Second Tide Turning ☠ [Action]

[lists_to_port]

On this fair warm September afternoon, Captain Jack Sparrow can be found walking very slowly through town with a bunch of colorful floating balloons in his hand and a thick sheaf of papers under his arm.

Jack has set himself

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[abidinglaw]

Haven't you had enough trouble with balloons lately?

[The colourful bobbing helium-sacks were easily to follow from a distance away. He had maintained the distance as he followed them around the item shop, and now stands about ten feet back from the river, arms crossed.]

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[Jack opens his eyes immediately at that voice. Norrington. He hasn't spoken to the Admiral since the other man visited his hospital tent back on that island during the draft. Unpleasant words were spoken. Accusations were accused accusingly. Fierce pirate captain pride had been yanked forcibly out of the pirate's gullet and dressed like a little girl and paraded on a gypsy stage. A greeting:]

Admiral. It wasn't the balloons what were trouble so much as the barrage of cannonfire, but you've made your point.

[abidinglaw]

Are you well?

[He can see that the pirate is not well. He can see it in the way that he moves, the way that he holds himself. He is not quite flouncing as one might otherwise expect. The admiral is not without humanity. In fact, he is quite relieved to see the man up and about so soon, but wonders, too, if perhaps he would be better off abed. None of this reaches his mouth. Sentiments. He was never very good at those.]

[lists_to_port]

I'm here, aren't I? Out of the clinic at last. Not lying about in Cullen House.

And you, Norrington? Are you well?

[abidinglaw]

By those criteria, certainly.

[Evade. Now is not the time to raise grievances that he has been with-holding for the sake of their success in the draft. What can he use to distract?]

I have been thinking, I treated you awfully aboard the ..

..

Aboard Beckett's Mum.

...

[In fact he treated Jack very well given his snark and ill humour. He will admit, though, even to himself, that he may have pushed the man too far. Perhaps the unfortunate business with the flying ships was a retaliation of sorts. A bid to reclaim his identity. That would make Jack's fall Norrington's fault. It did not bear thinking about.]

[lists_to_port]

It wasn't so bad. You assigned me the duties fitting a First Mate and I carried them out. And then we agreed it would be more better if I left.

[Jack shrugs.]

[abidinglaw]

[But was it? Or did it turn out less better in the end?]

Then your perspective on the matter has changed. Good. Now, what might the function of these be?

[He gestures to the balloons.]

[lists_to_port]

[His perspective on the matter still revolves around the general theme of that was the absolute worst assignment I have ever undertaken, but at least Jack could understand the need for all he had been asked to do. What he is still bitter about were the accusations of failure. Of personal failure.]

Balloons? These are to tempt the wind, sir---get the fellow-feeling flowing and perhaps learn his magic, eh?

[abidinglaw]

[Ah yes. The wind spirit. Just how one would go about communicating with a spirit of the wind the admiral truly could not imagine. Perhaps if you were to pucker your lips and exhale..]

Perhaps it is merely shy.

[Norrington does not mock the man. In fact he is trying rather hard to think a way into his delusion -- not the belief that magic might be used to guide the wind, but rather, the hope that this particular pirate might be capable of harnessing it.]

Do you, by chance, know of any person in Luceti who has succeeded at this task before?

[lists_to_port]

What, contacting the spirits? It is done, sir, with frequency here. Though I've never heard of a piratical sort like myself accomplishing it, but there's a first time for everything.

And the wind ain't a shy spirit, from what I understand. He's the wind after all.

[abidinglaw]

[Might catching a wind spirit have something in common with fishing? Norrington has closed the distance between them by now, and dares to reach out to give one string a few gentle tugs. The balloon bobs enticingly, like a lure in the water.]

Perhaps you might inquire of them - of one of them - to discover the secret.

[It'd be a breeze.]

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[Jack considers whether to just blow Norrington off or to entertain his notions.]

Somehow I think it is a highly individualistic enterprise, sir. One man's conversation with the wind spirit is another man's happy whistling tune.

[abidinglaw]

[Well that takes the wind out of his sails somewhat.]

Any luck so far?

[lists_to_port]

[Wind's out of his sails for once? That's a breath of fresh air.]

I think I've heard a slight whimsical nattering in my ear, but it could just be the usual typical ordinary slight whimsical nattering what I hear frequent-like.

What's your interest in it, Admiral?

[Things felt more than not-right around Norrington, since the draft.]

[abidinglaw]

Surely the more any of us knows of this place the batter.

[Deflection. He has little interest at all, if truth be told. Spirits and grumpkins do not appeal to him in the least. It did, however, have its merits as a neutral topic blessedly free from entanglement in issues of war and command. Did. Before Jack called Norrington's motives into question, damn him.]

[lists_to_port]

Surely. Tell me this, Norry: did you ever get a glimpse of the cargo what we were trying to protect?