veronica_rich (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
veronica_rich) wrote2009-04-02 12:50 am
veronica_rich) wrote2009-04-02 12:50 am
POTC Ficlet: "Up and Down As Tide"
Title: "Up and Down As Tide"
Rating: PG
Jack and Will or J/W - your choice
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or turn a profit off their portrayal
Summary: How does an upright citizen like Captain Turner solve a problem like Captain Sparrow? Written for the "changing tides" prompt at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
jackwill.
A/N: Unbetaed. Written on a feverish brain. Feedback welcomed.
Christ, how he’d hated this man! First, he’d lulled Will into a false trust, forcing him through his own conscience to offer up his own life to protect Jack’s against the commodore and the Crown; then he’d hurled that life against the sharp edges of Davy Jones’s self-hatred and immolation.
Finally, he’d turned against Will in the basest way he could: Trying to seduce away the one person who would willingly become the orphan's new family.
This wasn’t even dwelling overmuch on the dramatic pause that had given Jones the chance to kill him. And against his better judgment Will had tried to forget the glimpse he’d gotten of Jack’s face, the absolute horror, shock, and pain in his expression as the life dribbled out of Will into wet, algae-slicked planks the day he was born into captaincy for the Ship of Death.
But dying upon those same planks now was a drowned, battered shell of the pirate Will had been forced to recognize as a good man despite Jack’s constant streak of self-service. The kneeling captain slid large hands into the half-corpse’s matted black hair, cupping the sides of his head, and closed his eyes. Energy flowed from skin to skin as he tightened and flexed his fingers, willed from beneath the mingled admiration/repulsiveness he’d always harbored for Jack, until he felt the head lifting, moving on its own.
He opened his eyes and stood, offering his fellow captain a hand up. Jack eyed it, then took it, his dark eyes never leaving Will’s as he followed. There was no disappointment, no mocking this time – rather, Jack’s own brand of admiration and respect.
And perhaps something else … a thing that matched the shift in Will’s own perception of the maddening personality that had perplexed him since the night Jack had waved off his crew’s betrayal with a “They done what’s right by them.” Something that had kept him from taking off Jack’s head on a couple of occasions since, when he would’ve been quite justified in doing so.
Something that made him pull back Death’s hounds this very night and not force a decision between service and demise upon the strange, sparkling fellow. Something in the blood that now flowed and pooled under the guidance of tides and moon and sun rather than of a heart.
“Some rum, pirate?” he finally asked, letting the smile touch his overwise eyes.
After a few beats, Jack nodded almost imperceptibly. “Aye,” he assented, still gripping Will’s hand in a prolonged clasp. “That’ll work, blacksmith.”
Rating: PG
Jack and Will or J/W - your choice
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or turn a profit off their portrayal
Summary: How does an upright citizen like Captain Turner solve a problem like Captain Sparrow? Written for the "changing tides" prompt at
jackwill.A/N: Unbetaed. Written on a feverish brain. Feedback welcomed.
Christ, how he’d hated this man! First, he’d lulled Will into a false trust, forcing him through his own conscience to offer up his own life to protect Jack’s against the commodore and the Crown; then he’d hurled that life against the sharp edges of Davy Jones’s self-hatred and immolation.
Finally, he’d turned against Will in the basest way he could: Trying to seduce away the one person who would willingly become the orphan's new family.
This wasn’t even dwelling overmuch on the dramatic pause that had given Jones the chance to kill him. And against his better judgment Will had tried to forget the glimpse he’d gotten of Jack’s face, the absolute horror, shock, and pain in his expression as the life dribbled out of Will into wet, algae-slicked planks the day he was born into captaincy for the Ship of Death.
But dying upon those same planks now was a drowned, battered shell of the pirate Will had been forced to recognize as a good man despite Jack’s constant streak of self-service. The kneeling captain slid large hands into the half-corpse’s matted black hair, cupping the sides of his head, and closed his eyes. Energy flowed from skin to skin as he tightened and flexed his fingers, willed from beneath the mingled admiration/repulsiveness he’d always harbored for Jack, until he felt the head lifting, moving on its own.
He opened his eyes and stood, offering his fellow captain a hand up. Jack eyed it, then took it, his dark eyes never leaving Will’s as he followed. There was no disappointment, no mocking this time – rather, Jack’s own brand of admiration and respect.
And perhaps something else … a thing that matched the shift in Will’s own perception of the maddening personality that had perplexed him since the night Jack had waved off his crew’s betrayal with a “They done what’s right by them.” Something that had kept him from taking off Jack’s head on a couple of occasions since, when he would’ve been quite justified in doing so.
