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carewyncromwell · 4 years

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Back with another installment of the POTC AU...and we have entered mermaid (and men) waters, folks. These two lovely creatures are Merman!Kai Williams and Mermaid!Keira Jones, owned by @hphm-brooke, based on their designs here, but with more of the “fishy” look the mermaids have while underwater in Pirates 4! (They look much more like Brooke’s concepts, when they’re above water.) I hope I did your kids justice, cherie! Yes, I know this visual logically doesn’t work at all as neat as it looks, since Carewyn should be drowning if there’s a hole in the ship she can see through: I was stupid and half asleep when I originally drew this, but I went ahead and conjured up an explanation for it for the actual writing section, so indulge me. XD;;

Some LGBT+ headcanons of mine for the HPHM cast are also featured here -- namely, McNully as gay, Skye as lesbian, and Charlie as aroace. (I also personally see Carewyn and Orion as ace/pan and gray-A, respectively. ^.^) Feel free to ignore them if you see these characters differently than I do...goodness knows I understand why plenty of people would want to hook up with Charlie!! He can always be interpreted as demi, gray-A, or just a late bloomer here too, if thou dost prefer. <3

For the previous part of this AU, click here -- for the full POTC AU tag, click here -- otherwise, enjoy! And beware any siren song you may hear...

x~x~x~x

The Revenge was an even more oppressive prison than it was when Carewyn was a child. Charles Cromwell had always been a very controlling, cruel man who only saw someone’s value based on what they could do for him. Even when you were family of his -- or, one could argue, especially if you were -- you were expected to never say “no” to him and to always put his desires over your own. So it was when she and Jacob were under his control way back when, and so it was now that Carewyn was alone.

Interestingly, despite Charles’s clear disdain for Carewyn having become a Commodore of the Navy, he actually seemed very coldly pleased by how she’d grown.

“The Navy may be a pathetic institution,” Charles said very coolly as he strode leisurely in a circle around Carewyn, “but at least fighting in the War toughened you up. You’re strong -- ruthless -- talented in swordplay and willing to do whatever it takes to defeat your enemies. You’ve been taught and trained to kill.”

He stopped right in front of her, his cold almond-shaped blue eyes boring into her as his lips spread into a smile.

“You are far from the weak, bleeding-heart little girl you were before, Carewyn. Before, you could only be useful in persuading other men to join my crew -- now, once we’ve finished at Isle de Muerta...you’ll be able to join your aunts by doing that and helping us with our plunder.”

Carewyn’s eyes, which were the same color and shape as Charles’s, met his gaze head-on with just as much coldness, but with no hint of a smile.

“I have no intention of being anything like Pearl or Claire,” she spat, “least of all by being one of your pawns.”

Pearl made a violent move forward, but Blaise grabbed her arm and gave her a dull warning look.

“Pawns?” repeated Charles. “I’m wounded, child. We are family -- we are blood. I raised you and your brother. I provided for you.”

“After killing both Mum and Dad right in front of us,” Carewyn said very coldly.

Charles feigned an empathetic expression, but it only came across as incredibly condescending.

“Yes -- it was a horrible thing. But your parents thought to abandon the crew, our family...to take you two children away from me, your grandfather, who loves you so dearly. And deserters and traitors must be held accountable -- any good leader knows that. It’s awful that it had to happen...but they left me no choice.”

Carewyn’s eyes flashed with hatred.

“First of all...our parents thought to protect their family -- Jacob and me -- from you. Second, any good leader knows that true loyalty is accrued through respect, not fear. Third, you always have a choice to do what’s right, and you didn’t. Fourth, I will NOT hear you try to tell me that my parents brought their deaths upon themselves when you pulled the trigger. And fifth...”

She took a step forward, aiming to get right up in Charles’s face -- Claire Cromwell grabbed her harshly by the arm and held her back, but Carewyn was strong enough to push herself forward right up into her grandfather’s personal space anyway.

“...you don’t know what love is,” hissed Carewyn venomously.

Charles’s face lost all hint of a smile or warmth, instead becoming oddly mask-like and detached as he considered her. The stillness was far, far more intimidating than his attempts at pleasantry -- it was like he truly felt nothing...like all possibility of persuasion or appealing to his better instincts was hopeless.

“It seems freedom has spoiled you, my child,” he said softly. “I suppose I’d have to blame your brother for being such a bad influence on you...at least while he was still alive.”

Carewyn’s face blanched and her eyes widened. ‘What?’

“Oh?” said Charles, raising his eyebrows in mock concern. “Were you unaware? I thought for sure something would’ve trickled back to you through the Navy. But I suppose if they had told you, you’d have had far less reason to be loyal to them. After all...the pirate who killed him ended up getting a full pardon from the crown, and now works alongside the new Lord Cutler Beckett at the East India Trading Company...a thoroughly prosperous woman, by all accounts.”

Charles’s face again grew much mask-like as he stared down at Carewyn.

“One would never know such a woman could be capable of shooting a man square in the back and then pushing him overboard into the ocean...and just when he’d returned from Port Royal, to find that his sister was gone...”

Carewyn could feel her shoulders quaking. Her eyes had fallen away from Charles and down to the deck a while ago, as she struggled to contain her emotions, but what he said --

It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be. Jacob, dead -- Jacob, having gone to look for her, and not finding her because she’d gone off to War -- Jacob, being murdered right after he tried to come home --

“You’re lying!” snarled Carewyn, but her voice quaked with pain and grief despite her best efforts.

Charles didn’t answer. Clearly he didn’t think he had to. The silence was infinitely worse than if he’d chosen to mock her further -- it forced her to solely focus on the terrible doubt and pain flooding her chest and making it hard for her to breathe.

Charles’s gaze flickered up to Claire still holding Carewyn’s arm.

“Get Carewyn out of that Navy filth and into some proper clothes,” he said almost boredly. “Make sure to pick something that shows off her assets -- she comes from fine breeding, and we want the men of Tortuga to see that first.”

His gaze then rested on Carewyn again, twinkling with a cruel kind of satisfaction, as Claire yanked Carewyn away. Carewyn fought against her grip, but before she could pull out of it, Pearl grabbed her other arm and, with considerably more strength, helped Claire drag her away.

Carewyn was soon forced into a pair of men’s knee breeches so tight that they felt more like form-fitting stockings than trousers; tall black boots; an off-white sailor’s shirt identical to Pearl’s with such an oversized neckline that her chest was largely exposed; and an R-standard dark red coat just small enough that she couldn’t button it around herself to hide her chest better. Pearl had also pointed a pistol at Carewyn’s neck while Claire applied eye-make-up and bright red lipstick. Carewyn normally wouldn’t have minded wearing make-up -- she may have had to dress like a man out of necessity, but she liked women’s fashion a lot. Under the circumstances, though, it was impossible to enjoy it.

Needless to say, Carewyn was in no mood to take orders from Charles or exchange so much as a word with any member of his crew, whether it was her uncle, aunts, cousins, or in-laws. At one point, one night, one of those such cousins -- clearly very amused by how unhappy Carewyn was with her new “look” -- decided to try to force himself into her personal space, and Carewyn was so disgusted that she grabbed his own pistol out of his belt and pointed it right at his head to threaten him to back off. Rather than scare him, though, the cousin merely laughed.

“Go ahead!” he jeered. He clearly thought Carewyn was too much of a “good girl” to do it. “Go ahead and shoot me. Right in the head, come on -- ”

Carewyn pointed the pistol down at his thigh instead and fired.

BANG.

The younger man collapsed in on himself with a cry as his leg collapsed out from under him, the bone clearly blasted open from how close the pistol had been. Carewyn then gave the pistol a light shake to clear the smoke.

“Seems to me that place is closer to where you do most of your thinking than your head,” she said very coldly. She looked around at the rest of the crew, who’d stopped to watch, and added, “Now, all of you, stay away from me -- AHH!”

She suddenly felt a hand seize her around the neck and hoist her up off the ground.

The younger man somehow was back on his feet again, as if he hadn’t been injured at all. Carewyn’s shock only seemed to make him smugger still, even though his smile was oddly humorless.

“You’re so cute, little Winnie,” he said. “Thinking you can hurt somebody who feels nothing but pain already.”

At that very moment, the clouds parted, to reveal an eerie silver-white moon. And it was in that terrible, paralyzing moment that Carewyn saw why everyone said that the crew of the Revenge was cursed.

It seems that the medallion Jacob had stolen from Charles’s office wasn’t just a pirate trinket. It was one of 100 identical pieces from a cursed chest that once belonged to Cortez himself. Anyone who stole but one piece from the chest was cursed trapped between life and death, unable to enjoy any earthly pleasure -- food, drink, or otherwise -- with their true decaying form only revealed under moonlight. Jacob had taken the medallion with the thought that Carewyn could always sell it if they ever got really desperate for money -- Carewyn had kept it because it was one of the only things Jacob had ever been able to give her before he disappeared, and she cursed herself eternally for the sentiment now. Still, she told herself, it also hadn’t seemed safe to try to sell something that so clearly looked like a pirate medallion anyway -- just about anyone would ask where she got it, and that would’ve opened her up to a million more questions. In either case, that medallion Carewyn had was the last piece that Charles Cromwell needed to break the curse -- and thanks to her fame as the newest Commodore in the Navy, one of her portrait miniatures had found its way into Charles’s hands, revealing to him where his granddaughter had vanished to. And now he had both her and the medallion -- in short, everything he’d wanted.

Charles Cromwell decided to punish Carewyn for her little act of defiance by locking her in the brig. It was a very wet and mildew-stained place -- clearly it had been host to more than a few leaks. One hole in Carewyn’s cell in particular even showed clear blue ocean water -- she suspected that the Revenge had been patched up with quite a few spells to keep it from sinking, over the years. She remembered there was a witch on Tortuga that her grandfather sometimes made deals with -- maybe she’d given him something to keep the sea water from rushing in.

Carewyn could’ve easily broken out of the brig, but under the circumstances, she decided it wasn’t worth it. Not only did she not want to show off all her tricks yet, but the cell door would at least serve as a barrier between her and everyone else, for now. And that was what she’d wanted -- to get as far away from them as she could. Jacob would’ve understood. Jacob had always been there as a protective wall between her and the rest of their family, in the past...

The night in that cell was one of the coldest, darkest, and loneliest of Carewyn’s life. Her heart ached at the thought of Jacob -- of Percy, his face white with upset and terror when she told him to retreat -- of Bill and Charlie -- of Jules. She missed them so much, and yet she knew...she would likely never see them again. Charles Cromwell wouldn’t tolerate her insubordination for long, and if she failed to escape -- rather likely, considering that neither he nor the rest of her family could be killed, at this point -- she’d be murdered just like her parents.

...At least then...she’d see Jacob again...

She didn’t know when or how she’d fallen to sleep, but it was in her sleep, when she was most lonely, that Carewyn found herself again in her and Jacob’s tiny, old house in Port Royal, sitting at the side of her own bed, which currently held a young man with a worn brown bandana around his head, a black eye, and bandages around his arms. He looked up at her, his dark eyes rippling like the darkest sea -- and then, he rose from the bed. As he did, he changed, becoming older, with tanner skin and dreadlocks under an emerald green bandana. Orion didn’t say anything in the dream -- instead he held her gaze, drowning her in it as he gently held her hands in his...

When Carewyn awoke, she found her face wet with tears. Wiping her face clean, she sat awake for a while, revisiting Orion in her mind. As bizarre as it sounded -- just like he had many times in the past -- the thought of Orion seemed to bring her a sense of peace and focus she couldn’t quite explain. And it was for that reason that she found herself singing one of the songs she used to sing Orion to sleep, all those years ago...for the thought of him, if not for the man himself.

Abroad, as I was walking one evening in the spring,

I heard a maid in Bedlam who mournfully did sing.

Her chains she rattled on her hands, and thus replied she:

"I love my love because I know my love loves me.

Oh, cruel were his parents who sent my love to sea,

And cruel was the ship that bore my love from me --

Yet I love his parents since they’re his, although they've ruined me...

I love my love because I know my love loves me.”

As luck would have it, however, her song attracted some attention. For the waters surrounding the dreaded Isle de Muerta contained merfolk -- specifically a mermaid called Keira and a merman called Kai, who hunted as a pair and had heard Carewyn singing through the hole in the ship’s hull.

“Was that you singing?” asked Kai. He seemed the more sociable of the two -- the red-haired mermaid behind him called Keira was staying at a distance.

Carewyn rested a hand beside the hole, trying to peek out at who was speaking. She couldn’t see them very well, but from what little she could see, they didn’t look like how she’d always heard mermaids described. They appeared human enough on top, of course, but she could see scales on their faces and there was no white in their eyes. Kai had one completely brown eye and one completely blue eye, while Keira had completely blue.

“Yes,” said Carewyn.

“I could hear the longing in your voice,” said Kai. “Like a woman in love.”

Carewyn’s face flushed, but she kept as proud of an expression as she could manage.

“...Are you merfolk?”

“Why, yes,” said Kai with a smile. “And you? Are you a pirate? Or perhaps you’re a maid from Bedlam, awaiting her love’s return?”

“Neither. My name is Carewyn...but most people call me Carey Weasley.”

Keira looked at Carewyn through the hole, clearly interested despite her distance.

“You’re different than the other humans on this ship,” she said thoughtfully.

Carewyn scoffed. “I’d certainly hope so. I suppose my grandfather and his crew fear you?”

“Fear, yes,” said Keira in an oddly stiff voice, “but we don’t approach them.”

The memory of her disgusting pirate cousin as a molting skeleton rippled over Carewyn’s mind and she grimaced.

“...I don’t blame you for that. I wouldn’t be here either, if I had a choice.”

Kai raised a curious eyebrow. “You’re a prisoner, then.”

Carewyn sighed and nodded. Kai’s eyes flickered over to Keira before returning to Carewyn.

“...Perhaps we can get you out.”

Carewyn was startled. “What?”

Kai’s lips turned up in a smile. “Come with us...we’ll help you escape.”

It was strange -- Carewyn hadn’t known these two at all, but something in their voices sounded so kind. Despite everything she’d ever heard about sirens, they seemed oddly persuasive...it was like even they were singing beautifully, even while talking...

But...

“No,” she said. “My grandfather and his crew can’t be killed. I’d never be able to defeat them, while they’re like that...and anyone who tried to help me would be killed right along with me.”

Her eyes softened. “Thank you...but I have to stay here.”

Both Kai and Keira looked genuinely startled. Kai seemed to rest on his stomach in mid-air, his tail flopping up over his head as he rested his chin on his fist, his lips spreading in a much fuller, fanged smirk.

“...Well, now,” he said, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone saying ‘no’ to one of our kind in order to protect them before. He shared a glance with Keira. “You truly are different, Carey Weasley.”

Keira exhaled tiredly. “Come on, Kai...let’s go.”

“Coming, coming,” said Kai in amusement, as Keira began to swim off. He added to Carewyn, “Guess we’ll never know if we would’ve been able to tempt you, if we’d met you above water...oh well. Best of luck, little Bedlam maid -- thanks for the new song!”

Kai swam in a circle to follow along after Keira and disappeared into the dark blue depths.

Back on the Artemis, the days of their voyage dragged. Jules had heard all sorts of exciting stories about pirates since she was a child, but now that she was onboard a ship with them, she found that it was far less glamorous than one would think. There was so little to do to pass the time, aside from trimming sails or swabbing decks. Charlie and Bill admitted that was a lot of what sailing on board ships was like in general -- there was plenty of excitement, sure, but only inter-spliced briefly between long stretches of nothing. On top of that, the water on board went sour before long, making it so everyone had to drink rum instead, since it was the only drink that didn’t go bad at sea. The best thing by far for Jules, though, was that there was no dress code -- and so she ditched her fancy dress as quick as she could, traded them in for a pair of men’s breeches, and then belted her chemise around her waist so that it fit more tightly like a shirt. She’d be a little embarrassed walking around in her underwear for a while, but after a while, she concluded it really wasn’t any more revealing than the loose-fitting shirt and men’s breeches Skye was wearing. Bill’s ears turned a very dark red when he first saw Jules out of her dress, though.

Their first real burst of action came when they had to battle a torrential storm that had blown in. The Artemis had been tossed about as if it were a toy in a bathtub, sea water splashing onto the deck with full-bodied waves that could knock a man off their feet. It was likely only thanks to Orion’s bizarre idea to tie everyone securely to the mast with a long piece of rope that served as a life line that no one was thrown overboard. The following day, the storm had fortunately cleared to leave an almost surreal calm. Soon everyone returned to the boring routine of before, mending torn sails and swabbing the deck, as if nothing had even happened.

