Disclaimer: They're not mine but if they were wouldn't it be a little like
prostitution? Then again, ignore that thought. ; p
AN: Sorry it took so long to update, I've been deeply involved in school and after that, jumping across oceans and seeing other countries. But now onward and upward!
Chapter Five Mutinous Scalawags!
Jack leaned against the wall of the dank dirty part of the ship that was currently the brig. Fortunately it wasn't quite as bad as it could be, for some reason or other – he hadn't taken the opportunity to ask, or even speak to, Mikella yet – the Corazon del Mar didn't have a customary brig. So currently he and Mikella were occupying a very dark, very dirty, very wet room in a little used part of the boat.
"Those mutinous scalawags!" Mikella cried out of no where "Slobbering, mangy, bloody, faithless, curs!" After this exclamation she punched the wall so hard that Jack half expected there to be a fresh hole. As it were, there were already a fair amount of holes in the wall of this room all between the size of pinpricks and corks. It was one of these holes that caused Jack to lean against the wall. He was looking out the hole to the outside of the boat watching the water and the horizon. Looking at the water seemed to help him conjure up plans most times, so that's what he was doing now.
As for how they had gotten in this mess, it was a whirlwind of confusion all within the span of about ten minutes. Guin, Mikella's first mate had burst into the room shortly after Mikella had plopped into his lap and placed a hand over his mouth. Guin in a fury had announced his intentions to mutiny and had angrily and jealously thrown the two of them in the only room on the ship that serviced as a brig.
Mikella started to mutter obscenities as she had been doing off and on for the past two hours. It had been a cycle of verbal anger, followed by physical outrage - luckily not taken out on meself, Jack thought – and then resigned silence followed by suppressed obscenities and then around again. This was the 47th time she had repeated the cycle. Jack had counted for lack of anything better to do. As the obscenities trailed off and the cycle started for the 48th time, Jack turned to look at her, giving up his planning for the moment.
"I was sure I had guarded against mutiny in every way possible! How did this happen!?! I swore I had that man wrapped around my little finger!" She exclaimed. Jack reflected that this time it sounded a little more dejected and resigned. Jack recognized her tone; she was getting to the point where she was beginning to think it was her own fault. It was a sorry state, and one that Jack knew far too well. Mikella was losing not only a beautiful ship, but a large wealth, a developed career that she had put much painstaking work into, and a society of people whom she had believed to be her loyal friends and crew. It was a very depressing state of mind to enter into.
"'s not yer fault luv, ye can't do much to stop a mutiny." Jack said, trying to prevent her from drifting too far into that state of mind. Even if she was a sort of sworn enemy, no one deserved to be mutinied and betrayed.
"How would you know Sparrow? You don't know me or my crew." She retorted. Jack noticed that the cockney piratical accent was gone from her voice and she was speaking English as well as any lord or lady.
"Yer not th' only one in this room who's been mutinied lass." Jack replied in a mild tone.
"Well deserved then I should think." She said in a haughty and disapproving tone.
Jack balked, he was offended. What had he ever done to her, except kill her father of course, but that was what pirates did, killed other pirates. Why should he be any different then any other pirate she had ever met?
"What would make anyone deserve mutiny lass?" he asked.
"How about being a mutineer in the first place?" She asked rhetorically with a bitterness that seemed to seep out of her and fill the tiny room.
Jack looked at her in surprise, "What ever gave ye that impression luv?"
"Well, let's see. My own father and the rest of his crew told me the whole story from the time I was five years old of how you took over his boat after sailing to the Isla del Muerta and how you sunk his best friend to the bottom of the sea by tying his bootstraps to a cannon and how you left him on an island with a pistol with one shot so he could kill himself. That, and I watched you kill my father from before my very eyes."
Jack just stared at her. Barbossa had completely stolen his story and pretended his innocence to a little girl of... -she looked about 19 or 20 now and it had been fifteen years ago- to a little girl of four or five years old. Normally Jack would be full of outrage and anger hearing his own story had been twisted to play up Barbossa's innocence, but at the moment all he could feel was shock. Intense, overbearing, all-encompassing shock.
"Someone's been lyin' to ye lass." Jack said in a small voice. It was all he could muster up after such an epiphany.
"Why should I believe that from you?" She asked with a sidelong look.
"Well it's obvious they were lyin' to ye about some things, they just mutinied for Christ's sake!" Jack said, the anger at the huge slander starting to rise into him.
