(Untitled)

[milkbonesoldier]

[OOM: Even when Annie Wells is doing the cooking, there are some things food can't fix. Millitimed to the evening of March 15th, after this.]The Council wants more girls in the field quickly, so Wells is going to be testing the top four girls by the end of the week. Might as well get this dealt with before the moon gets too close to full. At least

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[pirate_gibbs]

Gibbs is at the bar for a refill on his morning tea and rum, and nods at the man.

[milkbonesoldier]

He's going to have to try that one of these days. Preferably after the testing, rather than before. That sort of thing tends to call for all his resources, and recovery usually makes him grumpy. "Morning," he greets the other man. "Don't believe I've seen you in here before."

[pirate_gibbs]

"I tend to stay outside. On the Pearl. Bar's too well lit for my tastes." He's never going to be used to the hum of the strange lights, either. "Gibbs."

[milkbonesoldier]

"Ah, that ship in the lake?" He nods. "Harry Wells. Yeah, I'd imagine it's a bit weird in here after a ship like that."

[pirate_gibbs]

"Aye, that ship. The finest in the Caribbean. Or it was, before it and the Captain ended up here." His voice tells how much he's feeling the wrongness of it today. "And it would be weird in here for me even if I'd never set foot on her. They've explained some what's here to me, but it's not my world. Things from the future, they say."

[milkbonesoldier]

Wells nods. "If that's when and where you're from, I shouldn't wonder all of this's got under your skin," he says. "'s not exactly the easiest place in the world for me to be, either, and me from ages after they gave off on sailing ships and started using ships with engines. It's bloody weird in here some days."

[pirate_gibbs]

"Ships with engines?" No one has ever mentioned this to him. "How can you sail without the wind?" Clearly the idea is All Wrong.

[milkbonesoldier]

Wells thinks for a bit on how to explain this one.

"Understand I'm an Army man, not Navy, so I dunno all the details," he says. "But the way I was taught it, it's like this. If you've got- say- water in a big damn metal container, right, and you light a fire under it, get that water good and hot? The water's gonna boil. You start getting steam, it's going to push like hell to get out of the container, 'cos steam takes up more space than liquid water. If the only place it's got to go is out a little hole, it'll go out that hole, and it'll push stuff out of its way if the water's boiling hard enough- bit like what happens when a kettle boils over, y'know? Lifting the lid and all? They took boilers like that, and they made 'em so the steam would turn paddle-wheels or propellers- big spinny sets of blades- and those'd push against the water to move the boats. At least, that's how I heard it when I was younger."

[pirate_gibbs]

Gibbs listens intently. It's not that complicated an idea, but it's not the how that bothers him.

"But why would anyone go to that much trouble? The wind is there for the taking most days. And you'd have to carry a lot more weight, with the wood and these wheels." But if the man says it's coming, there's not Gibbs can do but bemoan the future.

"Army, you say? I was Navy before my pirate days."

[milkbonesoldier]

"Yeah, you would- but you'd never be becalmed, and you'd get where you were going a hell of a lot faster. And there's other things that burn, besides wood. They use coal, for starters. Smells like hell but it'll get you farther, and you'll never have to reckon with the winds changing on you while you're rounding the Cape of Good Hope or pushing through the Straits of Magellan or what have you."

He nods. "Went for a soldier when I was sixteen," he says. "Only been out of it a few years now. Pirate, huh? Better commanders that way, I expect."

It's not slighting his country's military, it's making fun of the Navy. That's practically a sacred duty to an Army man.

[pirate_gibbs]

"Seems you know a bit about the seas, for a soldier." The feeling is mutual, even from a Navy man who doesn't miss the Navy. "But I can't see anything being as fast as the wind. Though maybe having something for when the wind is against you besides oars isn't a bad notion.

"And there's not a finer captain than Jack Sparrow."

[milkbonesoldier]

"My brother John's got an import-export business down in London," says Wells. "Used to be in the merchant marine, but he spends all his time on dry land these days. Can't get him to shut up for love nor money once he gets started talking."

He smiles a little. "The Pearl's his ship, I'm guessing?" Gibbs doesn't sound like he's talking about a former captain of his, after all.

[pirate_gibbs]

"I have brothers in the merchant marine. Or I did. Haven't seen them in years. But in Bristol, you either work the ships, build them, or sail them." He never gives family a second thought, including now.

"I take it you haven't met the Captain then? It's his ship, and he's paid for it with his very soul. And his life."

[milkbonesoldier]

"Don't believe I have, no," says Wells. He may be wrong- he's made a few mistakes of this sort in the past week or two- but so far as he remembers he hasn't met anyone here who'd be a pirate captain on any vessel that had sails. "He's here, then? I suppose there's worse places a pirate could end up than a pub like this, weird as it might be."

[pirate_gibbs]

"Aye, that's probably true. Jack could have easily been someplace...warmer. But this is no Hesven for him, either. A man like that, and a ship like that, on a lake that size...I'd call it Limbo. Especially seeing as I'm apparently supposed to help get him back from here when I leave." He takes a swig of his drink. "Guess you could say we're used to the weird."

[milkbonesoldier]

Wells' mouth twitches. "I've an idea of the feeling," he says. "Not so much the limbo bit as the other part. I spent most of my life thinkin' the world was an ordinary place, maybe a bit strange at times, and then three and a half years ago I got smacked in the fucking face with the sort of monsters that'd have most men hiding under their beds with a bottle of the strongest liquor they could find..."