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Post by Jim Hawkins on Mar 27, 2009 17:03:40 GMT -5
Night shone on the open sea, quiet and moonless. The navy sky was clear as glass, and the stars silently twinkled on their dark background.
Jim sat motionless on the shrouds of the Misty Lady, half-heartedly fiddling with a piece of rope in his hands. He savored the night: it was one of the few each moth where he wouldn't turn into...
Don't think about it... he scolded himself before the whole scene on the Isla de Muerta replayed in his mind. Jim sighed. His mind was getting harder and harder to control... every little thing he did reminded him of her. Everywhere he went, he felt so guilty for having yelled at her, snapped at her, scared her, cast her away...
But it was for her sake. Jim reminded himself for the thousanth time. She's probably having fun with Peter. Even if she truly wanted to help you... She deserves so much better.
Jim stared out into the sea, then looked back at his hand, tracing the bones that lay under the skin.
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Post by Nani Pelekai on Mar 27, 2009 19:14:02 GMT -5
They sat still and unmoving until the remnants of the sun disappeared beneath the violet horizon. The breeze tickled her cheek causing her to laugh, somewhat dryly. "We seem to be close." She sighed.
Nani observed the teen trace his cursed arm and reminded herself that her problems were not as big as his. Sure, she had lost her husband; but Jim was skeleton . . . were her troubles so important that she'd shun him? Of course not.
There was an obvious change in the air despite his unchanging expression. He told her very little about how this curse came about. Even more concerned, she dared to look his way without a twinge of regret. Her eyes were lit with sympathy as she went over to him and placed her dark hand over his pale, cold one.
"Wanna tell me what's on your mind?" she asked quietly, wearing a rather sheepish look on her cheeky face.
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Post by Milo Thatch on Mar 27, 2009 19:21:40 GMT -5
Milo wanted to know how exactly he got pulled into another pirate adventure. Well, he did owe Jim a favor, seeing as he and Warren got Audrey off his back. But now Jim was in another kind of state - cursed, to be exact.
Milo had read about the Gold of Cortez - among many other legends. Though he believed that Atlantis was real, he had shrugged off this one as just a myth. Something like that was truly impossible! But over the past months, Milo had learned that nothing's impossible. And now it was actually happening.
Milo hesitantly joined Jim and Nani. For the past few days, Milo had been reading almost everything he could get his hands on which might be able to tell him how to lift the curse. So far, he wasn't having much luck.
"Uh, hi," he said sheepishly. "Uh, are you okay?"
Milo wasn't exactly sure how Jim felt about the whole thing. Or the fact that he was having trouble with a certain girl - well, Milo could relate to that. But still, the whole curse thing was a little ... strange.
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Post by Jim Hawkins on Mar 27, 2009 19:50:46 GMT -5
Jim grinned at Milo and Nani, but the smile didn't meet his eyes.
"I'm officially a member of the living dead, and you're asking me if I'm okay?" He chuckled half-heartedly to himself, trailing off with a sigh.
"...I don't feel anything. Not the sea breezes... nothing." He looked down at Nani's copper hand that rested on his pale one. "Not even your hand. Do you s'ppose that this is what it's like to be a ghost or something? Y'know... dead?"
Jim shrugged his hand away from Nani's. The knowledge that someone was holding his hand... it sparked memories. In his mind's eye he saw a bright display of fireworks, while he could feel her heartbeat in her warm hand...
Jim shut his eyes, trying to block it out. No...
He gritted his teeth as he returned to the present, hopping down from the shrouds.
"It's late... you guys should get some sleep." He gave them another false smile. "I don't really sleep anymore. Undead thing. I guess I'll keep the Misty Lady on course..."
Jim strode over to the ship's wheel, steering it in the direction of the compass, not speaking any more on the subject. I'll be better when we break this thing...
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Post by Pintel & Ragetti on Mar 28, 2009 14:19:52 GMT -5
Pintel and Ragetti sat on the dock of the Misty Lady. Pintel was sitting on a barrel and Ragetti was on the floor washing Pintel's feet. They were in earshot of Jim, Nani, and Milo.
