(no subject)
Title: The Story Keeper
Author: Ceria
Characters: Joshamee Gibbs, Jacob William Turner
Rating: PG
Summary: Little Turner needs a lesson and Gibbs gets to tell a story (#14 Gibbs and Jack backstory).
Disclaimer: Mickey and Co. own the universe and characters and I am not a mouse.
Author's notes: Thank you so much for your help and encouragement, watersword.
Mama tried teaching me how to mend socks yesterday. I sat at her feet the whole afternoon whilst Jeffrey and Su played outside our rooms. Every time I'd fidget and turn my head, following the sounds of their laughter, Mama would look up from her stitching at me. "Can I go play yet?" I asked her once, and she pressed her mouth tight together and frowned. She only does that when she's angry.
Now, Mama isn't someone anyone likes to make angry, because she can make people do things they don't want to do. Of course, we live on Shipwreck Island and she's the King here, so everyone listens to her - about most things. And this wasn't a good day for me to upset Mama either, because two days ago we buried Captain Villanueva. That's the reason I stayed with her yesterday, because she was sad. So I kept inside all day, sitting at her feet while she rocked, learning how to sew.
I thought it was a waste of time, but Captain Teague is always telling me distractions are good to have, maybe this is Mama's distraction. I told him I'd rather learn to swordfight, but Mama said my father would teach me that when he comes home next year. I wish I didn't have to wait so long, because sewing is something girls do, not boys.
"This is important," she said, "Because what happens if a sail rips? Who do you think repairs it? And sailcloth is much harder to sew than socks." I winced when she frowned, that look is the one she used with my friends three days ago when they didn't want to practice their letters. They told her that they're only pirates and she said that any good pirate learns to be smarter than everyone else.
Now Mama? She's a good pirate even though she wasn't raised one, so all the other pirates tell me, especially Teague. He wants me to learn my letters so I can be Keeper of the Code when I get old enough. I haven't told him yet, but I think that would be boring. Maybe if I don't learn to read and write, he'll have to find someone else to keep our code.
But that day while studying? I told Mama I agreed with the other children, that I didn't need to be smarter than anyone else because she was here to protect me; something about those words made her sad, though.
Uncle Gibbs came to find me later that night while I was racing Jeffery and Su. Up along the east cliff there's a narrow strip of grass for us to run. We can't run through the city very well because there's too much junk and everyone says it's dangerous (they all agree with Mama about that).
He just appeared out of the water, in a little rowboat, scaring Su, until she recognized him. I ain't seen Uncle Gibbs for some time, at least the turn of four seasons. Pardon me. A year. Mama doesn't like it when I don't use proper English. She says that's a poor showing for us.
I'm not sure what that means, because you can't really see words, after all.
But Uncle Gibbs - he was hobbling and that hill to reach the grass strip is steep. His cane didn't help very much so I yelled out to Jeffery and Su that I was goin' back with me uncle and I'd see them tomorrow.
Uncle Gibbs isn't like my other uncles. He lets me take his arm and help him walk and doesn't pull away, actin' like he could do it on his own. He asked me if I was hungry and what I wanted to eat and I told him not to bother, that Mama would take care of dinner and Uncle Gibbs told me no, not tonight she wouldn't.
"Why are you here, Uncle Gibbs?" I asked him, because I knew he wasn't expected and he frowned at me. Not angry at my question, but sad like. "We needed to say goodbye," he said, and wouldn't say no more. I figured out later that a Captain died. All the pirate lords began to return that evening and these days they only come here for funerals.
After our burnt dinner that I ended up cooking - but don't tell Mama or she'll try and teach me how to cook next - Uncle Gibbs asked what I knew about Captain Jack.
"I know he's not here very often and Mama stays up late with him when he visits. They talk about my father a lot." I didn't need to tell Gibbs that I often crept from my bed to sneak down the hall and listen to them talk. The other pirates don't talk about Captain Jack in front of me, they just kinda smile and look at each other.
"He eats lunch with me when he visits, while Mama is off working and the other pirates ain't around. He likes to talk about treasure maps."
The good thing about Captain Jack's visits is that Uncle Gibbs comes with him, and he pays a lot of attention to me. He likes me just as Teague likes me, for being me and not as a way to get to Mama. Because Captain Jack told me once, a long time ago, that most of the other pirate lords only like me because they have to.
