know and be with him in his trouble, then he'll not bother with facade. Jack really hasn't the strength for it right now, as it is. "She....she's a sweet girl. I don' much take to children, but as sprog go...Lucy is a dear little thing... Why, then? Why did that mad bugger choose her to be... whot... balanced? What in God's name does that even bloody mean?!" He reaches both hands up to the empty air above him before bringing both hands down to cover his face. They slide down to only cover his mouth, then slip away to rest on his stomach. "This is only a complication... It's motivation to move faster with plans, that's all.. We just need twenty men of questionable character or poor health to send to Davy and we need them right quick. Then all will be set well. By then, surely, Sheldon will have forgotten the girl..."
(Tia) "He not take such a life," she said, trying to calm him with gentle touches. "He honor him own words." In truth, she only hoped Davy would not harm the girl. If anything, he'd take one look at her and toss her back out into the water and come after Jack to punish him for being such a smart ass. His heart was gone from him, but maybe he would still have his decency. "You not worry about that man. When you get the girl back, I sort it all. I care for her for you. You understand? I not be letting you become trapped here."
(Jack) At her soft and tender touches, Jack finally leaves the privacy of his own introspection and rolls to his side to curl around her. Beads and coins shift and clink softly in his mane of dreads and braids as he shifts closer. "Her mother...I never meant to...." He stops to try and clear all the unnecessary bits of memory and words away. "The girl's mother will be missing her. I couldn't hand them both over.... do you think I should have?"
(Tia) Tia pulled herself closer to him, her head nestled near his neck and shoulder, hands splayed out on his chest. "Maybe," she said quietly. "Then the girl not be so scared now. But... her mother... maybe she be made to work. That be worse. A child's mind is such a thing of wonders, Jack... I can take the bad memories from her. Put good things in." Her voice dropped to a quiet murmur. "It be a hard thing to do, and it be painful for me, but for a child... used like this. She must not be ruined by him."
(Jack) "You could do that, then? Leave her free of all memory...whotever might happen on that cursed ship?" Jack slides an arm over her, finding comfort in the contact. Closing himself off is not something he can tolerate long. He keeps much to himself, but he needs other people. Even if the specifics of 'who' often don't matter. "We shall have her free as soon as is possible. Less work for you. Though it should be a blessing, truly, if you can take all recollection away." He kisses the top of her head as a thought comes to him. "I may see to ridding myself of the moment...and why not? They say Dorian pays well for memories. .... Surely I have many memories I've no need of, in fact.... Wonder what they're worth..."
(Tia) "Don't go to her," Tia whispered, nuzzling against his neck. "She not a pawn store for memories. She offer you everything you could ever dream of, but her prices be too high. You not pick the memories... she take the good from you. All thoughts you hold dear, she take. Even if you put them out of your mind, she find them, and take them. You come back a different man, one without him heart."
(Jack) "Truly?" He pouts a little. It was a short lived plan, but seemed promising for the moment. There are a number of terrible memories that seem to be of no use to him in this place. If giving them up got him closer to free or made his stay a bit improved, he'd gladly be rid of them. "Damn it all. Nothing here is of any real use." Jack snuggles close, escaping his hate of the City with one of th few things within its borders that he likes. "We'll be free of this place soon enough...yes.... no doubt to it." He has every doubt, but he nods confidently against her, hoping to convince himself.
(Tia) "I not want you to be missing parts of yourself," she said. It worried her, this woman who sold and traded memories. Tia could do such a thing herself, but it was a painful, draining process - the art was not of the light. She did not trust someone so versed in such ways. "We be gone soon. Soon. You get your Peal, and I wait for my sign from the outside, and then we go." Tia kissed a spot on his neck, reassuring him.
(Jack) "I am rather attached and fond of most of my parts, really..." Jack gives a feigned look of worry, so much less upsetting than the real thing, and lets it ease into a grin. "Was only a thought, luv..." He can be far more reassuring than is deserved. He'll move on from the idea for now, but it will linger.
