Jack was in misery. The kind of misery where breathing alone is a drudgery, and opening ones' eyes to sunlight in the morning is torture. The kind of misery that makes a man prefer oblivion to existing hour after hour. The kind of misery that cannot be fully drowned, even in drink.

Not that he wouldn't try his damnedest.

The bedraggled pirate took another long draw of his rum. The sweet liquid ran down his throat and dribbled down his chin, dripping from his beard, which had seen far too many days without attention. All around him was the raucous noise of night falling on Isla Mugriento. For a moment he allowed himself to feel comfort in the ruckus, so like the bawdy streets of Tortuga. Then he remembered that Tortuga had been where he'd first encountered that treacherous piece of scum of a first mate. Groaning, he took another swig. Traitors. All of them traitors. Mutiny? Against him? Captain Jack Sparrow? How dare they? How dare Barbossa? Why, ALL of them! Even Bootstrap had forsaken him for that bloody treasure that ought to have been HIS!

He slammed the tankard down on the table and stared at it furiously, as if the sheer power of his gaze might cause it to shatter and squelch like the head of that scurvy dog of a first mate ought–

"Canna get'choo anythin' more, mistah Sparrow?"

Jack tore his eyes away from that mutinous tankard of rum to look at the 2 identical men in front of him that after a moment, melded into one individual with a kind smile full of rotting teeth. Jack leaned back slightly and miraculously managed not to imbalance his stool. What was his name? MacCury? Macaroon? "Er, not right now, mate," the drunken pirate and up-until-recently captain replied. The jauntily putrid bartender nodded and turned his attention back to a few other patrons who were roughing up the already dilapidated furniture, as Jack returned his to the tankard before him. He was almost sick of rum by now, having lived off it for days before the rumrunners found him.

Almost.

He downed the rest, just as somewhere, a fiddle picked up a vivacious tune...

---

When Kate entered the Dead Dog Tavern, dusk had already fallen, as had any pretense Isla Mugriento might have made during the day lit hours of being remotely civilized. The two main things on the menu in the Dead Dog; whiskey and sin, with a smell as bad as the name. Tugging her hat down over her visage, Kate shuffled through the establishment, making note of who she knew and who she owed money, taking care to skirt around the latter. She was almost at the actual bar, which war near the back of the common room, when she caught a glimpse of Mary, bouncing on the lap of some muscled sailor with only 1 eye. She turned and smiled at Kate, shooting her a look that stated 'just a moment'. Kate nodded, then continued on her way to the bar. She pulled up a stool and made herself more or less comfortable, and was on the verge of ordering a drink when Mary showed up, blushing and shoving something shiny down into her bodice. "'Allo, Kate. How were the profits today?"

Kate shrugged, maintaining a friendly nonchalance. "Not bad at all. With a bit of luck at my fingers t'night, they'll be doubling. Yerself?"

"Oh, t'night's looking quite promisin'..." she shot a glance back over at the 1-eyed sailor. "Quite promisin'... though there is that one fellow I was tellin' ye about earlier-"

"What fellow?" Kate had been gazing at a table of card a few feet away.

Mary pouted painted lips at Kate's apparent lack of attention. "That miserable fellow none of the lasses can cheer up! I've tried, an' so has Rosita an' Isobel. He's over there, tryin' to drown himself in drink-"

"What makes you think I can cheer him up when all you gorgeous girls can't get his interest?" Kate raised an eyebrow, pushing the brim of her hat up a tad.

"Oh, I dun know, Kate, yer just sunthin' else, an', well, can ye just see if ye can get him to smile?"

"I'm not sleepin' with him."

"Of course not, that's our job... but if you can just..."

Kate sighed and rolled her eyes. "All right. But don't expect nothing to come of it!" Tugging her hat back down, she strolled over to where the scruffy, beaded man Mary had indicated sat...

---