Young Fellows That Follow The Sea
I've finally finished my James Norrington 1character drabble series that I started in February. :)
Initially it started out as just a set of random drabbles, but then it kind of grew (literally) into a much bigger picture. Now it's a back-story for Norrington, right from when he was a small child till when he sets out for the Caribbean at the beginning of the film - covering everything from first voyage to first love along the way. This is my first piece on Norrington, and I tried my hardest to keep him in character, but I'd appreciate any feedback you could give me on how I portrayed him, and give my apologies in advance for the many errors I've doubtlessly made.
Title: Young Fellows That Follow The Sea
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Character: James Norrington
Theme set: Gamma (1character)
Disclaimer: Much as I'd wish it, Norrington does not belong to me. The title comes from the sea shanty "Blow The Man Down".
Rating: PG
Notes: The most minor of spoilers for beginning of the movie. No semi-colons were hurt during the production of this fanfiction.
Young Fellows That Follow The Sea
#01 - Snow
The small boy watched the frozen pond from his bedroom window as the ducks stumbled and slid over its icy surface; "If I were a duck," he said to no one in particular, "I think I should skate across the sea to France."
#02 - Child
George, tall, with brown hair and browner eyes, was far bigger than his brother ever would be; this was both in physical size and through the fact that he had a substantial inheritance promised him, whereas little green-eyed Jamie had none.
#03 - Brick
For his fifth birthday he received a set of wooden bricks, and piled them into a misshaped rectangle with a tower in the middle; "That's a sloop," he told his mother, "and she's got eight guns."
#04 - Judgment
Jamie gingerly rubbed his ear, still throbbing from the cuff of the cook, and carefully brushed the incriminating cake crumbs off his shirt; he swore he'd never disobey laws of any kind again.
#05 - Powder
The boy watched wide-eyed as the valet dusted starch powder over his father's bald scalp, and he muttered to himself that he would under no circumstances wear a wig.
#06 - Grim
"The Law or the Navy, boy, which is it to be?" said his father, grim faced as always; Jamie mentally compared the wig of a judge and the wig of a captain, and answered in favour of the lesser of two evils.
#07 - Trap
There were vermin in the kitchen and he set the traps, hiding under the table to watch as the mouse crept closer and closer to the piece of cheese; but just before the metal snapped into place he gathered the soft creature up in his hands, and carried it out of the back door.
#08 - Star
As he listened to his mother sob in the parlour, her cries muffled by a lace handkerchief, Jamie looked up at the night sky and wondered if that was where his father was now; he had learnt from his Bible that the dead either went very high or very low.
#09 - Possession
The next thing he knew, the Persian rug was missing, then the French curtains and then the Chinese vases; in their places there were pieces of paper all over the house, with strange figures scribbled on them.
#10 - Bandage
When he asked if he should get a doctor for her heart, and wondered aloud if leeches would help, his mother only sighed, "You'll find out when you're older that some things can't be healed with a bandage, Jamie."
#11 - Pearl
"There are black ones too, you know," said his mother, as Jamie stared at the pearl necklace with awe; she placed it back in the uppermost crate of the tower of boxes and bags, which would grow each day by the front door and then be gone the following morning.
#12 - Glass
He pressed his hands against the window, raindrops running rivulets across the pane, watching as George got into the chaise for London; the black horses trotted up the drive without so much as a whinny, and he was sad that George had not waved goodbye.
#13 - Classified
On Thursday morning the letter arrived; he broke upon the red wax seal and held the neatly pressed paper headed "Commission Purchased" out to his mother, who upon reading it first laughed and then cried, which Jamie found very odd indeed.
#14 - Buttons
Jamie let his mother do up the coat for him even though he knew full well how; she said it was far too big, but there was no time to hem it, as James Norrington was expected in Portsmouth the day after tomorrow.
#15 - Closet
The older boys promised to throw him into the sea as part of his 'initiation', and so for the first week he slept hidden in the closet, until his neck became too sore and he gave up the ghost; the water was freezing and he almost drowned, but on the whole it was not as bad as he had expected.
#16 - Ash
"We studied gunpowder today," said James, when the housekeeper laughed at his smudged-grey face, and asked if he'd been sitting too close to a fire.
#17 - Definition
James stood at the front and began to recite, "A sloop is a single-masted vessel, with fore-and-aft-rigging, and is able to carry approximately eight to fourteen guns, being traditionally used for speed at sea..."
#18 - Staircase
There were no stairs on the ship, only ladders that dug into his fingers and gave him splinters - but gradually he came to trust their rickety structures, and each time they creaked under his rightly-placed feet it was a comfort to him.
