Pirates of the Caribbean: Love and Water
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,587
Disclaimer: All for Disney, none for me. :(
Summary: Prompt- An eldritch female (siren, faerie, sylph, whatever) is certain Jack belongs with her society. Jack is a lot less certain. For potc_fest.
A/N: Well, it was going to be very light-hearted and silly, and it was for almost the whole thing. Then I got to the end...
FYI: "Aycayía" is the Caribbean Neo-Taíno culture's version of a mermaid.
Their voices were strange. Which wasn’t saying much when taken with everything else about them, but their voices were getting to Captain Jack Sparrow the most at the moment. They came from far off, like distant waves or wind through palm fronds- it seemed to take forever for the words to actually form.
They’d surrounded him now, in the shimmering jade shallows of the lagoon. He glanced back to the beach and wondered how fast he could sprint in sodden breeches, doubted he could be on his feet and off fast enough to out-distance grasping webbed fingers. And, anyway, there was that other little trick of theirs, the one that had gotten him into this mess in the first place.
“So, dear sailor,” the one who called herself Aycayía said, eventually, “What brings you to join us upon our isle?” The scales of her thick tail flashed in the lazy surf as it flicked back and forth like a cat’s.
Jack squinted into her wide, cerulean eyes that were just off human, and an idea flitted through his brain. “If you’d care to find out, my watery lovelies, I can show you.”
The group exchanged excited smiles. Aycayía shot Jack a sly grin, and stood up on the pale, slender legs that had first caught Jack’s eye. Ah, he’d missed them. She held out a dry hand and her words came promptly, “Show me, dear sailor.”
Jack forced a beaming grin onto his face, “Instantly.”
***
After about an hour or so, Jack was smiling much more easily. Not only had that familiar, pleasant, woozy sensation come into his head, but his plan was working. The... ladies were sprawled out on the rocks and in the water, laughing and singing the songs he’d taught them. Sure, Vallenueva would be curious as to why his rum shipment was so small, but that was a problem for another day as far as Jack was concerned.
“Tell me more, darling sailor,” Aycayía cooed, her head lolling damply against his shoulder, “Tell me of your love.”
“Mm, right, we were speaking of my sweet Pearl, weren’t we?” Jack frowned, and reluctantly passed his rum to the nearest seaborn lady. Times were rare when Jack truly felt the need for a clear head, but this seemed like one of them.
“My Pearl is a lady of unsurpassed beauty,” Jack extolled, “The sight of her obsidian sa- er, silky locks is enough to strike fear...ful awe in the heart of any man. Ahh... her rigging is first-rate- that is, her fashionable attire is quite... fashionable. She moves with the grace of a tigress, rolling beneath my feet... Or, not my feet, as it were, beneath, ah, me, in more intimate moments.” Jack nudged Aycayía, who giggled and flushed a vibrant lime, “And she’s always at my side, that is, unless some mangy sod steals her away, which is the case from time to time...”
Aycayía gasped, “Your love is not constant and true?”
Jack sighed wearily, “Aye but she would be, you see, if only she could. However my Pearl is so flush with attractiveness that she draws in competitors quite on accident. Any man would long for a shi- surely pulchritudinous piece of woman flesh as the most charming and radiant Pearl. And so I must battle daily to keep her dainty hand in mine.” Jack wrapped his tan fingers around the greenish ones of Aycayía.
“But... my sweet sailor, if you spend the rest of your days on our isle... what shall become of your abandoned Pearl?”
Jack snorted, “Gibbs has been pining for Singapore, no doubt she’ll be rotting in the harbor before the season’s out.” He coughed when he met Aycayía’s puzzled eye, “In other words, her loathsome yet persistent suitor, the rich but malodorous Mister Gibbs shall catch her in his clutches and lock her away. She shall see the harbor from her window and sigh for her lost capt- uh, sailor.” Jack gazed wistfully into the distance, imbuing every facial muscle with melancholy reverie.
The sound of wet sniffling caught his attention. Aycayía was dabbing at her eyes with a scrap of floating seaweed. She gazed up at him, a mess of extra-salty tears. “My pr-precious sailor,” she choked out, “Would Pearl be as l-lonely as my sisters and I, w-w-waiting for love to wash up upon her shore, as you have washed up upon ours?”