Three days ago, we got back into that little dinghy and before returning to the city, Uncle Gibbs asked me about my letters. He was concerned about why I didn't want to learn them. "I don't want to learn them, but Mama doesn't understand that," I told him, hoping he'd explain to Mama just how good his life was without needing to read. Because I know Gibbs can't read much beyond his name and a few other words. So I told him about Teague and how he wants me to be Keeper of the Code, and just how boring I thought that would be.
He just shook his head, and said, "Do you know how I met Jack?"
"No sir," I said, grinning, because I love when Gibbs tells stories. He knows the best pirate stories.
"Jack found me. I'd been in a mite of trouble with the Admiral an Captain Norrington, he couldn't help me no longer. So I was to be dismissed an' sent to the brig."
I most likely knew why Uncle Gibbs was in prison. Mama said he imbibed too much, which I think means drinks too much, and we all know Gibbs loves his rum. Even Captain Jack teases him about that. I think it's fun to watch Uncle Gibbs and Captain Jack argue about rum.
"Now Jacob, when you're in prison, it's easy to lose all hope of ever seein' the ocean again." He pointed toward the water. "See, I faced the eastern wall, which was well good for sunrises, but not much else. In the brig, you get this tiny cell you can step off in four paces.
"I was in the process of turnin' my cot so that it faced to the north - for good luck - when I first met addled Jack. I'd heard of Captain Sparrow of course, but I only knew he was the unlucky sod who lost his ship to mutiny a couple years prior. Of course, that mutiny meant Jack wasn't one of the undead who fought your parents either. So maybe Jack's luck wasn't so bad.
"They threw Jack into my cell, I'd been there thirteen days already and needless to say I was upset to meet Jack upon such unlucky pretenses. I wasn't ready to dance with Jack Ketch quite yet.
"That dog, he wasn't perturbed in the least to be there, and calmly sat on the edge of my cot, inspectin' his fingernails. We didn't talk at first, but as the day wore on, he began to ask questions about my clothes of all things. Said I tied my cravat like a sailor might, and that I wore me clothes the same way.
"I told him that I'd been with the Royal Navy for ten years when they discharged me on account I couldn't hold my rum, and Jack said he needed a good sailor. So we agreed to help each other out of that prison in exchange for me running the lines for him."
Uncle Gibbs went silent for a moment, remembering I guess. I would have encouraged him to continue, except this was Uncle Gibbs, and he never quit during a story.
"I don't know what he did before he was Captain of the Pearl, but Jack's a smart man. He can read, write and outwit the best of them. It didn't take him long to find a way out of that brig."
"Did you see him do it?" I asked, curious.
"No, I was busy saying my Hail Marys before they came to kill me. But we stopped long enough to for him to talk to a dying prisoner. He was the one who gave us the hint that almost led to the Concepcion."
Oh, I've heard part of the tale before, I would have to remember to ask Uncle Gibbs about that ship the next time he visited.
Uncle Gibbs never gives too honest an answer, he says that detracts from the story, and I could guess sea turtles as well as Jeffery or Su could. So I didn't ask him how they got away from the prison, though I was let down with his answer about escaping the jail. Instead, I picked up Mama's needles and poked around her in sewing kit.
"Have you sailed with the Captain ever since then?" I asked.
"Well, we almost parted our ways that first day, because I helped Jack ready that ship for sail, and he'd helped me escape, like he promised. Except that Jack had a compass I'd seen once before."
"The compass?" I asked.
"Yes, you see, years ago when I was still aboard the Dauntless, we had a visitor from the East India Trading Company who carried a compass that didn't point north, and when I saw Jack with it, I, being without enough rum to think straight, may have burbled something about seeing it before.
"That begun a conversation between Jack and I about several people I knew, sailors living in Tortuga who were out of work like Cotton. Some of them were the very people Jack asked to crew the Pearl before he was marooned, bad eggs like Twigg. Unfortunately, Jack hadn't known them, or known what Barbossa was like.
"I told Jack I had several friends who the navy had put out, through suggestions by the East India Trading Company, who might be looking for a way to get even with them. He agreed to let me help pick the crew the next time around.
"It's amazing how large a world it is, but how small we group of sailors are, especially sailors with nothing left to do after the East India Trading Company ruined our careers."
"Was the East India Trading Company really that powerful?" I asked. It's hard to believe they were when they were destroyed by my father and Captain Jack. Mr Beckett was one of the few men I mother feared - I overheard her talkin' about that one night - and he was defeated by my father and Captain Jack?
