#meme response. ⟊⚔⟊ || : it be too late to alter course，mateys.

[navarchus]

LIES, DECEIT, AND VILLAINY. RICHARD MURTOGG. @mvrtogg said: i've got no reason to lie.

❛❛ you were ! you were spying on me ! ❜❜

FOR ALL MISS SWANN'S OUTRAGE you'd think he'd caught her swimming naked in Lady Edevane's pond, instead of idling ( unescorted, mind you ) in one of the port city's many courtyards, listening to the quiet hush of its fountain as she reclined, feet up, leather-bound book tucked in her lap. but it is the BOOK that she's evidently most worried about, as Elizabeth quickly sits up and SLAMS the purple thing shut, hiding it away behind her back. when her father caught her reading Captain Johnson and Monsieur Exquemelin that was bad enough, but this ? well. let us just say she wouldn't let Estrella take a peak at its pages and trust her DIGNITY to remain intact.

she feigns righteous self-importance and unblemished innocence ( a reliable tactic among James' men ), huffing as she tucks her petticoats back down around her ankles. God forbid a woman have a little bit of privacy in the Caribbean. and she has a rather good idea just who might have sent the marine after her. if it isn't one, it's the other.

❛❛ has Captain Norrington put you up to this ? ❜❜ oh. she'll kill him the very next time she sees him.

[navarchus]

LIES, DECEIT, AND VILLAINY. FERGUS BYRNE. @criticalfai1ure said: “over my dead body.” from gus lmao

❛❛   oh, yes. VERY funny, Mister Byrne. ❜❜

THE PIRATE KING finds herself rolling her eyes at the accursed HARBINGER, toying idly with the iron divider in her hand. why is it all the pirates she must work with are only HALF-DEAD ? it seems the rogues can't commit to any ideal in the span of their lives, not even MORTALITY. she wouldn't mind except it does make it very inconvenient to bend them to her will when they cannot be THREATENED: even Jack, stubborn and self-important as he is, tends to bow before the barrel of a pistol. admittedly sending someone off on a fool's errand to London, to the king's own VIPER'S NEST, is not her proudest moment as king thus far, but it can't be helped. the Endeavor's replacement is nearly ready to be launched. there is only ONE MAN she wants at the helm.

sweeter, now, more persuasive, Elizabeth rises from her leather chair to show him the parchment she'd been analyzing. plans for the construction of a battleship bigger than anything in the Brethren Court's armada. more than a match for The Black Pearl ... and for The Flying Dutchman. the royal treasury must be terribly worried about the problem of piracy to invest in such DEATH-GIVING MACHINE. she doesn't know whether to be flattered or to fear.

❛❛   I have word that THE EAST INDIA TRADING COMPANY has recently completed work on their new flagship at Blackwall. they will be looking for a helmsman, no doubt. ❜❜ her next request is clear as SPRING WATER as she eyes him pointedly. ❛❛ have you ever sailed a man of war, Gus ? ❜❜

[navarchus]

JAMES NORRINGTON. @criticalfai1ure said : “i've no reason to lie.” from james!!

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN SHE WOULD HAVE TRUSTED JAMES NORRINGTON WITHOUT QUESTION. in a former life the man was a bastion of honor and DECENCY, almost too stiff with the navy's ideals like a WOODEN SOLDIER, unbending, unmoving, even when passion asked him to. but now, well. one could not survive in the world they had made without a little bit of TENDER TREACHERY. he had done what he'd needed to to survive. hadn't they all ?

❛❛   I should hope not. I am your sovereign.  ❜❜

her jaw set. there were always whispers just out of earshot, accusing their Achilles of a FEEBLE HEEL. she had drug the fox to the henhouse, they said, the once-scourge of the Caribbean, Cutler Beckett's own lapdog –– and old habits died hard, after all. of course he was the FIRST TO BE SUSPECTED whenever any death, suspicious or no, occurred within the sacred walls of Shipwreck Cove. often, always unfairly. but this time ... she had seen his hackles raise when Icahn Bau named him nothing more than the Pirate King's pet, brown eyes solemn witness to the slew of empty green GREEN bottles in his quarters, and as to his whereabouts this evening, when one of Ammand's corsairs was discovered with a gash in the back of his neck ? for once she could not name the location of her own right hand, a phantom limb disjointed from the rest of its body.

but something in her gave. much as she'd been DETERMINED to play the righteous king with him, to not let her feelings stand in the way of her DUTIES ... but then, she'd never been much good at that.

❛❛   James. I cannot defend you if I ... ❜❜ she stopped. swallowed. looked away and back again, pleading. ❛❛ do not ask me to live without my assurance of you. don't.   ❜❜

[navarchus]

LIES, DECEIT, AND VILLAINY. HECTOR BARBOSSA. @mutinouscaptain said: you failed. accept it.