Jack glowered into the blazing sunset. He was getting awfully chilly in some unpleasant places, sitting in water as he was, “For clarity’s purposes, love, I was in a boat. A rather nice boat, for its size, the hull of which you and your sisters bashed a bloody great hole into, as it turned out. Then came the washing up. But, in answer to your question, yes. She will be thrice as lonely as you can imagine, most likely pine away into nothingness within a fortnight.”
“How dreadful...” Aycayía murmured, tucking herself against Jack’s side and sipping some more rum.
Jack swallowed his growing impatience as best he could. “Aye, dreadful indeed. My effervescent and bonny Pearl, bereft of her sweetheart, who is me. Separated from her pure heart’s only desire, one Captain Jack Sparrow, by leagues of sea water for the rest of her solitary existence. Such a sad fate, when the ship arriving tomorrow morning, round ten-ish of the clock, call it nine with the wind, could so easily bear me off into her soft embrace once again.”
Aycayía stiffened against him, and Jack winced, “You- you mean, you would leave us? To return to your beloved Pearl?”
“Ah, well, yes, that is a manner in which such a sentiment might be expressed.” He cringed, waiting for... he wasn’t sure what. Maybe that powerful-looking tail to come around and put a dent in his skull.
Instead, she cast her head back, draining her bottle before chucking it out into the dark waves. “Why are the good ones always taken?” she inquired bitterly.
“Couldn’t wager a guess, darling,” Jack murmured, “But, if it’s all the same, I’d best be off, morning shall be around soon enough and my passage to Pearl along with it.”
Jack moved to stand, but Aycayía snatched two tight holds on his shirt. “No! Be still, dear sailor!” she hissed, “If my sisters know you wish to desert us, they will surely rip you limb from limb.”
Jack froze, eyes darting around at the closest rum-soaked sea ladies, “You’ve odd ideas as to what constitutes proper hospitality, love.”
“Do as I do,” she whispered, and kissed him hotly. Jack was momentarily taken aback by a mouth tasting of raw fish and alcohol, but could admit he had experienced worse, and returned the kiss as well as he could.
“Ooh, Aycayía,” hooted one of the still-conscious ladies, “Showing our sweet sailor what he’s been missing on the land?”
Aycayía peeled her lips off Jack’s and crooned, “I’ll make him forget such a thing ever existed.”
With her sisters cheering and whistling as baudily as any pirate Jack had known, the pair stood and walked into the island’s thick jungle foliage. Jack grinned among the shadowy leaves, “Aye, this is good. Come morning, I’ll be off and your sisters none the wiser.”
“Yes,” Aycayía replied quietly, “My sailor?”
“Name of Jack, love, Captain Jack Sparrow.”
“Jack, would your Pearl take exception if you should enjoy my company tonight?”
Jack blinked. “D’you mean in the, ah,” he groped for a word she would understand, “horizontal sense?”
Aycayía stepped closer, placed a hand on his chest. One could mistake her liquid eyes for human in the gloom. “I shall be so very lonely when you are gone...”
“And you’ve been so kind, keeping my limbs attached a-rights this evening. Pearl would hardly smile upon my refusal of anything you should request...” Sure, she had a fishy smell about her, but it reminded Jack of the sea. Low tide, anyway. And soon enough he was happy to gather Aycayía close to him again.
***
“Little did I know, it was the compass Beckett was after all along! That changed everything, y’see.” Jack gestured expansively with his bottle of rum, and glanced over at the ship slowly growing on the horizon.
“What is a compass?” Aycayía asked.
“Eh, ‘s not important. You best run along to your sisters, now. Might rip me apart on principle, if they think I’ve done a bad turn to one of their own.”
Aycayía’s face filled with sudden sorrow, but she smiled weakly. “I am not of their kind any longer." Her eyes were downcast.
Jack’s brow furrowed, “Say again?”
“I have been separate from the sea for too long- the rise and fall of a moon. Now I may never return.” Her gaze turned to the gentle waves curling up the beach’s length. It was filled with the sadness Jack had pretended to the evening prior, and it squeezed his tarnished heart.
“You gave up your home for me,” he said. He shifted uncomfortably as he registered a slight panic at the idea. Certainly others had performed kindesses for him from time to time, but this was in another league.
“The isle shall be my home. My sisters shall mourn my loss, and... I shall be very lonely. For a time. Farewell, beloved sailor... dear Jack.” She stood, arms wrapped around her waist, and padded away into the jungle.
Mister Gibbs wisely chose not to comment on the captain’s silence, as the rowboat approached the Pearl.