The pirate makes a soft, low sound as she kisses his neck. It's as if the pressure being lifted from him is an audible thing. For now, he is suitably convinced that setting his wrongs right again is possible and that freedom will, one day, be his once more. "Soon.... very soon. ... And you shall escape with me on The Pearl. It will be a truly glorious thing. Everyone in this miserable city shall remember it forever."
Rating; PG-13
Characters; Tia and Jack
Summary; Jack is dealing with the after affects of Sands' plan to help him with Jones' deal, and Tia is worried about his state - she helps him work through some of the pain.
Log;
(Tia) As previously noted, Tia Dalma did not like being wet. She didn’t mind playing at the beach - but when doing so, it tended to be warm, and she tended to be naked. Being cold and fully clothed and drenched in freezing water put her in a right foul mood. The gypsy woman had intended to go straight to Jack, hesitation or no, but the small peephole of a window had cracked and a flurry of sleet and snow and turbulent salt water had poured in - and she found herself spending the next hour cursing colorfully in a combination of languages and performing a ritual in the mess hall (she had to kill the ship’s goat, but she felt it died for a worthy cause). It drained her of most of her energy (being angry as hell hadn’t helped), and taken the better part of an hour, but it had seemed to work - she was worried for a time it wouldn’t, because she was so cut away from her beloved gods in this awful place. It didn’t stop the cold, but it curbed the edge, and it shunted the force of the storm.
Finally finished, Tia made her way to the captain’s quarters, knocked on the locked door, and tried not too look as frazzled as she was.
(Jack) How frazzled Tia looks will hardly be a bother to Jack at all. The scent of opium still lingers in the room from much earlier in the day. The surface of Jack's desk is a wreck, as that's where he chose to curl up and sleep it off. Now he's perched amidst that mess with a bottle at his side and is taking a break from typing on the ever-frustrating machine the city had made a necessity in his life, in order to carefully roll a cigarette.
He lifts his head from his task, hunched over the paper and tobacco in his hands with a blanket drawn around his shoulders, and grins wanly at Tia. "'ello, luv..."
(Tia) "Jack..." her eyebrows knitted in concern over the state of his quarters. This was far too many times in such a short span that she'd seen him fall into such distress. This city was no place for the lot of them. He closed the door behind her and moved to him, kneeling down beside him and reaching up to adjust the blanket. "Not so cold in here, now, mm.." she said softly. She doubted he'd notice her efforts until some time later, with his mind where it was. She'd overheard a portion the quarrel with that man Sands, and while she was not privy to their entire deal, what she had heard combined with how Jack was now... things were not good.
(Jack) He grinned a bit wider and swayed a little as Tia adjusted the blanket. "Not so cold at all....no.." He really won't notice her work for a while. It's a shame, but he's far too distracted by his worries and dulled by the poisons he's killing those worries with.
"Come help keep my bed warm?" He seals the cigarette and lifts the glas from a lantern to light it from the flame.
(Tia) "All right," she murmured, and stole a taste of Jack's cigarette before rising, waiting for him to come with her. She wasn't sure if he was capable of moving without assistance.
(Jack) Jack does manage to make his way from the desk, though it looks more like a carefully arranged fall than any normal sort of climbing down. Once on his feet, he tightens the blanket around himself and moves to Tia's side, leaning on her a bit, with the cigarette now hanging loosely from the corner of his mouth. Keeping hold of Tia's shoulder keeps his swaying from letting him topple over as they move the soft, round bed and Jack collapses on top of it. "Come...it's better here. I don't think I'll be leaving my bed any longer. Just wasted effort, really. I always end up here again."
(Tia) Tia lets herself be leaned on and maneuvered over to the bed, and shakes her head at his antics. At least he was a happy intoxicant. She sinks down next to him, laying out at his side, one hand resting on his chest. She's glad, now, she wore simple clothes - her standard dresses and corsets would be woefully uncomfortable. She thought about saying something, but nothing comes, so instead she snuggles against Jack, and listens to the now-soft rainfall outside.
(Jack) The attention is nice after shutting himself off for several days. Jack sighs and brings a hand up to rest on top of hers. For as good as it feels, his brows furrow with the nagging feeling that he doesn't deserve this. Not at all. He's a horrible person, not particularly worthy of someone caring for him right now. "Thank you... How...how long have I been in here, eh? I talked with Elizabeth some time back...and I think I spoke with Ran... It's all a bit dodgey, to be honest."
