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[bringmethatnpc]

The sea around them is calm, the surface roughened by just enough wind to make for smooth sailing. The sun overhead is bright, and there's no sign of cloud nor distant storm anywhere to be seen. In fact, conditions couldn't be finer for setting sail.

If only they knew where to go.

Comments

[pirate_jack]

He's given up on the compass -- again -- for the time being.

Jack Sparrow is leaning against the rail beside Gibbs, looking out to sea and turning a gleaming black feather over and over in his fingers as he talks.

"We need a new heading."

[bringmethatnpc]

"Capn', is that a raven's feather?" Gibbs glares suspciously. "Please tell me it's not a raven's feather.

"Ravens are bad luck. Worse than women!"

[pirate_jack]

He looks down at his hands and then back up at Gibbs.

"'S just a feather, mate. Besides, I've known a few ravens -- one in particular."

Grinning, Jack starts to braid the feather into his hair as he says,

"Tricky bugger, but I like him."

[bringmethatnpc]

"Him? You know a raven that you call him?" Gibbs is about to say something harsh and holds his tongue only because it's Jack.

"Ravens are the devil's birds in this world. Tricky beasts, with the power of speech like the snake in Eden! If you know one well enough to call him a him, you're halfway to damnation." As if this is news. "Throw that feather away, Cap'n, and maybe you can still break the curse!"

[creator_raven]

There is a rather solid thump on the deck--it sounds like someone dropping down from the rigging.

"Mostly curses are too slow, I think. Also ugly. I am more fond of ceaseless torment, yes?"

And then there is a man--tall, skinny, dressed in jeans and a black coat--tugging on a lock of Jack's hair.

Hard.

[bringmethatnpc]

"You...you're him, aren't you?" Gibbs backs away. He wishes he had a cross, or a Bible, or something holy. Not that he really believes.

"Now we are all doomed! Well, I won't go without a fight!"

[pirate_jack]

He might answer this, but he's a little distracted at the moment. Jack swats wildly at Raven's hand, swinging around to look at him with an affronted expression.

"AAH! Mind your fingers, mate."

The black feather flutters slightly in the sea-breeze. Jack grins.

"Now what are you doing here?" As an aside to Gibbs, he adds, "Aye, that's him."

[creator_raven]

Raven dodges the wild swat and tugs again at Jack's hair.

A little harder this time.

"Only if you are doing the same, yes?"

Then he flicks the feather hanging from Jack's hair.

"This is mine, I am thinking. It is not so easy to ignore."

[bringmethatnpc]

Gibbs stares at the raven-man. He's still tense. But this man seems less threatening than he expected.

"What do you want with us?"

[pirate_jack]

Black eyes gleam with sudden speculation upon hearing this. Jack touches the feather, very lightly.

"You don't say, mate? Now that's interesting."

A pause, and he turns to Gibbs.

"'S a friend -- well, a friend of sorts. We go way back. Well, some of the way back. Name's Raven. Not one of your bad-luck birds, savvy?"

He swings back to Raven, adding, "Why are you here? Just visiting?"

[creator_raven]

Raven tugs on Jack's hair one. More. Time.

"Mostly you are making my head itch, I think."

He wrinkles his nose, grinning at Gibbs.

"Jack, in this, is very much right. Also I am easily placated by cookies."

For a brief moment the grin is very sharp indeed.

"And eyeballs."

[bringmethatnpc]

Gibbs glares. He doesn't trust this man...bird...whatever.

"Then it's true. And than means it's true about the castle as well, doesn't it?"

[pirate_jack]

Whatever Jack might have said to Raven next is lost forever as he swings around to look at Gibbs, black eyes gleaming with sudden interest.

"Castle? What castle?"

[creator_raven]

A second pair of black eyes flicks over to look at Gibbs, though the gleam here is that of humour rather than interest.

"Many things are very often true, perhaps. But this is a story I have not yet heard, I think. You are very good at talking?"

[bringmethatnpc]

Well, yes, Gibbs is good at talking. But he never sees it that way, and makes a harsh face at the Raven.

"Best you know what's out there, Cap'n. I heard tell of it on Tortuga many times. There is a castle, built by a lost Portuguese garrison a century ago, near Hispanola. By rights it should have been abandoned but it wasn't.

"No, it wasn't, for an alchemist found it. A genuine lead into gold alchemist. Some say he's an Italian duke, exiled to the seas by his brother. Others say he was a great scientist at Cambridge who let the world think he was dead. But all say that he's made a pact with dark forces and that he's wedded forbidden arts with cold science in the bowels of the foul castle!" He glares again at the Raven for good measure.

[pirate_jack]

Gibbs's words hang in the air for several seconds, warning and promise of danger in one, and then--

"Now that's very interesting."

Jack's eyes are still gleaming, brighter now than before.

"Hispaniola, aye? We're not far from there," he muses, "not far at all, and the wind's right enough..."

[creator_raven]

"Hopefully he is looking pretty in a wedding dress, yes?"

Raven's face conveys that he doubts this is so.

Then he snorts, shaking his head, casting a sly sideways glance at Gibbs.

"You are minding company, then?"

Or not minding, as the case may be.

[bringmethatnpc]

"Cap'n, you really wouldn't..." Gibbs' voice trails off. Of course Jack would. He's Captain Jack Sparrow.

"And even if you do, don't take him. The island is full of his kind, beasts that would feast on your eyes sooner than you would be free of them.

"Never mind the unspeakable horrors the alchemist has created..." There is more to say, but Gibbs knows Jack has made up his mind. He pauses and then does hs job.

"Shall I set a heading?"

[pirate_jack]

Jack's lost in his own thoughts at the moment, trying to recall.

He's not heard this story of Gibbs's before, not exactly, but there's something... something... something about a chest, and a key...

Could it be possible?

At last the silence grows heavy and awkward, and Jack startles, waving his hand.

"Of course! A heading. Set our heading for this castle of yours, Mr. Gibbs." He swings around, grinning at Raven.

"Full of your kind, is it? Sounds like just the place for you, mate."

[creator_raven]

Raven looks pained.

"You have never heard the cousins gathered, have you?"

Ow.

"Possibly I will go in disguise."

[bringmethatnpc]

"Yes, Cap'n." Gibbs makes his way to the wheel, but not without stopping along the way for some rum. And without one last glare at the Raven. He hopes that perhaps the promise of riches will be true, and that the tales will be lies.

He doubts this, though.