#19 - Nail
A not-quite-hammered nail caught a thread on his coat, tearing the wool like paper, but James didn't notice, he was so enthralled at the work around him, the smells of oak and oakum; the ship would be finished in a year, and he hoped he would make his first real voyage aboard it.
#20 - Prey
The latest report from the West Indies talked of pirates hunting British ships for booty, illustrated by gruesome woodcuts; the boys all agreed that someday they would turn the tables and chase the pirates for a change.
#21 - Backwards
As the storm grew closer and closer, a jumble of black clouds and white flashes and great, crashing waves, he wished that the ship could reverse and choose another route; but it was too late, and the billowing sails carried them straight into the thick of it.
#22 - Trouble
The heavy lanyard snapped from its place, the warning cry was swallowed by the storm, and a youth went flying across the deck; James himself only realised something was wrong when all the breath was knocked from him, the dark night began to grow still darker, and he felt something that wasn't saltwater trickle down his arm.
#23 - Little
It had been a trivial maiden voyage for the Little Bartlett, the only purpose having been to transport an ambassador to discuss some forgettable foreign policy, but James would always remember it as his first, and by the crescent-shaped scar he now bore on his left shoulder.
#24 - Collar
The tight neckcloth made it hard to eat - but, as he watched the older men talk animatedly at the other end of the table, James appreciated that the true purpose of the meal was nothing to do with food; soon he gave up on dessert altogether.
#25 - Circle
He paced in circles around the room, trying to remember the correct greetings for each officer, and cursing vehemently when he saw his reflection bow too low in the mirror, or heard his voice stutter over the names and ranks.
#26 - Hands
The woman in Coshman Market said that a honey poultice would soften his calluses before the evening came, but it only attracted bees, which meant his palms were swollen as well as rough.
#27 - Freedom
He need not have worried, he only met the clerk, who barely looked up from his thick book of accounts as he handed the men their pay for the voyage; the leather pouch did not weigh much, but in that moment James felt like he could buy the world ten times over.
#28 - Last
"This is the first and last time, George," and his voice was firm and unshaking as he held out half of the wages he'd received the previous day, "I have no more brotherly goodness to pay your debts with."
#29 - Scab
His knuckles were scabbed and his sprained wrist ached like fire, not to mention his shirt was ruined from his bloody nose - but the pain dulled when James remembered that his brother's face had been far bloodier, and for weeks afterwards the recollection of that victory, and the feeling of a full purse in his pocket, was enough to brighten any gloomy moment.
#30 - Crown
The golden crest on the Admiral's jacket glittered and shone in even the dull grey light of the docks, and James rubbed the fraying cuff of his coat longingly.
#31 - Time
"It's been so long - years - since I've seen you, Jamie, James, sorry - nothing but letters for... my, how you've grown - does your coat fit you now... here, let me sew that hole up for you - come into the sitting room - setting off again next week... have a cup of tea, you must be freezing - have you seen your brother at all?"
#32 - Rice
They were shipping bags of stuff, and it had to be unpacked, checked, and repacked every day; he began to loathe the monotony of it all, but the captain reassured him that the little white grains were as valuable to the king as all the gold in Africa, and so he threw himself into the work.
#33 - Worn
Less than a quarter-hour after the deal he was visiting the tailor, casting a critical eye over the brocade; the material had almost worn wholly away at the elbows, but he had still able to get some coin for his childhood coat, sold now he felt he had clean outgrown it.
#34 - Paint
The sign was still wet with paint, and little droplets of red and blue trickled into the gutter; James made a point of walking on the other side of the street, glaring at the new East India Company outpost, muttering that it would take a great deal more change in circumstances than a new flag to persuade him to invest in their "ventures".
#35 - Ache
Miss Christina Ashwin was a very beautiful girl, with very pale skin and very small ears, like shells; as she was escorted out of the ball by her chaperone he found something in his chest pulled at him to follow her.
#36 - Cherry
"No, no, darker than that, not that dark, here-"; Martin said she liked cherries, and so James was at the market with a shilling clutched tight his hand, trying to find the perfect shade of red to match her hair.
#37 - Library
James was dimly aware of a clock striking three somewhere else in the library, but he would not look up from his books, still cramming his mind with diagrams and descriptions and damnable details; his exam was in the morning, and the lure of becoming a real Lieutenant, rather than just "acting", kept him awake throughout the long winter night.
#38 - Win
They were practicing fencing in the corridors when the news of success came; not given to shouts of delight, though he was sorely tempted, James merely increased his efforts in the battle, and soon with a swift parry and riposte Lieutenant Norrington stood triumphant, to thunderous applause from the other young men.