Word Count: 1,587
Disclaimer: All for Disney, none for me. :(
Summary: Prompt- An eldritch female (siren, faerie, sylph, whatever) is certain Jack belongs with her society. Jack is a lot less certain. For potc_fest.
A/N: Well, it was going to be very light-hearted and silly, and it was for almost the whole thing. Then I got to the end...
FYI: "Aycayía" is the Caribbean Neo-Taíno culture's version of a mermaid.
Their voices were strange. Which wasn’t saying much when taken with everything else about them, but their voices were getting to Captain Jack Sparrow the most at the moment. They came from far off, like distant waves or wind through palm fronds- it seemed to take forever for the words to actually form.
They’d surrounded him now, in the shimmering jade shallows of the lagoon. He glanced back to the beach and wondered how fast he could sprint in sodden breeches, doubted he could be on his feet and off fast enough to out-distance grasping webbed fingers. And, anyway, there was that other little trick of theirs, the one that had gotten him into this mess in the first place.
“So, dear sailor,” the one who called herself Aycayía said, eventually, “What brings you to join us upon our isle?” The scales of her thick tail flashed in the lazy surf as it flicked back and forth like a cat’s.
Jack squinted into her wide, cerulean eyes that were just off human, and an idea flitted through his brain. “If you’d care to find out, my watery lovelies, I can show you.”
The group exchanged excited smiles. Aycayía shot Jack a sly grin, and stood up on the pale, slender legs that had first caught Jack’s eye. Ah, he’d missed them. She held out a dry hand and her words came promptly, “Show me, dear sailor.”
Jack forced a beaming grin onto his face, “Instantly.”
***
After about an hour or so, Jack was smiling much more easily. Not only had that familiar, pleasant, woozy sensation come into his head, but his plan was working. The... ladies were sprawled out on the rocks and in the water, laughing and singing the songs he’d taught them. Sure, Vallenueva would be curious as to why his rum shipment was so small, but that was a problem for another day as far as Jack was concerned.
“Tell me more, darling sailor,” Aycayía cooed, her head lolling damply against his shoulder, “Tell me of your love.”
“Mm, right, we were speaking of my sweet Pearl, weren’t we?” Jack frowned, and reluctantly passed his rum to the nearest seaborn lady. Times were rare when Jack truly felt the need for a clear head, but this seemed like one of them.
“My Pearl is a lady of unsurpassed beauty,” Jack extolled, “The sight of her obsidian sa- er, silky locks is enough to strike fear...ful awe in the heart of any man. Ahh... her rigging is first-rate- that is, her fashionable attire is quite... fashionable. She moves with the grace of a tigress, rolling beneath my feet... Or, not my feet, as it were, beneath, ah, me, in more intimate moments.” Jack nudged Aycayía, who giggled and flushed a vibrant lime, “And she’s always at my side, that is, unless some mangy sod steals her away, which is the case from time to time...”
Aycayía gasped, “Your love is not constant and true?”
Jack sighed wearily, “Aye but she would be, you see, if only she could. However my Pearl is so flush with attractiveness that she draws in competitors quite on accident. Any man would long for a shi- surely pulchritudinous piece of woman flesh as the most charming and radiant Pearl. And so I must battle daily to keep her dainty hand in mine.” Jack wrapped his tan fingers around the greenish ones of Aycayía.
“But... my sweet sailor, if you spend the rest of your days on our isle... what shall become of your abandoned Pearl?”
Jack snorted, “Gibbs has been pining for Singapore, no doubt she’ll be rotting in the harbor before the season’s out.” He coughed when he met Aycayía’s puzzled eye, “In other words, her loathsome yet persistent suitor, the rich but malodorous Mister Gibbs shall catch her in his clutches and lock her away. She shall see the harbor from her window and sigh for her lost capt- uh, sailor.” Jack gazed wistfully into the distance, imbuing every facial muscle with melancholy reverie.
The sound of wet sniffling caught his attention. Aycayía was dabbing at her eyes with a scrap of floating seaweed. She gazed up at him, a mess of extra-salty tears. “My pr-precious sailor,” she choked out, “Would Pearl be as l-lonely as my sisters and I, w-w-waiting for love to wash up upon her shore, as you have washed up upon ours?”