"Aw Pintel, why I do I 'ave t' do this?" Ragetti said, making a face at Pintel's grotesque feet. They were almost black with dirt.
"Lest ye ferget Ragetti, YOU lost th' bet. I fired more cannons at th' Jolly Roger than ye did, fair an' square. Now get t' scrubbin'!" He grinned. "I need t' be lookin' me best for any damsels-in-distress that might come our way."
Ragetti frowned at Pintel's feet, then nodded in defeat and continued to scrub. "Ya know..." He started while scrubbing. "I'm startin' t' think tha' any lass tha' comes our way ends up becomin' damsels in distress....we kind a' 'ave a tendency of takin' ladies captive." His eyes got wide and he looked up at Pintel. "Maybe we'll have better luck if we...maybe...stop doin' tha'."
Pintel rolled his eyes and caught ear of what was happening with Jim. "Seems t' me we have a lad in distress in our mists instead." He shook his head. "T's a shame. Poor lad.....Y' know, I believe I didn't sulk as much as he did when WE were cursed." He crossed his arms over his chest.
"No...y' did do quite a bit of sulking." Ragetti said, dipping the rag in the bucket containing now muddied water.
"Did not." Pintel retorted glaring down at the skinny Ragetti.
"Oh, I-I meant nothin' by it Pintel." Ragetti said, gazing up. "....s'just tha' when ye first saw yerself as a skeleton ye started whining t' Barbossa, an' threw a tantrum, an' locked ye self in one a' th' cabins until daybreak." He went back to Pintel's feet.
Pintel put his hands into fists. "Yes, Ragetti," He said through his teeth. "An' ye know what else happened?"
Ragetti looked up again. "No, wha' else happened?"
"I remember specifically tellin' ye that as far as speakin' about that' whole lit'tle incident....it NEVER HAPPENED!"
Ragetti tilted his head, confused. "B-b-but it did!"
Pintel kicked the foot Ragetti was washing up and into Ragetti's chin, knocking Ragetti backwards. He sat up. "Ow! Tha's it!" he stood and threw the rag on the floor. " 'ow would you like it if you were doin somethin' nice for me and I kick ya, huh? Tha's not nice!"
Pintel shook his head. " 'ow would you like it if I started spewin' embarrassin' moments about ye on deck?"
Ragetti's expression went uneasy for a second, then back to stern. "O-Oh yeah? W-Well, I never 'ad a tantrum on a ship for ye to spew about. Ha!" He grinned at his short retort, but dropped the smile to put on the 'tough' act again.
"THA'S NOT TH' POINT!" Pintel shouted.
"It is!" Ragetti started to walk off but stopped. "By th' way, no wonder Esmeralda hasn't taken a likin' t' ya with the stink a' those," He glanced at Pintel's feet. "....blimey! It's like th' breath of th' kraken!"
Pintel stood as Ragetti walked away. "I'll show ye Kraken!" Pintel sighed and decided to let it go. He followed Ragetti over to Jim and the rest.
Ragetti went over to Jim, interjecting himself in the conversation. "Don' worry Jim. Bein' undead's not all bad. Least ye don' 'ave t' worry about where ye go after ye die....since ye already dead an' all." He snickered. "It's one thing ye don' 'ave t' worry about aye?"
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Post by Nani Pelekai on Mar 28, 2009 14:49:14 GMT -5
For a moment she imagined the light pressure against her hand was unexpected. Jim had let go, leaving her silent, unable to react.
Nani turned a murderous glare on the two bickering pirates. She was rather protective of Jim, and although they had good intentions for the lad, she was a tad suspicious of them. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, closing her eyes to the feel of a passing breeze before Milo showed up.
"Jim won't always be like this, guys. So don't go telling him he's going to get 'used to it'. He'll be very much human by the time we reach that stupid island ... uh, Isla De Muerte or something?" she said, shrugging it off.
The Hawaiian bit her lip as she was told to get some rest. But how could she? She bumped Jim's side with her round hip and took over the wheel. "Nah. The caffeine's gonna keep me up all night - had myself three rounds!" she admitted, smiling sheepishly. She also had a cup of wine.
