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[scourgeofpiracy]

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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[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

He smiles slightly, looking out over the lake.

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

[called_lioness]

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

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

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

[called_lioness]

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

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

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

[called_lioness]

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

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

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

"I think James would suit, perhaps."

[called_lioness]

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

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

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

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

[called_lioness]

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?"

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

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

[called_lioness]

"Do you like it here?"

She likes to find that out.

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

"It's not a bad place. Though I think I liked it better when I was free to leave."

[called_lioness]

She has to laug hat that.

"Aye, well, I should like it better that way too."

Or, rather, if she were free to leave for a place she could go and come back from easily.

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

"Have you ever visited other worlds?" he asks, curious.

[called_lioness]

"A few. I was born in London, but I've been to--at least one other London, that wasn't my own, and to two or three other worlds. I liked them better than England, really," she says after a moment.

"I always feel badly admitting that."

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

"I don't think you should", he says thoughtfully. "It's really not so different from moving to another country, except in scale."

[called_lioness]

"I think it's the feeling of how you should be loyal to King and Country," she laughs.

But then, she is.

Just...different King, different Country, than that she was born to.

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

"Should be? Perhaps. But when did the whole world do what they 'should'?"

[called_lioness]

"Never. Only ever what it had to," she says, reasonably, and bends to pick a stone and send it skipping across the lake.

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

"And sometimes... circumstances change, and what one has to do changes with them."

[called_lioness]

"Aye. Be it kind or cruel, we all do what we must, though."

It's simple, really.

It always, she thinks, a bit ruefully, has been simple.

That doesn't make it easy.

"And sometimes you can't tell which."

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

"You can very rarely tell with any certainty", he agrees quietly. "And sometimes it's harder still."

[called_lioness]

"But that's life, isn't it? Or maybe something more," she muses. "I'm not sure it's so different should you die. Not in this place, anyway."

[scourgeofpiracy.livejournal.com]

"This place removes all kinds of certainties", he says wryly. "Before death and after."