(Tia) "Since the parade," Tia said, her fingers moving idly in a soothing motion. Should she tell him she'd learned of his predicament? Would he assume she knew? It was difficult for someone such as her to miss such violence and emotion when carried out so close to her. "Some time." She fell silent for a moment, and entwined her fingers with Jack's. "Feel your heart hurting in a bad way."
(Jack) The pirate's heart -which he'd tell you was black and dead long before now, as any pirate's should be- but since the day of the parade, Jack's felt as if he's been falling. As if his heart were caving in. He swallows thickly and grips Tia's hand. "Sands... he... he's gone mad. ... Maybe I have as well..."
(Tia) She stayed silent for a moment, and then shifted so that she could speak easily. "Some men have a madness about them always," she said slowly. "I see in him a potential to be a great man... but him not see it. You see in him a reflection of yourself. But maybe you lead astray by this city. If you look close, you see reflections and threads binding all people. You see his face so like your own and you see these things so well... but you not be so similar."
(Jack) "Am I a fool for wanting us to be alike? It's a strange thing, having a twin outside of blood... I rather liked feeling I had a brother." He brings her hand up to touch his lips softly to it before returning it to his chest. Jack's eyes stay fixed on the beams and tar of the ceiling, though his vision is far away. "Perhaps we are more alike as time goes... Perhaps it's only a sign of what I've got ahead of me?" He chuckles because it sounds so stupid out loud, yet it keeps him awake nights.
(Tia) The talk of future madness sends Tia into quiet thought, worries of days past creeping up into her. Jack did have a sort of madness about him, one that was partially his own disposition and partially a disease that had burned through his body and his mind with a viciousness that had terrified Tia to see. The emotions that had coursed through her when she'd realized what it was, then, had been and still remained unsettlingly unique. Cold, small echoes of those feelings came to mock her and keep her awake at night when that man, Sands, spoke of certain things... it was like she was being haunted. To this day she did not know how much Jack recalled of those events.
"I think if you not want it to be so, it not be so," she said, her voice soft. "You lost, here. Your family not with you. Your Pearl, your crew... them, you know what to expect. Pirates do as they do, do as you do. This man be of another world, Jack. You not know him, no matter what you may see in him."
(Jack) It was a dark time for him and much of it is gone now, but there were days that slipped into weeks and hours spent laid out on deck wishing for death. By the end it was all the blur of a nightmare with faint fragments of words in Tia's voice. He's be more grateful if he knew...and he might question his thinking more.
"'e's not like me...not like I am ... but maybe like I was...only far more mad." His arms go up and he watches the jerking movements of them as his gestures give meaning to his words...or are simply a strange show for his splintered mind to focus on. "Or...or...bugger. Maybe the others are closer. ... Maybe Norrington? No... Just a thought, and an ugly one... I... you know, I can't be sure anymore. I've lost what I was like... S'funny..." And he laughs. But it's not too funny at all. His hands fall to his sides again as he finishes what mostly amounts to talking to himself.
(Tia) Tia would tell him, if he asked... but he might never ask. If it came up, if she could discover what struck her as so wrong about those needles, maybe she'd tell him. It's not a subject she embraces. It still struck her as a little embarrassing to think such a thing had affected her so deeply - she held herself as a woman who would belong to no one man, but Jack had struck something deep inside her. There was something about knowing that she could love him, in a way, and he could love her - in a strange way, where neither held the other close, so it really wasn't love at all. But something, something about the way she knew she could trust him with that strange, strange thing, made him too damn important. It made him a liability that she simply wasn't ready to let go of.
She sat up a bit so that she could look at Jack's face, and took his hands in her own. "You always been a man to adapt to survive," she said. "This place pulling you in too many different ways. You want to know all there is, see all there is. But some things you were not meant to see..." she trailed off, not sure how to comfort him. Could he go back, after this? After making so many close ties, and seeing what the wonders of other words and futures held, could he just go back to his life as it was?
