scourgeofpiracy

"Do you, now?" he asks, stepping back with an interested look.

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"I do, indeed." His hands, it must be said, are full. Two large bottles dangling from between the fingers of each hand is a feat.

"You've been kind of... down lately, I've noticed, and I proudly bear the friend's responsibility of cheering you up again." He smiles the smile of a concerned friend who is determined to set things to rights. "Here," he holds out two of the bottles for Norrington to take one. "They're too good to drink alone."

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"It's a little early in the morning", he says mildly, but he's already reaching for the offered bottle.

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"I didn't really know when you'd be around. Sometimes people here can go weeks without seeing someone who lives just down the hall." Aphelise steps in to set the future bottles down on a small table, leaving one in his hands for now.

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"...well, I suppose now is as good a time as ever. Though we'll have to stick to a quick drink - I'm expected elsewhere."

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"To help finish the Pearl, right?" Aphelise says as they sit in their accustomed armchairs. It isn't as if this is his first visit, after all.

"You have all been coming along wonderfully, with that. She looks almost as good as new, now."

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There's a moment's pause while Norrington pours the drinks, face coincidentally invisible. He's smiling when he looks up, though.

"Yes, indeed. She's already seaworthy."

If she ever sees an ocean again.

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"It'd be a shame if her captain and she don't find a way back, now, after all that work to repair her."

Aphelise lifts his glass when its poured, "We need something appropriate to drink to..."

"Ah. To finding a door."

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"To finding a door", he echoes, lifting his glass and drinking deep.

As is the way of these things, one quick drink turns into... many.

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With good drink and good company, how could it not?

Aphelise runs a finger along the rim of his glass, reflectively. "No, I totally agree with you there. It was a bold move, and the right one to make. You had already devoted so many years to the cause, no one deserved it more."

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"It was the only way", Norrington says flatly, well in his cups but voice still reasonably clear. "If I was ever to take back my life."

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"Your life would be yours again, if not for being stuck here." He sighs. "That's how it goes, sometimes, though. Not much we can do about it. We just wait for the door."

He lifts their current bottle, showing how little is left. "Want to kill it off?"

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Norrington just nods and holds out his cup for the rest of the bottle.

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Norrington had been expected elsewhere, yes. Quite some time ago, in fact. With that in mind, perhaps it should not be too surprising that there is a knock on the door.

"-Mr Norrington, sir?"

The door is not locked, so Wellard pushes it open. There are quite a few reasons as to why he thought Norrington was late-

By the narrowing of his eyes as he sees Aphelise, this was not one of them.

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Aphelise pauses, bottle held slightly tipped but not near enough to let the liquid pour into Norrington's cup, and looks over his shoulder at Wellard. He is smiling with the vague expectant air of one whose visit to a friend has been interuppted by someone else, thinly veiling the amused arrogance in his cold eyes.

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He turns, unsmiling and impatient.

"Yes, Mr. Wellard?"

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Wellard manages to take the glare away from Aphelise, to look over to Norrington.

"We were expecting you out on the Pearl some while ago, sir. Captain Sparrow was wondering where you were."

There is pointed ignoring of Aphelise, as Wellard walks into the room.

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"And we wouldn't want to keep the captain waiting..." Aphelise murmurs facetiously, softly enough only Norrington can hear.

Everyone knows the punishment for disobeying a superior officer, don't they?

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Norrington eyes them both narrowly.

"I hardly think I can be that necessary to proceedings at this late stage, Mr. Wellard."

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Needed or not, Wellard's main idea right now is to just get Norrington away from

The Dark

Aphelise.

"We would still like you out there, sir." He puts his hand on Norrington's arm.

"So if you would come along, please-"

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Norrington jerks his arm away so fast it's enough to send Wellard reeling, though it wasn't a blow, and stands.

"I think you need to remember your place, Midshipman."

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Aphelise straightens, but does not stand or try to restrain Norrington. He speaks, though, as if to calm him down, dismissing Wellard. "Don't let the boy get to you, James. He doesn't know anything."

(The boy knows nothing, sir. Doesn't know the bobstay from the spanker boom.)

Aphelise watches Norrington and the Midshipman sent to fetch the tardy ex-Commodore to the Captain.

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Wellard stumbles back a step, looking at Norrington in surprise. He frowns. "I'm hardly in the navy anymore, Mister Norrington."
("I'm not your whipping boy now.")
Then he glares at Aphelise. "And you can quite stay out of this- None of this concerns you, and you can just leave!"

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The Black Rider ignores Wellard, for the most part, speaking softly in his slightly nasal voice. "Of course, you are no longer in the navy either, James, though through no fault of yours."

It's faint, the stress on the last word, but it carries all insinuations of the fault lying with other possibly involved parties. Mostly with the same captain by whom he is now summoned.

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