For old time's sake...
Well, consider this a test of how many people still watch this community. It's been a while since At World's End came and went, but with rumors of PotC 4 a-grinding in the mill, it might be time to bring this baby back.
What d'you say, guys?
TITLE: An_Unusual_Companionship
CULPRIT: PiedPiper94
SUMMARY: Emmaline is a 15 year old girl raised by Captain Jack Sparrow, but does he care for her enough to help her with her previous family problems?
BEST LINE: “Oi, wher’ dya’ git this?” Jack examined the smiling baby, sort of confused. Even he couldn’t figure out what the hell he’d just said.
AND:
Dawn broke in the early morning of a cool June morning.
THE VERDICT
NAME: Emmaline Hartford
HAIR: Long, wavy brown
EYES: O shiny green eyes, how I have missed thee.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: “Emmaline was a beautiful 15 year old lass with long, wavy brown hair, thin figure, emerald green eyes and a smile that would make even the roughest pirates melt.”
OH SO SPESHUL POSSESSIONS:
In his absence, the midwife sneaked into the room with a piece of rolled up parchment and a locket. With tears in her eyes, she placed the locket around the baby’s neck and stuck the parchment deep into the baby’s dirty, torn blanket.
OBNOXIOUS AND/OR IMPLAUSIBLE ORIGIN: Maria Hartford and Captain Hartford.
OBNOXIOUS AND/OR IMPLAUSIBLE CANON CONNECTIONS/AFFILIATIONS: Is Jack’s ward/protégée. Thank God that at 15 she’s too young to be his One True love.
...Not that that’s stopped some Suethors…
SOOPER SPESHUL ABILITIES: The ability to melt pirates with her smile. Also, she can swordfight as well as Jack.
TRAGIC PAST:
“Sending her on her first voyage by herself,” The captain worked hurriedly to gather the blankets into the barrel.
“Why is this so? Why not keep her?” The midwife was sobbing uncontrollably. Captain Hartford whipped around angrily.
“In the Harford family, all the savings and money goes to the first child born, and my riches will NOT go to a baby girl, girls are useless and only care about pretty dresses and fancy balls. No, a boy needs to carry on this family tradition, keep the family name, use the money for a grand ship of his own, weapons.. shall I go on?”
THE "PLOT": Pharaoh Captain Hartford hates girls and thinks that they are useless and he should only have sons. He orders the execution of baby Moses Sue. But the midwife hides the special child in a basket barrel and Moses Emmaline is dropped into the river ocean. Sue floats merrily along until she is found by Pharaoh’s daughter Jack Sparrow, who raises the child as his own.
She has much Adopted!Sue angst, which leads me to share something with you guys. One of my uncles is adopted. He has never met or known his birth parents. Guess what? Not only has he never shown any interest in meeting them…he is happily married, with kids, a nice house, a good job, and zero phony angst! The way these Suethors write, you’d think that all adopted kids undergo severe identity crises.
We open again on Adolescent!Sue, who takes pleasure in hitting Giselle on the head with rocks. She spends her nights alone in the *chuckle* crow's nest, pals around with someone called Charlie, annoys Jack, gets in the way of the crew...yep, pretty much standard issue Sue here. Charlie will most likely be the Sue's One True Love, but he's so dreadfully dull that I wish the Overprotective!Jack of this story would catch him sexing up Sue and then off him. Sadly, all of the other pirates are very tolerant of Sue's antics, and her only enemy aboard the Pearl is Giselle. Because of course, Giselle is a whore, and women who sleep with men for money are TEH EBIL, while men who murder and pillage are TEH AWESOME!!1!!
Yeah, Sue morality. I don't get it, either.
NOTES: This Moses wannabe needs to read the Ten PotC Anti-Sue Commandments.
There is also a delicious three-sentence POV change (announced in caps, of course!):
CHARLIE’S P.O.V
I watched Emmaline run to Jack’s room and go in. I didn’t want to wait until later to tell her.
“I love you, Emmaline Hartford,” the words barely escaped my mouth, now when would I be able to tell her?
An Unusual Companionship Chapter 5
EMMALINE’S P.O.V.
Worst. POV change. Ever.
But the funniest thing by far is the Suethor’s concept of a crow’s nest. She is apparently under the impression that:
a) A crow’s nest is a refuge from the rest of the ship.
b) It is accessible by ladder.
c) It is a good place to sleep.
d) It is stocked with a ready supply of pillows and blankets.
e) Its “floor” is steady enough to house a rock collection without all of the rocks falling off due to the Pearl’s movement.
