Chapter 4: Inverted
Jack moved to try out the corner of the brig as his bed as soon as the key turned in the lock. But somebody was there already, leisurely smelling at the little piece of fabric, a shred of old lace, tied around his left wrist and had his boots up supporting the bulkheads, or vice versa, as relaxed as if he'd been in a chair with his legs up the table.
"Back to this place, ei?" The slice of Jack's personality that represented his overconfidence started and Jack had to admit it wasn't one of his most lovable traits. "Yer where ye want to be! The Pearl!"
"I feel dreadful," Jack moaned, trying a different approach this time and sat down in the other corner, on something squishy. It'll be another Jack for sure, but he didn't care. If that Jack wanted to be slept on, he'll sleep on him if he has to. He'd need no hat to cover his eyes this time either.
"We're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs," the one under him started singing at the top of his voice, if you could call it singing, and somehow having positioned himself in a way that his mouth was right next to one of real Jack's ears.
Well, at least they didn't out and out attack him, like last time. A little noise won't stop his rest, as a child he'd learned to sleep by the sound of canonfire on his father's ship. Although, was that a cockerel in the background, trying to crow at the rhythm of the song?
"Nothing you'll get back Jackie, nothing ye lost," another Jack said on a monotone and desolate tone, kneeling next to him, "no help from Tia Dalma, not yer ship, not yer hat or saneness, not yer chance fe immortality, not yer dignity or Lizzie. Not even yer whores or pies fe ye! Any particular reason ye think they are all gone?"
"Why be it!? Will ye please shut it! Questions fe another day, savvy?" Jack waved him off, his speech getting slurred.
"So it's utter insignificance that ye ended up jest like yer father was told by the witch ye would, after yer seizures as a baby?" Said a similar voice from next to the wall. He couldn't see the face in the shadows, just some of the red ribbons tied in with the dreadlocks peeking out.
"Teague saw me commandeer the flagship that won the battle against the armada. Gotta count fe something," Jack couldn't help himself not to argue when it was about how he was viewed in the eyes of his father. He mostly pretended not to care, but when you had a conversation with yourself, that didn't count.
"I thought ye weren't one fe tradition," the muffled voice argued further, "so why does it matter what yer father thinks?"
"You don't happen to have the key, do you, by any chance?" A proper speaking and clean Jack tried to fit his finger into the lock, "you're not even going to try the out the hinges theory?"
"Hold on," Jack answered, "I'm too sleepy to apply any leverage now." He marveled a little while at the hands of his conversation partner who had dirt under his fingernails, then leaned back, "later, mate."
"Let's call for a vote!" The Jack in the corner raised a finger, "raise or not raise."
"Undone. It doesn't work on the Pearl," mumbled the person under him, "I've seen those grates getting fixed back in after the battle with the Interceptor."
"Look!" Jack pointed up and till the others looked in that direction, he closed his eyes. He wouldn't need much time to fall asleep, he was so exhausted that a mere few seconds would do.
When the other Jacks looked back at him he was lying peacefully, without moving, bar his chest going rhythmically up and down.
"Disappointed?" Asked clean Jack the other ones.
"Not so much," they all closed up on him, then they all shouted, "fire," getting themselves sucked into his head.
Tbc