"It doesn't mean you're any better you filthy pirate!!" She retorted, her anger coming back to join him. "I knew my father better than any of his crew did. I spent every second of my life with him, from the moment I was born until the moment you killed him. My father was not a mutineer." She said, all of her emotions about the mutiny and the death of her father tumbling into her voice. Unfortunately for Mikella, she seemed to wear her heart on her sleeve.
Jack started to soften as he realized how close Mikella had been to her father. What she had just said suggested that she had been on his ship for four years before the mutiny. Jack wondered how she had slipped by, unnoticed for so long, then again, a lot had slipped by him at that time. After all he was mutinied. Jack considered her last statement. It reminded him of a certain whelp he knew.
"Ye should meet a friend of mine lass, get along like peas in a pod ye would. As far as the mutiny goes, I see there's no point in arguing with ye, but yer father was the one who mutinied me. In case ye wanted the truth."
Mikella considered him for a moment. "If it's true, prove it to me."
Jack looked at her defiantly. "How do ye think he got off that island?"
"I never asked." She said. "I always just assumed someone had seen him and picked him up."
"Who would have passed that island? Why would it have been useful for dropping people unless it was deserted and off the trade routes? – because it was."
"I... Some people said that he roped two sea turtles together." She said feebly, she knew her story was falling apart.
Jack resisted the urge of a bitter laugh and countered with a question that had once been posed to him.
"What did he use for rope?" He asked. He stared Mikella sternly in the eyes. She started to look dejected and depressed as she realized what he was saying was true. "There was only one way off that island," Jack continued. "And there are only two people today that know it. One is me, the other one was definitely not your father." He said with a sense of finality that dared her to say it was anything other than absolute truth.
Mikella stared hopelessly at Jack for a few minutes; her head drooped a bit as she drew her knees up to her chest and encircled them with her arms. "My father was a mutineer." She muttered. "My best friend is a mutineer. I've lost my ship and everything I cared for and now I'm nothing, sitting in my own brig with my arch enemy, who in reality, I owe everything that my father stole from me." Jack could hear the dejected wetness seep into her voice with every word and sure enough as she continued, her eyes filled with tears that slowly dripped to the ground.
"Lass, I..." He started to say in reparation. A pirate as he was, he just didn't like to see women cry. But she just turned violently away from him and muttered a bitter phrase below her breath.
"Mutinous scalawags...' She sobbed.
AN: Sorry it took so long to update, I've been deeply involved in school and after that, jumping across oceans and seeing other countries. But now onward and upward!
Chapter Five Mutinous Scalawags!
Jack leaned against the wall of the dank dirty part of the ship that was currently the brig. Fortunately it wasn't quite as bad as it could be, for some reason or other – he hadn't taken the opportunity to ask, or even speak to, Mikella yet – the Corazon del Mar didn't have a customary brig. So currently he and Mikella were occupying a very dark, very dirty, very wet room in a little used part of the boat.
"Those mutinous scalawags!" Mikella cried out of no where "Slobbering, mangy, bloody, faithless, curs!" After this exclamation she punched the wall so hard that Jack half expected there to be a fresh hole. As it were, there were already a fair amount of holes in the wall of this room all between the size of pinpricks and corks. It was one of these holes that caused Jack to lean against the wall. He was looking out the hole to the outside of the boat watching the water and the horizon. Looking at the water seemed to help him conjure up plans most times, so that's what he was doing now.
As for how they had gotten in this mess, it was a whirlwind of confusion all within the span of about ten minutes. Guin, Mikella's first mate had burst into the room shortly after Mikella had plopped into his lap and placed a hand over his mouth. Guin in a fury had announced his intentions to mutiny and had angrily and jealously thrown the two of them in the only room on the ship that serviced as a brig.
Mikella started to mutter obscenities as she had been doing off and on for the past two hours. It had been a cycle of verbal anger, followed by physical outrage - luckily not taken out on meself, Jack thought – and then resigned silence followed by suppressed obscenities and then around again. This was the 47th time she had repeated the cycle. Jack had counted for lack of anything better to do. As the obscenities trailed off and the cycle started for the 48th time, Jack turned to look at her, giving up his planning for the moment.
"I was sure I had guarded against mutiny in every way possible! How did this happen!?! I swore I had that man wrapped around my little finger!" She exclaimed. Jack reflected that this time it sounded a little more dejected and resigned. Jack recognized her tone; she was getting to the point where she was beginning to think it was her own fault. It was a sorry state, and one that Jack knew far too well. Mikella was losing not only a beautiful ship, but a large wealth, a developed career that she had put much painstaking work into, and a society of people whom she had believed to be her loyal friends and crew. It was a very depressing state of mind to enter into.