As a matter of fact, the crow’s nest was the most uncomfortable place on the entire ship, prone to the most movement (therefore the most seasickness-inducing), as well as having the most exposure to the elements. Being sent to the crow’s nest was a punishment. Although I guess since Mary Sue is the crow’s nest’s most frequent visitor, there is some poetic justice to be had.
Jack takes in a little waif.
An Unusual Companionship Chpt 1- At the Beginning
The midwife immediately took the baby and walked out of the cabin room to let the mother rest. The smell of the warm, summer night was perfect. She met the captain standing outside of his door, excited to tell him the news.
“Congratulations sir, it’s a girl!” the midwife exclaimed to Henry Hartford, captain of the Lady Lavendar. This however, was not particularly good news to the Captain, for he had no desire to raise a daughter at all. Every single father in the Caribbean throws his only daughter to the wolves! You know...like Governor Swann did with Elizabeth.
“Midwife, you do not tell anyone of this, tell people the baby died, including my wife,” The midwife looked at Captain Hartford with suspicion. She just saw a healthy girl being born; is the wife really that stupid?
“But why ever not, sir?”
“Do not ask questions, if you tell anyone of this, your life is on the line,”
With that, the midwife handed the baby girl over to Captain Hartford, then turned and walked away to tell people of the unfortunate “death”. Captain Harold looked at the smiling, green-eyed baby girl with disgust. Immediately, he walked to the captain’s quarters of his ship with the baby girl. He set her on the bed and looked for a small empty barrel and some blankets. If he wants to kill her, why bother keeping her warm? He found some old cloths, but no barrel. So he left his room to find one.
In his absence, the midwife sneaked into the room with a piece of rolled up parchment and a locket. No Suefic is complete without the requisite sparklies. With tears in her eyes, she placed the locket around the baby’s neck and stuck the parchment deep into the baby’s dirty, torn blanket. Without a word, the midwife left the room.
“What on earth are you doing?” Captain Hartford caught the midwife leaving his room.
“Sir, just making sure , uh, well, um..” she stuttered until the Captain interrupted her.
“Just help me!” Captain Hartford took the midwife by the wrist and pulled her back into the room.
“Sir, what do you plan on doing!?” The midwife was near hysterics and horrid thoughts racing through her mind.
“Sending her on her first voyage by herself,” The captain worked hurriedly to gather the blankets into the barrel.
“Why is this so? Why not keep her?” The midwife was sobbing uncontrollably. Captain Hartford whipped around angrily.
“In the Harford family, all the savings and money goes to the first child born, for this story gleefully tramples on the laws of primogeniture! and my riches will NOT go to a baby girl, girls are useless and only care about pretty dresses and fancy balls. Thanks for not being a stereotype, big guy. No, a boy needs to carry on this family tradition, keep the family name, use the money for a grand ship of his own, weapons.. shall I go on?”
Captain Harford placed his own baby girl into the barrel and told the midwife to make sure everyone was asleep and to distract anyone who was awake. The midwife, with no hope of stopping him, left the room and up the steps.
Meanwhile, Captain Harford took the barrel up the second set of steps to the back of the ship. Without thinking, without care, he hurled the barrel into the sea. He watched the barrel float into the distance until it was completely out of view, and he smiled. A wicked smile, he knew she would die, he knew he would never have to worry about her again. And he did not care one bit. So...again, why the blankets?
The midwife peeked around the corner to see the Captain giggle a bit to himself Personally, I think he's a bit touched in the head., and she felt sick to her stomach.
“As long as someone finds the barrel, as long as someone reads the parchment, everything will be okay, I hope,” the midwife whispered to herself.
As daybreak came, so did the ship the Black Pearl. The Black Pearl came? Mr. Gibbs took an early morning stroll on the grand deck. As he stepped by the helm, he noticed a small floating object in the water. He stepped over to the rail and squinted his eyes. As opposed to squinting his ears.
“What in the devil?” He noticed the ship coming awfully close to the barrel, and so Mr. Gibbs climbed down the side of the ship Sans rope, while the ship was moving? I don't think so., hoping maybe there would be some rum awaiting him. Once he got a glimpse of what was inside of the barrel, he gasped. Mr. Gibbs had never had much experience with babies before. He brought the barrel aboard the ship, but would not pick the baby up, fearing he would do something wrong. The baby smiled up at him with shiny green eyes. And that bit o' shine matters to us...why?