The helmsman solely followed Orion’s direction of where to go, rather than using a map, so Bill, Jules, and Charlie had assumed he already knew where the Isle de Muerta was. One could therefore imagine how horrified Bill was overhearing McNully talking offhandedly to Orion one afternoon about his compass “not working right for him” -- Jules recalled that it didn’t work at Port Royal either. When the three confronted Orion about it, the Captain responded rather cryptically.

“Lieutenant Weasley said that my compass didn’t point north, Miss Farrier. That doesn’t mean it’s broken.”

Orion turned on his heel and headed back up to the helm. “A bit more to starboard.”

Bill opened his mouth to protest, but McNully climbed down one of the loose ropes enough to pat his shoulder.

“Easy, Mr. Weasley.”

He lowered himself back down into his chair and rolled it around to properly face them.

“The Captain’s compass isn’t like most compasses -- just like Orion himself isn’t like most captains.”

“But you said it wasn’t working right,” Charlie said angrily. “And all he ever seems to look at is that compass. How do we know we’re even heading the right way? Does he even know how to get to Isle de Muerta at all?”

Jules had to admit, she had doubts too. Orion had sounded pretty confident that he’d be able to find Carewyn -- but how could anyone do that, when they didn’t even have a compass that could point north?

The dispute was interrupted, however, when Orion abruptly called out from the helm.

“Put out the lamps!”

The crew immediately tensed up, and bolted around, putting out every lamp. Jules looked around in confusion.

“What are you doing?” she asked. “It’s almost dusk -- we won’t be able to see!”

“The water is darker and colder here,” said Orion solemnly, “and there’s a song on the air. The lamps would only antagonize them further.”

“‘Them?’“ recurred Jules.

“Mermaids, of course,” said Skye impatiently.

“Mermaids?”

“I heard those tales when we were all in the Navy,” said Bill, glancing at Jules a bit uneasily. “Mermaids are attracted to singing and lamplight.”

"Right,” said McNully. “There’s still a 32% chance they might show up even without those, though, so you’d best keep your wits about you.”

Skye nodded. “Mermaids are no joke. They might look beautiful above water, but they don’t look half so pretty under the water when they pull you down to the depths and eat you alive.”

Jules cringed.

“If they’re that dangerous,” she said slowly, “why don’t you do what Odysseus did, to escape the sirens? Just have someone else tie you up really tightly on the mast, and you can’t jump overboard.”

“Yeah!” Charlie piped up. “I reckon Jules, Skye, and I can handle running the ship for a bit on our own -- pretty faces don’t really do much for me.”

McNully laughed. “If being attracted to gorgeous women was the problem, then I’d be a better choice to help than Skye.”

Skye rolled her eyes and scoffed.

“Mermaids don’t just tempt you with sex,” the quartermaster explained. “They’re temptation itself. Everything about them draws you in, makes you open up to them and talk to them...lets them look right through you. They’ll try to tempt you with whatever they think you want most in the world -- and when you give in and get too close...”

She made a knife-like gesture across her throat with her finger.

“There’s only one person on this ship that’s known to have ever said ‘no’ to a mermaid before,” said McNully, and he nodded up at the helm. “And that’s the Captain.”

Bill, Charlie, and Jules all looked up in surprise. Orion had his back to them and was looking out to sea with narrowed, unreadable eyes.

Then, all of a sudden, the crew could just barely make out a eerie, beautiful song, which seemed to float on the wind itself.

“...her chains she rattled in her hands and thus replied she...”

“Stopper your ears!” McNully said urgently. “Quickly!”

The crew hurriedly did as they were told. Orion, however, did not do so. Instead he darted down to the main deck, grabbed one of the lanterns, and set about relighting it.

“Orion, what are you DOING?!” bellowed Skye.

Orion didn’t answer her. McNully rolled hurriedly around the deck as he tried to make sure everyone blocked their ears, but Orion completely ignored him, instead rushing over to the side of the ship with the lit lantern.

The singing was getting louder now.

“Yet I love his parents since they’re his, although they've ruined me... I love my love because I know my love loves me...”

Just as Bill had finished helping Charlie and Jules completely stopper their ears, he caught the sound of a low male voice singing the next line.

“With straw I'll weave a garland, I'll weave it wondrous fine...”

Bill looked up in alarm at Orion. He had a hand cupped over his mouth to magnify his volume as he sang over the ship’s railing.

“With roses, lilies, daisies I'll mix the eglantine...”

“Stop!”

Bill barreled over, grabbing Orion’s shoulder and trying to pull him back away from the edge.

“What are you doing?! Singing and lanterns attract mermaids!”

“That’s the plan,” said Orion, his voice almost frustratingly calm.

Bill saw the water burbling up beside the edge of the ship. His heart clenched with fear.

Orion, however, paid him no mind -- he turned right to the form burbling under the water, his hand beside his mouth again as he continued,

“And I'll present it to my love when he returns from sea... I love my love because I know my love loves me."

Jules quickly grabbed Bill’s arm, pulling him back away from Orion. Bill looked at her anxiously, but she merely reached up to stopper his left ear with some fabric she’d ripped out of her chemise. Orion wasn’t going to explain, so all they could do is get ready.

Within moments, a woman with red hair had appeared out of the water. Her chin and neck were still largely submerged as she blinked up at Orion.

“You know the words,” she said almost shyly.

“Yes,” said Orion. “Where did you hear that song?”

The mermaid blinked slowly. “A maid imprisoned in the brig of a pirate ship.”

Jules had been just about to stopper Bill’s right ear when he straightened up sharply. He turned his head sharply to better listen to the conversation.

"What did the maid look like?” Orion asked.

The mermaid’s eyes flickered over the pirate captain’s face carefully as she eased her head and shoulders out of the water.

“I could not tell for sure. The brig was dark. The hole looking into it was small.”

“Yet you spoke to her?”

“Yes. She was a selfless woman. Very selfless.”

“When did you see her?”

“Very early this morning...before dawn.”

Orion’s dark eyes narrowed. The mermaid reached out to grab onto the edge of the Artemis so as to slide herself out of the water and closer to Orion.

“You know her,” she said.

“Yes,” Orion answered quietly.

The mermaid’s eyes seemed to soften. “...You love her.”

Bill, who had been listening carefully, looked quickly at Orion’s face for some sort of reaction -- but once again his face was remarkably calm, and he didn’t respond.

“I could take you to her,” the mermaid said sweetly. “I know where she is...”

Bill felt his mind drifting slightly, as if he’d suddenly become very sleepy -- her voice sounded almost soothing -- and she knew Carewyn? She could take them to Carewyn?

“No, thank you,” said Orion with the kind of polite finality one would more likely hear at a Christmas function than to a creature that wanted to eat human flesh. “If you saw her this morning, we’ll be caught up with them soon enough. The wind will take us where we need to go, if only we have our sails pointed in the right direction.”

He inclined his head respectfully.

“Best of luck finding your next meal elsewhere.”

The mermaid frowned in immense confusion at him, looking almost put-out.

“You and Carey Weasley are both very strange humans,” she said. Her lips then curled into a faintly wry smile as she added, “She was not tempted by our call either. That should please you.”

And with that, she splashed back into the dark water and disappeared.

Orion blew out the flame on the lamp and turned back around.

“It’s all right now!” he bellowed loud enough that everyone could just barely make out his voice through the stuffing in their ears. “It’s safe!”

Everyone little by little unblocked their ears. Bill turned around to face Orion properly, his brown eyes rippling with amazement and a bit of guilt despite himself, as the pirate captain walked past him.

“You did know what you were doing.”

Orion turned to Bill. The eldest Weasley rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I misjudged you.”

Orion inclined his head slightly to Bill, his lips touched with traces of a smile.

“A common enough thing, for people to do,” he said patiently. “Think nothing of it.”

He strolled back up to the helm, leaving Bill and Jules alone.

Jules turned to Bill. He still had his eyes on Orion’s back.

“Bill...is everything okay?”

Bill glanced at Jules and then back up at Orion, and he swallowed.

The mermaid had said Orion loved Carewyn. He didn’t make any kind of reaction that would prove it was true -- but he didn’t deny it either. And more importantly, back at the church, he’d said he wouldn’t have hurt “either Bill’s or his lady,” when talking about Jules and Carewyn. And immediately after, he spoke of Carewyn’s past, of her history with him...of details even he didn’t know, like her apparently having worn a red ribbon in her hair since she was little...with such a soft voice that it wouldn’t be a stretch to think there was something fond in it, under that detached affect..

Bill hadn’t had a real friend in his life until he’d met Carewyn. They’d connected almost immediately out of their mutual desire to protect and nurture others, and they always seemed to be in sync whenever they had to battle together. Bill had always been a shoulder for others to cry on, but it was Carewyn who had first offered her shoulder to him, while they were fighting the Spanish together. The friendship and caring she’d shown him made her family to him more than her using his name alone ever could have. She was a sister to him -- his best mate -- someone he loved and cherished like few others in the world. And he wanted every happiness for her, just as he knew she did for him...

But what happiness could there be for her, with Orion? He was a pirate. There’d be no way the Navy would pardon him with the East India Trading Company breathing down their necks -- and would Carewyn truly be happy living the life of a pirate, after having been raised on a pirate ship like the Revenge? She’d built up a stable life for herself in the Navy, and Bill knew how much Carewyn loved being able to come back to Port Royal after a long expedition -- to come home, after being at sea. But pirates had no home. There was nothing anchoring a pirate. And no matter what Orion’s feelings were, and how much Bill suspected they might actually be something genuine...it didn’t mean a thing if Carewyn didn’t feel the same way.

“Jules...” he said at last, very quietly, “...is Carey...in love with Amari?”

Jules was startled by the use of her nickname. She glanced from Bill to up at Orion at the helm and back, frowning deeply.

“...Love, I’m not sure, but...back at the fort, before Captain Amari rescued me...Carey told me that she’d bandaged him up and hidden him from the Navy, when they were young. So when Captain Amari figured out who she was...he let her go. I reckon they probably just made it look like Carey broke free.”

This information startled Bill. His brown eyes brightened in understanding.

“He owed her a life debt,” he said softly.

Jules smiled. “No. I thought the same thing -- that it was gratitude, on Captain Amari’s part. But...”

Her dark eyes softened.

“...Carey said...that he was simply a good man. And I don’t know...but the look in her eyes, as she looked out to sea...I’ve never seen her eyes look like that before.”

She reached out and took Bill’s hand. Bill gave it a squeeze.

“The water temperature has returned to normal,” announced Orion from the helm, emptying the bucket of sea water he’d filled earlier over the side. “Go ahead and relight the lamps -- we should approach Isle de Muerta within the next day or so.”

#potc au #au #pirates of the caribbean #my art #my writing #my fanfiction #kai williams #keira jones #other people's mcs #carewyn cromwell #orion amari #bill weasley #charlie weasley #jules farrier #skye parkin #murphy mcnully #charles cromwell #blaise cromwell #pearl cromwell #claire cromwell #jacob cromwell #bawww bill #worrying over your best buddy :<#carey loves you so much too </3 #also friendly reminder that orion is a cool calm and collected bad-ass #he may not be as flashy or suave as jack but he is just as clever #also yes charles cromwell is an irredeemable son of a b****#I find it hilarious that this is the first place I'm actually writing interactions between charles and his family and not the rakepick au #I'll have a drawing of him included in these posts soon but just imagine jeremy irons as a pirate -- that's his fancast #I'm sure you can all see why in canon carewyn and jacob's mum lane had to get the hell away from charles's toxic sociopathic arse

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imaginepirates · 5 years

Text

Colors

For @theokepastos, which took waaaaay too long due to an absolute lack of creativity 🙃 kms. Probably doesn't have as much tension as the first one. Anyway, ever wonder what life was like for Beckett when he was in India? Here you go. The reader introduces him to one of India's native festivals, Holi. If you know anything about it, you can imagine just how much Beckett would like it. (Also, vulnerable Beckett is my jam, so yeah.)

