scourgeofpiracy | (no subject)

(no subject)

He has a room, above the bar, but he's out of it as much as he is in at present. Either working on the Pearl or, as now, just walking the lakeside and trying to pretend it's a real shoreline, and it's salt water he smells, not fresh.

Sometimes it even almost works.

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"And I... come from the same world as the Captain. It might help if I explain I was once a Navy officer."

A crooked smile.

"Ah. It does at that," she agrees, and clasps her hands together behind her back as she looks at the ship on the lake.

"It's different when they're pirates from one's own world."

"I've always tried to follow the rules here", he says sombrely. "But even when the rules of one's own world don't apply... friendship is not always possible."

"Understanably. There's some for whom I've considered breaking the rules more than ones," she says, mildly.

She doesn't, on first glance, look like she could do much harm even if she did choose to break the rules, admittedly.

Not unarmed, perhaps. But he's not stupid enough to believe no woman from any world can learn to fight, armed or otherwise.

He smiles ruefully.

"I've drunk with Captain Sparrow more than once. Here."

It was never with Jack on the outside, even after his fall from grace.

"Far more than I'd do if pirates from a world of mine appeared," she admits readily. "Or others of a different way of life."

She looks back at him and smiles, kindly. "You try, then, don't you?"

"Things have changed", he said simply. "In more ways than I can easily list."

"For the better or the worse?"

Grey eyes look at him inquiringly before she laughs, a little, and looks away. "I'm sorry, sir. I'm inclined to be curious."

"I don't recall seeing curiosity on any standard list of sins", he says, with a touch of amusement in his voice.

"No, but it does tend to be deadly at times," but she's grinning. "Not a large concern of mine, really, but I do tend to it without thinking and then at times suspect I've caused offense."

"In this case, I assure you you haven't."

He did jump on a distraction from the original question awfully readily, though.

So he did, and she lets him, still smiling a bit. "Were you in the Navy for very long?"

"Twenty years", he tells her a little wistfully. "From midshipman to commodore."

"I've never met a commodore before," she says with not a little amount of respect.

Not in London, anyway.

"An honor, then."

He smiles slightly, looking out over the lake.

"A former commodore, at least. But I suppose that's better than nothing."

"Oh. I'm sorry," she says, softly, and looks at her hands.

"It was hardly your fault", he tells her after a moment's silence.

"Well, no," she agrees and smiles over at him. "But I still am."

"And I thank you for it", he says sincerely.

"And how should I best address you now, then?"

He gives that a moment's thought, then smiles.

"I think James would suit, perhaps."

"Far simpler than Commodore, too," she says cheerfully and offers him a hand.

"Simpler and more accurate, it's nothing but advantages."

He takes her hand and bows over it, just slightly.

And she drops a bit of a curtsey--slightly too formal, for a moment, but old habits die hard, harder than old memories, and she laughs.

"For the best, then. Have you been here long, James?"

"I've been in and out for... perhaps a year or more. More recently, just in... a few months, that."