Something that made him pull back Death’s hounds this very night and not force a decision between service and demise upon the strange, sparkling fellow. Something in the blood that now flowed and pooled under the guidance of tides and moon and sun rather than of a heart.
“Some rum, pirate?” he finally asked, letting the smile touch his overwise eyes.
After a few beats, Jack nodded almost imperceptibly. “Aye,” he assented, still gripping Will’s hand in a prolonged clasp. “That’ll work, blacksmith.”
no subject
So very fine!
You know, Jack actually betrays Will a total of twice in all three movies, both times in DM: when he sends him to the Dutchman then during the three-way duel Jack points out it's Will that Norrington should blame more Jack.
Jack MANIPULATES Will many more times for his own agendas but none of those instances work directly against Will's own interests or well-being.
In the game going on between Jack and Elizabeth, if she'd offered herself, he'd certainly have taken her up on it but the choice WAS hers and she didn't make it. Meanwhile, she was easily doing as much teasing as he was seducing, hardly the betrayal Will sees it, but he's quite humanly jealous when he witnesses the kiss--and it's initiated by Elizabeth for her OWN agenda.
But in Will's POV, he'd reasonably not take kindly to being maneuvered. That touches a man's pride in a very fundamental way. Will blames Jack even for his OWN decision to save Jack from the gallows, which is a stretch.
I also like that you confront Will's very feasible resentment of Jack's pausing to gloat, which gave Jones the time to stab Will. That too is damning him for lacking hindsight, but Will is stuck on the Dutchman and not inclined to make fine distinctions among his grievances.
What makes this story SO good, is not only that Will moves past that, he's not simply being "nobly forgiving".
There is such layering of emotion and understanding. No one-dimensional noble-Will here! After his years on the Dutchman, he's seen the complexity of the soul, the mixed shades of gray in every motive.
Beyond his grudges he can recognize the good in Jack alongside his self-serving schemes, his inherent trickster nature.
People tend to forget or shrug off the event that sets the whole adventure in motion; Jack saves a drowning woman he not only doesn't know but the rescue will draw unwanted attention and he is in fact captured and condemned out of hand!
>And against his better judgment Will had tried to forget the glimpse he’d gotten of Jack’s face< So Will's better judgment would be precisely to remember that he'd seen Jack at his most honest, all masks dropped.
There is in Jack a core of humanity that at the very last will do "the right thing" because it IS the right thing. There is in Will the greatness of soul to step past his grievances to respond to that generously.
That indefinable something in Jack that calls to him is a shared fundamental decency. They may not be "peas in a pod" but there is commonality at bottom. Will salutes it when he treats Jack as fellow captain and Jack sees and accepts Will's gesture for the fine thing it is.
*grin* Also like everyone else, I love the line:
> “Aye,” he assented, still gripping Will’s hand in a prolonged clasp. “That’ll work, blacksmith.”<
I, too flashed to Babe, then I also thought of Gibbs in the pig pen, dazedly figuring his way through Jack's convoluted words to a free drink, "Aye, that'll about do it."
But I have to mention one other line that gave me shivers it was so good:
>Something in the blood that now flowed and pooled under the guidance of tides and moon and sun rather than of a heart.<
I think you are the only one I've read so far that pauses to recognize that Will's whole being now moves to other rhythms, attuned to nature with a directness beyond human. What a strange, eerie beauty in the notion that, lacking a heart, it's the lunar tides that pull his blood in his veins. For an instant it makes him a magical creature, as strange and glittering in his own way.
no subject
I'll just say I appreciate you taking so much time to think about it, and hope to similarly entertain in the future. And that you make a lot of good points food for thought ....
no subject
Believe me, I'm relieved my comments, long as they were, didn't seem too much or overstated. Frankly RL has been driving me to the wall and just the last couple of days has upped the ante tremendously. I'll just say I'm a full time caregiver to an elderly relative and a life of my own will have to be in snatches in foreseeable future. So just a general apology: If I'm not writing these marathon reviw posts in future, it doesn't mean I didn't like the story or I've lost interest in the fandom--it's a lifeline these days! There's often only enough time to READ much less post.
no subject
Caring for sick or elderly relatives - or anyone else - takes its toll. I've been through that myself and know how much patience is required. Much is more important than fanfic, but don't give up reading it, even if you can't comment. (And aim for humor in your reading. That usually seems to help me.)