Fandom: PotC in the way in which I tend to mix it with everything else

Main character/s: James Norrington, Floyd Braecken (OC), Other Canon Characters

Rating: 17ish

Warning/s: While Jamie is my main character and he'll be present in most of the story, I'm also writing some OCs. Please bear with me. I'm one of those readers who will usually click "Next" when I read fic summaries with those two letters in them, but I promise there's nothing sueish about it. And some of you may even already know Charles? -- .net/s/3174719/1/Birthday_Wishes

I'm also trying out a very abstract, disjointed writing style. Perhaps it'll resemble the writing of "Lost" a little. I don't know, I've only seen one episode.

Alternative titles: The Infamous Floyd Braecken; In which I introduce James Lysander Norrington's post-Naval life as a former Admiral turned Rogue, borrow several years and take Liberties with Death, also in which I introduce my Elusive Original Character, Floyd Braecken and hope the make his Acquaintance properly. or "Wacked Out Norrington Fic in Which he's not OOC but has gone through a lot of development since 1723, as to be described in part 1a!"

Now, before I give too much away...

Part 1a


The Caribbean, 1722 - 1733

James Norrington's commission had always been a fickle thing. Promotion came quickly once he had made lieutenant, especially after the main competition, his twin Charles, lost a leg in action and was thus incapacitated. Competence and dedication gained James the trust of the Admiralty, command followed and the respect of his peers with it. Of course his life was an endless array of bells and tides and orders, neither devoid of familiarity and emotion nor too accomodating towards them, but that was what he knew, it was what his father, himself a naval officer of mediocre success, expected of him. Accomplishments demanded sacrifice. Until James made commodore and found a new role model; two events unrelated if not for their close proximity in time to one another.

Jack Sparrow, he had by now admitted to himself, was his desires made flesh. In more ways than the obvious, the pirate - a mapmaker who had amounted to nothing and yet so much - had brought about all the major changes in James' life; brought anger pain love lust humilitarion degradation ruin and freedom. A hurricane had swept up his life back in the '20s and yet he had managed to cheat even death itself, once more thanks to Jack Sparrow, without whos unpredictable tidal waves of events that he brought upon the lives of all those he encountered, the blacksmith Turner would not be a preternatural being with the power to ferry souls to the spirit world - and back if he chose.

It was only natural for her recently wedded husband to wish for someone to care for the lonely Mrs Turner, or so James had imagined at the time, not having the pleasure of first hand experience. He had settled for any experience rather than none, cared for her, upheld her honour and his own, for the most part. Then came Jane, and though Elizabeth was never forgotten, remaining an acquaintance to invite for tea on hot late summer afternoons, some lose seams were patched up.

An admiral at 40, James Norrington had set out for Barbados on one such afternoon, the wind being favourable for the journey. But it was not unheard of in these latitudes for the wind to change quickly and unexpectedly, particularly after the sea had regained Her freedom in one of the greatest sea-actions the world would only hear of from the mouths of storytellers and children. She would wield Her power and so, as the wind had turned less favourable by the start of the First Watch, by midnight the then-aging flagship HMS Dauntless had creaked and groaned pitifully before waves as high as her mizzen.

It was one of those haunting moments of his life, no longer to be counted on the fingers of both hands, where James could feel his hold on control of his life slip through those fingers like the lines he had stooped to help the men haul in the storm.

Perhaps it was his age, getting used to the comforts of married life ashore, inexperience as a worker rather than a commander, or simply the unpredictable elements, that had caused Admiral James Norrington, husband of Jane and father of Emily, secret lover of both Elizabeth Turner and Captain Jack Sparrow - wherever he may be in this dark hour of howling night - to go over the side, a mere toy in gold lace before the wind, dipped deep below a crashing wave, eyes open until they stung with salt, limply staring at the blurred bottom of his ship's hull so far above, illuminated by the glow of the sea and the lightning above. He had been too stunned to struggle for the surface and the sea water in his lungs burned. The first time had been too quick to register. This was a slow, numb descent into darker shades of blue.

It had been the first time he had felt true freedom.