@bonjour-frens @tesserphantom @ilikebritsandbands @viper-official

~3570 words. Yup, it's long.

~~~~~~~

You watched the docks warily from the East India offices. A ship was supposed to come in, carrying over a hundred new officers and members of the Company. You were expected to meet them when they came in, and you were to be assigned as a translator. The man you'd be working for was some British lord, who likely knew nothing about your culture and cared even less.

You hated these Englishmen. They were loud and crass, and had no restraint in the things they said to you. They treated locals as inferiors, and didn't hide their displeasure with your 'heathen' ways. They disliked your gods and your prayers, but helped themselves to your food and your women.

What this lord would be like, you could only imagine. He'd stand a head taller than you, just like the rest of them, and would insist on drinking his flavorless tea with sugar. He'd have a demure wife that he'd barely talk to. He would make no attempt to engage in the local customs, and would carelessly flick pennies to the children in the streets. British lords didn't have to count their money, they had so much.

It was the beginning of spring. With it came festivities. The Holi celebrations would start on the morrow, and you'd be expected to introduce this lord to the custom. You only hoped you'd be allowed to return home for the evening to pray with your family.

Bells rang and shouts echoed across the harbor. A great ship entered port, dwarfing even the largest ships next to it. It flew the sail of the East India Company, flickering in the breeze. From where you stood, looking down into the harbor, all the activity seemed so far away. Soon enough, you'd be a part of it.

They had the good graces to allow you to ride in a carriage along with some officers from the Company. You sat squished in beside them, listening to their conversation. They didn't speak to you, instead leaving you to peek out the carriage window.

There were multiple carriages at the docks when you arrived. Naval officers were showing their fellows where they'd be staying. Merchants started idle conversation with some of the wealthy British men, their wives hanging loosely to their arms. Somewhere in the mess was the lord you were supposed to be attending to.

You wouldn't have found him if you hadn't been directed to him. He was surprisingly small, certainly no larger than you, with fair features and pale skin. He was well dressed, as to be expected, but no woman hung off his arm. Instead of looking directly around him, he was already staring off into the surrounding city.

You walked up to him, trying to put on a pleasant face. "Lord Bekett?" You asked, knowing full well who he was.

He snapped out of his thoughts, looking you over. No doubt he'd already forgotten who you were, or that he was supposed to have a translator at all. That, or they hadn't told him you were a woman.

It surprised you when he called you by name. "Miss Y/N," he inclined his head. "I'm told you're to be my translator."

"I am, my lord."

"I trust you know where we're going?"

"I do." You led him back to the carriage. It was empty. Supposedly, the others had left in different ones, or were still greeting newcomers.

Beckett didn't speak on your way back to the Company's offices. Someone else would get him set up in his apartments later, and the coach would take his things there once the two of you were dropped off. He stared out the window and deep into the city. You wondered what he was thinking, if he already didn't like India. The British were quick to make up their minds about that sort of thing, you found.

"It looks busy out there," he remarked.

"We're preparing for Holi," you explained. "The festival of colors and the welcoming of spring." It was as good a time to tell him as any. You'd be expected to introduce him to the festivities in the coming days.

"You dye each other with pigments, yes?"

"You know about it?" You couldn't hide your surprise.

"I've read about it some. I didn't want to come here completely bereft of knowledge. It's bad enough that I can't speak the language for myself."

"Oh." No lords had ever done research before. "Would you like to know more about it?" It was a futile hope, you knew, but you asked all the same.

He turned to you with bright eyes. "Please."

The rest of the journey, you described the festival. "Tomorrow night, we will gather and pray that our inner demons leave us. The day after, we paint each other with colors and water. It's a time of forgiveness and friendship." You explained the religious aspects, too, and to your pleasant surprise, Beckett seemed interested.

When you arrived at the offices, you showed him to his. It was a spacious room with a small library and doors that swung open to a balcony overlooking the city. A heavy wooden desk sat to one end of the room. Beckett groaned when he saw the paperwork stacked on it.

"Can I get you anything while you read?" You asked.

"Tea, if you'd be so kind." He leafed through the papers.

"Something from home?"

"Something local should suffice. I believe you have something here called chai?"

"We do." I can't imagine you'd like it. "Have you tried it before, my lord?"

"No, which is why I'm trying it now."

"If you like." He wouldn't. Chai was 'too spiced', as the officers liked to put it.

You came back with the drink, having let it cool off for a while. You set the teacup on the desk, where Beckett was already rubbing his temples while reading. Absently, he grabbed the tea and sipped, nearly choking in the process. You grimaced.

"Not what I expected," he spluttered.

"If you want me to get something different… "

He didn't let you finish. "It took me by surprise was all. I think I'll come to like the flavor."

"Oh?" You didn't believe it.

"I'm a well traveled man. As I'm coming to understand, the rest of the world actually has food with flavor. Britain's cuisine seems a bit bland in comparison, I'm afraid."

This shocked you. Nobody liked the food you gave them, and certainly not more than their food at home.

You spent the next day watching this man, trying to learn more about him. He was apathetic, to be sure. He casually gave orders like he'd been doing it his entire life. He wasn't particularly loud, nor was he tall, but he was more feared than some of the strongest officers present. What he did to instill such fear, you couldn't imagine. People scurried to do his bidding whenever he entered a room.

He was meticulous and efficient with his work, which was mostly comprised of reading documents and signing them. He took few breaks, and said little to you. He wouldn't really have need of you; he was surrounded by fellow Brits. Your translating skills were only useful for when he had to talk to local officials and merchants.

Evening rolled around, and you anxiously waited to be dismissed. Your family was expecting you, and you didn't want to keep them waiting. You would gather in the main square for the night's festivities of prayer, singing, and dancing.

As you were preparing to leave, you noticed some of the other translators with their employers. Before you could get the chance to ask what was going on, Beckett appeared at your elbow.

"It has been suggested that officers attend the celebration to help them learn about local culture. I've been told I should accompany you tonight."

Your heart sank. As genuinely interested as he seemed, you wanted to spend the night with your family and friends. You did not, however, have the luxury of declining him.

"It would be my pleasure."

He scoffed at that. "I quite doubt that. I'm sorry to say that you have to take me anyway."

You smiled tightly, pursing your lips together in a manner you knew didn't look pleasant. Beckett didn't complain, instead letting you lead him outside and down the street.

The bonfire was already going by the time you reached the square. It was hard to pinpoint your family in the crowd, but you recognized your sister’s bright sari a little ways into the crush of people. You had to change your hold on Beckett, unable to lead him through the throng by the elbow. Instead, you took his hand and walked to your family.

Your mother saw you first. She gave you a questioning look, but the one on your face must have said it all. The rest of your family greeted you, and you introduced them to Beckett, explaining the situation. Your family welcomed him to India, but you knew they were uncomfortable with him around. Just as uncomfortable as you were.

You watched his eyes go wide as he looked at the effigy on top of the fire. Leaning close to his ear so he could hear you, you explained. “That’s a statue of Holika, a demon. We are celebrating that she was burned by the god Vishnu.”

Eyes still on the statue sitting atop the fire, Beckett replied. “Your religion is certainly different from mine. Then again, we celebrate a man who was crucified, and we certainly like to depict that.”

“Things that are different often seem strange. I don’t think I’d like to look upon a crucified man.”

Beckett turned to you then, gazing at you as if seeing you for the first time. You suddenly felt that you didn’t want to be the center of his attention; it seemed a bad place to be. His eyes were assessing more than your looks, but what he saw, you’d never know.

Thankfully, you were interrupted by the start of a prayer. Once it was finished, Beckett asked what it had been about.

“Faith.” There was an entire legend behind it, but you decided to tell it another time. “We pray that we have unwavering faith.”

“Ah.” He turned away, but you could hear his words under his breath. “I haven’t had faith for a long time.”

You frowned at that, but let it be. Music was starting up, and dance to accompany it. It would be rude of you to ignore your guest, no matter how much you wanted to dance with your friends.

“Would you care to dance?” You asked.

He shook his head. “I’d rather not.”

“Were you not sent here to participate?” It may have come out more pointedly than need be, but you wanted to get the ordeal over with.

“I prefer to observe.”

Again, you were at the center of his attention. You sighed. “Find a place off to the side so you don’t get swept up in the excitement.”

He narrowed his eyes. He certainly wasn’t used to being talked to like this, but you didn’t particularly care. If he didn’t want to dance, he could watch. And here you’d thought he might be better than the rest…

You had fun dancing with your friends and family. The moves were familiar and comforting, reminding you of all the festivals in years passed. For a moment, the British didn’t exist. Even if some of the officers were dancing horribly, you could block them out, living in a world made of your people and your culture.

Too soon it was over, and you were dragged back to reality. You realized that Beckett had been staring at you through the whole dance. Uncomfortably, you made your way back to him.

“You should’ve joined the fun,” you said, though it came out as anything but inviting.

“You’ll find that I’m an awful dancer.”

“Here, nobody is watching. It’s not like your dances in England. Dancing here is fun.”

He snorted.

Suddenly defensive, you reached out a hand. “I can prove it to you.”

He stared skeptically at your outstretched hand. Carefully, as if touching the fire itself, he laid his palm in yours. You pulled him closer to you, but were careful to maintain a certain distance. Then, step by step, you led him through a dance. He was, to put it plainly, awful. The amount of times he nearly tripped over himself was both amusing and saddening. His coordination simply didn’t exist.

Finally, he straightened up. “I cannot believe I’m actually worse at this than I am dancing back home. Somehow, I don’t think you’re surprised.”

You shook your head.

“Fine. Let’s see how you like dancing the English way.”

With that, he stepped close to you, too close, and you found his hand on your waist, the other moving one of yours to his shoulder. He led, forcing you to step in time with him, bodies entirely too near. You were glad that you were still dressed as you were for work. In a sari, his hand would be touching exposed skin. The thought made you nervous, but you soon fell into a rhythm. The steps weren’t difficult, but it took some explaining when he tried to spin you under his arm.

“Thoughts?” He asked.

“English dancing is dull.”

“I’m glad you think so too.” With that, he stepped away from you, letting his hand fall from its place on your waist.

Suddenly, you were able to breathe again, but the place where his hand had just been felt cold, reminding you that it had, in fact, just been there.

“Perhaps I’ll be more comfortable tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” You asked. Surely he couldn’t be attending Holi with you.

“I’ve been instructed to go to the festival of colors. Who better to introduce me to the holiday than my translator, with whom I’ve already spent so much time?”

Your stomach dropped. Unfortunately, this was your job, and you had to do it. “I advise you not to wear anything you care about. You’ll be covered in dye by the end of the day, and I wouldn’t count on it washing out. And don’t wear the wig.”

His hand absentmindedly drifted to the wig on his head. A ridiculous thing it was, you thought, but that was how the British did things. They, in their white powder, flaunting their power and having no fun. Too unlike India, where all colors existed, used by the rich and the poor alike to unite your people to a common tradition. It was not like the British, unity.

When the sun rose the next morning, you were already dawning a blue and purple sari. The rest of your family was preparing, too. You put together little dishes with colored powder, and others with water. This way, you could paint your friends’ faces as well as throw powder at strangers.

You arrived at the East India offices to find people leaving to attend the Holi festival. You cautiously opened the door to Beckett’s office. He raised his head from his work, a look of faint surprise crossing his face. You must’ve looked much the same. Beckett looked a completely different man. He wore plain, dully colored clothes, and his light, curling hair was a surprise. It was short, unlike the hair of the officers you’d seen.

Without a word, you led him away from the offices toward the city square. The plaza was already brightly colored; the celebration had begun. Colors whirled around you, thrown from a thousand different hands. The powder rested on your shoulders and in your hair. The air was thick with clouds of dust. You heard Beckett sneeze from somewhere behind you. You looked over your shoulder to see him trying to fan the air in front of him.

He looked at you. “Is there somewhere we could go to get out of…this?” He gestured to the powder-clogged air.

“The point of Holi is to get covered in colors.”

“I’d rather not.” He looked disdainfully at the people around you, who were already caked in color.

“Why come here if you’re not going to take part?” You spat.

“I’m doing this because it’s expected of me. I have plenty of work to do back at the offices, but I need to be here for appearance's sake. Believe me, I’m not fond of how I’m dressed, or my lack of wig, and I’m sorry you have to have me here.”

“You British are so happy to have our land and our goods, but you take no interest in our culture or our people!”

He rounded on you. “I am interested,” he hissed. “I’m just better at watching than doing.” Here he shifted, looking uncomfortable.

“You’re not comfortable participating in heathen celebrations, you mean.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“What is it, then?” You were getting tired of his attitude.

“Firstly, I don’t appreciate being showered in all this powder. I’d like to stay clean, thank you.” He sneezed. “It doesn’t agree with me.”

“Is there another reason?”

“I don’t like crowds of people,” he muttered.

“What do you mean?” You were used to crowds of people; India was densely populated. There was a crowd wherever you went.

“They’re…overwhelming.”

“They scare you?”

“No.” He glared at you, but you knew he was lying. There was something about the knowledge that he was afraid that made you less angry. He didn’t really hate your traditions, he was just too scared to take part.

You sighed and pulled Beckett into a doorway, standing under the frame. From there, you could watch the procession. Long lines of women serving food snaked through the crowd, and people picked snacks from their trays. Everyone was covered in both color and water that soaked through their clothes. You stood away from it; there was a rule about throwing powder at people in doorways: don't.

"If you won't participate, let me teach you about the legend of Holi."

Beckett hummed his assent, but didn't take his eyes off the crowd.

You mixed some of your water with the powder you had. It made a paste you could use to paint people with. "When the deity Krishna was a baby, he developed a dark skin color from the milk of the demon Putana."

With Beckett still watching the crowd, you covered two of your fingers in paste and carefully ran them down the side of his face.

He flinched back. "What are you doing?"

"Painting your face. If you let me do it, I'll complete the legend."

At first, you thought Beckett might refuse you. Slowly, he relaxed, allowing you to continue, though he was still stiff.

"Krishna later despaired that his skin would repulse the fair-skinned Radha, whom he loved. He asked his mother what to do, and she suggested that he let Radha paint his face whatever color she desired."

Beckett's breath hitched. You could feel it under your fingers. You glanced over at him, and found that he was watching you with wide eyes. They were a pretty blue color you hadn't noticed before, and they stared at you in something that was almost fear. Vulnerability.

"Radha did so, and she and Vishnu have been a couple ever since. That's why we celebrate colors," you finished softly.

You were still painting his face with gentle fingers. He never took his eyes off you, and you found yourself staring back. You were unsure what to think. You hadn't seen the man so out of his element, and you almost wanted to laugh, but with the two of you so close together, there was a tight nervousness growing in your chest.

"It was an expression of love?" Beckett breathed.

"Yes." You swallowed, unsure of how he would take your answer. You didn't even know how you wanted him to take it. You were exasperated by him, and a bit angry with him, but the genuine, innocent surprise on his face melted something within you.

You finished your work, and let your hand fall to your side, but you didn't step back from him.

Slowly, one of his hands came up to cup your face, and he leaned a little closer to you, waiting for you to pull back. When you didn't, he placed a soft kiss at the corner of your mouth, barely touching your lips. It was quick, and he pulled back as if stung.

"If this is a day of forgiveness, forgive me," he whispered.

“For what?”

“Don’t be silly. You should be out there, celebrating, but you’re stuck here with me.”

“It’s not that bad.” You gave him a nervous smile.

He scoffed. “Please. Get out there and enjoy yourself. I’ll watch from here.”

“It would be rude of me to leave you.”

He rolled his eyes. “Go have fun. But take a bath before you even think of stepping foot in my office.” He was smiling, which looked strange on him, but it softened his features.

“Would you like me to bathe where you can see me?” You asked cheekily.

“Oh, to be sure.”

You left him then, but you felt his eyes on you as you squeezed into the crowd. You knew he’d be waiting for you when you got back, enjoying the show. You were left thinking that he wasn’t so bad after all.

#potc #pirates of the caribbean #lord beckett #cutler beckett #beckett #fanfic #writing #writings #drabble #drabbles #x reader #requests #request

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speedsterimagines · 6 years

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LADYKILLR (PART 2)

A/N: I got really into this part, I don’t know why. Also the thought of Sonny having a tattoo? Ugh. Part three will be out sometime soon, not sure exactly when but I’ll update regularly.

Summary: Dating a detective certainly has it pros and cons, but when a disheveled criminal is looking to settle a score, he goes after what Detective Carisi loves the most… you.

Word Count: 1494

Warnings: Serial Killer, Murder Victims, Stab Wound, Blood, Violence

<< Part 1 >><<Part 3>><<Part 4>><<Continuous Version>>

Sonny had been sitting at his desk for what seemed like the past 72 hours which wasn’t too far from the actual time elapsed. His normally organized work space was scattered with evidence and photos along with old chinese take out and an ice cold cup of coffee. SVU had been knee deep in a serial killer case for almost a month now, but from the beginning it seemed as though they were fighting a losing battle.

Someone was loose in the streets of Manhattan brutally attacking and murdering women at random. None of the victims could be linked to each other in any way, not their jobs, neighborhoods, or friends. The only thing the women had in common was the way they were killed. Each victim was found in her own home, no sign of forced entry, as if they knew the killer or they were welcomed in with a single stab wound to abdomen.