(Jack) Living only in the moment, Jack is only even aware of how deeply he cares for Tia when he's in her presence. At a distance, he can easily forget...though he'll often be drawn back. It's a level of emotion that both frightens and intrigues him when he thinks to long on it. Still, though she can hold him in her hand, she never closes that hand around him. She never keeps him, and so he's safe.
Jack's eyes are unfocussed as they meet Tia's, but somewhere beneath the haze there's a sadness and worry he can't drown away; there's guilt...a thing he never allows himself. But somehow, he can't let it go this time. "But I want to... God, it's all so...so... The world, luv, it's so much bigger than I'd ever hoped...so much more.... If there are other men, the same as me in other worlds, then there is no end at all to possibility.... The map has no edges... None at all... Not even death... A fine thing to know... I'd rather not spend all eternity in hell, given the option.." He keeps his gaze on her eyes and offers a fragile smile that's mostly a lie as he tries to pull her down closer. Talking is confusing.
(Tia) Tia gives him a little sigh, but lays back down anyway, head resting on his chest. She wanted to tell him that he can't have both - he can't have his Pearl, he can't have his life back if he wants to run about in this fairyland for eternity. He wasn't meant to be here - none of them were. It was created for something unnatural. But trying to force reality on Jack Sparrow was not an easy task. He took no lessons in life; he would only learn for himself.
"You not be bound for hell," she whispered.
(Jack) Eventually, Jack will learn for himself. He will learn the hard way, as he always does. But in the end, there's no saying if this will help when he's forced back into his own world with the lingering knowledge of how much lays outside his grasp. If he has his way, however, he'll return home as the only eighteenth century pirate wielding a semi-automatic pistol.
He sighs softly and puts his arms around her. He wants so much to believe that she's simply infallible and, therefore, this stands as proof that he hasn't damned himself. However, Jack knows there are facts Tia may be missing. Things that are eating away at him. "I'm not so sure...I've done terrible things... things certainly not deserving of a toned and beautiful harem at my beckon call." For Jack has grown fond of that image as his heaven.
(Tia) "Tell me," he said, moving to cuddle closer, rubbing her hand on his chest. "What the call it... confession." She knew Jack did not like having guilt, did not like letting himself feel it, but it was eating away at him now, she could feel it. He was alone in his pain for what he was doing now, and probably always would be, and she knew he would try and keep it all inside. After a pause, she said, voice even quieter: "I hear you argue with him... when the girl be here."
(Jack) Desperate attempt is made at clinging to the blessed numbness that was his just a few short hours ago, but the opium has left Jack and the alcohol haze is fading as well. Confession to one he can trust may be good. Funny that it should be a priestess of sorts that he'll be confessing to...
"You heard?.... I ... I didn't know what he had planned. Not til it was far too late. ... He wanted to give her over to Jones...wanted 'er as the first of my offer to that devil. Christ... He thought 'e was helping me an' that I'd fancy the idea as well..." He rubs at his eyes, trying to clear the image of that girl left standing alone on the deck of the Dutchman.
"I saw t subduing him. Bound him and left the miserable git in his own flat to free himself or rot... But I couldn' just let her go, Tia... He'd sworn to make it worse for her if I did, and I trust him. He'd do it for revenge on me... So... so I took her to The Flying Dutchman. I left her there... It's better, isn't it? She's alive... .... S'only temporary an' then I'll set things right for her..." He swallows thickly and his hands begin to shake.
(Tia) "You done right by her as best you can," she said, and held his hands tight in hers. "You done as best you can, Jack. These not be things we meant to handle." She could tell he was nearing a breaking point, and her heart ached for him. "This be a bad thing, that be a terrible place to send her. I not lie to you and tell you that you be of no blame. But you be blindsided by this. You can make it right. It not damn you. Still a way out, for you."