"Jacob, you need to remember that a pirate is only as smart as he's learned to be, and Jack's one of the smartest men I've ever met."
"Captain Jack's no smarter than my Mama and father," I said, frowning at him.
"Jack's fooled both of them once or twice as well, Jacob. If you don't believe me, ask your mother."
"Then how come Jack's not king?" I countered.
"Because Jack's wily enough to know who is best for such things. It's why I still sail for him. Jack is a brilliant strategist and cartographer, but needs us for the everyday running of his ship."
"What's that?" I asked.
"A cartographer makes maps. You need to be able to understand measurements, plot distances and read Longitude and latitude to read a map."
I believed that, because Mama had maps in our rooms and most of the visitors we received couldn't read them. She often translated for the other pirates.
"What's a strategist?"
"Someone who outfoxes the navy and the Dutch Trading Company by applying tactics from wars long over. Jack once told me grapples were first used in the Punic Wars and that some of the Navy's tactics were more outdated than that." Uncle Gibbs began to laugh at some memory then.
"No matter how smart Jack is, he needs us to run his ship for him. Why do you think he's like that?"
I wanted to be a Captain like Mama and my father. And here Uncle Gibbs was saying I couldn't be. Unless I learned more, yet before I could answer him, he continued.
"Running a ship can be done by anyone with knowledge how to sail. Not everyone knows how to think."
The door to our rooms opened and I jumped to my feet, dropping the needles before she saw me playing with them. Come to think of it, Mama must have seen me. Why else would she make me learn how to use them the next day? "Uncle Gibbs is here," I told her, but Mama had already seen him and walked in, dressed in her formal silk pirate clothing, taking his hands.
"Mrs Turner," he said, inclining his head and Mama squeezed his hands.
"Mr Gibbs, it's good to see you again." She glanced at me then and Gibbs tsked at her, winking at me.
"Well?" she asked and he only shook his head.
"Give it time, Captain, and we'll see."
Sometimes the conversations Mama has make no sense to me. Even so, I was glad Uncle Gibbs and Captain Jack were there for the dirge, because I didn't want to have to spend another day sewing. And maybe, just maybe, I could get Captain Jack alone long enough to hear his tale 'bout how he and Uncle Gibbs met.
Author: Ceria
Characters: Joshamee Gibbs, Jacob William Turner
Rating: PG
Summary: Little Turner needs a lesson and Gibbs gets to tell a story (#14 Gibbs and Jack backstory).
Disclaimer: Mickey and Co. own the universe and characters and I am not a mouse.
Author's notes: Thank you so much for your help and encouragement, watersword.
Mama tried teaching me how to mend socks yesterday. I sat at her feet the whole afternoon whilst Jeffrey and Su played outside our rooms. Every time I'd fidget and turn my head, following the sounds of their laughter, Mama would look up from her stitching at me. "Can I go play yet?" I asked her once, and she pressed her mouth tight together and frowned. She only does that when she's angry.
Now, Mama isn't someone anyone likes to make angry, because she can make people do things they don't want to do. Of course, we live on Shipwreck Island and she's the King here, so everyone listens to her - about most things. And this wasn't a good day for me to upset Mama either, because two days ago we buried Captain Villanueva. That's the reason I stayed with her yesterday, because she was sad. So I kept inside all day, sitting at her feet while she rocked, learning how to sew.
I thought it was a waste of time, but Captain Teague is always telling me distractions are good to have, maybe this is Mama's distraction. I told him I'd rather learn to swordfight, but Mama said my father would teach me that when he comes home next year. I wish I didn't have to wait so long, because sewing is something girls do, not boys.
"This is important," she said, "Because what happens if a sail rips? Who do you think repairs it? And sailcloth is much harder to sew than socks." I winced when she frowned, that look is the one she used with my friends three days ago when they didn't want to practice their letters. They told her that they're only pirates and she said that any good pirate learns to be smarter than everyone else.
Now Mama? She's a good pirate even though she wasn't raised one, so all the other pirates tell me, especially Teague. He wants me to learn my letters so I can be Keeper of the Code when I get old enough. I haven't told him yet, but I think that would be boring. Maybe if I don't learn to read and write, he'll have to find someone else to keep our code.
But that day while studying? I told Mama I agreed with the other children, that I didn't need to be smarter than anyone else because she was here to protect me; something about those words made her sad, though.
