Gentlemen's Tea Party

[bringmethatnpc]

They find him in the early hours of the morning, floating along with a corpse and a barrel to hold on to. Heaved aboard like any other piece of Jetsam, the prisoner is given time to dry off in the hold.

As the sun rises higher in the sky, Lord Beckett orders that the Dutchman be signalled and Jones summoned over to the Endeavour. In the meanwhile, that pirate they hauled inis to be similarly escorted to the cabin, there to be offered the finest tea of the Company.

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[doyoufeardeath.livejournal.com]

Only now does he realize he has given himself away. Back paddling is never graceful. "I showed them 'ow to bind her," he says, rolling the words out uneasily. "She could not be trusted."

All the same, one thing is paramount on his mind: "She gave me no choice. We must act before they release her."

[turned_captain]

Will was also interested in this agreement, and as Jones tried to backtrack, he looked up attentively, lowering his tea cup as the realisation hits him.

"You loved her," he says, unwillingly. "She's the one.

(A woman as changing, as harsh and as untamable as the sea.)

She was the sea.

And as the true implications hit home, his voice turns harsh. "And then you betrayed her."

[doyoufeardeath.livejournal.com]

One should not tell the Captain of the Dutchman who was betrayed. Not unless they have a fondness for angry calamari in their face.

Jones rounds on Will, rage obvious. "She pretended to love me. She betrayed me!" Doesn't he have any idea what it's like to have a woman betray him?

[turned_captain]

As it happens, Will does know what it's like to have a woman betray him, even though his experience in the matter was a misconception.

But either way, he reflects as he turns back to his tea and takes his time over another sip, he still stayed true to his own purpose. He stayed loyal to Elizabeth and he pursued his course.

All this, in Will's mind, makes him superior to Jones in a lot of ways.

Confident, he stands, bringing cup and saucer with him, and he faces the man who was once his Captain face to squid.

"And after which betrayal did you cut out your heart, I wonder?"

[doyoufeardeath.livejournal.com]

The claw whips out, sending the china out of Will's hand and ruining his tea.

"Do not test me!" he barks at the younger man.

[bringmethatnpc]

He looks exceedingly pained as he watches the cup crash against the wooden flooring.

Like all of his most prized possessions -- it had been of unparalled quality.

[turned_captain]

Will is as pained as Beckett to see his cup go flying, spilling tea across the wood, where it quickly soaks in.

"I hadn't finished that," he says ruefully.

Will Turner won't be threatened, though. Not by Jones, who betrayed the woman she supposedly loved, bound her to confinement for enternity, who, for all other involvement, murdered Jack by sending the Kraken after him, and who holds his father cursed and also bound aboard the Flying Dutchman.

"You will free my father," he says, bitterly, and moves away from the Captain, towards a rather fine globe beside which Beckett still has tea.

"And you will guarantee Elizabeth's safety.

"Along with my own."

He learned from his dealings with Barbossa to add little details like that to his demands.

[bringmethatnpc]

"Your terms are steep, Mr. Turner."

Not impossible; still, it's a warning.

The prize must be worth its payment, after all. It's just good business.

"We will expect fair value in return."

[doyoufeardeath.livejournal.com]

"There's only one price I will accept," Jones pronounces with a certain finality to the negotiations. "Calypso, murdered."

[turned_captain]

Will appears to give this a moment's thought. Then with a well practiced air of insolence, he remarks:

"Calypso's aboard the Black Pearl."

He looks back at Beckett. "Jack has sailed the Black Pearl to Shipwreck Cove."

And with that, he turns to inspect the complex navigational tools mounted on the globe.

[bringmethatnpc]

It's a very expensive globe.

Beckett takes a half-step toward Will before he can stop himself, but then ignores his fiddling and focuses on the more important matter at hand.

"And with you no longer aboard her, how do you propose to lead us there?"

[turned_captain]

Don't worry, Will would say, I'm an experienced blacksmith.

Of course, then one of the arms catches wrong and there's a snap and it springs up to hit Will in the face, so it's lucky he didn't say anything out loud.

He looks from Beckett to Jones to Beckett again, hestitant at a question he hadn't quite worked out.

(Think like me. It'll come to you.)

With a jerk of his wrist, he flicks up and catches Jack's compass, dangling it by his face.

All things considered, this has gone just as he rehearsed it.

"What is it you want most?"