01. Shipwreck [Action]

[applepirate]

[Little did Captain Barbossa know that day at Tortuga that he won't exactly wake up in the same place he had fallen asleep in - that is, the captain's cabin on the Queen Anne's Revenge. So when his eyes snapped open, it wasn't the hull of the ship they were looking at, but instead it was several tall trees they saw looming over him, along with the overcast sky.

The pirate captain proceeded to stand up from the ground, immediately feeling a new sensation in his back - that of a... pair of wings?]

Shiver me timbers... What is this wretched place?

[Fittingly enough, it was then when a chill ran up his spine and caused his body to quiver, making him notice that he was also shirtless - save for the white cotton pants on his legs.

Wait... did that mean...

Yes, turning his head around, Barbossa also saw no sign of his hat anywhere in the forest he was now in. The hat he had only just regained possession of.]

Arrr! Where be me hat? I swear, if somebody took me hat...

[Speaking of, what had happened to his ship that he had just acquired? Did his crew commandeer it somehow and left him here to perish while he was asleep? Just what in the world had happened in Tortuga? And what was up with this drastic season change? And that journal lying on the ground, which he knelt down to pick up - it wasn't a treasure he remembered uncovering. He was too confused and angry right now to make any sense of it.

Was this all that scalawag Jack Sparrow's doing again? If it was, he should better pray that Barbossa doesn't get his hands on him. Just marooning him on that bloody island wouldn't do this time... No, his fellow pirate would remember him as the scourge of the seven seas...

The (former) captain was already walking through the forest, trying to find anything - a path, a tavern, a port. It's there where somebody could find him and possibly help him understand what's going on.]

Comments

[action]

[abidinglaw]

[James Norrington has chosen today to make one of his rare trips into town. The time for the trip has been strictly allotted, of course. Three hours only. He will not dally longer. He has clothed himself in a purple silk button-down shirt and a pair of jeans and yes, the shirt is ostentatious by his own standards but he'd never seen a more costly fabric at the item shop than this one. These things are important, after all. Who knows who he might run into by chance? Truly, if he knows anything about the daughters of admirals, he knows that they are intruiged by finely dressed men with large houses boasting ocean views.

So he claps eyes on the man in the new-feather gown just as soon as he - Norrington - turns a particular blind corner on the forest path that preceeds the village. If he'd know when he woke up this morning that by mid-day he'd be hailing Hector Barbossa? Well, sufficed to say he would have worn that ugly brown tunic with holes in the back and a pair of worn-out sandals.]

You will be gratified to know you that you are on the right track.

[He says, by way of introduction, failing for now to identify the fellow by the back of his head. Barbossa would be forgiven if he mistook the admiral, too, for James had long since abandoned the wig and hat that marked him out in a crowd. Powder is in short supply, here, and people... well... they make fun of the hat. He forgives them that. They know no better.]

The village is just ahead. Three, perhaps four minutes at a brisk walk. I trust you know the way?

[Action]

[applepirate]

[Hector Barbossa had certainly walked a good deal before to get where he was now, but he was not aware that he was near the village. Thinking he wasn't close to anything, his irritation had only increased by that time.

The pirate captain turned his head to face the familiar-sounding voice that he suddenly heard with caution. If not for the purple shirt that the other man had on, perhaps he could have identified him a bit more quickly than he would later on, but it looked so not like what James Norrington would normally wear that it just threw him off. The lack of his usual wig did, too.

However, Barbossa had a strong sense that this person was part of the Navy... he sure as hell didn't look like a pirate, that was for certain.]

What is this village ye speak of, lad?

[Barbossa's voice would have surely given him away, though he was currently without his own hat too. Whether people made fun of it or not, he would still bloody keep it!

He narrowed his eyes a bit and smirked a little, though with irritation and not amusement.]

Do I look like a fellow who knows the way in these wretched woods, hmm?

[OOC: Hey, I didn't know we had a Norrington here - that's awesome!]

[Action]

[abidinglaw]

[If the full-frontal appearance of this particular man would have set James Norrington's teeth on edge, the sound of his voice has the startled sailor reaching at once for his sword. A sword he that he isn't carrying. So, rather than grasp at the air around his waist like a damned fool he sets his palm on his hip and cocks his elbow -- and manages to look a damned fool anyway.]

Captain Barbossa.

[The admiral's voice had been friendly at first, but now it grew cold and clipped. Accusatory. That mocking, raspy voice, the bulbous nose protruding from a vile and weathered face -- there could be no doubt that this was the Pirate Lord Hector Barbossa. Worse, if Norrington had with-held any hope that the pirate might be an apparition, a shift, or some phantom dredged from his memory, the wings and the clothes marked him out as a permanent resident of the village and its environs - at least in so far as anyone here was here to stay. So, an old crow had joined Luceti's troubled flock.]

Pity.

[OOC: Uuuuh yeah! Hi! I'm Gavin, and this is Norrington. He's been here a while but he mostly keeps to himself, so you probably aren't the only one who didn't. Know, I mean. We had a Liz not long ago but alas, no longer.]

[Action]

[applepirate]

[And the sudden change in tone was what gave it away for Barbossa as well - now this was certainly the way the Commodore always used to address him. No mistake about that. His previously friendly words had also thrown him off before.

Norrington wasn't the only one to look stupid for a bit, though, because Barbossa had always gotten used to having his gun and sword with him on the collar of his outfit. And only until recently, he had them. So, his reaction was not too different, reaching at something that wasn't quite there.