A couple of weeks ago, they came across a lead that seemed promising. An elderly woman claimed that she saw a delivery man at her neighbor’s door the night of her murder. Even though she claimed he had a neck tattoo, her eye sight wasn’t what it used to be and there was no way of knowing what the tattoo was. There were thousands of delivery men with neck tattoos walking the streets of Manhattan, b t there were only a handful that had previous charges, including one man who was on parole.

Hector Beckett, 37 years old, was out on parole after being charged with battery and attempted rape and had been working as a delivery man for the last few months. And as the sole eye witness describes, on the left side of his neck in old-fashioned tattoo font was the word, LADYKILLR. When Sonny came across his name and put all the pieces together, he got the approval from Olivia and made the arrest. During his interrogation he informed Hector that there was a witness that put him at the scene and his violent criminal past wasn’t going to help the situation.

“You know, when I turned eighteen I told my ma I was gonna get a tattoo,” Sonny smirked from across the metal table. “You would’ve thought I said I was gonna have a limb cut off by the way she reacted. In hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t get it, those things are forever y’know? I wanted the name of my favorite scripture, Proverbs 16:9, in his mind a man plans his course,” Sonny paused for a moment putting emphasis into his words. “But the Lord directs his steps.”

Hector sat straight faced, not interested in the slightest by the detective’s small talk.

“Still would be a pretty good tattoo, come to think of it. But yours? Wow, LADYKILLR? It’s moving, truly touching. How did you choose that one?”

“What can I say? The ladies love me,” he sat back in his chair making himself comfortable.

“I’m sure you love them too,” Sonny spoke sarcastically as he opened up the folder on the table. “I bet you really loved them when you made your way into their homes and stabbed them to death.”

“You got an old lady, detective?” He laughed watching Sonny’s muscles tense at the thought of such an malicious person even thinking about the woman he loved. “Who am I kidding, you’re not really my type, but I know a handsome man when I see one. Maybe I’ll give her a visit when I get out of here.”

“Too bad you’re going to be here for a while,” Sonny stood up exiting the room before he lost control of his temper.

Olivia knew Hector wasn’t going to admit to anything and when he requested a lawyer, they were informed there simply wasn’t enough solid evidence to keep him, and within half and hour Hector Beckett walked out a free man.

Which put Sonny in his current situation now, sitting at his desk, looking over every last detail hoping something would stick out like a beacon that had previously gone unnoticed, hoping to find to anything that would incriminate Beckett. He was tired, he’d had a headache for the last three days, and truth be told, he just needed a break. And as if it was a sign from God, he’d received a text from his girlfriend saying she was stopping by the precinct for a visit. Sonny stared at the clock on the wall watching the hands move so slowly, for a moment he was convinced the battery must have been dead. Knowing that a watched pot never boils, he made his way to the break room and replaced his ice cold coffee with a fresh cup.

“What’s got you smilin’ Carisi?” Fin teased as he held out his mug for a refill.

“My girl’s stopping by,” Sonny grinned, proud to show you off. “And she’s bringing cookies.”

“Oh word, those one’s from the Christmas party?”

“Those would be the ones.”

“It’s about time we got some good news around here,” Fin’s eyes lit up like a child in a candy store.

Sonny put the coffee pot back and returned to his desk, starting the paperwork he’d been avoiding, hoping that busy work would make the time go by faster and it did. By time he’d put his signature on the last sheet, he checked his phone for the time, noticing that you were almost twenty five minutes late. He unlocked his phone and clicked your name to call you but it went to voicemail. He wasn’t sure if it was his own impatience or genuine worry, but he began typing out a message and stared at his phone waiting for a reply.

Are you on your way? Fin’s asked about the cookies twice already.

A few minutes passed, still no reply. Sonny was never the one to double text, he didn’t want to feel like he was bothering someone, but it had now been almost 40 minutes since your intended arrival.

You’re starting to make me nervous, do I need to come over?

When his phone finally vibrated, he practically knocked over his coffee cup reaching to grab it. His brows furrowed as he read the words displayed on his screen.

Sorry I’m L8, got 2 reschedule

He read your words a few more times and couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. If his instinct was wrong, he was worrying about nothing. But it only took seconds to make up his mind and he wasn’t willing to risk your safety in any circumstance. He hurried towards Olivia’s office making sure to knock a couple times before letting himself in. His red scarf was already draped around his neck and he held his tan coat in his hands. Sonny prided himself in knowing you completely, so when he had a gut feeling that something was wrong he wasn’t willing to waste any time.

“Hey, Lieu, I need an hour.”

“Right now? We’re in the middle of an investigation, Carisi.” She looked up at him through the black reading glasses that were rested on the end of her nose. He was never the kind of person to leave work for a non-emergent reason which caught Olivia’s attention.

“I know, but it’s about- it’s a personal thing.” Sonny was flustered and it showed as he ran his fingers through his perfectly styled hair, not worried in the slightest if he messed it up.

“Anything I can help with?”

“I’m not sure, (Y/N) was supposed to stop by today, but she was running late so I texted her to see where she was.”

“Well, Carisi, that’s not exactly out of the ordinary,” she crossed her arms across her chest.

“I know, but this is.” He handed her his phone allowing her to read his text messages.

“She’s never used an abbreviation in her text messages in the entire time I’ve known her. I also tried calling her and it’s going straight to voicemail.”

If it was one thing Olivia prided herself in, it was trusting her detectives completely. So she handed back the phone and nodded, Sonny’s signal that he was free to go. “Call if you need anything,” she said before he all but ran towards the exit.

“Hey babe, it’s me again. You’re making me nervous please pick up the phone.”

He hung up and shoved his phone in his pocket and made his way through the door, choosing to walk rather than drive. If somehow you were still on your way to the precinct, this is the route you would’ve chose and eventually he’d cross your path. With no luck, he’d made it to your building not seeing you once. The walk hallway towards your apartment felt longer than usual and instinctively he held a hand on his gun. He counted the golden numbers on the doors until he reached yours, noticing the door of 3G was slightly ajar.

He removed his gun from the holster, using it to open your door and scanned your apartment. Flowers and milk scattered were across the floor, signalling that his suspicions were right, and he held his gun at attention. Alone in the middle of the apartment, you were duct taped to a kitchen chair. The sweat had caused your hair to stick to your face along with your grey t-shirt. Standing out, was a large crimson stain on your abdomen, which trailed downwards and formed a small puddle by your foot. You looked up when you heard the footsteps walking through the door, finding Sonny with his gun pointed towards you.

You furiously shook your head, trying to signal to him that it wasn’t safe for him to enter as the intruder in your apartment had positioned himself beside the door. Not heeding your warning, he took another step forward before Hector Beckett quietly walked behind him.

“SONNY, BEHIND YOU,” you screamed as you saw the man launch towards your boyfriend. “SONNY!”

<< Part 1 >><<Part 3>><<Part 4>> <<Continuous Version>>

Request // All Dominick ‘Sonny’ Carisi Jr. Content // Masterlist

Tag List - @miraxo-xo-supernatrual @barisi-esq @super-calithehamm @nophunleague @bitch-queen-of-sass @just-call-me-bitch

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cienie-isengardu · 7 years

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Hector Barbossa, Will Turner & Carina Smyth and PotC in general

Yeah, you guessed right, I finally watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge (a.k.a. Dead Men Tell No Tales) and now I feel strong urge to rant about it a bit. Mainly about my favorite pirate Hector Barbossa and relationships between characters in general but also about opportunities I think new movie wasted. Spoilers ahead!

From the original trilogy, Barbossa and Will Turner were my favorite characters. One because of his ruthless yet steadfast nature, the other because of loyalty and willingness to sacrifice for beloved and friends / allies. Jack always was a fun character but from perspective of time, he doesn’t really change much. And Elizabeth I liked in general, but the whole love triangle between her and almost all main cast of male characters was too much for me since I have little to none interest for unrequited romantic drama(s).

Will and Barbossa through the course of story changed in many ways. So before I will rant about them in more analytical way, let me tell you what disappointed me the most in recent movie:

The final scene between Will, Henry, Carina and Elizabeth (well, hello ex-Pirate King it was so nice to see you’re still alive) for the following reasons :

it would be cool to see at least some interaction between Elizabeth and Carina, because this movie really lacked presence of female characters (Carine and Witch/Shansa were like only two that really mattered but they were never seen in the same scene, what a shame, the witchcraft vs science has so potential!) but also Elizabeth was Pirate King that lead alliance of pirate lords to victory over Davy Jones & Beckett’s force and she won Barbossa’s respect, she deserved some attention too. Something more than Sparrow’s few words related to her body / sex.

The whole point of Flying Dutchman was to collect all souls who died at sea and carry them to the afterlife. I can forgive that Will couldn’t show up earlier and aid main team with help against Salazar for whatever reason - though I think it would be much interesting if Will Turner had offered to take the bunch of cursed undead to the other side but was refused because of Salazar’s hate for Sparrow (who once again would fail/suffer due to his own pride). Also, wouldn’t it be fun to see Carina’s face when she learns that Henry’s dad is a actually a captain of Flying Dutchman that just showed from the bottom of ocean in the middle of fight? Priceless.

BUT WHAT REALLY MAKES ME UPSET is no mention of Barbossa. I repeat: Will’s sacred task was to collect souls of people who died at sea, Barbossa drowned to save his daughter. So he should be taken by Flying Dutchman to afterlife. WOULD IT KILL ANYONE IF HENRY ACTUALLY INTRODUCED HIS GIRLFRIEND TO WILL, SO HE COULD SAY SOMETHING ALONG THE LINE THAT HE ALREADY KNOWS WHO CARINA IS BECAUSE BARBOSSA TOLD HIM EVERYTHING DURING THEIR LAST(?) MEETING?? Seriously, I would love to see dead!Hector and Will meeting after so many years.

Also, shouldn’t Will be dead for good after curse was removed? His heart was cut out of the body like 17/18? years ago

One more thing that upset me so badly is lack of recognition - Henry was son of Elizabeth and Will who both played major role in events of previous trilogy. Elizabeth even won Barbossa’s respect in the end while Will was fated to became a new captain of Flying Dutchman and since then it was quite possible that he would meet other characters after their death at sea. Yet, only Sparrow knew about Henry’s parents (and learned about Carina’s connection to Barbossa), while there wasn’t any reason why Barbossa couldn’t be informed about young Turner especially since a) Henry talked quite openly about saving dad from curse and b) if Henry knew about Sparrow, there wasn’t any reason why he wouldn’t hear about Barbossa and Gibbs, so he could just said his whole name and biological ties (like Will did in the first movie, “My name is Will Turner! My father was Bootstrap Bill Turner. His blood runs in my veins”). That should make anyone think twice about tying up / trying kill a son of captain of fucking Flying Dutchman and (ex-)pirate king.

There is so missed opportunity to acknowledge: former events, fame of Elizabeth and Will, but also a chance to dispute about magic & science and for Henry (and still unknowingly Carina) to hear about his (their) parents, what people they were before.

All things aside, I may never call this movie a true masterpiece yet I enjoyed watching it and frankly Barbossa & Carina plot interested me the most. Maybe because Carine in many ways is similar to Will Turner from the original movie. She doesn’t know her family and her love for father is a bit colored by her own imagination (like that he was a good man while in truth he is one of the most feared pirates). She is very smart but at the same time she is looked down because of her gender - if she was a man, other people would call her a science genius not a witch that should be killed in public execution. So I guess we can agree she hard worked to get so far despite all the hate and rejection by society. Sort of like Will who worked so hard at his swordsmanship and blacksmithing yet all the praise was given to his drunken useless master. And both met their supposedly dead fathers (pirates!) just to lost them so suddenly.

The fact that Barbossa cared so much for Carina’s mother - who could be just a prostitute? - made me thinks that he is one of really few male characters in PotC that had more complex relationship with women in general. Of course, we have the whole “love triangle” involving Elizabeth and Will, Jack and James Norrington (and later Sao Fang??) but then again through the series we saw scenes when Jack was slapped by angry prostitutes or is implied he had one night stand relationships or still chose being pirate over any relationship. Not to mention awful many sexual overtones toward both Elizabeth or Carina.

Will was more respectful towards female characters in general but then again, this is Will we talk.

It seems like Barbossa was in sort of long-term relationship with Margaret Smyth; he was aware about their child (or did he learned that after her death?) and was near the place where Margaret died since he personally gave the baby to an orphanage with note who she was (Carina Smyth) and a book as a sort of farawell gift. We know Barbossa named his daughter after the The Brightest Star in the North - a star that lead to home, so was an important symbol. Ultimate Barbossa chose his own freedom over duties to family, but then again he was already(?) well known pirate so maybe it wasn’t that selfish choice after all. I swear, the moment when he figured out that Carina was his daughter, the way it affected him was amazing moment to watch.

It’s sad that father and daughter didn’t have much time to catch up on. Still, Barbossa - the cruel, ruthless pirate lord - so easily thrown everything away for barely known daughter. Also, he was one of few male characters in the movie who trusted her knowledge & skills despite her gender nor make a joke at her expense. What frankly reminds me about Elizabeth and the way their relationship changed through the series. In the first movie he could be real jerk towards her (at least two times he said something with sexual?? overtones) but then he didn’t go around talking about her like Sparrow did. The more they worked together, the more Barbossa respected her in the end. I think their duo is similar to Turner & Sparrow team; the same as Will changed while working along Jack, young Swann’s character grew up under Hector’s influences (is it safe to say she became sort of his protege?). Elizabeth at least 2 times in saga was inspirated by Barbossa’s words that she actually used in her monologies to win approval of other pirates:

Barbossa: “[...] the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.”

Elizabeth: “You're pirates. Hang the Code and hang the rules! They're more like guidelines.”

or:

Barbossa: “In another age, at this very spot, the First Brethren Court captured the sea goddess and bound her in her bones. That was a mistake. Oh, we tamed the seas for ourselves, aye. But opened the door to Beckett and his ilk. Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures, but from the sweat of a mars brow and the strength of his back alone. You all know this to be true.”

Elizabeth: “You're right. Then what shall we die for? You will listen to me. Listen! The Brethren will still be looking here to us, to the Black Pearl, to lead. And what will they see? Frightened bilge rats aboard a derelict ship? No. No, they will see free men and freedom! And what the enemy will see is the flash of our cannons. They will hear the ring of our swords, and they will know what we can do. By the sweat of our brows, and the strength of our backs... ...and the courage of our hearts. Gentlemen... ...hoist the colors.“

Beside Carina and Elizabeth, Barbossa had also deals with “witches”. Tia Dalma brougt him back from dead so in return he helped to free Calypso from her human form. That sounds rather like strictly business than anything else (though I need to rewatch the trilogy) still one may wonder why she chose Barbossa from all of the people?

Now, the newest movie presented Shansa, a witch that Hector saved from noose and in return she helped to destroy all his enemies / rivals on sea. The witch adviced him to stay on land as it was the only place where Salazar can’t attack / kill him. Barbossa refused, because first of all he is a pirate and he will not let undead captain to take away his treasures. For what she replied if those are really worth dying for it? What made me feel like their relationship isn’t so strictly down to just bussiness and maybe they were fond of each other on their own specific way? Like, maybe it’s just me, but Barbossa seems to have better relationship with younger women than with most men, so maybe it’s all unconsciously linked to his lost daughter? The witch could be around the age of Carina, so maybe it somehow helped. I mean, Barbossa was quite protective and fond of the monkey Jack, so maybe the pet and later, the witch filled the void in Hector’s heart as the replacement for the lost family? Yeah, that probably more headcanon than a real matters, but still, Barbossa was really touched (and proud) when it comes to just-met Carina, so maybe it is not that far stretched after all.

As much as the movie was fun to watch, I would love to see more interaction between Carina and Barbossa or dead!Barbossa and the captain of Flying Dutchman (and seriously, Will shouldn’t be cured). That said, the idea of the next generation of Barbossa and Turner became one merry family while Jack can just watch the “happy end” from afar makes me smile everytime when I think about the irony(?).

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Virginia State Quotes

Official Website: Virginia State Quotes

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• A [desire] to abolish slavery prevails in North America, many of the Pennsylvanians have set their slaves at liberty, and [Virginia legislators] have petitioned the King for permission to make a law for preventing the importation of more [slaves] into that colony. This request, however, will probably not be granted, as their former laws of that kind have always been repealed. – Benjamin Franklin • A declaration of the independence of America, and the sovereignty of the United STates was drawn by the ingenious and philosophic pen of Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, a delegate from the state of Virginia – Mercy Otis Warren • A lot of good things start in Virginia; a lot of good things have started in Virginia. We’re no strangers to firsts. – Robert Hurt • A lot of West Virginia is untouched. It doesn’t have as many strip malls, it has these old towns that feel like it used to be how it looked. Charleston has this river that runs through it, and it’s really beautiful. – Sam Trammell • A middle-aged woman who looked like someone’s cleaning lady, a shrieking adolescent lunatic and a talkshow host with an orange face… It didn’t add up. Suicide wasn’t invented for people like this. It was invented for people like Virginia Woolf and Nick Drake. And Me. Suicide was supposed to be cool. – Nick Hornby • A new report shows that, in Virginia, gun violence has fallen as the sale of firearms has soared to a new record. In other news, a recent study shows that most criminals don’t like getting shot at. – Fred Thompson • Ah. In my experience, when people say they don’t know whether they love someone, they usually mean no. – Michael Scott