Jack makes a baby at home on the Black Pearl
Instead of what Mr. Gibbs thought Jack would do, which was tell Mr. Gibbs to get rid of it, Mr. Gibbs thinks Jack would kill a baby?! Jack gently took the baby from Mr. Gibbs hands and looked into the baby’s beautiful green eyes. Jack had a sort of connection to the baby. She attached herself to him like a plantar wart. Then Jack became Jack again. The Sue Spell was broken!
“Oi, wher’ dya’ git this?” ...or not. Jack examined the smiling baby, sort of confused.
“Wel sir, she was floatin’ in that barrel there,” Mr. Gibbs pointed to the soaking wet barrel.
“Well, is it a girl or boy?”
“Well sir, I haven’ checked exactly,” Mr. Gibbs followed Jack back into the captain’s quarters and watched Jack place the baby on the bed. Jack unraveled the blankets containing the baby. The captain was stocking up on spare yarn.
“Well, its’a girl,” Jack was about to cover the cold baby up again when he saw the parchment and locket around the baby. He first unrolled the parchment and read it aloud:
To whom it may concern:
This baby girl’s name is Emmaline Hartford, heiress to a very large fortune. Her father does not want anyone to know about her because he does not want his fortune to go to a daughter, but know she is the one and only heiress to the fortune. Please take care of her or find her a good home. If it helps, as long as she remains Hartford, then people will someday know she is the true heiress.
Sincerely, Annamarie Jones (midwife to Emmaline’s mother Maria) July 25 I am impressed by this midwife’s literacy and her ability to get her hands on pen, ink, and paper without the captain seeing her.
Jack was intrigued by the letter.
“A fortune, that could make for good ransom, what do you think Mr. Gibbs?”
“Souns’ pretty reasonable ta me,” If Emmaline would someday be worth something, then it seemed worth it to keep her.
“Good, you can raise her yerself then!” Jack wrapped Emmaline back up and handed her to Mr. Gibbs.
Mr. Gibbs agreed, *laughs and weeps at the same time* but knew Jack already had a liking for Emmaline. Then Jack took the locket from around Emmaline’s neck to examine it. On the back was etched Maria Hartford and on the inside was a picture of a young woman with long hair and tiny eyes.
In the other picture slot was a picture of an intimidating man. He had a beard and stern, heartless eyes. Captain Hartford didn’t think to get rid of the locket’s pictures, which could tie him to the murder of a child?
Redundancy ho!
Dawn broke in the early morning of a cool June morning. I'm sure it did. Emmaline woke with a start to the bright sun shining on her soft face. Emmaline had yet again spent another night at the very top of the crow’s nest. This Sue has a death wish. Hooray! Ever since she was old enough to climb, she would take her pillow There’s never a shortage of pillows on a pirate ship! to the top of the crow’s nest and sleep away her summer nights there. The crow’s nest was the only place she could go and be by herself, being the only girl on a ship of all men could be stressful. Even the wenches that Jack brought aboard didn’t comfort the fact that Emmaline grew up without a real mother to guide her, instead Emmaline taught herself when the ship would dock at a nice port.
Emmaline would intently watch the women in pretty dresses walk by her; it never bothered her until she was about 14. Then looking at herself in a mirror and seeing the black pants, black boots, tattered men’s shirt and torn coat began to bother her. Seeing girls her age being accompanied by attractive men to gatherings even bothered her.
The years seemed to fly by, and now Emmaline was a beautiful 15 year old lass with long, wavy brown hair, thin figure, emerald green eyes and a smile that would make even the roughest pirates melt. Life couldn’t be better for Emmaline. She was a free person, How? educated by Will and Elizabeth Turner, How? learned to sword fight as well as Jack, How? had all the love of her pirate family aboard The Black Pearl, HOW?anyone would think she had a perfect life. WHY?
Yet, secretly Emmaline wished she knew her real parents, but never told anyone, not even Jack.
From her early years, Emmaline mostly remembers Jack raising her to be the person she is today. At the same time though, Jack never really showed his softer side to her. In other words, even though Emmaline was basically his own daughter, he never hugged her or told her he loved her. This sort of led to the reason why Emmaline wanted to meet her real parents. She could never understand why they hadn’t kept her.
“Lass, you still up there? Come down to eat before ya’ pass out!” Mr. Gibbs called from the deck.