#39 - Loss
"Well... well she just died, sir, ain't no more reason to it."
#40 - Fold
James always folded his bed linen himself, his mother having taught him the habit when he was still a young boy; now the task was carried out almost reverently, and he trapped his grief within each crisp fold, and smoothed out the wrinkles till it lay quite flat and still upon the bed.
#41 - Music
The piper struck up a lively tune, but James did not feel like dancing, and so he watched from his seat as Christina partnered Master Tobias Webb for the next three reels, at the conclusion of which he reached for yet another glass of punch.
#42 - Bell
In the last year James had heard funeral bells and then wedding bells, but neither had been for him; for him the one chime that meant a thing was the clear, sharp toll you could only hear aboard a ship, sounding the beginning of the next watch.
#43 - Sleep
The constant croaking of the seagull that had nested at the top of the mizenmast meant that James could not get to sleep, even with the gentle rocking of the sea; her warbling cries echoed in his ears and the pillow over his head would not shut them out - it was at that moment he took up his pen, and wrote a bold letter requesting a new placement.
#44 - Contact
Captain Hulbert's handshake was strong and powerful, much like his ship; James had never seen a vessel as commanding as the Dauntless.
#45 - Electricity
The feeling James had as he stood at the helm and ran his hands over the wood-and-brass wheel... it felt... right.
#46 - Milk
Before they would even contemplate weighing anchor, the men insisted their new Lieutenant paid his respects to the ship's cat.
#47 - Wild
The Governor's daughter was an odd thing, all gangly limbs and freckles; she stuck her tongue out at one of the street urchins and James smiled again.
#48 - Expectation
"Promotion in a few years," said Swann, "oh, yes, a young man like you could go far in the Caribbean."
#49 - Mechanism
The day before they were due to sail, James took it upon himself to scrutinize every last inch of the ship, and the penultimate item on his list was the rudder chain; it was a seemingly insignificant piece of equipment, but without it the ship was unsailable, and at the urgings of the quartermaster he promised to personally inspect it every day.
#50 - Finale
It rained hard and fast as they sailed out from Portsmouth, and soon his face was dripping wet, his jacket plastered to his skin, but he would not go below deck; the Caribbean called from across the tumultuous ocean, and as he watched the coastline disappear into the heavy morning mist it felt like an ending, but also a beginning - either way, he would see out till the very last.
Comments, critique, criticism... all are most welcome indeed. :)
Initially it started out as just a set of random drabbles, but then it kind of grew (literally) into a much bigger picture. Now it's a back-story for Norrington, right from when he was a small child till when he sets out for the Caribbean at the beginning of the film - covering everything from first voyage to first love along the way. This is my first piece on Norrington, and I tried my hardest to keep him in character, but I'd appreciate any feedback you could give me on how I portrayed him, and give my apologies in advance for the many errors I've doubtlessly made.
Title: Young Fellows That Follow The Sea
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Character: James Norrington
Theme set: Gamma (1character)
Disclaimer: Much as I'd wish it, Norrington does not belong to me. The title comes from the sea shanty "Blow The Man Down".
Rating: PG
Notes: The most minor of spoilers for beginning of the movie. No semi-colons were hurt during the production of this fanfiction.
Young Fellows That Follow The Sea
#01 - Snow
The small boy watched the frozen pond from his bedroom window as the ducks stumbled and slid over its icy surface; "If I were a duck," he said to no one in particular, "I think I should skate across the sea to France."
#02 - Child
George, tall, with brown hair and browner eyes, was far bigger than his brother ever would be; this was both in physical size and through the fact that he had a substantial inheritance promised him, whereas little green-eyed Jamie had none.
#03 - Brick
For his fifth birthday he received a set of wooden bricks, and piled them into a misshaped rectangle with a tower in the middle; "That's a sloop," he told his mother, "and she's got eight guns."
#04 - Judgment
Jamie gingerly rubbed his ear, still throbbing from the cuff of the cook, and carefully brushed the incriminating cake crumbs off his shirt; he swore he'd never disobey laws of any kind again.
#05 - Powder
The boy watched wide-eyed as the valet dusted starch powder over his father's bald scalp, and he muttered to himself that he would under no circumstances wear a wig.
#06 - Grim
"The Law or the Navy, boy, which is it to be?" said his father, grim faced as always; Jamie mentally compared the wig of a judge and the wig of a captain, and answered in favour of the lesser of two evils.
#07 - Trap
There were vermin in the kitchen and he set the traps, hiding under the table to watch as the mouse crept closer and closer to the piece of cheese; but just before the metal snapped into place he gathered the soft creature up in his hands, and carried it out of the back door.