• All I ever wanted was a Virginia farm, no end of cream and fresh butter and fried chicken – not one fried chicken, or two, but unlimited fried chicken. – Robert E. Lee • An otherwise happily married couple may turn a mixed doubles game into a scene from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. – Rod Laver • And later, if I ever felt that I was getting swept away by the craziness of being in a band, well, I’d go back to Virginia. – Dave Grohl • Any part of the piggy Is quite all right with me Ham from Westphalia, ham from Parma Ham as lean as the Dalai Lama Ham from Virginia, ham from York, Trotters Sausages, hot roast pork. Crackling crisp for my teeth to grind on Bacon with or without the rind on Though humanitarian I’m not a vegetarian. I’m neither crank nor prude nor prig And though it may sound infra dig Any part of the darling pig Is perfectly fine with me. – Noel Coward • Any time you burn a cross in Virginia, it’s a crime? – Anthony Kennedy • Are we going to New Orleans?” “No”, she said, backing out of the spot. “We’re going to West Virginia.” “I assume by ‘West Virginia,’ you actually mean ‘Hawaii,'” I said. “Or some place equally exciting. – Richelle Mead • As editor of the largest newspaper in West Virginia, I scan hundreds of reports daily . . . and I am amazed by the frequency with which religion causes people to kill each other. It is a nearly universal pattern, undercutting the common assumption that religion makes people kind and tolerant. – James A. Haught • As my father wrote, one’s courage, hope, and spirit can be severely tried by the happenstance of life. But as I learned on this Virginia mountain, so long as one never loses faith, it is impossible to ever truly be alone. – David Baldacci • At Princeton I wrote my junior paper on Virginia Woolf, and for my senior thesis I wrote on Samuel Beckett. I wrote some about “Between the Acts” and “Mrs. Dalloway” but mostly about “To the Lighthouse.” With Beckett I focused, perversely, on his novels, “Molloy,” “Malone Dies,” and “The Unnamable.” That’s when I decided I should never write again. – David Duchovny • At the risk of sounding like Virginia Woolf, I could live on £700 a year. – Ian Mcewan

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Virginia', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_virginia').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_virginia img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Because finally, ‘the equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of his religion according to the dictates of conscience’ is held by the same tenure with all his other rights. If we recur to its origin, it is equally the gift of nature; if we weigh its importance, it cannot be less dear to us; if we consider the ‘Declaration of those rights which pertain to the good people of Virginia, as the basis and foundation of government,’ it is enumerated with equal solemnity, or rather studied emphasis. – James Madison• Because I’m Irish, I’ve always done an accent. Not doing an accent is off-putting because I sound like me. I love doing an accent. Doing the accent from West Virginia was great, and we had to get specific with it. – Eve Hewson • Being blunt with your feelings is very American. In this big country, I can be as brash as New York, as hedonistic as Los Angeles, as sensuous as San Francisco, as brainy as Boston, as proper as Philadelphia, as brawny as Chicago, as warm as Palm Springs, as friendly as my adopted home town of Dallas, Fort Worth, and as peaceful as the inland waterway that rubs up against my former home in Virginia Beach. – Martina Navratilova • Both my parents came from North Carolina, in Warren County. My mother had a feeling that there was greater culture in North Carolina than obtained in Norfolk, Virginia, plus the fact she just didn’t like the lowland-lying climate there. – Ella Baker • But perhaps God’s purpose in the world (I am only thinking aloud here) is to draw his creatures to him. And you have to admit that tragedies like this one at Virginia Tech help to do that! – Dinesh D’Souza • But under the beaming, constant and almost vertical sun of Virginia, shade is our Elysium. In the absence of this no beauty of the eye can be enjoyed. – Thomas Jefferson • But, sir, the great cause of complaint now is the slavery question, and the questions growing out of it. If there is any other cause of complaint which has been influential in any quarter, to bring about the crisis which is now upon us; if any State or any people have made the troubles growing out of this question, a pretext for agitation instead of a cause of honest complaint, Virginia can have no sympathy whatever, in any such feeling, in any such policy, in any such attempt. It is the slavery question. Is it not so? – John Brown Baldwin • By natural means, as the Lord always operates for the accomplishment of his purposes, means so simple that the thoughtless and unbelieving do not see the manifestation of his power, he brought the Puritans from the old world to New England, the Dutch to New York, the English Cavaliers to Virginia and the French to New Orleans, a combination of races which, paradoxical as it may appear, was just calculated to give us the composite America who made the United States of America what it is, the greatest nation of the world today. – Anthony W. Ivins

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling] • Cause I’m carryin’ your love with me From West Virginia down to Tennessee I’ll be movin’ with the good lord speed, carryin’ your love with me It’s my strength for holdin’ on Every minute that I have to be gone I’ll have everything I’ll ever need Carryin’ your love with me – George Strait • Come to West Virginia and we’ll show you how to live… how to treat people. We’re open for business. West Virginia is truly on the move. – Joe Manchin • Deep down, I’m just a West Virginia hillbilly. – Brad Paisley • Donald Trump didn’t know the [Democratic] vice presidential candidate he was running against: Tim Kaine [Senator] of Virginia, Donald! Not Thomas Kean, Republican [former Governor] of New Jersey, you moron! And his answer to absolutely every question is so simplistic and grand: “Oh, I’ll fix it. Trust me. I’m the best fixer. I love to fix!!! Look at everything I’ve fixed before!!!!”. – Chrissy Teigen • Donald Trump singled out three particular states where he claimed there was, quote, “serious voter fraud” – Virginia, New Hampshire and California. Trump lost all three of those states. – Audie Cornish • Don’t take me for a fool!” Dee interrupted angrily, but then had to lean over the boat as another bout of nausea gripped him. Virginia grinned and winked at Josh. “It’s hard to sound masterful when you’re throwing up, isn’t it?” “I hate you, Virginia Dare,” Dee mumbled. “I know you don’t really mean that,” she said lightly. “I do,” he croaked. – Michael Scott • Each had his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by heart; and his friends could only read the title. – Virginia Woolf, from Jacob’s Room Television is chewing gum for the eyes. – Frank Lloyd Wright • Each time I undertake to reread Virginia Woolf, I am somewhat baffled by the signature breathlessness and relentlessly “poetic” tone, the shimmering impressionism, so very different from the vivid, precise, magisterial (and often very funny) prose of her contemporary James Joyce. – Joyce Carol Oates • Earlier this week Donald Trump gave an interview with CNN at a winery he owns in Virginia. It turns out Trump’s winery makes two different kinds of wine: white wine and not-white wine. – Jimmy Fallon • Five states – Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois and North Carolina – have been identified by the EPA as contributing significantly to Rhode Island pollution. As of 2010, 284 tall smokestacks – stacks over 500 feet – were operating in the United States: needles injecting poison into the atmosphere. – Sheldon Whitehouse • For a mile up and down the open fields before us the splendid lines of the veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia swept down upon us. Their bearing was magnificent. They came forward with a rush, and how our men did yell, ‘Come on, Johnny, come on!’ – Rufus Dawes • For in Virginia, a plaine Souldier that can use a Pick-axe and spade, is better than five Knights. – John Smit • For me, I was born in the Bronx, and I moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia at a very young age. I had the luxury of going back to New York, visiting my grandmother who would spoil me endlessly, and I could buy whatever was the hot kicks in the summertime of 1990. Being able to shop and then going back to Virginia Beach, where they weren’t as fast in regards to fashion, I had that luxury. – Pusha T • For pain words are lacking. There should be cries, cracks, fissures, whiteness passing over chintz covers, interference with the sense of time, of space ; the sense also of extreme fixity in passing objects ; and sounds very remote and then very close ; flesh being gashed and blood sparting, a joint suddenly twisted – beneath all of which appears something very important, yet remote, to be just held in solitude.” — Virginia Woolf, The Waves – Virginia Woolf • For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew— or a Quaker or a Unitarian or a Baptist. It was Virginia’s harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson’s statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you — until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril. – John F. Kennedy • Growing up in the church in West Virginia, faith is always there. It’s part of the fabric of the culture. – DeVon Franklin • Gun-free zones don’t deter criminals-they help them by providing a guarantee that they will not face any armed resistance. But they do deter the law-abiding. A faculty member with a concealed-handgun permit who breaks the campus gun ban would be fired and likely find it impossible to get admitted to another school. Bringing a firearm into a gun-free zone can have serious adverse consequences for law-abiding people. But for someone like the Virginia Tech killer, the threat of expulsion is no deterrent at all. – Glenn Beck • Had you or I been born at the Bay of Soldania, possibly our Thoughts, and Notions, had not exceeded those brutish ones of the Hotentots that inhabit there: And had the Virginia King Apochancana, been educated in England, he had, perhaps been as knowing a Divine, and as good a Mathematician as any in it. The difference between him, and a more improved English-man, lying barely in this, That the exercise of his Facilities was bounded within the Ways, Modes, and Notions of his own Country, and never directed to any other or farther Enquiries. – John Locke • Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together. – William Bradford • Home. One place is just like another, really. Maybe not. But truth is it’s all just rock and dirt and people are roughly the same. I was born up there but I’m no stranger here. Have always felt at home everywhere, even in Virginia, where they hate me. Everywhere you go there’s nothing but the same rock and dirt and houses and people and deer and birds. They give it all names, but I’m at home everywhere. Odd thing: unpatriotic. I was at home in England. I would be at home in the desert. In Afghanistan or far Typee. All mine, it all belongs to me. My world. – Michael Shaara • How did Madison get separation through Virginia and later Congress? The Baptists, the Presbyterians, and the smaller sects hated Jefferson; to them he was a secularist of the worst kind. But Madison could get Jefferson’s bill passed because the Baptists, the Presbyterians, and smaller sects who were excluded in New England and in the South got together for their own protection. – John Rawls • I am a former Kleagie of the Klu Klux Klan in Raleigh County and adjoining counties of the state, having been appainted to this office [by] Mr. J. L. Baskin of Arlington, Virginia, in 1942… It is necessary that the order be promoted immediately and in every state in the union. – Robert Byrd • I am happy to be a regional writer. My region is the American West, old Mexico, West Virginia, New York, Europe, Australia, the human heart, and the male groin. – Edward Abbey • I am not of Virginia blood; she is of mine. – Joshua Chamberlain • I am of Virginia and all my professional life I have studied of Lee and Jackson – Douglas MacArthur • I came from Mechanicsville, Virginia, where you have four seasons. – Jason Mraz • I can assure you that my wife and I – every penny of income we’ve ever had, our taxes were paid in West Virginia. – Joe Manchin • I can’t imagine otherwise – I guess Virginia Woolf could write wonderful novels where the women never have sex, and her novels work. But for me, I don’t think I could write a plot without sex happening somewhere. – Shirley Geok-lin Lim • I can’t think of a better place to be than Scottsville, Virginia. – Robert Hurt • I considered 4 of these bills [of the revised code of Virginia] as forming a system by which every fibre would be eradicated of antient or future aristocracy; and a foundation laid for a government truly republican. – Thomas Jefferson • I fully expect to be able to complete one more campaign goal – and that is to proudly report that signs have been erected as you enter our great state that say ‘Welcome to Wild, Wonderful West Virginia: Open for Business!’ – Joe Manchin • I grew up down in the hills of Virginia. I can be in Kentucky in 20 minutes, Tennessee in 20 minutes or in the state of West Virginia in 20 minutes. And it’s down in the Appalachian Mountains, down there. And it’s sort of a poorer country. Most of the livelihood is coal mining and logging, working in the woods and things like that. Most people has a hard life down that way. – Ralph Stanley • I grew up in Palestine, West Virginia, which is mostly a farming community; there aren’t a lot of jobs. – Jessica Lynch • I grew up in southwestern Virginia. I was born in South Carolina, but only because my parents had a vacation cabin or something there on the beach. I was like a summer baby. But I did grow up in the South. I grew up in serious, serious Appalachia, in a very small town. – William Gibson • I grew up in the segregated South, right here in Lynchburg, Virginia. – Jerry Falwell • I had been reading a lot about pioneers in Australia and the colonization of Australia, and pioneers in Virginia and the early settlers in the United States, and I was fascinated by those communities and how they grew, how their politics developed, and the actual suffering of those people and the tribulations they went through. – Ben Richards • I knew that the wall was the main thing in Quebec, and had cost a great deal of money…. In fact, these are the only remarkable walls we have in North America, though we have a good deal of Virginia fence, it is true. – Henry David Thoreau • I know the Virginia players are smart because you need a 1500 SAT to get in. I have to drop bread crumbs to get our players to and from class – George Raveling • I like reading… French, Russian classics – Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert. I also like Hemingway, Virginia Woolf. – Andrea Bocelli • I live in a rural part of Virginia surrounded by farms and farmers. – Barbara Kingsolver • I look upon Virginia as a rib taken from Britain’s side… While they both proceed as living under the marriage-compact, this Eve might thrive so long as her Adam flourishes. Whatever serpent shall tempt her to go astray etc [will only cause] her husband to rule more strictly over her. – Alexander Spotswood • I love going to black churches, and I love some of these black preachers. The best preacher I ever saw in my life was a 93-year-old in a black church in Hamilton, Virginia. What a preacher! – Robert Duvall • I love to smoke. I love to eat red meat. I’ll only eat red meat that comes from cows who smoke, ok!? Special cows they grow in Virginia with voice boxes in their necks. “Moo” – Denis Leary • I loved languages, and loved learning languages. It was fantastic. But I was alone there. I remember that time as a real Virginia Woolf time. More than any language it was her language that influenced me. – Lily King • I made a fairly bold pledge that I wanted Virginia to be the energy capital of the East Coast. – Bob McDonnell • I mean my mother migrated from Georgia -Rome, Georgia, to Washington, D.C., where she then met my father, who was a Tuskegee Airman who was from Southern Virginia. They migrated to Washington and I wouldn’t even exist if it were not for that migration. And I brought her back to Georgia, both my parents, actually. – Isabel Wilkerson • I never had a hat, never wore one, but recently was given a brown suede duck-hunting hat. The moment I put it on I realized I was starved for a hat. I kept it warm by putting it on my head. I made plans to wear it especially when I was going to do any thinking. Somewhere in Virginia, I lost my hat. – John Cage • I never wanted to fight against the Union, but could not turn my back on Virginia. – John Brown • I now teach at American University and the University of Virginia – Julian Bond • I say, then, that viewed from that standpoint, there is but one single subject of complaint which Virginia has to make against the government under which we live; a complaint made by the whole South, and that is on the subject of African slavery. – John Brown Baldwin • I served with General Washington in die Legislature of Virginia…and…with Doctor Franklin in Congress. I never heard neither of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point. – Thomas Jefferson • I spent my first two years at a small all-male college in Virginia called Hampden-Sydney. That was like going to college 120 years ago. The languages, a year of rhetoric, all of the great books, Western Man courses, stuff like that. – Stephen Colbert • I tell you what Hispanics in Virginia tell me they want. They want access to the American dream. Thats why they come here to Virginia and to America, so they want more opportunities to start small business, better schools. – Bob McDonnell • I then wrought at my trade as a tailor; carefully attended meetings for worship and discipline; and found an enlargement of gospel love in my mind, and therein a concern to visit Friends in some of the back settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia. – John Woolman • I think family is very important in West Virginia and has long been so because the mountains made travel difficult in the past, and family members had to depend on each other. – David Selby • I think George Allen from Virginia was a distinguished governor, he’s a distinguished senator and head of the Senatorial Campaign Committee and won some significant victories. He is a very attractive guy and would make a tremendous president. – Pat Robertson • I think that we need more economic-based solutions to the problems afflicting the Black community, and I think that that’s a way to redefine affirmative action. I grew up with poor white people in West Virginia, and I know there’s a culture of poverty. I know that I’ve seen white people perform exactly the same pathological forms of behavior as Black people do when they’re systematically deprived, whether it’s getting pregnant, doing drugs, dropping out of school, whatever we’re talking about. I think that we should have affirmative action for poor white people too. – Henry Louis Gates • I think the kind of unexpected I really love is when you open books and the actual way of writing is different and interesting. Like reading Virginia Woolf for the first time or Lawrence Durrell for the first time. – Lalla Ward • I think, to be honest, sort of emanated from the initial work of somebody else instead of SCLC. If you take Albany; I don’t know whether you recall how Albany got started. There were two little guys who went up there first. One was Cordell Hull who was then in his teens – not Cordell Hull – Cordell Reagan, who came out of the Nashville movement, and Charles Sherrod, who came out of the Richmond, Virginia, movement. – Ella Baker • I usually have more than one thing I’m working on at once — I’ve been working on three different novels. When I get stuck on one, I hop back and forth. It’s sort of freeing: I can say I’m abandoning this thing that I hate forever and I’m moving on to something that’s good. I’ll find that I’ll go back to [the other project] in a day or a week and like it again. But that moment of wanting to trash something — that Virginia Woolf moment when you have to be stopped from filling your pocket with stones — comes pretty regularly for me. Switching is probably a good thing. – Dan Chaon • I want to talk about jobs and health care and pension security and what we’re going to do to stop the brain drain in Ohio and make it possible for our young people to stay here and build a life in Ohio rather than in Pennsylvania or West Virginia or God knows where. – Ted Strickland • I was a tomboy growing up and then fell into the world of theatre and musical theatre. A girlfriend introduced me to yoga in college and I was hooked. I didn’t really know anything about it except that it was the highlight of my week. I ended up graduating from the University of Virginia and moving to Los Angeles where I could continue acting and do a yoga teacher training. I went from practicing once or twice a week to several hours everyday. I loved it. – Kathryn Budig • I was able to go over [Saxophone Competition] and work a little more in Europe. I’m thankful that those of kinds of things. Simultaneously, some nice things did come in. I got a nice festival that came in, in Virginia through that. There was a club that opened in DC in the famous Willard Hotel near the White House. And the club was called The Nest. I played there a few nights. Some musicians in Philly and D.C. kind of brought me down and got me on a couple things. So things opened up a little bit. – Jon Gordon • I was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the confederacy. – Corey Reynolds • I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families–second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks…. My father … removed from Kentucky to … Indiana, in my eighth year…. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up…. Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher … but that was all. – Abraham Lincoln • I was born in Norfolk, Virginia. I began school there, the first year of public school. When I was 7, the family shifted back to North Carolina. I grew up in North Carolina; had my schooling through the college level in North Carolina. – Ella Baker • I was into Virginia Woolf and James Joyce [at university] and I think we all thought that [Charles] Dickens wasn’t that cool. – Felicity Jones • I was recruited by a number of schools including Miami University, University of Kentucky, University of Cincinnati, Indiana university, West Virginia University as well as others. – Graham Taylor • I was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, for a while, about which the less said the better, and then I was in the Mediterranean, about which the more said the better. – Harry Mathews • I woke up full of hate and fear the day before the most recent peace march in San Francisco. This was disappointing: I’d hoped to wake up feeling somewhere between Virginia Woolf and Wavy Gravy. – Anne Lamott • I would say country is the one type of music I’ve spent the least amount of time with in my life. I grew up in Virginia, where there was a lot of it, but I was more interested in rock and roll. Southern rock. – Connie Britton • I, for one, despite being a pretty solid climate hawk, I am extremely sympathetic to West Virginia and its coal-country needs. I lived there for a year. I’ve seen it. And the same for Wyoming, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky. They all have parts of their state where that really matters. And I think that home-state constituency issue is a pretty constant one. And I think the problem of extreme lobbying by the corporate sector, which runs about $30-to-$1 compared to everybody else in the world, and the constituent aspect combines to give those industries a consistent advantage. – Sheldon Whitehouse • If any doubt has arisen as to me, my country [Virginia] will have my political creed in the form of a “Declaration &c.” which I was lately directed to draw. This will give decisive proof that my own sentiment concurred with the vote they instructed us to give. – Thomas Jefferson • If our legislature does not heartily push our University [of Virginia] we must send our children for education to Kentucky [Transylvania College] or Cambridge [Harvard College]. The latter will return them to us as fanatics and tories, the former will keep them to add to their population. – Thomas Jefferson • If she Hillary Clinton win just two of the three big battleground states – North Carolina, Florida and Virginia – she will have shut off Trump’s path to 270 electoral votes, even if he wins the other toss-up states. – Mara Liasson • If the federal government has the exclusive right to judge the extent of its own powers, warned the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions’ authors (James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, respectively), it will continue to grow – regardless of elections, the separation of powers, and other much-touted limits on government power. – Thomas Woods • If we had to take a million immigrants in, say Zulus, next year, or Englishmen, and put them up in Virginia, what group would be easier to assimilate and would cause less problems for the people of Virginia? – Pat Buchanan • If you think of all the publicity about the terrible tragedy of Virginia Tech, we have a Virginia Tech in this country every day. It’s just spread across 50 states. – Michael Bloomberg • If you’re writing an opinion piece, it’s your job to write your opinion. If, on the other hand, you wrote a novel, as Virginia Woolf tells us, it would be inappropriate if you let your novel be influenced by your political opinions. – David Mamet • I’ll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia, I’ll even ‘hari-kari’ if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun! – Alan Alda • I’m from Middlesboro, Ky., a little town on the Tennessee and Virginia border. – Lee Majors • I’m from West Virginia. If you didn’t know what was happening in NASCAR, you were on the outside. NASCAR is a big league sport, but it’s still also country and redneck. – Randy Moss • I’m going to come back to West Virginia when this is over. There’s something ancient and deeply-rooted in my soul. I like to think that I have left my ghost up one of those hollows, and I’ll never really be able to leave for good until I find it. And I don’t want to look for it, because I might find it and have to leave.” – from a letter to his mother Helen Pancake that Breece wrote in Charlottesville, where he was studying writing. – Breece D’J Pancake • I’m like a little boy from Virginia. I’m a backpacker. In my head, I’m left of centre. I come from the pool of weirdoes. – Pharrell Williams • I’m projected as an ambulance chaser, but I’m more the ambulance. People call me because they know I will come…. I have never fought a case where they didn’t ask me to come. People have this picture like I’m sitting up in bed at night with a walkie-talkie. “You hear anything? Oh, let’s run! It’s Virginia today!”… Every victim calls us…. “Who put Sharpton in charge?” The victim! – Al Sharpton • Imposing excessive new regulations, or closing coal-fired power plants, would produce few health or environmental benefits. But it would exact huge costs on society – and bring factories, offices and economies to a screeching halt in states that are 80-98% dependent on coal: Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. – Paul Driessen • In “Virginia Woolf” I had a thing which the grips called the paraplegic which was a wheelchair thing that I had made up years before where I could stand on this bicycle-like device and be pushed down the hall, and then step off it with a handheld camera. – Haskell Wexler • In all her history, from the formation of the federal government until the hour of secession, no year stands out more prominently than the year 1858 as evidencing the national patriotism of Virginia. – John Sergeant Wise • In his scintillating new novel, Matt Bondurant explores a crucial period in the history of Virginia and of his family. His gorgeous, precise prose brings to life an amazing cast of characters, including Sherwood Anderson, and the often deadly battles of Prohibition. The Wettest County in the World is a remarkably compelling, highly intelligent, and deeply moving novel. – Margot Livesey • In other words, [ H.P. Lovecraft] was areligious, asexual, neurasthenic, he just didn’t want to react to the world. Like Virginia Woolf, who considered religion the ultimate obscenity. – Paul Laffoley • In Seattle, I soon found that my radical ideas and aesthetic explorations – ideas and explorations that in Richmond, Virginia, might have gotten me stoned to death with hush puppies – were not only accepted but occasionally applauded. – Tom Robbins • In the end I created a career of my own, concentrating on my writing and lecturing, reaching larger audiences than I would had I ended up with tenure and a full teaching load. It was Virginia Woolf who said that it is terrible to be frozen out of a sacred tradition – but even more terrible to be frozen into it. – Michael Parenti • In the great city of San Francisco, where I used to live, at 2 in the morning every other Victorian house has somebody who is writing the great American novel. And the city is not loaded with James Joyces or Virginia Woolfs. But entrepreneurship is about distorted views of reality. – Tom Peters • In the recent Virginia election, the black vote diminished. Now why was that? I think a lot of black folks are wondering what this guy is really going to do, not only for them but for the country. If the country is injured, they will be injured. That may be sinking in. – Nat Hentoff • In the sense of media saying this about themselves, I drive to my kids’ school in upstate New York through rural Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York; [Donald] Trump signs everywhere. – Mary Matalin • In West Virginia yesterday, a man was arrested for stealing several blow-up dolls. Reportedly, police didn’t have any trouble catching the man because he was completely out of breath. – Conan O’Brien • In West Virginia, we’re all family. We know how firefighters and policemen honor their own and we feel our miners deserve to be honored in a similar way. – Ginger Baker • It costs a hell of a lot more money to put somebody in jail than send them to the University of Virginia. – Bernie Sanders • It is in Virginia and Georgia that the war now rages and where it will continue for at these points – Richmond and Atlanta – the enemy’s main strength is concentrated. • It is to them I look, to the rising generation, and not to the one now in power, for these great reformations i.e., emancipation of slaves and settlement of the Virginia constitution on a firmer and more permanent basis. – Thomas Jefferson • It’s ironic that the Bible belt is the killing belt – Texas, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, and so forth, Georgia. Chief executioners. – Joseph Lowery • It’s quite clear that Virginia Wade is thriving on the pressure now that the pressure on her to do well is off . – Harry Carpenter • It’s rather splendid to think of all those great men and women who appear to have presented symptoms that allow us to describe them as bipolar. Whether it’s Hemingway, Van Gogh… Robert Schumann has been mentioned… Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath… some of them with rather grim ends. – Stephen Fry • I’ve always loved my own little office spaces no matter what they were like. It’s the Virginia Woolf, room of one’s own concept, it’s really important. – Lena Dunham • Lee tells his troops. After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. – Robert E. Lee • Like the amazing story of Anthony Johnson. This man was a slave, then became free, accumulated 250 acres, and even had his own slave, a black man who took him to court in Virginia in 1654.That man argued that he should be freed like an indentured servant. But Johnson, who we believe was a pure African from Angola, said, “No way, you’re my slave.” And the court agreed. – Henry Louis Gates • My father was in the coal business in West Virginia. Both dad and mother were, however, originally from Massachusetts; New England, to them, meant the place to go if you really wanted an education. – John Knowles • My father’s family came from Virginia and Philadelphia. He wasn’t a brother who talked a lot. He was a working man, a quiet, blue-collar dude. – Ice T • My father’s people… are from Fairfax in northern Virginia, just across the Mason-Dixon line. So it was an honour to play Lee, he was a great general. – Robert Duvall • My first job was at an amusement park in Virginia. It was the worst. I loved the park but once I’d worked there all the magic was gone from it. It just turned into a place I hated and I’ve never been there since. • My great-great-great-grandmother walked as a slave from Virginia to Eatonton, Georgia… It is in memory of this walk that I chose to keep and to embrace my “maiden” name, Walker. – Alice Walker • My inspiration is my hometown. I feel that because I’m representing my very overlooked region of Virginia, I have to keep accomplishing my goals to show everyone there that you can truly become whatever you believe with hard work and dedication. – Thomas Jones • My mother was a public school teacher in Virginia, and we didn’t have any money, we just survived on happiness, on being a happy family.- Dave Grohl • My off-the-cuff remarks at the University of Virginia were with regard to global macro traders, who are on-call 24/7 and of whom there are likely only a few thousand successful practitioners in the world today. Macro trading requires a high degree of skill, focus and repetition. Life events, such as birth, divorce, death of a loved one and other emotional highs and lows are obstacles to success in this specific field of finance. – Paul Tudor Jones • My older sister Nikki went to Hampton music school in Virginia, then to another school later in New York. – Debra Wilson • My role models were childless: Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, George Eliot, the Brontes. – Joyce Carol Oates • My swag is always capital and live in north Virginia. – Donald Glover • My ‘thing’ is that I just lie in my immense bed and look out the window at the skyline over Virginia and the sky and the airplanes coming into Reagan. I really love doing that. – Ben Stein • Needless to say, the business of living interferes with the solitude so needed for any work of the imagination. Here’s what Virginia Woolf said in her diary about the sticky issue: “I’ve shirked two parties, and another Frenchman, and buying a hat, and tea with Hilda Trevelyan, for I really can’t combine all this with keeping all my imaginary people going. – Virginia Woolf • New Jersey boasts the highest percentage of passport holders (68%); Delaware (67%), Alaska (65%), Massachusetts (63%), New York (62%), and California (60%) are close behind. At the opposite end of the spectrum, less than one in five residents of Mississippi are passport holders, and just one in four residents of West Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, and Arkansas. – Richard Florida • Next Monday the Convention in Virginia will assemble; we have still good hopes of its adoption here: though by no great plurality of votes. South Carolina has probably decided favourably before this time. The plot thickens fast. A few short weeks will determine the political fate of America for the present generation, and probably produce no small influence on the happiness of society through a long succession of ages to come. – George Washington • No couples in Virginia can adopt other than a married couple – that’s the right policy. – Tim Kaine • Not only is the day waning, but the year. The low sun is fiery and yet cold behind the monastery ruin, and the Virginia creeper on the Cathedral wall has showered half its deep-red leaves down on the pavement. There has been rain this afternoon, and a wintry shudder goes among the little pools on the cracked, uneven flag-stones, and through the giant elm-trees as they shed a gust of tears. – Charles Dickens • Obviously, everything has always been defined by the dominant ideology. But the dominant ideology has been able to accept women’s literature as well as men’s literature. I would say that women have been hindered from creating for a variety of reasons, as Virginia Woolf so admirably explained in A Room of One’s Own. When they have created, on the whole they have been recognized. In literature it hasn’t been nearly as oppressive as in, say, painting, where even the existence of so many women painters has always been denied. – Simone de Beauvoir • Of Virginia Woolf: The talent of this generation which is most certain of survival. – Rebecca West • Okay, so. You, Belikov, the Alchemist, Sonya Karp, Victor Dashkov, and Robert Doru are all hanging out in West Virginia together.” “No,” I said. “No?” “We’re, uh, not in West Virginia. – Richelle Mead • On most things except witch trials, Virginia will always have been first. – Morgan Griffith • On the last morning of Virginia’s bloodiest year since the Civil War, I built a fire and sat facing a window of darkness where at sunrise I knew I would find the sea. – Patricia Cornwell • Once we had a rail station in Montgomery that connected to Columbus and went all the way up to Virginia, slave traders could transport thousands of slaves at a fraction of the cost than they could transport by boat, and certainly by foot. And that’s how Montgomery became such an active slave-trading space. – Bryan Stevenson • Our [Virginia’s] act for freedom of religion is extremely applauded. The Ambassadors and ministers of the several nations of Europe resident at this court have asked me copies of it to send to their sovereigns, and it is inserted at full length in several books now in the press; among others, in the new Encyclopédie. I think it will produce considerable good even in those countries where ignorance, superstition, poverty and oppression of body and mind in every form, are so firmly settled on the mass of the people, that their redemption from them can never be hoped. – Thomas Jefferson • Our neighbors in Virginia are just as responsible for these killings as the criminals are because they won’t pass strong gun [control] legislation. – Marion Barry • Our workers comp debt is the Achilles heel of our state’s economy, and I firmly believe that in order to create more good jobs in West Virginia this system must be fixed and it must be fixed now. We cannot afford to wait even one more minute. – Joe Manchin • Philip Glass, like [Virginia] Woolf, is more interested in that which continues than he is in that which begins, climaxes, and ends… Glass and Woolf have both broken out of the traditional realm of the story, whether literary or musical, in favor of something more meditative, less neatly delineated, and more true to life. For me, Glass [finds] in three repeated notes something of [a] rapture of sameness. – Michael Cunningham • Plot involves fragmentary reality, and it might involve composite reality. Fragmentary reality is the view of the individual. Composite reality is the community or state view. Fragmentary reality is always set against composite reality. Virginia Woolf did this by creating fragmentary monologues and for a while this was all the rage in literature. She was a genius. In the hands of the merely talented it came off like gibberish. – Rita Mae Brown • Pocahontas was the reason the Virginia colony didn’t disappear, unlike some earlier attempts – Brooks Robinson • Random Roles? Oh, I saw Virginia Madsen do this the other day! You see? I’m paying attention! – Rob Lowe • Receiving both the Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award suggests I have succeeded, at least in terms of my own goals, in my intent to make art that moves children. – Jerry Pinkney • Science advances by trial and error. When mistakes are made, the peer-review publication process usually roots them out. Cuccinelli’s version of the scientific process would be “make an error and go to trial.” Einstein did not arrive at E=mc2 in his first attempt. If he were working in the state of Virginia under Cuccinelli today, he could be jailed for his initial mistakes and perhaps never achieve that landmark equation. – Scott Mandia • Senator Allen has long been a leader on competitiveness issues in the Senate and as governor of Virginia. His announcement of the Competitiveness Caucus comes as great news to the nation’s manufacturers. We support every item on this agenda and will work with Senator Allen and others to make it a reality. The time has come for Congress to recognize the vital role manufacturing plays in American life and do what it can to strengthen our ability to compete in the global marketplace. – John Engler • Separation of church and state in Virginia, instead of weakening Christianity, as the conservatives of the Revolution had feared, really aided it in securing a power over men far greater than it had known in the past. – H. J Eckenrode • She [Virginia Madsen] and I had a really long relationship after that movie [‘Class’] I love her, and I can imagine it was not much fun to do that big sequence with a bunch of laughing, ogling frat-boy actors. I mean, can you imagine putting up with me, [John] Cusack, Alan Ruck, and Andrew McCarthy at 18? – Rob Lowe • She pulled off Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and settled down in a comfortable leather chair by the fire to read. – Lucinda Riley • Simultaneously with the establishment of the Constitution, Virginia ceded to the United States her domain, which then extended to the Mississippi, and was even claimed to extend to the Pacific Ocean. – William H. Seward • Since the turn of the 20th century, members of the Jewish community in Upper East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia have been meeting together to celebrate and worship. – Bill Jenkins • So this judge in Virginia rules that a lesbian wasn’t fit to raise her own daughter because she might grow up to be a lesbian, and gives custody to the lesbian’s mother. And I’m thinking, “She’s already raised one lesbian.” – Chris Cannon • So you should be able to see them clearly in your imagination. We always find it easier to visualize what we fear; it’s what keeps us afraid of the dark. – Michael Scott • So, in Kennedy’s case, he was a Catholic. And people thought after the Al Smith election and so forth that a Catholic couldn’t win in the United States. But when he was able to win in West Virginia, he proved that