“Can do, Mr. Gibbs!” Emmaline flew the rope over the side of the crow’s nest that laid rolled up and ready to go. Half-collapsible crow’s nest FTW! Emmaline swung herself down to the deck and to the small kitchen located down the steps to where the crew (including her) would sleep. Aaaand the author flunks basic ship anatomy. The kitchen was a small, but had had a long table to fit about half the crew on until the laws of physics forbade its existence, the rest stood up. Emmaline always had a seat at one end of the table, and she greatly appreciated it.
“Where be Jack this mornin’?” Emmaline asked
“He’s in ‘is room with Gisele,” Mr. Gibbs answered with his mouth stuffed with bread.
“It’s a damn good thing we’re arriving at Port Royal tomorrow, I can’t stand her,” Emmaline often got annoyed with the wenches Jack brought aboard, she never saw Jack when he had wenches with him for obvious reasons.
Breakfast ended and Emmaline went back up to get some fresh air, the breeze in her hair was the best feeling in the world to Emmaline, it was so freeing. The best part was that summer was finally here.
All of a sudden, Emmaline heard a loud crash followed by yelling, followed by Gisele storming out of Jack’s quarters. Emmaline rushed over to the ladder of the crow’s nest and climbed up. ”Whaaaaaa!” screamed the Sue as the unlikely ladder wobbled against the rigging, then took her along for its 60-foot drop to the deck below. Emmaline particularly hated Gisele because one time Gisele smacked Emmaline across the face and gave her a nasty cut. Giselle spent her spare time sharpening the palms of her hands. She never told Jack though, and just blamed it on herself being clumsy when practicing sword fighting. A slap mark looks just like a sword wound! So Emmaline had a pile of small rocks assembled on the floor of the crow’s nest. Were they stuck there with Super Glue, or did they pelt crewmembers at random as the ship rocked back and forth?
As expected, Gisele made her over to the rail and began to cry. Most people would think of Emmaline mean to throw rocks at Gisele when she’s already crying, but then again, the whole crew would like to do it but didn’t have the guts to because they would get in trouble. Emmaline on the other hand, would not get in trouble. So Emmaline chucked the biggest rock as hard as she could and hit Gisele in the back of the head.
“OUCHHHH!” Gisele immediately turned and looked up at a smirking Emmaline.
“You little WENCH!” A scathing insult indeed. Gisele screamed some more nasty words and Emmaline, but of that didn’t bother Emmaline in the least. Jack came out of his room after hearing the little conversation Emmaline and Gisele were having.
“LADIES! What is the problem now?” Jack looked impatient, and aggravated, and all around not in a good mood.
“That vile girl up there threw a rock at my face,” By now the whole crew was standing around watching the scene and giggling.
“Actually if you want to be technical it was the back of your head,” Emmaline got a great deal of her sarcasm from Jack. Well, Gisele looked pissed, Jack looked tired, and Emmaline was quite pleased with herself.
“Gisele, can you go wait in my room? I’d like to have a word with Emmaline,” Jack walked towards the crow’s nest and began to climb. Gisele made her way to Jack’s room, swinging her hips in an unusual manner, Emmaline just giggles.
“You really got to stop this, Em,” Jack sat down next to Emmaline and nudged her a bit. “Because whenever you get her or any of the others mad, they take it out on me,” Jack smiled a bit but then turned serious again.
“Sorry Jack, but you know they drive EVERYONE mad, not jus’ me,” Emmaline looked down at her feet swinging over the edge.
“I know, I don’t plan on bringing another wench on again at this next port,”
“Jack, we’re going to Port Royal, wenches are hard to find there anyways,” Emmaline pointed out. They’re all too busy looking for Jack to be his true love and soulmate.
“Exactly, and I only need one lass aboard this ship and that’s you Em,” Jack smiled and got up. Emmaline looked slightly upset and Jack sat back down again.
“Somethin’ on yer mind, luv?”
“Just wonderin’ ‘bout my real parents, that’s all,” Emmaline picked up one of the rocks and hucked it out to sea. It made a little splash that was soon swept away by a wave.
“I truly know nothing about yer parents, but they were mad to give you up,” Jack smiled and rose again and this time descended down the ladder. Jack felt horrible; he knew he was lieing to Emmaline, the only person that really mattered to him. Yeah, no one ever really mattered enough to Jack Sparrow to, say, have him give up a chance at immortality for that person…
See, Jack has never shown Emmaline the letter that came with Emmaline. All Emmaline knew was that her last name was Hartford and still had the locket with her. Everyone assumed the pictures were her parents, but that’s all Emmaline knew of her heritage. She knew nothing about the fortune and that her father rejected her as his child. To be honest, Jack didn’t care about the fortune anymore, he had enough riches to live the rest of his life, and Emmaline was too important to him to be used as ransom. Only curiosity wanted Jack to find Emmaline’s parents.