(Jack) "Jones won't....he won't kill her, will he? I made my offer clear, I think...that she's only to be a placeholder...a token...til I can get the men for his crew..." His eyes are wide and his worry clear. If she's going to know and be with him in his trouble, then he'll not bother with facade. Jack really hasn't the strength for it right now, as it is. "She....she's a sweet girl. I don' much take to children, but as sprog go...Lucy is a dear little thing... Why, then? Why did that mad bugger choose her to be... whot... balanced? What in God's name does that even bloody mean?!" He reaches both hands up to the empty air above him before bringing both hands down to cover his face. They slide down to only cover his mouth, then slip away to rest on his stomach. "This is only a complication... It's motivation to move faster with plans, that's all.. We just need twenty men of questionable character or poor health to send to Davy and we need them right quick. Then all will be set well. By then, surely, Sheldon will have forgotten the girl..."
(Tia) "He not take such a life," she said, trying to calm him with gentle touches. "He honor him own words." In truth, she only hoped Davy would not harm the girl. If anything, he'd take one look at her and toss her back out into the water and come after Jack to punish him for being such a smart ass. His heart was gone from him, but maybe he would still have his decency. "You not worry about that man. When you get the girl back, I sort it all. I care for her for you. You understand? I not be letting you become trapped here."
(Jack) At her soft and tender touches, Jack finally leaves the privacy of his own introspection and rolls to his side to curl around her. Beads and coins shift and clink softly in his mane of dreads and braids as he shifts closer. "Her mother...I never meant to...." He stops to try and clear all the unnecessary bits of memory and words away. "The girl's mother will be missing her. I couldn't hand them both over.... do you think I should have?"
(Tia) Tia pulled herself closer to him, her head nestled near his neck and shoulder, hands splayed out on his chest. "Maybe," she said quietly. "Then the girl not be so scared now. But... her mother... maybe she be made to work. That be worse. A child's mind is such a thing of wonders, Jack... I can take the bad memories from her. Put good things in." Her voice dropped to a quiet murmur. "It be a hard thing to do, and it be painful for me, but for a child... used like this. She must not be ruined by him."
(Jack) "You could do that, then? Leave her free of all memory...whotever might happen on that cursed ship?" Jack slides an arm over her, finding comfort in the contact. Closing himself off is not something he can tolerate long. He keeps much to himself, but he needs other people. Even if the specifics of 'who' often don't matter. "We shall have her free as soon as is possible. Less work for you. Though it should be a blessing, truly, if you can take all recollection away." He kisses the top of her head as a thought comes to him. "I may see to ridding myself of the moment...and why not? They say Dorian pays well for memories. .... Surely I have many memories I've no need of, in fact.... Wonder what they're worth..."
(Tia) "Don't go to her," Tia whispered, nuzzling against his neck. "She not a pawn store for memories. She offer you everything you could ever dream of, but her prices be too high. You not pick the memories... she take the good from you. All thoughts you hold dear, she take. Even if you put them out of your mind, she find them, and take them. You come back a different man, one without him heart."
(Jack) "Truly?" He pouts a little. It was a short lived plan, but seemed promising for the moment. There are a number of terrible memories that seem to be of no use to him in this place. If giving them up got him closer to free or made his stay a bit improved, he'd gladly be rid of them. "Damn it all. Nothing here is of any real use." Jack snuggles close, escaping his hate of the City with one of th few things within its borders that he likes. "We'll be free of this place soon enough...yes.... no doubt to it." He has every doubt, but he nods confidently against her, hoping to convince himself.
(Tia) "I not want you to be missing parts of yourself," she said. It worried her, this woman who sold and traded memories. Tia could do such a thing herself, but it was a painful, draining process - the art was not of the light. She did not trust someone so versed in such ways. "We be gone soon. Soon. You get your Peal, and I wait for my sign from the outside, and then we go." Tia kissed a spot on his neck, reassuring him.
(Jack) "I am rather attached and fond of most of my parts, really..." Jack gives a feigned look of worry, so much less upsetting than the real thing, and lets it ease into a grin. "Was only a thought, luv..." He can be far more reassuring than is deserved. He'll move on from the idea for now, but it will linger.
The pirate makes a soft, low sound as she kisses his neck. It's as if the pressure being lifted from him is an audible thing. For now, he is suitably convinced that setting his wrongs right again is possible and that freedom will, one day, be his once more. "Soon.... very soon. ... And you shall escape with me on The Pearl. It will be a truly glorious thing. Everyone in this miserable city shall remember it forever."