a Catholic could win, even in a heavily Protestant state. – Geoffrey Cowan • Some of my favorite poems are “confessional” poems written in the voices of aliens (“Southbound on the Freeway” by May Swenson” and “Report from the Surface” by Anthony McCann), sheep (“Snow Line” by John Berryman) or a yak (“The Only Yak in Batesville, Virginia” by Oni Buchanan). – Matthea Harvey • Teresa Lewis, the only woman on death row in Virginia, says she doesn’t deserve the death penalty because she only hired the killers of her husband and stepson, she didn’t actually pull the trigger herself. You know, she has a point. I think we should let her be able to hire the person who executes her, and not do yourself in! How’s that, doll? Yeah! Get it over with quick, maybe Charlize Theron will sign up to play you. – Dennis Miller • That was Sydney Sage,” said Lissa. “I thought they were all in West Virginia. Why isn’t she with Rose?” “That,” said Abe darkly, “is an excellent question.” “Because they were apparently kidnapping Jill Mastrano in Detroit,” said Christian. “Which is weird. But not the craziest thing I can think of Rose doing. – Richelle Mead • That we can come here today and in the presence of thousands and tens of thousands of the survivors of the gallant army of Northern Virginia and their descendants, establish such an enduring monument by their hospitable welcome and acclaim, is conclusive proof of the uniting of the sections, and a universal confession that all that was done was well done, that the battle had to be fought, that the sections had to be tried, but that in the end, the result has inured to the common benefit of all. – William Howard Taft • The application requisite to the duties of the office I hold [governor of Virginia] is so excessive, and the execution of them after all so imperfect, that I have determined to retire from it at the close of the present campaign. – Thomas Jefferson • The Army of Northern Virginia was never defeated. It merely wore itself out whipping the enemy. – Jubal Early • The British merchants represented that they received some profit indeed from Virginia and South Carolina, as well as the West Indies; but as for the rest of this continent, they were constant losers in trade. – Ezra Stiles • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the most sweeping civil rights legislation of its day, and included women’s rights as part of its reforms. Ironically, the section on women’s rights was added by a senator from Virginia who opposed the whole thing and was said to be sure that if he stuck something about womens’ rights into it, it would never pass. The bill passed anyway, though, much to the chagrin of a certain wiener from Virginia. – Adam Selzer • The Concord Coalition in Virginia complained about pork projects and wasteful spending in the federal budget. Consider the Senate chaplain’s salary. As occupations go, only mind readers in Los Angeles have fewer things to do all day. – Argus Hamilton • The first American ancestor of our name was a younger son of these old Devonshire people, and came to the Virginia colony in the reign of Charles the First. – John Sergeant Wise • The first presidential veto, by George Washington, was a veto of Alexander Hamilton’s formula for apportioning the House, and the one that Washington preferred was one that Thomas Jefferson produced, and that was one partisan issue. The apportionment formula that Jefferson produced gave an extra seat to Virginia. Everybody knew what that game was. Look, partisan interest in the census is simply nothing new. – Kenneth Prewitt • The first time I went to West Virginia I was surprised by how poor it was. It was like north India, there’s kids running around in bare feet. The white working class has been disenfranchised as well. It’s been disenfranchised by the liberal-left as well as the conservative-right. You really have to get people right across America and Britain and Europe and the world as a whole concentrating on the economic issues that affect them, because when you don’t have that, you have all these phony, racist and cultural wars, and sexist wars. – Irvine Welsh • The first trip I remember taking was on the train from Virginia up to New York City, watching the summertime countryside rolling past the window. They used white linen tablecloths in the dining car in those days, and real silver. I love trains to this day. Maybe that was the beginning of my fixation with leisurely modes of travel. – Billy Campbell • The George Washington Masonic National Memorial is a fitting tribute to so great a man and Mason. Its message should be as prominent in our lives as the Memorial itself in the skyline of the Federal City. Wherever we are, in Alexandria, Virginia, the District of Columbia of should be in our moral horizon, beckoning us to greater achievements as citizens and Masons. – Henry Clausen • The hardest thing I’ve had to overcome was being from my small coal-mining town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia. My mother was a coal miner for nineteen years, and the expectations of making it out of my town were slim to none. – Thomas Jones • The kiss was innocent–innocent enough–but it was also full of something not unlike what Virginia wants from London, from life; it was full of a love complex and ravenous, ancient, neither this nor that. It will serve as this afternoon’s manifestation of the central mystery itself, the elusive brightness that shines from the edges of certain dreams; the brightness which, when we awaken, is already fading from our minds, and which we rise in the hope of finding, perhaps today, this new day in which anything might happen, anything at all. – Michael Cunningham • The notion of the writer as a kind of sociological sample of a community is ludicrous. Even worse is the notion that writers should provide an example of how to live. Virginia Woolf ended her life by putting a rock in her sweater one day and walking into a lake. She is not a model of how I want to live my life. On the other hand, the bravery of her syntax, of her sentences, written during her deepest depression, is a kind of example for me. But I do not want to become Virginia Woolf. That is not why I read her. – Richard Rodriguez • The old charters of Massachusetts, Virginia, and the Carolinas had given title to strips of territory extending from the Atlantic westward to the Pacific. – Albert Bushnell Hart • The People of Virginia declare and make known that the powers granted under the Constitution being derived from the People of the United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression and that every. – Henry Adams • The private buildings [of Virginia] are very rarely constructed of stone or brick; much the greatest proportion being of scantlingand boards, plastered with lime. It is impossible to devise things more ugly, uncomfortable, and happily more perishable. – Thomas Jefferson • The Showdown is a great way to bring attention to these historic Virginia tracks where many NASCAR drivers cut their teeth in stock car racing, including myself. Tracks like South Boston and Langley are the heart of the sport and draw a great crowd to our Showdown events. – Denny Hamlin • There are so many things going on this week, … It’s great for Virginia Tech. – Frank Beamer • There is absolutely no reason to suspect that prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying and refusing to recognize their out-of-state marriages will cause same-sex couples to raise fewer children or impel married opposite-sex couples to raise more children. The Virginia Marriage Laws therefore do not further Virginia’s interest in channeling children into optimal families, even if we were to accept the dubious proposition that same-sex couples are less capable parents. – Henry Franklin Floyd • There was Virginia Boote, the food and restaurant critic, who had once been a great beauty but was now a grand and magnificent ruin, and who delighted in her ruination. – Neil Gaiman • There, in the middle of this mall is the Washington Monument, 555 feet high. But if we put a one in front of that 555 feet, we get 1555, the year that our first fathers landed on the shores of Jamestown, Virginia as slaves. – Louis Farrakhan • There’s a great quote about Virginia Woolf, she had the same spiritual stake in her diaries as she had in her writing. – Sam Abell • There’s a strange myth of Anglo-Saxonism. When the University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson, for example, its law school offered the study of “Anglo-Saxon Law.” And that myth of Anglo-Saxonism carries right over into the early twentieth century. – Noam Chomsky • They say that Virginia is the mother of Texas. We never knew who the father was, but we kinda suspected Tennessee. – Tex Ritter • They’re building a bridge over the Potomac for all the white liberals fleeing to Virginia. – George C. Wallace • This will be a great day in our history; the date of a New Revolution – quite as much needed as the old one. Even now as I write they are leading old John Brown to execution in Virginia for attempting to rescue slaves! This is sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind which will come soon! – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • This worked out perfectly for me in college, because what nineteen-year-old Virginia boy doesn’t want a wide-hipped, sarcastic Greek girl with short hair that’s permed on top? What’s that you say? None of them want that? You are correct. – Tina Fey • Thousand of Virginia’s are losing their coverage, facing skyrocketing insurance premiums and losing their doctors under Obamacare. Employers across the Commonwealth say that the law is preventing or slowing down hiring and growth. – Rob Wittman • Throughout much of history, women writers have capitulated to male standards, and have paid too much heed to what Virginia Woolf calls “the angel in the house.” She is that little ghost who sits on one’s shoulder while one writes and whispers, “Be nice, don’t say anything that will embarrass the family, don’t say anything your man will disapprove of …” [ellipsis in original] The “angel in the house” castrates one’s creativity because it deprives one of essential honesty, and many women writers have yet to win the freedom to be honest with themselves. – Erica Jong • Tim Kaine, in Virginia, you know he wasn’t popular?His first move as governor of Virginia was to raise taxes by 4 billion dollars. He was not popular in Virginia. – Donald Trump • Two weeks ago at the Greater Glory Gathering Virginia Beach, the Lord spoke to me about contending for a greater outpouring of his presence, signs, and wonders. During this prophetic experience I saw the Revival Healing Angel that had visited us in Lakeland, Florida. – Todd Bentley • Unusual financial activity: none, unless you count the fact that someone in the family is way too into Civil War biographies. (Can this be a possible indication of Confederate insurgents still living and working in Virginia? Must research further.) – Ally Carter • Up men to your posts! Don’t forget today that you are from old Virginia. – George Pickett • Upon the decease [of] my wife, it is my Will and desire th[at] all the Slaves which I hold in [my] own right, shall receive their free[dom] . . . . The Negroes thus bound, are (by their Masters or Mistresses) to be taught to read and write; and to be brought up to some useful occupation, agreeably to the Laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, providing for the support of Orphan and other poor Children. And I do hereby expressly forbid the Sale, or transportation out of the said Commonwealth, of any Slave I may die possessed of, under any pretence whatsoever. – George Washington • Violence against women is not random or anonymous. In West Virginia, 88 percent of sexual-assault victims already know their attacker. In my hometown, Alicia McCormick, an advocate for our domestic-violence shelter at the YWCA, was killed in her home by a man doing handiwork in her apartment complex. That one of my greatest advocates could fall victim to something she fought against her whole life was a tragedy that moved me to action. – Shelley Moore Capito • Virginia and Maryland attorneys argued this is a national problem and needs a national solution. I’m hoping that with a federal court agreeing this is inequitable, Congress will now act and do the right thing for the District. – Walter Smith • Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore rescinded the state’s European Heritage Month proclamation for fear it would sound racist. It’s too bad. Thus ends a month of celebrating the 400-year progression of our nation’s British culture from wood to steel to graphite shafts. – Argus Hamilton • Virginia has a very sizeable collection of democrats, liberals and moonbats. (Yes, they can be separated.) – John Ringo • Virginia is the place, where, technologically speaking, they will burn people at the stake for possessing such things as toasters. – Neil Gaiman • Virginia Madsen big part in that movie [‘Class’] required her shirt to get ripped off, and looking back, it couldn’t be a more egregious, vintage, lowbrow, 1980s Porky’s-esque, shoehorned-in moment. Like, you would never have that moment in a movie that aspired to be what that movie did today. – Rob Lowe • Virginia Woolf said that writers must be androgynous. I’ll go a step further. You must be bisexual. – Rita Mae Brown • Virginia Woolf thought a lot about her own sex when she wrote. In the best sense of the word, her writing is very feminine, and by that I mean that women are supposed to be very sensitive to all the sensations of nature, much more so than men, much more contemplative. It’s this quality that marks her best works. – Simone de Beauvoir • Virginia Woolf was one example. She was called the “Lover of 100 Gangsters.” – Sergio Leone • Virginia Woolf wrote, “Across the broad continent of a woman’s life falls the shadow of a sword.” On one side of that sword, she said, there lies convention and tradition and order, where all is correct. But on the other side of that sword, if you’re crazy enough to cross it and choose a life that does not follow convention, “all is confusion.” Nothing follows a regular course. Her argument was that the crossing of the shadow of that sword may bring a more interesting existence to a woman, but you can bet it will be more perilous. – Elizabeth Gilbert • Virginia Woolf’s writing is no more than glamorous knitting. I believe she must have a pattern somewhere. – Edith Sitwell • Virginia,” Billy said urgently. “Don’t do this.” “Shut up,Billy.” “Think of the people in San Francisco.” “I don’t know any of the people in San Francisco,” Virginia answered, then paused. “Well,actually I do,and I don’t like them. But I do like you,Billy, and I’m not going to allow you to end up as lunch for some raggedy lion-monster-thingy.” “A sphinx,” Machiavelli corrected her. He was standing at the bars again. “Mistress Dare,” the Italian said carefully. “I absolutely applaud you for what you want to do for your friend. But I urge you to think of the bigger picture. – Michael Scott • Voters replaced Democratic senators with Republicans in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, North Carolina, Montana, South Dakota, West Virginia, and likely in Alaska, and appear on track to do so in a runoff next month in Louisiana. At the same time, voters kept Republicans in GOP seats in heavily contested races in Georgia, Kansas, and Kentucky. That is at least ten, and as many as a dozen, tough races, without a single Republican seat changing hands. Tuesday’s voting was a wave alright – a very anti-Democratic wave. – Byron York • Washington and Jefferson were both rich Virginia planters, but they were never friends. – Stephen Ambrose • We cheer the presence of an openly gay woman or man on television there are large numbers of people in Virginia and other states who see these public affirmations as another step towards the country’s oblivion. – Mel White • We have to concentrate back on: Where is the money going? Where’s it been going for the last thirty years? How do we start to redistribute the cake more evenly, and give people opportunities? That’s as much about poor white people in West Virginia as it is about poor black people on the Southside of Chicago. – Irvine Welsh • What I didn’t realize was the severity of the crime, so to speak. I think that’s important. That’s one of the lessons learned here. You move to a new area, you really need to be sure of what the laws and penalties are. You hear those things. You hear, ‘Don’t speed in Virginia’ when you get here, just in casual conversations. What’s left out is why you don’t speed in Virginia. I learned the hard way, that’s for sure. – Jayson Werth • What we’ve found is a whole new pattern of change that we hadn’t thought of before. They changed their attitude toward the colony over time – and they really adapted to the reality they found in Virginia. – William M. Kelso • When I saw Virginia Woolf, somewhere between the first and second acts, someone I had known as my mother became somebody else. – Kiefer Sutherland • When I saw what painting had done in the last thirty years, what literature had done – people like Joyce and Virginia Woolf, Faulkner and Hemingway – in France we have Nathalie Sarraute – and paintings became so strongly contemporary while cinema was just following the path of theater. I have to do something which relates with my time, and in my time, we make things differently. – Agnes Varda • When I speak to students, I tell them why we have a First Amendment. I tell them about the Committees of Correspondence. I tell them how in a secret meeting of the Raleigh Tavern in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, who did not agree with each other, started a Committee of Correspondence. – Nat Hentoff • When I was incarcerated at Alderson in West Virginia for a five-month term, they had a ceramics class. – Martha Stewart • When I’m at home in Virginia, I become more hermit-like. I like my own home. – Robert Duvall • When we consider how much climate contributes to the happiness of our condition, by the fine sensation it excites, and the productions it is the parent of, we have reason to value highly the accident of birth in such a one as that of Virginia. – Thomas Jefferson • Where did she come from, and where can I find one?” “Picked this one up at a gas station in West Virginia, bargain price. Last one on the shelf, sorry. – Alexandra Bracken • Wherever there is one job on the verge of being lost, I will fight to save it. Wherever there is one company looking to grow in West Virginia, I will fight to make that growth a reality. – Joe Manchin • While I am in favor of the Government promptly enforcing the laws for the present, defending the forts and collecting the revenue,I am not in favor of a war policy with a view to the conquest of any of the slave States; except such as are needed to give us a good boundary. If Maryland attempts to go off, suppress her in order to save the Potomac and the District of Columbia. Cut a piece off of western Virginia and keep Missouri and all the Territories. – Rutherford B. Hayes • Whither shall I flee? To no country on earth that I know of where there is as much liberty as yet remains to me even in Virginia. – Robert E. Lee • Who was it who said that every virtue contains its corresponding vice? C.S. Lewis? Virginia Woolf? You forget. But it has always worried you that what the virtue of wit contained was the vice of scorn. – Kevin Brockmeier • Whoever is president, my first priority is the same – as always. I look for what’s best for West Virginia and the nation as a whole. – Joe Manchin • Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf means who’s afraid of the big bad wolf … who’s afraid of living life without false illusions. – Edward Albee • Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – Edward Albee • Without Virginia, as we must all acknowledge–without her Patrick Henry among the people, her Lees and Jefferson in the forum, and her Washington in the field–I will not say that the cause of American liberty and American independence must have been ultimately defeated–no, no, there was no ultimate defeat for that cause in the decrees of the Most High; but it must have been delayed, postponed, perplexed, and to many eyes and hearts rendered seemingly hopeless. – Robert Charles Winthrop • Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus. – Francis Pharcellus Church • Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. – Francis Pharcellus Church • Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. – Francis Pharcellus Church • You West Virginia girls are one tough breed,” he said. You got that right,” I told him. – Jeannette Walls • You’d think if anyone could charm America into caring about the evening news, it would be Katie Couric, the Tri Delt from Virginia who became America’s sweetheart on the ‘Today’ show. But her ratings have been dismal – she comes in last place every week. – Rob Sheffield • Your little army, derided for its want of arms, derided for its lack of all the essential material of war, has met the grand army of the enemy, routed it at every point, and now it flies, inglorious in retreat before our victorious columns. We have taught them a lesson in their invasion of the sacred soil of Virginia. – Jefferson Davis

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equitiesstocks · 4 years