#08 - Star
As he listened to his mother sob in the parlour, her cries muffled by a lace handkerchief, Jamie looked up at the night sky and wondered if that was where his father was now; he had learnt from his Bible that the dead either went very high or very low.
#09 - Possession
The next thing he knew, the Persian rug was missing, then the French curtains and then the Chinese vases; in their places there were pieces of paper all over the house, with strange figures scribbled on them.
#10 - Bandage
When he asked if he should get a doctor for her heart, and wondered aloud if leeches would help, his mother only sighed, "You'll find out when you're older that some things can't be healed with a bandage, Jamie."
#11 - Pearl
"There are black ones too, you know," said his mother, as Jamie stared at the pearl necklace with awe; she placed it back in the uppermost crate of the tower of boxes and bags, which would grow each day by the front door and then be gone the following morning.
#12 - Glass
He pressed his hands against the window, raindrops running rivulets across the pane, watching as George got into the chaise for London; the black horses trotted up the drive without so much as a whinny, and he was sad that George had not waved goodbye.
#13 - Classified
On Thursday morning the letter arrived; he broke upon the red wax seal and held the neatly pressed paper headed "Commission Purchased" out to his mother, who upon reading it first laughed and then cried, which Jamie found very odd indeed.
#14 - Buttons
Jamie let his mother do up the coat for him even though he knew full well how; she said it was far too big, but there was no time to hem it, as James Norrington was expected in Portsmouth the day after tomorrow.
#15 - Closet
The older boys promised to throw him into the sea as part of his 'initiation', and so for the first week he slept hidden in the closet, until his neck became too sore and he gave up the ghost; the water was freezing and he almost drowned, but on the whole it was not as bad as he had expected.
#16 - Ash
"We studied gunpowder today," said James, when the housekeeper laughed at his smudged-grey face, and asked if he'd been sitting too close to a fire.
#17 - Definition
James stood at the front and began to recite, "A sloop is a single-masted vessel, with fore-and-aft-rigging, and is able to carry approximately eight to fourteen guns, being traditionally used for speed at sea..."
#18 - Staircase
There were no stairs on the ship, only ladders that dug into his fingers and gave him splinters - but gradually he came to trust their rickety structures, and each time they creaked under his rightly-placed feet it was a comfort to him.
#19 - Nail
A not-quite-hammered nail caught a thread on his coat, tearing the wool like paper, but James didn't notice, he was so enthralled at the work around him, the smells of oak and oakum; the ship would be finished in a year, and he hoped he would make his first real voyage aboard it.
#20 - Prey
The latest report from the West Indies talked of pirates hunting British ships for booty, illustrated by gruesome woodcuts; the boys all agreed that someday they would turn the tables and chase the pirates for a change.
#21 - Backwards
As the storm grew closer and closer, a jumble of black clouds and white flashes and great, crashing waves, he wished that the ship could reverse and choose another route; but it was too late, and the billowing sails carried them straight into the thick of it.
#22 - Trouble
The heavy lanyard snapped from its place, the warning cry was swallowed by the storm, and a youth went flying across the deck; James himself only realised something was wrong when all the breath was knocked from him, the dark night began to grow still darker, and he felt something that wasn't saltwater trickle down his arm.
#23 - Little
It had been a trivial maiden voyage for the Little Bartlett, the only purpose having been to transport an ambassador to discuss some forgettable foreign policy, but James would always remember it as his first, and by the crescent-shaped scar he now bore on his left shoulder.
#24 - Collar
The tight neckcloth made it hard to eat - but, as he watched the older men talk animatedly at the other end of the table, James appreciated that the true purpose of the meal was nothing to do with food; soon he gave up on dessert altogether.
#25 - Circle
He paced in circles around the room, trying to remember the correct greetings for each officer, and cursing vehemently when he saw his reflection bow too low in the mirror, or heard his voice stutter over the names and ranks.
#26 - Hands
The woman in Coshman Market said that a honey poultice would soften his calluses before the evening came, but it only attracted bees, which meant his palms were swollen as well as rough.
#27 - Freedom
He need not have worried, he only met the clerk, who barely looked up from his thick book of accounts as he handed the men their pay for the voyage; the leather pouch did not weigh much, but in that moment James felt like he could buy the world ten times over.
#28 - Last
"This is the first and last time, George," and his voice was firm and unshaking as he held out half of the wages he'd received the previous day, "I have no more brotherly goodness to pay your debts with."
#29 - Scab
His knuckles were scabbed and his sprained wrist ached like fire, not to mention his shirt was ruined from his bloody nose - but the pain dulled when James remembered that his brother's face had been far bloodier, and for weeks afterwards the recollection of that victory, and the feeling of a full purse in his pocket, was enough to brighten any gloomy moment.