"And, uh, do you two know those two lolos (Pintel and Rags)?" she asked, blinking slowly.
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Post by Jim Hawkins on Mar 28, 2009 15:42:28 GMT -5
Jim silently rolled his eyes at the dynamic, comedic duo.
Not. Helping. he thought to Ragetti, giving him a deadpan look.
"Yes. One less thing for me to worry about... Now I'll give you something to worry about." Without warning, Jim claped Ragetti in the back of his head, extracting his wooden eye out of the socket. Jim chucked the eye across the deck. "Go fetch, doggie."
Jim sighed and returned to the wheel. At least those two gave him a break from certain miseries that constantly inavded the peace of his mind. And then there were those little things that simply invaded his personal space...
"Hey!" Jim said indignatly as Nani bumped him away from the wheel. His blue eyes widened at Nani's comment. Oh, god... three cups of coffee. Jim had drunk the earth beverage only once before with Warren. Feeling that it was too bitter, Jim had put several packages of sugar in the drink... and ended up crashing into the Misty Lady's sails while trying to do a handstand and corkscrew at the same time on his solar surfer.
"Them?" Jim said, attempting to wrestle the wheel away from Nani. "The one with the wooden eye's Ragetti, and then the other one's Pintel... Part of the crew."
He added in a lower voice: "They could have their own comedy joint with their antics, if you ask me."
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Post by Pintel & Ragetti on Mar 28, 2009 22:03:36 GMT -5
Ragetti was going to respond to Jim but Jim promptly knocked him upside the head, making his eye pop out again. " 'ey!" He looked at Jim angrily. "Ya takin' lessons from Pintel aren't ya? I don' like it! Not at all!"
But as Ragetti was talking, Jim threw his eye across deck. "No!" He cringed, holding his hands up in short panic, looking from Jim to his rolling eye. "Not again!"
Finding no other choice, he went after it. "Not me eye! Come back!"
Meanwhile Pintel chuckled sadistically as he watched Ragetti run across the deck for it. "Ah he deserved it!" He looked back towards Jim and caught him whispering to Nani. "Aye I heard tha'!" Comedy! Nothing about what Ragetti's antics was funny to Pintel. That memory of first discovering the curse was a sensitive moment, one that never should be repeated!
"Look, lad, stop ye depressin' antics an' get t' movin." Pintel said harshly. The short stubby man looked at Jim intensely, his voice low, almost in a whisper. "Th' gold calls to ye. Ye must go after it. If ye don't want t' be hollow fer ever, get t' steppin, lad!"
Ragetti finally found his eye and marched up to the group again. "Found it!" He popped it back in and blink several times. He heard some of the conversation and injected. "Yeah, get t' steppin! Find th' gold...an-an-an then you can get t' th' bonnie lass ye was been on savin'!" He nudged Pintel with a snicker. "Hehehe, damsels in distress!"
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Post by Jim Hawkins on Apr 1, 2009 17:45:22 GMT -5
Jim opened his mouth to yell at Pintel, but something stopped him. Jim opened and closed his mouth a few times, fighting for some sort of witty retort... but Pintel's scolding drained his almost inexhuastable supply of words.
He's right...
Jim looked down at his boots, briefly reflecting on his conduct. And he thought that he had been hiding his feelings pretty well... Maybe something like this couldn't be hid. He flinched a bit at Ragetti's "damsel in distress" comment... Apparently he couldn't hide his desperately confused feelings for her either.
Jim leaned on the ship's railing, letting out a small sigh. "I know." Jim said in a barely audible whisper, half to Pintel and half to himself.
He closed his eyes, searching for the hunger inside him that cried out to the medallion. He summoned it, watching the horizon. Barely a second later, the eerie pulse from the medallion came sailing on the water.
"We're close." Jim said in monotone, elbowing Nani away from the wheel. "How's the compass looking, Nani?"