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Virginia State Quotes

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fntstory-blog · 7 years

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Jaws of Neptune (pt VII)

Haru made his way to Berek’s cabin, as bidden. He would have liked to stop by his own first and clean up, change into more appropriate garb, before meeting the lord, but apparently that was not to be.

“Enter.” The voice was Berek’s, eternally cool and collected. The nobleman was spoken of as a ghost by most aboard the ship and for good reason. He never seemed to participate in the day to day operation of the ship, though he still knew all that happened on every deck. As Haru opened the door he could see a three course meal in the midst of being laid out, with Tom Lannigan seated at the table. Both men stood as he entered.

Upon seeing Lannigan, Haru’s mood and spirits lifted, demonstrated by the smile that lit his face. He should have known that Owen would not have tarried in putting the idea of a meeting with the sailor in Berek’s mind. The lord himself was met with a formal bow though the display was somewhat at odds with his current appearance.

“Glad t’ see yeh walkin’ about, Mr. Haru,” Lannigan said, tilting his head. “… Are yeh thinkin’ o’ pitchin’ in with th’ work?” He indicated Haru’s new garb with a nod of his dark head.

Lord Berek, for his part, looked interested to hear the answer, though he intoned, “You may sit. I was thanking Mr. Lannigan here for saving the life of a most rare friend of mine …”

Haru’s place at the table was set with a number of the small silver tools Theans favored. At least three of the pronged forks, of varying sizes, a dull and sharp knife, two spoons and all set on a snow white napkin. One of the serving men, a sailor he had seen before, poured glasses of wine for them all. Berek cleared his throat, lifting his glass. “To camaraderie. May it always triumph over base villainy.”

“‘ere, ‘ere,” Lannigan echoed, lifting his own glass.

To Lannigan’s question as to his clothing, Haru said, “Captain Hayes and I were of the same mind; keeping myself sequestered for the entirety of the voyage …” He shook his head. “We agreed it would be for the best if I learned, well, as much as I could as to the running of the ship. Mr. Beckett had started me on unknotting a rope and tomorrow I’m to get into the rigging … And that I am here, up and walking, is thanks to you, Lannigan-san,” he added with a deferential inclination of his head. “Your intercession saved my life and that is a debt I will not forget.”

Tom Lannigan nodded, though he seemed somewhat perturbed by the notion of debts. “Aye, it’s hard work, but th’ body adapts.” He took a halting sip of wine; Berek smiled in a clandestine manner over his own. “Think nothin’ of it. We all should look out fer our own. Besides, an Inishman can’t abide a fight tha’s not fair.”

“Inish …? Oh, Inismore! To the … north of Avalon, yes?” Haru happily repeated what little he knew, glad to have, for one, retained the knowledge and, also, to have an opportunity to speak on it if only in the most limited of terms. “Captain Hayes made for me a very crude map when I asked about Avalon,” he continued. “In any event, I do not mean to put you in an … uncomfortable position, Lannigan-san, but it is no small thing you did. I would gladly have you at my side to face any danger or foe.”

Tom Lannigan nodded. His face, like Haru’s, had begun to heal from the pummeling it had suffered. Beneath the bruises and broken nose, he had an earnest sort of face, handsome almost in its roughness. The broken nose seemed to suit him and, indeed, it had the look of being broken many times before. “Ah, think nothin’ of it. Between you ’n I, though —“

Berek cleared his throat, a polite warning for his uncouth guest. “Dinner before pleasantries, please.”

Lannigan nodded and returned to his meal. Haru had the good grace to look somewhat abashed before turning to the lord and speaking. “Apologies for my … current state, Berek-sama. I was told to come directly to see you, else I would have put more care in my appearance.” He shifted slightly in his seat, obviously self-concious for his battered face, reddened hands, work clothes and bare feet.

“Think nothing of it. Here at sea, we are bound and stuffed like pickled herring. I suffer the bonds of the ship gladly, under my Queen’s command.” Berek waved his hand and bread was brought forth, along with small fish. “Speaking of herring, it’s odd that sailors don’t eat much fish. I happen to like them quite a bit.”

Lannigan shrugged and grabbed a roll with a commoner’s gusto. “Too small, m’lord. One bullock feeds a good spot more …”

“And smells the equal of a ton of the sea’s bounty,” Berek snorted.

Lannigan grinned heartily, taking a bite of the roll. Berek sat patiently as the serving hand spooned a white sauce over the fish; the smell was an intriguing one, surprisingly light for all the apparent heavy cream. “Belchamel sauce,” he explained, peering over to Haru. “A Montaigne sauce, from the lands to the south of us. We are, of course, at war with them though they could unite all of Thea with their cuisine.”

Lannigan seemed dubious, dunking his roll into the sauce and taking a small taste of it. “Aye, well … It’s no gravy,” he bemoaned. Berek scoffed, though not in an unfriendly manner.

Fish and sauce looked and smelled divine; Haru had despaired of ever having fish again, the Avalonian diet seeming to be full of nothing but beef and pork. Berek’s comment about war brought another thought to mind. “There was some … tension between Owen and Marco-san on our undertaking to reclaim the compass, but they seemed to be able to overcome their differences in the name of a common goal. Marco-san himself proved to be a most stalwart and boon companion … He shared a dish with us, one evening, that was quite delicious; noodle and red sauce! My companions and I were quite taken with it.”

Ignorant of his linguistic faux pas, Haru began eating the fish. He remembered, from their last meal, that utensils were used outside in and the napkin was meant to be placed on the lap. Though, as he picked up fork and knife, he still felt as if he were doing something wrong; that his hands were still red-raw from the rope work did not help in his already clumsy grasp of the foreign utensils. Still, the seafood was quite good, if not what he was accustomed to, and he counted himself a fan of this sauce as well.

“Avalon, Mr. Tanaka, is at war with nearly everyone, or has been at some point in time. Our little patch of the world is a tumultuous one. However, bargains can always be struck in unique times.” Berek smiled, cat-like. “Pasta y Mariana, I believe the pairing is called. I find that it only gives me heartburn.”

Though Haru was embarrassed by his faux pas, he took some comfort in the fact that his companions didn’t seem to think any less of him for having made it. That the Theans had no concept of Face and, therefore, put no value on saving it, was a liberating thing. Not to say there was free reign to be thoughtless or rude, but small missteps, mistakes, were more easily overlooked and forgiven. He found himself also liking their more direct way of speaking even if he himself had not quite adapted it, yet.

“Thea … That is the name for all your lands, yes? Avalon and Inismore and Montaigne?”

“Yes. Thea is the name of the lands in our section of the world. There are several others, of course, but the nations stand with old and fine names … Avalon, Montaigne, Vodacce, Vendel or Vesten depending on who one is speaking to, Ussura and Castille.”

“I had no idea there were so many other places … Have you been to them? What are they like? Is Avalon at war with all of them? Will we be sailing close to them, close enough to see —“ He stopped himself, eyes dropping demurely. “Apologies, I do not mean to ply you with so many questions …”

Berek chuckled and held up a hand. “I’m sure that all of those questions will be answered in time. Perhaps in another meeting, Mr. Tanaka. I myself have been to Montaigne, Castille — ahh! I had nearly forgotten the lands of Eisen — and Vendel.”

Lannigan bobbed his head again. “I’ve had a disagreement with everyone from at least one o’ those countries.”

Berek laughed. “Mr. Lannigan, I don’t doubt it. He’s pugnacious as a ferret, you see.”

The Inishman grinned, pleased with the comparison.

“A ferret?” Confusion showed plainly on Haru’s face. “What’s that?”

Lord Berek raising a questioning eyebrow. “You do not have them on Rokugan? They’re lithe little mammals, lengthy, with sharp teeth.”

“Harris, the marine, he’s got one,” Lannigan added. “It hunts some o’ th’ rats; eats some weevils sometimes too, so it does. He’s named th’ fuzzy thing Bastard.”

Haru shook his head, taking a sip of the wine. It was more bitter than he was accustomed to, but not alltogether unpleasant, and the more he had, the more he liked it. “So this animal, it’s like a … a fox? A cat? That seems a cruel name to bestow on such a useful creature …”

Berek chuckled. “A mixture of both, perhaps. They call it such an awful name because it bites.”

Lannigan laughed, grinning. “Aye, nearly took Pierce’s toe off one time; he stepped on it in th’ dark, see …”

Berek covered a smirk with another swallow of wine.

“Frightened boys and small animals, Pierce has quite the combat experience,” Haru noted haughtily as he finished his wine.

Berek frowned, rolling his glass between his fingers. “Do not judge Pierce for his current predicament. You know, on the late Captain Kerrigan’s first command … Ahh, what was she called? Yes, the Stalwart … They were ambushed by Vestenmannavinjar.”

Tom Lannigan cursed, before knuckling his forehead. “Ah, sorry, m’lord. Savages, they are.”

Berek made a dismissive gesture at the salute. “Quite. The fight for the ship was joined by two more of their raiding vessels. The Stalwart’s crew was outnumbered at least two to one; fighting men two heads taller and armed with fierce weapons. There were only two survivors who managed to drift the ship south to Avalon. One was Captain Kerrigan, the other was Mr. Pierce. Kerrigan would have died there if Pierce hadn’t defended him against a horde, armed only with that little axe of his.” He peered at Haru, driving his point home. “Some men fall on hard times. Pierce has merely lost his way, but that does not mean that he is *not* worthy of our respect.”

Lannigan made a queer noise, halfway between a whistle and grunt. “… Hard as a coffin nail, he must be …”

Haru listened quietly, attentively, to Berek’s words, eyes lowered and regarding the glass between his hands. “I was not aware of the history he shared with Kerrigan and I admit my dislike of this man is … personal.”

Haru looked to him and continued, quietly, “I almost lost Owen to the Shadowlands. It was not men we faced there, not such as Pierce and Kerrigan faced, but demons, and I cannot say how I would now … hold myself if that had happened. Apologies, for my hasty, unthinking words.”

“He is not a marine for his abundant social graces, Mr. Tanaka,” Berek pointed out with a curt nod of the head.

The next course came forth, a light soup made with vegetables and chicken. More wine accompanied this course, the lord apparently dipping into his personal reserves. Lannigan immediately fell to; there seemed to be no bottom to the man’s stomach.

“And Thea is also the name of your deity?” Haru looked between Berek and Lannigan. “Apologies if that is incorrect, but it sounded very similar when the doctor said the name …”

Berek made a pithy gesture matched with a tired groan, which earned him a quick glare from Lannigan. “I am not the best to speak to about matters of the, err, immaterial. Doctor MacMorgan would be a better participant, I’m afraid. My apologies, Mr. Lannigan.”

Lannigan bobbed his head. “S’alright, m’lord.”

Thea’s religion, what little he knew of it, intrigued Haru greatly. It appeared to him that they only revered one god and one devil, a concept wholly foreign to him and his faith which recognized multitudes of gods and spirits. “I had a mind to invite the doctor to this meeting as well; after all, I owe him a debt, too, for my health. However, I was … advised against it for the sake of harmony.” Haru glanced to Berek, hoping he didn’t offend in speaking so freely.

Lord Berek’s face twisted a bit, as if at the repulsive memory of a foul odor. “Doctor MacMorgan is … a very religious man. I don’t see eye to eye with him. His inclusion would have made for a very memorable argument, I feel.” For all his momentary annoyance, though, he didn’t seem angered or offended by Haru’s remark.

“Oh. Well, I would very much like to know more about your theology … In Rokugan, my role was not just limited to the court; I trained, and acted, as a priest. I spoke to the gods and spirits. Is there a similar role in Thea?”

“For those questions, I’d advise the doctor as well. Priests tend to cater to issues of faith and there are many different faiths in our Thea. However, we Avalonians have the good folk to consider,” Berek said and Lannigan swept some crumbs on the floor.

“Aye, aye, they’re th’ goodly folk indeed.”

“The goodly … Oh, fairies, yes? That’s why Captain Hayes keeps a penny in his shoe … And why one was put in with Barrows’ body? Are the crumbs for them, too? Are they only in Avalon? Do they live nowhere else in Thea?” Despite his near-constant questions, Haru did find time to also clear his plate. He had thought his hunger satisfied, but the appearance of the next course set his stomach to rumbling all over again. The soup was much to his liking, as well, and another dish that had him thinking of the home he had left behind.

Lannigan sucked in a breath as if Haru had stuck him with a pin. “Mr. Haru, if’n yeh please; th’ goodly folk. It doesn’t do well t’ upset ‘em.”

Lord Berek nodded at the wisdom. “It is true. Their wrath is sharp and burns quick, but they forgive just as quickly.”

“Always be wary, ser, lest yeh find yourself on the wrong end o’ th’ glamour.”

“They do not even technically live on Avalon,” Berek continued. “But on the enchanted isle of Bryn Bresayle which moves, or so I am told. However, it is by their grace that Avalon remains and while Queen Elaine draws breath, so too does Avalon.”

“So … The goodly folk, they are on the ship? What is glamour? Do they attach themselves to favorite places or people?” Looking to Lannigan, Haru added, “In Rokugan, we have kami, spirits, who are somewhat similarly revered and respected; they can be placated with prayers, made to manifest and work magic. I had an air spirit who was much attached to me; when I left Rokugan, it followed me to this ship and granted me a final gift of fluency and literacy …” Then, glancing between the two men, “I mean no disrespect by my questions, it is innocent curiosity only …”

“Aye, it’s said there’s always one of th’ goodly folk about … Though to be pursued by them is said t’ be more interestin’ than sittin’ at th’ right hand o’ Foul Weather Jack …”

Berek made an amused sound. “Foul Weather Jack … A folkhero for sailors.”

“Just because m’lord hasn’t met ‘im …”

A course of fruit was put out, along with more of the bread and some sweet-smelling spreads. Lannigan liberally smeared his roll with the jelly and Haru mimicked him. It was rather unexpectedly messy leading to thumbs and fingers being delicately sucked clean.

“Foul Weather Jack … Is he a strom-bringer? Does he work in concert with - with the goodly folk? Is that where he gets his powers? If they’re said to be about, should I leave offerings for them?” Haru’s wonder and curiosity were child-like and, surely, Berek and Lannigan had not gotten such a barrage of interest from someone not still in primary school.

Berek laughed, shaking his head. “I am not a tutor and neither is our Tom Lannigan, Mr. Tanaka. These things you will learn in time.”

Lannigan shrugged, seeming to have a disagreement in mind, though he didn’t bother to voice it. After the jam was finished, the steward whisked everything away, bringing forth a single bottle of scotch. A measure was poured for each.

The scotch was slowly, thoughtfully sipped, a ritual that put Haru to mind of the drinking of sake even though the two were nothing alike. Growing contemplative, he said, “I am leaving everything I know behind. I *have* left everything behind. I will be a stranger in a strange land and all I can do to arm myself against the … The vastness of this truth is to ask questions and try to learn. I do not fear hating Avalon; I think, rather, I will love it. My fear is that I will be, that I will become, a source of ridicule and embarrassment. I want to be worthy of —“

Though he stopped just short of saying it, no doubt Berek could suss out the remainder of the thought; he wished to prove his worthiness of, and to, Owen Hayes.

“I have a feeling that you’ll adapt well. Already you’re starting to see thing that some would shut themselves off from. One never needs to turn one’s back on their home, but in a strange land, customs will always be absorbed.” Berek smiled a fox’s smile and it seemed to Haru that he knew exactly what had been left unsaid.

Haru took some comfort in his words. Though their situations were far from identical, surely the diplomat knew what it was to leave home behind for unknown parts and the fear and doubts that came with such a journey.

Some minutes of silent drinking drifted past, the trio now beginning to feel the full effect of a meal and quality drink. Once their glasses were low, Berek took a moment to stand. “Gentlemen, I believe our time has ended.”

Lannigan stood as well, offering a salute to the lord, while Haru also came to his feet and offered a bow. Straightening, his head swam, making the room go on a tilt that had nothing to do with the strange sea they sailed through.

“I shall take my leave of you both; good night.” With that, Berek retreated to the secondary door of his cabin, leaving Lannigan and Haru to exit of their own accord.

“Well, bloody lovely supper t’was,” Lannigan remarked, opening the door for Haru. “’n good scotch, besides.”

“It was bloody lovely,” Haru agreed with a nod as he passed by Lannigan. “A … bloody lovely end to a bloody awful few days. I’m glad you were able to accept Berek-sama’s invitation,” he continued, as if the sailor would have been able to refuse the lord even if he had wanted to.

Though not overly so, it became readily apparent that Haru was intoxicated. He bumped into Lannigan more than once as they made their way from the lord’s cabin, across the deck and down to where the men slept in pitched hammocks belowdecks.

“Ah, listen t’yeh - We’ll have yeh speakin’ like a sailor in no time,” Lannigan laughed, steadying Haru with a sturdy hand. “Have no fear when ye’re about decks; I’ll be watchin’ yeh. Y’remind me o’ me lil’ brother. He, ahh, he was a gent’l soul. Poet, yeh know. Theus ’n he wrote such beautiful verse …” He cleared his throat, once then twice. “Must be stuffy down ‘ere.”

Haru grinned up at the Inishman, beatific in his alcohol-induced happiness despite the hair hanging in his face and the unconscious slight swaying of body. He tried to picture Lannigan as a poet, a sensitive soul, swapping rough sailor’s clothes for silken finery; the image wouldn’t form. Pushing troublesome hair out of the way, he regarded the sailor with a kindly, affectionate eye. “I would like to hear about him sometimes; if you know any of his verse, I would like to hear that, too …”

“It’s not somethin’ I like t’ speak about. Maybe next time - When we’re in fer earnest drink. I prefer a strong beer meself.” He offered an apologetic smile; it was clearly a subject of some sensitivity.

They stopped at the entrance to the space belowdecks, hammocks hanging across the bulkhead and support in tightly packed rows. “Tonight’s me last night o’ light duty. I’ll likely see yeh about yer work t’morrow. G’nite.” He offered Haru a calloused hand.

“I know you’ve got my backside,” he said, getting the phrase only a little wrong. “I’m glad to have met you, Lannigan-san, despite the circumstances, and am honored to count you a friend.” He took Lannigan’s hand and shook it, despite not being overly familiar with the display, showing a surprising strength given his lithe frame. “Good night, Lannigan-san.”

Lannigan laughed at his parting sentiments. “B’careful, Mr. Aaroo. Backside’s a good way t’ mention yuir arse.” He laughed again, in earnest jest. “Aye. Sleep yeh well.”

Once above decks, Haru took the time to again look at the strange silver sky and sea, leaning against ship’s railing as his eyes traveled from one end of the self-same horizon to the other. He maintained his thought that there was something soothing in the sight, though he knew it set most of the crew on edge. Hayes’ voice, clarion in the stillness as he called for one of his lieutenants, broke into his reverie. Haru turned his head, taking in the sight of his captain-lover in his element. Pleased with the picture presented, he left his post and made his way to his cabin. There, he stumbled into bed, fully clothed, where exhaustion and spirits soon pulled him into a deep sleep.

#fascinating new thing #fntstory #7th sea #l5r #seventh sea #legend of the five rings #original fiction #fanfiction #fanfic #oc #ocs #my ocs #haru #owen hayes

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