#30 - Crown
The golden crest on the Admiral's jacket glittered and shone in even the dull grey light of the docks, and James rubbed the fraying cuff of his coat longingly.
#31 - Time
"It's been so long - years - since I've seen you, Jamie, James, sorry - nothing but letters for... my, how you've grown - does your coat fit you now... here, let me sew that hole up for you - come into the sitting room - setting off again next week... have a cup of tea, you must be freezing - have you seen your brother at all?"
#32 - Rice
They were shipping bags of stuff, and it had to be unpacked, checked, and repacked every day; he began to loathe the monotony of it all, but the captain reassured him that the little white grains were as valuable to the king as all the gold in Africa, and so he threw himself into the work.
#33 - Worn
Less than a quarter-hour after the deal he was visiting the tailor, casting a critical eye over the brocade; the material had almost worn wholly away at the elbows, but he had still able to get some coin for his childhood coat, sold now he felt he had clean outgrown it.
#34 - Paint
The sign was still wet with paint, and little droplets of red and blue trickled into the gutter; James made a point of walking on the other side of the street, glaring at the new East India Company outpost, muttering that it would take a great deal more change in circumstances than a new flag to persuade him to invest in their "ventures".
#35 - Ache
Miss Christina Ashwin was a very beautiful girl, with very pale skin and very small ears, like shells; as she was escorted out of the ball by her chaperone he found something in his chest pulled at him to follow her.
#36 - Cherry
"No, no, darker than that, not that dark, here-"; Martin said she liked cherries, and so James was at the market with a shilling clutched tight his hand, trying to find the perfect shade of red to match her hair.
#37 - Library
James was dimly aware of a clock striking three somewhere else in the library, but he would not look up from his books, still cramming his mind with diagrams and descriptions and damnable details; his exam was in the morning, and the lure of becoming a real Lieutenant, rather than just "acting", kept him awake throughout the long winter night.
#38 - Win
They were practicing fencing in the corridors when the news of success came; not given to shouts of delight, though he was sorely tempted, James merely increased his efforts in the battle, and soon with a swift parry and riposte Lieutenant Norrington stood triumphant, to thunderous applause from the other young men.
#39 - Loss
"Well... well she just died, sir, ain't no more reason to it."
#40 - Fold
James always folded his bed linen himself, his mother having taught him the habit when he was still a young boy; now the task was carried out almost reverently, and he trapped his grief within each crisp fold, and smoothed out the wrinkles till it lay quite flat and still upon the bed.
#41 - Music
The piper struck up a lively tune, but James did not feel like dancing, and so he watched from his seat as Christina partnered Master Tobias Webb for the next three reels, at the conclusion of which he reached for yet another glass of punch.
#42 - Bell
In the last year James had heard funeral bells and then wedding bells, but neither had been for him; for him the one chime that meant a thing was the clear, sharp toll you could only hear aboard a ship, sounding the beginning of the next watch.
#43 - Sleep
The constant croaking of the seagull that had nested at the top of the mizenmast meant that James could not get to sleep, even with the gentle rocking of the sea; her warbling cries echoed in his ears and the pillow over his head would not shut them out - it was at that moment he took up his pen, and wrote a bold letter requesting a new placement.
#44 - Contact
Captain Hulbert's handshake was strong and powerful, much like his ship; James had never seen a vessel as commanding as the Dauntless.
#45 - Electricity
The feeling James had as he stood at the helm and ran his hands over the wood-and-brass wheel... it felt... right.
#46 - Milk
Before they would even contemplate weighing anchor, the men insisted their new Lieutenant paid his respects to the ship's cat.
#47 - Wild
The Governor's daughter was an odd thing, all gangly limbs and freckles; she stuck her tongue out at one of the street urchins and James smiled again.
#48 - Expectation
"Promotion in a few years," said Swann, "oh, yes, a young man like you could go far in the Caribbean."
#49 - Mechanism
The day before they were due to sail, James took it upon himself to scrutinize every last inch of the ship, and the penultimate item on his list was the rudder chain; it was a seemingly insignificant piece of equipment, but without it the ship was unsailable, and at the urgings of the quartermaster he promised to personally inspect it every day.
#50 - Finale
It rained hard and fast as they sailed out from Portsmouth, and soon his face was dripping wet, his jacket plastered to his skin, but he would not go below deck; the Caribbean called from across the tumultuous ocean, and as he watched the coastline disappear into the heavy morning mist it felt like an ending, but also a beginning - either way, he would see out till the very last.
Comments, critique, criticism... all are most welcome indeed. :)