AWE: In the Locker

[bringmethatnpc]

The sun beats mercilessly down on the bone-white desert below, as well as on the black ship with black sails that lies beached in the middle of it.

There are no clouds; no water, no wind. No movement.

(Nothing lives here.)

No sound--

sniff


A single peanut lies on a plate balanced on the ship's rail. Rings flash in the cruel bleached light as brown fingers nimbly tuck a clean scrap of cloth into the wearer's collar. Jack Sparrow carefully stabs the peanut with a fork, then glances around warily before lifting it to his mouth.

BANG!


Startled, Jack topples over backwards, still trying desperately to taste the single morsel of food.

As Jack falls to the deck, Captain Jack Sparrow blows the smoke from his pistol and shoves it back into his belt, grinning with feral triumph as he stalks over.

"My peanut."

Having claimed his own, he turns and snaps an order to

(There's no one here.)

his crew, watching critically as (no one) Jack hurries to swab the deck, while (nobody) Jack scrambles aloft into the rigging and (nothing) Jack lies bleeding to death upon the deck.

"...help."

(No one's there. No one else speaks. He's alone.)



(Then again-- Jack Sparrow's never alone. Not any more.)

Comments

[silver_flecks]

"ThE cOmPanY iS lAcKiNg," she says solemnly, legs swinging idly back and forth.

"Idly" to Del means that they're moving at such a speed as to blur, though if one watches closes he might notice that there's one--or two--too many legs for a biped.

Del doesn't believe in limiting herself. To anything.

"In, Um. ThiNgS. LoTs Of ThiNgS." She nods and looks at her feet. "HyGiEnE aNd SaNiTy AnD MaNnErS AnD, Um. ThInGS. YeS."

[pirate_jack]

"Hygiene, is it?"

He jerks around, glaring at the crew.

"Man the yards, you filthy toads!"

Jack stares up at at one of the yardarms, which for a second almost seems to gleam a soft silver.

He doesn't seem to notice, and turns to stalk down the deck.

(From somewhere comes the startled squawk of a chicken.)

(There's no chicken.)

[silver_flecks]

"AnD OthEr ThiNgS."

That's earnest, as she twirls her hair around one finger.

(Her hair is red. The hair on her finger is redorangeyellowgreenbluepurplechecked.)

"PeTa WoUlDn'T lIkE It."

[pirate_jack]

"Man's known by the company he keeps," Jack continues, gesturing here and there as he paces.

("Haul the sheets handsomely, boys!" "Aye, aye, cap'n!")

There's a flurry of activity in the rigging above, as Jack scrambles from place to place, followed by Jack and Jack. Black sails are hauled up and catch the wind.

(There's no wind. There's no movement. There's no one there at all.)

(Only Jack.)

[silver_flecks]

"ThAt," she says after a moment's contemplation that results in feathers falling from each ear, "mAy ExPlAiN a, um. Um. LoT."

She tickles a plank with a feather and watches it twitch for a moment.

"Or, YoU KnOw. EvErY ThInG."

[pirate_jack]

"'Course it does!"

He strides up the deck, coming to a stop in front of (no one at all the only real thing) Del. Jack pays no attention to her, glaring instead at the tattooed man who's busy wrapping a knot around a stanchion at her side.

"Mister Sparrow?" he snaps.

("Aye, Captain.")

Jack gestures at the (completely tied) half-finished knot. "What say you about the condition of this tack line?"

("It looks proper to my eyes, sir.")

"Proper?" Jack snarls harshly at (empty air) Jack. "It is neither proper nor suitable, sir! It is not acceptable nor adequate, it is, in obvious fact, an abomination."

[silver_flecks]

"SoMeOnE NeEdS a NaP," she sing-songs.

"CrAnKy. My lItTlE GiRl DiD ThaT ToO. ShE nEeDeD, Um. Um."

She stops.