Uncle Gibbs came to find me later that night while I was racing Jeffery and Su. Up along the east cliff there's a narrow strip of grass for us to run. We can't run through the city very well because there's too much junk and everyone says it's dangerous (they all agree with Mama about that).
He just appeared out of the water, in a little rowboat, scaring Su, until she recognized him. I ain't seen Uncle Gibbs for some time, at least the turn of four seasons. Pardon me. A year. Mama doesn't like it when I don't use proper English. She says that's a poor showing for us.
I'm not sure what that means, because you can't really see words, after all.
But Uncle Gibbs - he was hobbling and that hill to reach the grass strip is steep. His cane didn't help very much so I yelled out to Jeffery and Su that I was goin' back with me uncle and I'd see them tomorrow.
Uncle Gibbs isn't like my other uncles. He lets me take his arm and help him walk and doesn't pull away, actin' like he could do it on his own. He asked me if I was hungry and what I wanted to eat and I told him not to bother, that Mama would take care of dinner and Uncle Gibbs told me no, not tonight she wouldn't.
"Why are you here, Uncle Gibbs?" I asked him, because I knew he wasn't expected and he frowned at me. Not angry at my question, but sad like. "We needed to say goodbye," he said, and wouldn't say no more. I figured out later that a Captain died. All the pirate lords began to return that evening and these days they only come here for funerals.
After our burnt dinner that I ended up cooking - but don't tell Mama or she'll try and teach me how to cook next - Uncle Gibbs asked what I knew about Captain Jack.
"I know he's not here very often and Mama stays up late with him when he visits. They talk about my father a lot." I didn't need to tell Gibbs that I often crept from my bed to sneak down the hall and listen to them talk. The other pirates don't talk about Captain Jack in front of me, they just kinda smile and look at each other.
"He eats lunch with me when he visits, while Mama is off working and the other pirates ain't around. He likes to talk about treasure maps."
The good thing about Captain Jack's visits is that Uncle Gibbs comes with him, and he pays a lot of attention to me. He likes me just as Teague likes me, for being me and not as a way to get to Mama. Because Captain Jack told me once, a long time ago, that most of the other pirate lords only like me because they have to.
Three days ago, we got back into that little dinghy and before returning to the city, Uncle Gibbs asked me about my letters. He was concerned about why I didn't want to learn them. "I don't want to learn them, but Mama doesn't understand that," I told him, hoping he'd explain to Mama just how good his life was without needing to read. Because I know Gibbs can't read much beyond his name and a few other words. So I told him about Teague and how he wants me to be Keeper of the Code, and just how boring I thought that would be.
He just shook his head, and said, "Do you know how I met Jack?"
"No sir," I said, grinning, because I love when Gibbs tells stories. He knows the best pirate stories.
"Jack found me. I'd been in a mite of trouble with the Admiral an Captain Norrington, he couldn't help me no longer. So I was to be dismissed an' sent to the brig."
I most likely knew why Uncle Gibbs was in prison. Mama said he imbibed too much, which I think means drinks too much, and we all know Gibbs loves his rum. Even Captain Jack teases him about that. I think it's fun to watch Uncle Gibbs and Captain Jack argue about rum.
"Now Jacob, when you're in prison, it's easy to lose all hope of ever seein' the ocean again." He pointed toward the water. "See, I faced the eastern wall, which was well good for sunrises, but not much else. In the brig, you get this tiny cell you can step off in four paces.
"I was in the process of turnin' my cot so that it faced to the north - for good luck - when I first met addled Jack. I'd heard of Captain Sparrow of course, but I only knew he was the unlucky sod who lost his ship to mutiny a couple years prior. Of course, that mutiny meant Jack wasn't one of the undead who fought your parents either. So maybe Jack's luck wasn't so bad.
"They threw Jack into my cell, I'd been there thirteen days already and needless to say I was upset to meet Jack upon such unlucky pretenses. I wasn't ready to dance with Jack Ketch quite yet.
"That dog, he wasn't perturbed in the least to be there, and calmly sat on the edge of my cot, inspectin' his fingernails. We didn't talk at first, but as the day wore on, he began to ask questions about my clothes of all things. Said I tied my cravat like a sailor might, and that I wore me clothes the same way.
"I told him that I'd been with the Royal Navy for ten years when they discharged me on account I couldn't hold my rum, and Jack said he needed a good sailor. So we agreed to help each other out of that prison in exchange for me running the lines for him."
