Title: random ficlet collection
Mar. 25th, 2011 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmic_tuesdaysFandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Author: Hannah Orlove
Pairings: Various
Ratings: Various
Notes: Collection of drabbles and short ficlets which don't warrant individual posts.
1.
Jack hardly ever thinks about it.
He is once again captain of the Black Pearl. He’s seen things no one at his home could conceive of. He’s tasted spices, worn silks, lain with men and women.
But on nights when the moon is full and the sea is still, he remembers what he’s lost.
He wonders what his brother and sisters are doing, back in Ireland, if they have pups of their own.
It’s been twenty-five years since he’s left Roan Inish, the first of his family to do so in almost two centuries: a brash young man, not even a proper adult, enticed by the stories he’d heard sailors tell.
For their safety, selkies have to remain a story.
He’s changed his name, severed his ties with his family.
He remembers taking off his skin for the last time, placing it on the bonfire, and leaving his home forever.
2. Ineligible for Remix: Time and Tide (DJ Lethe Mix)
When James awoke, it was still dark outside his window, but the stars were dimming, and the moon had nearly set. He blinked, his pupils shifting size to accommodate to the light.
He got out of bed and looked out at the street below his window. A stray cat ran under his family’s car.
He’d had the dream again.
The man whose name he didn’t know but whose face he had memorized had come to him in sleep, telling him stories of their life together.
James shook his head.
Pirates didn’t exist anymore, so why was he dreaming about one?
3.
Elizabeth woke to a chill breeze blowing in through the bedroom window.
Will was sitting by the window, chin in his hands and arms on the sill. He never slept, not anymore. Elizabeth wished she could change that, but she’d never learned how to break this curse.
She left the bed and silently walked to her husband. He reached out to her before she got to him. That was another part of the curse: being able to see what might or what would be, but not what was.
Where his eyes had been, his beautiful eyes, were only empty sockets.
4.
He takes one step. And then he stops.
Pauses to consider.
Behind him, safety and home, family and comfort.
Ahead of him, the sea and the sky and danger and freedom.
He looks back. The house is still there. He can go back now if he wants.
He looks ahead. The road is still there. He can keep going if he wants.
He looks around. No one knows he’s gone. No one else is awake.
He looks above, to the sky.
A sparrow flies across it, in the direction of the harbor.
And Jack, Jack Sparrow now, continues to walk.
5.
Time began to pass in a way James wasn’t used to. It was slowing down gradually, but only for him – everything else was the same. He was being taken out of time.
For the moment, he was content to drift.
The seawater played with his hair, teased his back and legs. He sighed as a small wave pushed him up.
The coin on the chain around his neck glinted in the sunlight.
He wouldn’t be able to feel for much longer, but didn’t care.
He knew he needed this, needed the time this coin would give him, to find Jack.
6.
No, he had said, no, for how could he tell anyone, least of all Jack, of the nature of his troubling nightly visions.
Will could have confided in Elizabeth as he had when they were both young. But she was gone, taken from the world along with the child that was ripped from her belly.
Jack wouldn’t listen. He was a fine friend, true, a grand friend, but was having more and more trouble seeing Will instead of Bootstrap.
He couldn’t tell Jack that he had had nothing but nightmares since Elizabeth’s death.
And that each nightmare had come true.
7.
After her father’s death they had moved back to England. Seeing the place she had spent so much of her life in occupied by another family was a great blow to her, and he hoped that returning to her childhood home would aid her. He loved her, even though he suspected she did not return his affections. They had created a warm relationship between them, without passion but not happiness. He wished for no harm to come to her, and hoped that that would come true.
She bid her friends good-bye, and once again he took the time to marvel at her ability to make companions in the oddest of places: the carpenter who had made their chairs, the baker’s errand-boy who delivered their loaves, the young daughters of the junior lieutenants.
A simple, humble blacksmith.
Who was given a golden coin he had thought lost to him years ago.
8.
They watched him like hungry dogs, eager for the tiniest bit of food, willing to gorge themselves everything they could take. He was to be their food, the end to their hunger.
They made sure to give him food, but he ate none of it, not when the other captives were offered nothing.
He had drunk the water he was given, though, to ease the dryness fear had left in his throat. Barbossa’s crew had watched him drink with hunger in their eyes, and Will had wondered how much of his blood they would need to quench their unnatural thirst.
