Fic: Circling Fate (Part Three)

[artic_fox]

Title: Circling Fate (Part Three)
Author: artic_fox
Rating: PG13
Pairings: James Norrington/Elizabeth Swann (Norribeth)
Summary: Elizabeth will be the death of him, but he thinks perhaps he is already condemned. Four part fic, going from pre-CotBP through to AWE, through the eyes of James Norrington.
Beta: A huge thank you to commodore_lydia for her absolutely invaluable

Comments

favorite lines

[artemismuse]

She is looking at him with brown eyes, wide like the day she kissed him in the rain and ran off, and he feels like he has been staring at her retreating back ever since. Poor James. Always on the wrong end of Elizabeth. :(

“He’s a drunkard.” James replies flatly.“Well…” she is momentarily lost for a retort, “- well, yes.”“A rum-soaked, smelly, wobbly-legged pirate.” Aha! He's still cleverer than her. And I love how he presses the point home, so determined with his insults.

Protect and honour, serve and obey. These are things he understands. Of course. He understands them better than he understands love.

He can run from her, but he can never escape her. Nope, he most certainly can't. But then, he doesn't really want to.

Re: favorite lines

[artic_fox]

Thanks for commenting! I always love to know what parts people enjoy!

[flyingpigs_live]

Wow, you forever own my life, seriously. Your stuff is always so visual and in-character and real, which I just love! Looking much forward to the next update. :)

He is a man with two hearts, but his emotions are bare.
That's my favorite line. It sums DMC!James up in one sentence.

[artic_fox]

Thank you! I always enjoy fics with great imagery, so try to do the same with mine. I'm really glad you are enjoying it!

I think that sentence sums him up too. I think I used a very similar last line in Requiem, but it seems to be the truth. He ends up with everything he wanted, and yet I don't think when it comes down to it, it wasn't what was best for him. Poor James!

[julianna2002]

Beautiful and heartbreaking as always.....

Now on to my fave lines:

But his heart is held tight; the ropes around it are taut and strong, and his fingers are too large to untie the knots she has made. I loved this imagery! So apt and so indicative of the bond that these two share.

Their eyes meet, his green against her brown, and he wonders briefly, oddly, if their children would have had his eyes or hers. But that was a different life; one that James will never have.These lines actually made me whimper a bit. How sad to see flashes of a life that will never (and maybe could never) be

[artic_fox]

Thank you for the great feedback! It is always great to know exactly what people liked, and what worked for them. It certainly helps for future fics.

I think most of my fics have been in the present tense - I find it more fun to write, and it gives the fic a certain sense of "something", more taut and together, perhaps. A big thanks has to go to commodore_lydia though, who went through this with a fine toothed combed because I had slipped up tense-wise in a few places. It is tricky to write in the present tense when it is set in the past - or when the characters reflect back.

I don't think James could ever fully tell her off. He just can't stand up to her like that. He is strong, but weak for her, and his repression and honour still get the best of him, even when he has nothing. I like that at least he tried. I think that snarkyDMC!Norrington is my favourite incarnation of him, so I enjoy writing him most of all.

Part 4 will probably be up in a couple of days!

[lizzie_sparrow]

I loved it all! Out of all the amazing lines, this one struck me:

"Their eyes meet, his green against her brown, and he wonders briefly, oddly, if their children would have had his eyes or hers. But that was a different life; one that James will never have."

Very bittersweet. This fic is just love. =]

Update!

[artic_fox]

Thanks. I always found that line kind of tragic, myself.

Will post the last part (!!) in a couple of days, probably. Thanks for commenting!

[anonymous]

*flails*
This is getting so good! (Not that it wasn’t before, mind). DMC complicates the already complicated relationship on so many levels. ANGST LEIK WOE. You’re really nailed their interaction - that crazy vacillation between sniping and carping and genuine care and oh perhaps something more.

“I don’t know,” she is truthful to him; more so than to Sparrow, who she simpers at during the daylight hours.
In my mind, James and Elizabeth have the most truth in their relationship. They are almost always candid with one another, and even when one is trying to conceal something, the other can see right through their charade.

…innocence, naivety or even blindness.
Probably all of those things, and more than one of them deliberate on her part!

…he has suffered enough, and this time she can suffer with him.OH HECK YES

[artic_fox]

You know, I really don't mind the long comments!

I always seem to like to write "missing scenes" from the canon. That way, it is like a jigsaw puzzle. I always thought that Norrington's resolve was certainly hardened when Will emerged and Elizabeth kissed him. Not that he wasn't resolved prior to this, but it certainly cemented the fact to him that he would gain nothing by staying with them. There is only so much a man can take, after all.

I wanted to make them kiss so badly "under board" (lol), but just couldn't do it in terms of the narrative. Can't have them kissing all over the place, even though I want them to. That is for another time, another fic!

That last part of him on the island alone was stolen from another fic I started but never got far with - a scenario if both he and Elizabeth "fell behind" on Isle Cruces. But never became anything sadly.

I'm glad you are enjoying the angst - if so, the last part may be ANGST OVERLOAD LIKE WOAAAHHHHH for you. But that will be up in a couple of days probably.