And she says nothing, just stares ahead, before saying, "CrAnKy. ShOuLdN'T QuArReL. TuRbAnS aReN'T PrEtTy."

[pirate_jack]

"Not my style, I've learned--" he starts, before being interrupted by (no one there's no one and nothing nowhere) Mr. Sparrow.

("Beggin' y'r pardon, sir. Perhaps if you gave a man another chance...")

Jack whirls on him with teeth bared in a feral smile. "Shall I?"

He draws his sword and with flashing motion runs (the empty air) Mr. Sparrow through. One brown hand tightens on (nothing) the dying man's shoulder as Jack leans foward, saying viciously into Sparrow's ear,

"It's that sort of thinking that got us into this mess."

As the lifeless body falls to the deck--

(Nothing happens and nothing anywhere stirs.)

(There's no wind, no sound, only the baking still heat of the desert.)

--Jack whirls on Del, glaring at her.

"See what happens when there's a lack of discipline? I've learned me lesson this time, I have!"

This isn't the madcap and manic Jack Sparrow that the stories speak of.

This is a dangerous madman.

[silver_flecks]

"Have you?"

Her smile's small and soft, before she looks at the body on the deck.

It's there enough for her, and so she drops a flower that was always in her hand as of a second ago on top of the corpse. "Poor Mr. Sparrow."

And then she looks up and grins.

"Do YoU eVeR rEAlLy LeArN? ReAlLy?"

It's oddly gentle, as she stands and carefully starts walking about, weaving and bobbing and with a very set destination and path only she knows in mind.

[pirate_jack]

He wipes his sword clean of (his own - no one's) blood and turns to look after her as she moves through (the fair) the gathered crowd.

(The black wood of the deck shimmers with wavy mirages under the killing sun.)

The captain glares at (himself himself Jack himself the name's Sparrow) the assembled, silently staring crew.

(It looks real.)

(Maybe it is.)

"We have lost speed, and therefore time. Precious time. Which cannot be recovered, once lost. Do you understand?"

("Aye, Captain!")

Jack turns to one side, sheathing his sword with a metallic sound. "Do you now?"

He strides forward down the empty deck.

(It was always empty.)

(Except when it wasn't.)

"It will all have to be redone. All of it! And let this serve as a lesson to the lot of you."

[silver_flecks]

"YoU ShOuLd GIvE tHeM bLuE bOoKs. So MaNy ShAdEs oF bLUe BoOkS," she murmurs.

"I mIsS ThE WaTeR. DoN'T YoU? SiLlY JaCk MaN?"

Del skips over and peers at the Jack that anyone could see.

"O, captain, my captain?"

[pirate_jack]

"The water. The sea."

(first and only)

There's an ache in his throat, in his heart, and visible in his eyes as he looks both at and right through the woman in front of him.

Jack shifts his stance suddenly, looking nervous and addressing the air to her right. "Doldrums, sir, has the entire crew on edge."

And then to her left, glaring furiously into space.

"I have no sympathy for any of you feculent maggots, and no more patience to pretend otherwise!"

He brushes past her and leaps up onto the railing, taking hold of a rope and looking out over the Pearl's empty

(silent -- and silent -- all is silent in the halls of the dead)

expanse of deck.

"Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this weirdness."

He steps out into space, swinging toward the flat salt desert below.

[silver_flecks]

There's a snort at that, and then a peal of laughter.

And then just, "GoOd LuCk WiTh tHaT."

[pirate_jack]

"Haven't you heard?" he calls up. "They say I've no manner of luck at all."

Jack's boots hit the hard land with a solid 'thud'. Swaying, he takes a few steps forward, then licks a finger and holds it up to test the breeze.

"No wind. Of course there's no bloody wind."

He stalks forward, slowing as he approaches some invisible barrier. The ground's too hard to hold a mark, but Jack knows to the inch how far he can go from the Black Pearl without being yanked back by an unseen tether.

"My soul I do swear for a breeze. A gust, a whisper, a tiny, miniature lick."