Author: Hannah Orlove
Pairings: Various
Ratings: Various
Notes: Collection of drabbles and short ficlets which don't warrant individual posts.
1.
Jack hardly ever thinks about it.
He is once again captain of the Black Pearl. He’s seen things no one at his home could conceive of. He’s tasted spices, worn silks, lain with men and women.
But on nights when the moon is full and the sea is still, he remembers what he’s lost.
He wonders what his brother and sisters are doing, back in Ireland, if they have pups of their own.
It’s been twenty-five years since he’s left Roan Inish, the first of his family to do so in almost two centuries: a brash young man, not even a proper adult, enticed by the stories he’d heard sailors tell.
For their safety, selkies have to remain a story.
He’s changed his name, severed his ties with his family.
He remembers taking off his skin for the last time, placing it on the bonfire, and leaving his home forever.
2. Ineligible for Remix: Time and Tide (DJ Lethe Mix)
When James awoke, it was still dark outside his window, but the stars were dimming, and the moon had nearly set. He blinked, his pupils shifting size to accommodate to the light.
He got out of bed and looked out at the street below his window. A stray cat ran under his family’s car.
He’d had the dream again.
The man whose name he didn’t know but whose face he had memorized had come to him in sleep, telling him stories of their life together.
James shook his head.
Pirates didn’t exist anymore, so why was he dreaming about one?
3.
Elizabeth woke to a chill breeze blowing in through the bedroom window.
Will was sitting by the window, chin in his hands and arms on the sill. He never slept, not anymore. Elizabeth wished she could change that, but she’d never learned how to break this curse.
She left the bed and silently walked to her husband. He reached out to her before she got to him. That was another part of the curse: being able to see what might or what would be, but not what was.
Where his eyes had been, his beautiful eyes, were only empty sockets.
4.
He takes one step. And then he stops.
Pauses to consider.
Behind him, safety and home, family and comfort.
Ahead of him, the sea and the sky and danger and freedom.
He looks back. The house is still there. He can go back now if he wants.
He looks ahead. The road is still there. He can keep going if he wants.
He looks around. No one knows he’s gone. No one else is awake.
He looks above, to the sky.
A sparrow flies across it, in the direction of the harbor.
And Jack, Jack Sparrow now, continues to walk.
5.
Time began to pass in a way James wasn’t used to. It was slowing down gradually, but only for him – everything else was the same. He was being taken out of time.
For the moment, he was content to drift.
The seawater played with his hair, teased his back and legs. He sighed as a small wave pushed him up.
The coin on the chain around his neck glinted in the sunlight.
He wouldn’t be able to feel for much longer, but didn’t care.
He knew he needed this, needed the time this coin would give him, to find Jack.
6.
No, he had said, no, for how could he tell anyone, least of all Jack, of the nature of his troubling nightly visions.
Will could have confided in Elizabeth as he had when they were both young. But she was gone, taken from the world along with the child that was ripped from her belly.
Jack wouldn’t listen. He was a fine friend, true, a grand friend, but was having more and more trouble seeing Will instead of Bootstrap.
He couldn’t tell Jack that he had had nothing but nightmares since Elizabeth’s death.
And that each nightmare had come true.
7.
After her father’s death they had moved back to England. Seeing the place she had spent so much of her life in occupied by another family was a great blow to her, and he hoped that returning to her childhood home would aid her. He loved her, even though he suspected she did not return his affections. They had created a warm relationship between them, without passion but not happiness. He wished for no harm to come to her, and hoped that that would come true.
She bid her friends good-bye, and once again he took the time to marvel at her ability to make companions in the oddest of places: the carpenter who had made their chairs, the baker’s errand-boy who delivered their loaves, the young daughters of the junior lieutenants.
A simple, humble blacksmith.
Who was given a golden coin he had thought lost to him years ago.
8.
They watched him like hungry dogs, eager for the tiniest bit of food, willing to gorge themselves everything they could take. He was to be their food, the end to their hunger.
They made sure to give him food, but he ate none of it, not when the other captives were offered nothing.
He had drunk the water he was given, though, to ease the dryness fear had left in his throat. Barbossa’s crew had watched him drink with hunger in their eyes, and Will had wondered how much of his blood they would need to quench their unnatural thirst.