"'s not yer fault luv, ye can't do much to stop a mutiny." Jack said, trying to prevent her from drifting too far into that state of mind. Even if she was a sort of sworn enemy, no one deserved to be mutinied and betrayed.
"How would you know Sparrow? You don't know me or my crew." She retorted. Jack noticed that the cockney piratical accent was gone from her voice and she was speaking English as well as any lord or lady.
"Yer not th' only one in this room who's been mutinied lass." Jack replied in a mild tone.
"Well deserved then I should think." She said in a haughty and disapproving tone.
Jack balked, he was offended. What had he ever done to her, except kill her father of course, but that was what pirates did, killed other pirates. Why should he be any different then any other pirate she had ever met?
"What would make anyone deserve mutiny lass?" he asked.
"How about being a mutineer in the first place?" She asked rhetorically with a bitterness that seemed to seep out of her and fill the tiny room.
Jack looked at her in surprise, "What ever gave ye that impression luv?"
"Well, let's see. My own father and the rest of his crew told me the whole story from the time I was five years old of how you took over his boat after sailing to the Isla del Muerta and how you sunk his best friend to the bottom of the sea by tying his bootstraps to a cannon and how you left him on an island with a pistol with one shot so he could kill himself. That, and I watched you kill my father from before my very eyes."
Jack just stared at her. Barbossa had completely stolen his story and pretended his innocence to a little girl of... -she looked about 19 or 20 now and it had been fifteen years ago- to a little girl of four or five years old. Normally Jack would be full of outrage and anger hearing his own story had been twisted to play up Barbossa's innocence, but at the moment all he could feel was shock. Intense, overbearing, all-encompassing shock.
"Someone's been lyin' to ye lass." Jack said in a small voice. It was all he could muster up after such an epiphany.
"Why should I believe that from you?" She asked with a sidelong look.
"Well it's obvious they were lyin' to ye about some things, they just mutinied for Christ's sake!" Jack said, the anger at the huge slander starting to rise into him.
"It doesn't mean you're any better you filthy pirate!!" She retorted, her anger coming back to join him. "I knew my father better than any of his crew did. I spent every second of my life with him, from the moment I was born until the moment you killed him. My father was not a mutineer." She said, all of her emotions about the mutiny and the death of her father tumbling into her voice. Unfortunately for Mikella, she seemed to wear her heart on her sleeve.
Jack started to soften as he realized how close Mikella had been to her father. What she had just said suggested that she had been on his ship for four years before the mutiny. Jack wondered how she had slipped by, unnoticed for so long, then again, a lot had slipped by him at that time. After all he was mutinied. Jack considered her last statement. It reminded him of a certain whelp he knew.
"Ye should meet a friend of mine lass, get along like peas in a pod ye would. As far as the mutiny goes, I see there's no point in arguing with ye, but yer father was the one who mutinied me. In case ye wanted the truth."
Mikella considered him for a moment. "If it's true, prove it to me."
Jack looked at her defiantly. "How do ye think he got off that island?"
"I never asked." She said. "I always just assumed someone had seen him and picked him up."
"Who would have passed that island? Why would it have been useful for dropping people unless it was deserted and off the trade routes? – because it was."
"I... Some people said that he roped two sea turtles together." She said feebly, she knew her story was falling apart.
Jack resisted the urge of a bitter laugh and countered with a question that had once been posed to him.
"What did he use for rope?" He asked. He stared Mikella sternly in the eyes. She started to look dejected and depressed as she realized what he was saying was true. "There was only one way off that island," Jack continued. "And there are only two people today that know it. One is me, the other one was definitely not your father." He said with a sense of finality that dared her to say it was anything other than absolute truth.
Mikella stared hopelessly at Jack for a few minutes; her head drooped a bit as she drew her knees up to her chest and encircled them with her arms. "My father was a mutineer." She muttered. "My best friend is a mutineer. I've lost my ship and everything I cared for and now I'm nothing, sitting in my own brig with my arch enemy, who in reality, I owe everything that my father stole from me." Jack could hear the dejected wetness seep into her voice with every word and sure enough as she continued, her eyes filled with tears that slowly dripped to the ground.
"Lass, I..." He started to say in reparation. A pirate as he was, he just didn't like to see women cry. But she just turned violently away from him and muttered a bitter phrase below her breath.
"Mutinous scalawags...' She sobbed.