@Luceti

[all7seas]

A chance to go home, and you're considering making me give it up for her?! Have you gone smositively bonkers?!

Additionally: I do not want Cutler Beckett. WE. We, Norry and Lizzie and myself, most assuredly do NOT want a whiff of a Beckett anywhere about the place. Or a Barbossa. Or a Blackbeard. We're well shut of them and I can be Most Villainous and I like it that way.



And no, I won't stop whinging. It's my God-given right, and I shall exercise it repeatedly.

Sookishly Yours

Sparrow

Comments

[herotypical]

...So not what I was referencing.

[ but she gives in to this particular argument with a sigh. ] It's not even about trust.

[all7seas]

Could've fooled me.

What IS it about, then?

[herotypical]

God, Jack...it's -- fear, I guess. Nerves. Worry. Anxiety. Gut-wrenching and frankly very appetite-destroying uncertainty. [ a sigh. ] A-and love.

[all7seas]

And I haven't even noticed. Or possibly I have; if you're not eating.....

I've noticed.

[herotypical]

Again, I say, you were busy being sick.

[ which conveniently distracted from an uncharacteristic lack of intimacy while she tried to hash this solitarily-shouldered-burden out. ] And then the announcement...it's not like I had to try particularly hard not to say anything.

[all7seas]

Ah. And what, exactly, are you sparing me by doing this?

[herotypical]

What are you feeling -- right now?

That's the answer.

[ that and herself. she's sparing herself. or rather -- sparing herself from having to cope aloud. ]

[all7seas]

What I'm feeling right now is what I'd be feeling now. Here.

[So, yeah. Betrayed, a bit.]

[herotypical]

Look. The last time anything even remotely resembling the idea of a child was involved in one of our conversations? I think I broke you. At least a little. And maybe it was for a good cause, but...

[ but it's no small wonder that she's walking on eggshells, now. no matter how falsely her alarm bells rang. ]

[all7seas]

Broke me? You? Breaking Captain Jack Sparrow? Never! You think I'm some sort of fragile breakable thing that could be broken and smashed?!

[herotypical]

Uhm, in this instance?

Yah-huh.

[all7seas]

Well you're wrong! That's not at all true! I am not even close to being broken!

[herotypical]

I'm not saying you didn't unbreak but...that night? [ her birthday. ] You can't tell me there wasn't enough crackage to dissuade any future children-based conversations.

I don't wanna go there again.

[all7seas]

But none of that was your fault! I made the wrong choice, going to Paprika. That's all.

[herotypical]

...And I could've just let sleeping dreams lie. [ her shoulders lift. not quite a shrug. ] Maybe, then. Maybe we'll talk about it -- eventually. Let me bask in my relief for a little while first.

[all7seas]

But I'm better, now. [He'd worked through all of that. Things almost felt normal, now.]




Right. You bask, then. You deserve some basking.

[herotypical]

Could you promise me -- here and now -- that you'd stay better if I told you?

[ she'll skip over any conversation about who deserves what. ]

[all7seas]

A pirate's promise? What a dangerous, unwieldy thing. I have it on good authority that I'm not to be driven mad over that issue any longer.

[herotypical]

I'd take your word over plenty of others'. Any day. Pirate or not.

[ she uncrosses her arms. ] There's something else I should be letting you know about, apparently.

[all7seas]

[Oh, God. Those kinds of words are usually heralds of badness. He answers very cautiously:]


....Oh?

[herotypical]

I'm being pressured into directing your attention right over here. Don't shoot the messenger.

[ jack had given her his word on something else recently, too. she was far more skeptical of that, though. ]

[all7seas]

[That thread...

Jack just gives a tiny, pained grunt. Oh.]

[herotypical]

You gotta at least give kudos where kudos are due. It's kinda ingenious.

[all7seas]

Dunno. Maybe she'll side with myself. Maybe I'll turn that bender pirate.

[herotypical]

Please. You have met her, right?

[ ... ] She reminds me of my girls. Back at the castle. [ and sometimes -- just a teensy bit? katara reminds buffy of herself. ]