A pause.

"'S bargains like that what got us here in the first place, aye?"

[silver_flecks]

"You really don't learn."

It's almost exasperated, as Del pears over the edge of the Pearl at him.

"Besides, other things have less wear. Sorta."

[pirate_jack]

Jack turns back to look up at her, but is distracted by something odd.

There's a rock lying on the ground near his foot.

(There's a rock lying on the ground near his foot.)

He bends down and picks it up, examining it carefully.

"Like this, you mean, luv?"

[silver_flecks]

"WeLl. YeS. BuT. Um."

Del looks confused for a minute, and then leans over to whisper in his ear, "It Is CrAnKy ToO."

[pirate_jack]

"Is it now?"

Jack eyes her, then eyes the rock.

(It doesn't eye him back.)

He shrugs, sends it bouncing over the hard flat land as though skipping a stone on water, and starts back toward the Pearl.

"Why would he do that? Well, because he's a lummox, isn't he?"

[silver_flecks]

"Or BoReD," she offers as she hovers behind his shoulder.

[pirate_jack]

"Then we shall have a magnificent garden party," Jack tells her, delightedly, "and you're not invited."

This last is to the man standing in front of him-- who promptly vanishes.

(Only ghosts haunt this land.)

(Including Captain Jack Sparrow.)

Out of the corner of his eyes, he catches a glimpse of movement. Jack pauses, then turns to look.

There's a rock lying on the ground near his foot.

[silver_flecks]

"ThErE cAn Be TeA aNd CrAb CaKeS!"

[pirate_jack]

"Much more better with rum."

Jack's considering the rock. After a moment, he flicks his fingers at it.



"...shoo."

[silver_flecks]

"StUbBoRn."

The rock.

Jack.

Either/or/both. Something like that.

[pirate_jack]

"'Course it is." Jack turns to look quizzically at her, then whirls to face the rock.

The unmoving, utterly immobile rock.

He bends down to pick it up again.

"...a rock."


Jack considers it for a second or two, then licks it.

"Eeungh."

The rock goes clattering across the desert floor a second time.

[silver_flecks]

"PoOr RoCk. No RoLl."

She's giggling, as she draws shapes in the sand with her toes.

[pirate_jack]

"Now we're being followed by rocks. Never heard that before."

Jack shakes his head and starts back towards Del and the Pearl, then brightens.

"Oh! A rope."

He strides over and gives it a tug, then watches as it falls-- hissing against itself like a snake as it coils up on the ground.

[silver_flecks]

"YeP."

She nods.

"A rOpE."

And keeps drawing in the sand, tiny creatures one after the other.

"I cOuLd mAkE iT a PyThoN iNsTeAd."

[pirate_jack]

Jack makes a face at her.

"Not helpful."

He turns back to the Pearl, staring up at the ship for several long seconds, then takes the rope and lashes it to the bow.



"Can't... leave... her... like this..."

The panted explanation is accompanied by the desperate scraping of his boots against the solid ground, as Jack struggles to pull his ship forward-- to move her--

(to sail)

--in the end going nowhere at all.

---

Time passes.

(There is no way to measure time here.)

Jack is lying collapsed on the ground in the ship's shadow, the rope fallen just beyond the reach of his fingers.


(click)

There are more rocks lying scattered across the ground now.

(They aren't rocks.)

(click-snap)

With a cracking sound, the rock crab unfolds its legs and blinks its eyes, then skitters sideways and snaps its claws at the rest of them, chittering.

(click click snap click)

One after another, the rock crabs rise and follow the leader toward the ship.

---

(sssssshhhhhSSSSSSHHHHH)


He opens his eyes, looking upward in blank confusion as the shadow passes over him. A second later, his jaw drops, and Jack bolts upright, staring.

The Black Pearl is sailing over the desert, borne on a wave of crabs.

(bring me that horizon)

Jack looks around wildly, but doesn't wait long.

A second later, he takes off running after his ship.