Emmaline stayed in the crow’s nest awhile and let the day wear on. Early evening came before she knew it, and Emmaline took the ladder down to the deck *snerk* and walked to the rail and looked out to sea.
[snip for paragraphs of relentless boredom]
I’ll tell you, Charlie was one of a kind, and my best friend on the ship. I’ve only known him for about a year. He had been a stowaway when we left Tortuga last July. Jack decided to keep him around so someone about my age could be on board What a niiiice daddy! ...and terrible pirate captain., personally I think Jack wanted me to be “happy” with someone. Because JACK SPARROW couldn't wait for his daughter to "settle down." No chance of that happening though, I felt nothing for Charlie except as a friend. I unsheathed my sword and pointed it at his chest. He was completely right; I needed to blow off some steam.
He took the first swing at my legs, deflected by my sword. Then I stabbed at his chest, which he also deflected. In an instant, we were dancing around the deck, jumping on the helm thereby turning the ship off course and jumping down, swinging and stabbing at each other and generally getting in the way of the crewmen who were actually trying to do their jobs. We were both working up a sweat, but I couldn’t stop. It was like a force I’ve never felt before. No, I didn’t want to kill Charlie, but I would have killed Gisele if she was out here. All this for a slap? Nice girl. I just kept thinking of bad thoughts. Thoughts about Gisele, my parents, my unknown past, anything and everything I could think of.
It became so intense, I hit his sword so hard it went flying out of his hand and landed on the deck next to us. I felt so weak and dehydrated I dropped my sword and fell to the deck. *muffled laughter*
“Emmaline, hey, you alright?” Charlie rushed over to me to help me up, “what’s wrong?”
“I need water, and something to eat. It’s okay, I’m fine,” I got up and began to walk weakly towards the stairs. Charlie walked with me the whole time, sort of on the alert in case I fell. No one was in the kitchen, so Charlie seated me and got a cup and filled it with an old whiskey bottle filled with fresh water. I drank slowly with a blank stare on my face.
“Thanks Charlie, and sorry about your hand,”
“No problem. Wait, what happened to my hand?” Charlie looked down. Across the top of his hand was a four inch gash I must have given him when we were fighting.
“Oh uh, no problem about that either, no problem to fix,” He fetched the whiskey bottle and poured a little over his gash, then ripped a piece of his shirt off and began to wrap his hand. Y'know, if that bottle had been full of whiskey instead of water, you might have been able to sterilize that cut.
I watched for a minute, and then got up.” Who was just speaking? Charlie had just finished wrapping his hand and nearly jumped when I got up.
“Whoa, do you need help to get back to your room?” Charlie stared at me. I shrugged it off.
“Charlie, you worry way too much, my room is about 20 feet away first of all, and secondly you know I don’t sleep in my room in the summer.
“That’s right, but you really shouldn’t be climbing, at least let me come with you.” Charlie looked nervous. He was acting awfully strange tonight, stranger than usual I mean. He was starting to get on my nerves a bit. Doesn’t everyone get on your nerves, Sue? But I agreed and let him come up to the crow’s nest for awhile.
About an hour later I told him to leave, it was dark now and he was not sleeping up here with me. Of course, just as Charlie left, Jack came up.
“Ello Em,” Jack sat himself down next to me. I looked at him, then out to sea, the ocean looked pitch black.
“Hello Jack, when will we be arriving at Port Royal?”
“Tomorrow for sure, why?”
“Curiosity, I can’t wait to see Will and Elizabeth,”
“Ah, I see. Well, I’m going to bed,” Jack began to get up.
“Jack, you’re forgetting something!” I tugged on his pant leg, he down at me.
“Do I have to?” Jack looked tired.
“Yes!” I smiled up at him.
“Okay... Through the fights,” (Jack)
“Through the fears,” (Emmaline)
“Through the nights,” (Jack)
“Through all the tears,” (Emmaline)
“At the end of the day,” (Jack)
“I’ll always be there,” (Emmaline)
“So say goodbye,” (Jack)
“I’ll see you there,” (Emmaline) When I told Suethors to stop excerpting “A Pirate’s Life for Me," this was not what I meant! (Araeph)