❛❛ NO. ❜❜

SHE WATCHES, HOPE SINKING TO THE SEABED BELOW as their prize makes their escape towards the horizon. she is by now so accustomed to the hull of the Empress that she'd all but FORGOTTEN the Pearl's sensitivity to shoals, perhaps one of her only weaknesses. though of course the king of the pirates would rather die than ADMIT HER MISTAKE, and her lip curls defiantly at the accusation.

they would float free in a few hours, of course, but by then ... there would be no hope of securing the fleeing sloop, transporting England's own royal physician and his chest of experimental cures. Yellow fever does not discriminate between the lawful and the LAWLESS, as it happens: they were all bodies, to the ravages of the sickness. And our numbers are sparse enough as it is. she could not look on helplessly as men of her crews continued to die. for all her tavern-keepers, brothel girls, shipwrights, gunsmiths, and assessors, one ledger that has always remained preciously empty was doctors. why bother treating a man doomed to die at the NOOSE one day, anyway ?

❛❛ there has to be something we ––  ❜❜

No cause is lost if there is but one fool willing to fight for it.

she lowers her spyglass, and grips the ash-black wood of the gunwale to steady herself, and to stave off the PANIC leaking in. that they should lose. that she might be seen as weak. that Hector Barbossa's flag would suffer her INCOMPETENCE. Elizabeth grits her teeth.

❛❛ give the order for all men to leeward. the guns as well. ❜❜

[navarchus]

LIES DECEIT AND VILLAINY. WILL TURNER. @betterto-die-thanto-crawl said: "hand it over. i know you have it." from trans will turner in a cute and teasing way

ELIZABETH SHOOK HER HEAD, all pure, angelic ( false ) innocence as she stowed the cravat neatly down the front of her stays, just partially out of sight. only then did she turn to face him with those wide brown eyes of hers. as if she had never done anything wrong in her entire life. as if she had NEVER ONCE engaged in any theft nor piracy, and could not have been expected to swindle any part of his wardrobe. the very idea ! she tucked her hands behind her back faux properly, swaying as a child might as she chewed on a bottom lip rather impishly.

❝ I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Mister Turner. ❞

ANY DECEPTION to keep him close for a little while longer. moments with her fiancé were few and hard won : Will always called back to his duties at the forge, the governor's daughter always in demand in her father's company or for some societal obligation. it seemed the entire world conspired to keep them apart even after they had formally announced their engagement. could you blame her, for doing what she must even to LOOK AT HIM properly for more than a second at a time ? to put another smile on his face, even at the expense of being late ?

❝ you are quite certain you've not misplaced this cravat of yours ? perhaps it has fallen somewhere. ❞

[navarchus]

HECTOR BARBOSSA. @mutinouscaptain said: i've never led you astray.

❛❛     and I suppose you consider my stay on Rumrunner's a summer holiday.   ❜❜

THE KING NARROWS HER EYES in faint accusation, but ultimately lets it go. pirates are always betraying one another and its pointless to expect otherwise. belonging to the same court only gives everyone more reason to double-cross their peers, all the drama of the NOBILITY thrown in with the petty squabbles of buccaneers, and dressed up in all the finery of THE END OF THE WORLD. she's beginning to think Jack did her a tremendous slight instead of a favor with that vote of his. while he escapes into waters unknown, alone, and free. again.

she takes another long look at the chart in his hands, tracing a newly-calloused fingertip over indecipherable text: Portuguese. one of the ( admittedly, many ) languages of pirates she has yet to learn, but it doesn't take an academician to realize that they are protecting something among all those shoals and sandbars. squabbles beyond the line have grown more secretive what with all the high drama in the European theatre of late, leaving even established nations behaving like common smugglers to eke out just another bit of profit. You've yet to make your first voyage across the equator. Brazil could prove an exciting venture. still, that doesn't put to bed the rest of her suspicions. Hector Barbossa isn't exactly known for his fairness in mutual treasure-seeking ventures.

❛❛     if this cache is such a rich prize, why not go at it alone ? why share the spoils with me ? ❜❜

[navarchus]

WILL TURNER. @horizontouched, said: you didn't think it'd be that easy, now did you?

❛❛     I did not prepare aptly for the DIFFICULTY, no.   ❜❜

MISS SWANN ( very soon to be Missus Turner ) shook out her aching hand, already fatigued from the weight of the UNFAMILIAR CUTLASS in her palm, pale, soft fingertips smarting from the friction. it was WILL'S IDEA that she become more than a lucky novice with a sword, what with the heightened pirate activity around Port Royal of late ––– and her own habit for becoming the focus of their attention. but she hadn't needed much persuasion on the subject. she rather enjoyed the sensation of a blade in her hand, SWINGING AWAY like any pirate gallant, almost as much as she enjoyed the feeling of the blacksmith's hand sliding over his, his body pressed against hers as he corrected her form. perhaps she could chalk up any failings to simple distraction. yes, that's it. even a MASTER swordsman could hardly be expected to focus in these conditions.

a quick spat with a malicious captor was one thing, or picking up the nearest sword out of someone else's scabbard in the effort of self-protection. how Will ––  or ANYONE –– endured such prolonged training sessions was a mystery to her. her forearms were like to make an audible scream at this rate. but she dared not protest. or, HEAVEN FORBID, ask to stop, the very last thing her pride would allow.

❛❛    I do recall a certain BLACKSMITH naming me ... what was it ? a natural.   ❜❜

[navarchus]

tag drop me hearties.