Jack glowered into the blazing sunset. He was getting awfully chilly in some unpleasant places, sitting in water as he was, “For clarity’s purposes, love, I was in a boat. A rather nice boat, for its size, the hull of which you and your sisters bashed a bloody great hole into, as it turned out. Then came the washing up. But, in answer to your question, yes. She will be thrice as lonely as you can imagine, most likely pine away into nothingness within a fortnight.”
“How dreadful...” Aycayía murmured, tucking herself against Jack’s side and sipping some more rum.
Jack swallowed his growing impatience as best he could. “Aye, dreadful indeed. My effervescent and bonny Pearl, bereft of her sweetheart, who is me. Separated from her pure heart’s only desire, one Captain Jack Sparrow, by leagues of sea water for the rest of her solitary existence. Such a sad fate, when the ship arriving tomorrow morning, round ten-ish of the clock, call it nine with the wind, could so easily bear me off into her soft embrace once again.”
Aycayía stiffened against him, and Jack winced, “You- you mean, you would leave us? To return to your beloved Pearl?”
“Ah, well, yes, that is a manner in which such a sentiment might be expressed.” He cringed, waiting for... he wasn’t sure what. Maybe that powerful-looking tail to come around and put a dent in his skull.
Instead, she cast her head back, draining her bottle before chucking it out into the dark waves. “Why are the good ones always taken?” she inquired bitterly.
“Couldn’t wager a guess, darling,” Jack murmured, “But, if it’s all the same, I’d best be off, morning shall be around soon enough and my passage to Pearl along with it.”
Jack moved to stand, but Aycayía snatched two tight holds on his shirt. “No! Be still, dear sailor!” she hissed, “If my sisters know you wish to desert us, they will surely rip you limb from limb.”
Jack froze, eyes darting around at the closest rum-soaked sea ladies, “You’ve odd ideas as to what constitutes proper hospitality, love.”
“Do as I do,” she whispered, and kissed him hotly. Jack was momentarily taken aback by a mouth tasting of raw fish and alcohol, but could admit he had experienced worse, and returned the kiss as well as he could.
“Ooh, Aycayía,” hooted one of the still-conscious ladies, “Showing our sweet sailor what he’s been missing on the land?”
Aycayía peeled her lips off Jack’s and crooned, “I’ll make him forget such a thing ever existed.”
With her sisters cheering and whistling as baudily as any pirate Jack had known, the pair stood and walked into the island’s thick jungle foliage. Jack grinned among the shadowy leaves, “Aye, this is good. Come morning, I’ll be off and your sisters none the wiser.”
“Yes,” Aycayía replied quietly, “My sailor?”
“Name of Jack, love, Captain Jack Sparrow.”
“Jack, would your Pearl take exception if you should enjoy my company tonight?”
Jack blinked. “D’you mean in the, ah,” he groped for a word she would understand, “horizontal sense?”
Aycayía stepped closer, placed a hand on his chest. One could mistake her liquid eyes for human in the gloom. “I shall be so very lonely when you are gone...”
“And you’ve been so kind, keeping my limbs attached a-rights this evening. Pearl would hardly smile upon my refusal of anything you should request...” Sure, she had a fishy smell about her, but it reminded Jack of the sea. Low tide, anyway. And soon enough he was happy to gather Aycayía close to him again.
***
“Little did I know, it was the compass Beckett was after all along! That changed everything, y’see.” Jack gestured expansively with his bottle of rum, and glanced over at the ship slowly growing on the horizon.
“What is a compass?” Aycayía asked.
“Eh, ‘s not important. You best run along to your sisters, now. Might rip me apart on principle, if they think I’ve done a bad turn to one of their own.”
Aycayía’s face filled with sudden sorrow, but she smiled weakly. “I am not of their kind any longer." Her eyes were downcast.
Jack’s brow furrowed, “Say again?”
“I have been separate from the sea for too long- the rise and fall of a moon. Now I may never return.” Her gaze turned to the gentle waves curling up the beach’s length. It was filled with the sadness Jack had pretended to the evening prior, and it squeezed his tarnished heart.
“You gave up your home for me,” he said. He shifted uncomfortably as he registered a slight panic at the idea. Certainly others had performed kindesses for him from time to time, but this was in another league.
“The isle shall be my home. My sisters shall mourn my loss, and... I shall be very lonely. For a time. Farewell, beloved sailor... dear Jack.” She stood, arms wrapped around her waist, and padded away into the jungle.
Mister Gibbs wisely chose not to comment on the captain’s silence, as the rowboat approached the Pearl.