Uncle Gibbs went silent for a moment, remembering I guess. I would have encouraged him to continue, except this was Uncle Gibbs, and he never quit during a story.
"I don't know what he did before he was Captain of the Pearl, but Jack's a smart man. He can read, write and outwit the best of them. It didn't take him long to find a way out of that brig."
"Did you see him do it?" I asked, curious.
"No, I was busy saying my Hail Marys before they came to kill me. But we stopped long enough to for him to talk to a dying prisoner. He was the one who gave us the hint that almost led to the Concepcion."
Oh, I've heard part of the tale before, I would have to remember to ask Uncle Gibbs about that ship the next time he visited.
Uncle Gibbs never gives too honest an answer, he says that detracts from the story, and I could guess sea turtles as well as Jeffery or Su could. So I didn't ask him how they got away from the prison, though I was let down with his answer about escaping the jail. Instead, I picked up Mama's needles and poked around her in sewing kit.
"Have you sailed with the Captain ever since then?" I asked.
"Well, we almost parted our ways that first day, because I helped Jack ready that ship for sail, and he'd helped me escape, like he promised. Except that Jack had a compass I'd seen once before."
"The compass?" I asked.
"Yes, you see, years ago when I was still aboard the Dauntless, we had a visitor from the East India Trading Company who carried a compass that didn't point north, and when I saw Jack with it, I, being without enough rum to think straight, may have burbled something about seeing it before.
"That begun a conversation between Jack and I about several people I knew, sailors living in Tortuga who were out of work like Cotton. Some of them were the very people Jack asked to crew the Pearl before he was marooned, bad eggs like Twigg. Unfortunately, Jack hadn't known them, or known what Barbossa was like.
"I told Jack I had several friends who the navy had put out, through suggestions by the East India Trading Company, who might be looking for a way to get even with them. He agreed to let me help pick the crew the next time around.
"It's amazing how large a world it is, but how small we group of sailors are, especially sailors with nothing left to do after the East India Trading Company ruined our careers."
"Was the East India Trading Company really that powerful?" I asked. It's hard to believe they were when they were destroyed by my father and Captain Jack. Mr Beckett was one of the few men I mother feared - I overheard her talkin' about that one night - and he was defeated by my father and Captain Jack?
"Jacob, you need to remember that a pirate is only as smart as he's learned to be, and Jack's one of the smartest men I've ever met."
"Captain Jack's no smarter than my Mama and father," I said, frowning at him.
"Jack's fooled both of them once or twice as well, Jacob. If you don't believe me, ask your mother."
"Then how come Jack's not king?" I countered.
"Because Jack's wily enough to know who is best for such things. It's why I still sail for him. Jack is a brilliant strategist and cartographer, but needs us for the everyday running of his ship."
"What's that?" I asked.
"A cartographer makes maps. You need to be able to understand measurements, plot distances and read Longitude and latitude to read a map."
I believed that, because Mama had maps in our rooms and most of the visitors we received couldn't read them. She often translated for the other pirates.
"What's a strategist?"
"Someone who outfoxes the navy and the Dutch Trading Company by applying tactics from wars long over. Jack once told me grapples were first used in the Punic Wars and that some of the Navy's tactics were more outdated than that." Uncle Gibbs began to laugh at some memory then.
"No matter how smart Jack is, he needs us to run his ship for him. Why do you think he's like that?"
I wanted to be a Captain like Mama and my father. And here Uncle Gibbs was saying I couldn't be. Unless I learned more, yet before I could answer him, he continued.
"Running a ship can be done by anyone with knowledge how to sail. Not everyone knows how to think."
The door to our rooms opened and I jumped to my feet, dropping the needles before she saw me playing with them. Come to think of it, Mama must have seen me. Why else would she make me learn how to use them the next day? "Uncle Gibbs is here," I told her, but Mama had already seen him and walked in, dressed in her formal silk pirate clothing, taking his hands.
"Mrs Turner," he said, inclining his head and Mama squeezed his hands.
"Mr Gibbs, it's good to see you again." She glanced at me then and Gibbs tsked at her, winking at me.
"Well?" she asked and he only shook his head.
"Give it time, Captain, and we'll see."
Sometimes the conversations Mama has make no sense to me. Even so, I was glad Uncle Gibbs and Captain Jack were there for the dirge, because I didn't want to have to spend another day sewing. And maybe, just maybe, I could get Captain Jack alone long enough to hear his tale 'bout how he and Uncle Gibbs met.