A moment passed until he eventually replied.]

Well, well. Isn't it Commodore James Norringtion. Ye're alive... Pity.

[Barbossa was certainly taken aback, and the look on his features showed that, but being risen from the dead himself, it wasn't as big of a shock to him as it could've been. The question was why Norrington was here, not how.

And another question was, of course, whether he had something to do with Barbossa being transported here all of a sudden. Though he hadn't failed to see his surprise at seeing him, either.]

Where be yer hat? I was quite fond of it.

[OOC: Nice to meet you, I'm Theodore and I recently joined up with Barbossa & Ai! Sucks about Elizabeth, but still glad to have as many castmates as I do.]

[Action]

[abidinglaw]

[Norrington assumes that the question is a snide acknowledgement of their differing appearances and that the pirate had asked it an attempt to conjure sympathy - after all, the admiral is finely dressed indeed. He seems well off by all appearances, so where's the hat to top it off? While Barbossa wanders lost in a plain, drab shift. Well, let him wander. He would be more successful at squeezing pity from a rock.]

It is such a peculiar thing - to be robbed of all that you have ever owned and dropped into this place - but it is not such an unusual thing. Every person here has experienced the same, myself and all the others, and speaking of it will get you no sympathy.

[It is not true, of course. In his own experience the people of Luceti are extremely generous to newcomers, and even being rendered penniless is arguably tolerable in a village whose shops stock items free for the taking. But Norrington's immediate deception is itself a misdirection. He had found his own hat soon after arriving, and if Barbossa never knows that? Well then he will never consider stealing it.]

[OOC: Have you met our witty Jack-player yet?]

[Action]

[applepirate]

[And indeed, Barbossa was quite at a disadvantage here, without his hat and general attire that he was rather fond of, too. Embarrassment does not quite hit him, but there was no pleasure in standing in nothing but a pair of white cotton pants in front of James Norrington of all people either.

But it was also true that he did like Norrington's hat. Just not much as his own.]

I don't seek sympathy, lad. As a pirate captain, I have given up on expectin' any of that long ago. Ye should know that.

[There was really nobody who would sympathize - neither his own crew, who'd just assume command of his ship, and certainly not his enemies and the British Navy. And especially not James Norrington. He didn't seem to be impressed by his wooden leg, either - not that he expected him to. And Barbossa was okay with that.]

What I seek is me ship and me clothes, or a place that's anywhere but this blasted forest that I've spent at least a couple of hours wanderin' around. I'm somehow gettin' the feelin' that I won't find them, though.

[Indeed, it sounded like an ill wind blew upon him if he took Norrington's words to heart. Though he certainly wasn't a fellow that he'd immediately put his trust in.]

[OOC: Oh, I have - she roleplays a great Jack Sparrow. I've just started a tag with her in this thread, and I also roleplayed with Jack in the training wings. Also, I take it you usually edit your tags a lot. :P]

[Action]

[abidinglaw]

[It would have been so easy to set Barbossa to chasing wild and slippery geese. Norrington had considered pointing the pirate down a path that skirted the village, and even now he wondered whether he might not gesture into the forest and say 'straight ahead, lad, ten minutes that way and it'll be hot baths and bourbon for you matey.' The pin that belays him, in the end, is the rogue and incorrigible fool Jack Sparrow. The admiral has seen that man take such pains to better himself as he could never have believed if he had not witnessed them with his own two eyes. Futhermore, Norrington knows better than most that hanging Barbossa would not rid this world of him, and that imprisoning the rogue is hardly a viable option either. Not with the heroes running rampant in Luceti.

And that really only leaves reforming the man, now, doesn't it?]

Of for the love of--

It happens that I am on my way to the village just now myself, and I suppose I can hardly stop you hobbling along if you should choose to follow. You will find clothes and food, and there is a bar just waiting to be divested of its stores of rum.

[He begins walking away, with that, and it is clear by his gait that expects the pirate to make every effort to keep up. After four of five steps he adds,]

But whatever you should choose to do, I would warn you not to ask the barmaid for papaya - in any form at all.

[OOC: Usually? HAH. I laugh in the face of usually. Chuckle, that is. Or, I mean, I smile in its face. What I mean is that yes, I edit always. I'm known for it. I'm probably known among Luceti-folks as that guy who edits his tags. Sorry.]

[Action]

[applepirate]

[That wouldn't have been really nice and noble of the Commodore, would it? Barbossa would surely have found somebody eventually to lead him back to the village and then find Norrington, and he'd tell him what he thought of that...

But he wasn't exactly thrilled about wandering in these woods without any decent clothing anymore, so heading to the village now was the most preferable option. The company could have been better, of course, but at least he could have some fun.]

And follow I will then, Commodore. Ye can't exactly leave an old acquaintance like me to freeze in this forest now, can ye? Ye're a gentleman, after all - not like my lot.

[And with that, he began following Norrington, a slight grin on his face as they walked through the forest.]

The bar isn't out of rum yet, ye say? Well then, I doubt I should make the effort to look for any pirates here who share the same fate as I.

[He didn't know yet that the supply was infinite; which was why it was a comforting thought (at this time) that there was a chance that Jack Sparrow wasn't in Luceti, too.]

I prefer apples myself, Commodore, so I don't think that'll be a problem. I can't help but be curious, though - why the warning?

[OOC: Hahaha, that is quite alright - I'll just wait a little extra time to reply to your tags. :P And hey, you didn't edit THIS one, so there must be exceptions!]