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Post by Nani Pelekai on Apr 2, 2009 11:12:20 GMT -5
Nani, suddenly very vexed, dared not to utter a word. When Jim pried her off the wheel she used her hip to resist further efforts and bumped him a second time. It was enough to send a man crashing to the floor. “Ai-yah!” she cried, slapping a hand over her face; her other hand guiding the wheel. “Jim, I can do this, thank you very much.”
A long moment passed before the Hawaiian turned to face the two pirates, arching an eyebrow, a dry chuckle escaping her lips, and she smirked, barely raising her voice. This was all very amusing. “Sorry to disappoint you two, but there won’t be damsels to for you to save, really. However, there’s soup in the kitchen that needs saving…” that last remark was random. Then again, too much caffeine had that effect on her. She then realized who they were talking about. Wendy.
“Alright,” Nani said, this time more awkwardly. “We do have a damsel to save. But, hey, we’ve got two really neat pirates, a linguist, and a…a…”
Her eyes drooped, face terribly apathetic. “Ok, we’re doomed.” She finished, resting her forehead on the wheel, feeling quite the cynic tonight. Her ears perked at the mention of the compass.
“Oh, hey!” she exclaimed, gasping. “We’re almost there! Now, how to avoid trouble…” she observed the compass for one last time.
“It’s going crazy! Just need to steer it west and we’re there. If this boat had lips…would’ve kissed the island already.” She said, grinning. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to the little punk's forehead.
“Mua!” Nani snickered.
[x3 COOTIES]
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Post by Jim Hawkins on Apr 2, 2009 16:16:16 GMT -5
Jim yelped as Nani bumped him, sending him to kiss the deck. Jim fell on his rump, limbs sprawled out in awkward positions. He quickly got up, trying to preserve his dignity... it was one of the few things that the curse hadn't taken away.
All thoughts to yell at Nani vanished as she whipped out the compass. "It's spinning!" Jim exclaimed, watching as the compass suddenly stopped and fixed itself on the opposite direction. "That means..."
Jim called out to the gold again, watching as a pulsating ripple errupted out of the ocean. It started at a point of origin off the starboard, spreading across the waves.
"...We just passed the medallion!!" Jim shouted, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out what seemed to be a translucent blob of pink gel: a sleeping Morph.
"Morphie, wake up!" Jim yelped excitedly to the shapeshifter, who yawned and blinked his round eyes.
"Morph, we need a wake-up call..." Jim said with a glint in his eye, which Morph returned. The shapeshifter broke up and reassembled into an aluminum can with a flaring horn at the top: an airhorn.
Without much of a warning, Jim set off the airhorn, causing shouts to errupt from belowdeck.
"We're weighing anchor here!" Jim shouted as the crew scurried up to the deck, fastening the sails and dropping the anchor. The teenager sent out another call to the gold, watching the pulse ripple across the water.
"There." he said, pointing to the pulse's origin. "The medallion should be on the seabed right there."
Jim ran to the hold, selecting a few items before returning. He dropped them into one of the longboats: two pairs of chained cannonballs used for taking out masts, and a huge mass of rope.
Readied the longboat for launch, tying the rope around his waist. Several of the crewmembers stopped and watched as Jim started tying the cannonballs to his boots... What was he doing? "I need someone to pull me back up." Jim said as he guestured to the inky waters, reflecting the moonless night in the waves.
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Post by Pintel & Ragetti on Apr 2, 2009 17:01:43 GMT -5
Pintel grinned when the lad seemed to be back in a productive spirit. The pirate duo looked on when the compass started spinning and Jim went right into the action. Jim pulled out Morph and Ragetti's eyes grew wide when it turned into an airhorn.
"...th' lad is makin' it mighty hard for me not t' want one a' those. It's awfully convenient." Ragetti said to Pintel.
"Well somethin tells me that that ye can't exactly find 'em at th' closest marketplace." Pintel replied.
When Jim said he needed someone to pull him up, Pintel raised his hand. "I'll see t' it, lad," He volunteered.
"This is excitin', isn't it?" Ragetti said. "He'll be rid a th' curse in no time. Then he can go fetch his bonnie lass. 's all quite lovely, don't you think? Kinda romantic...l-l-like Will and Elizabeth, aye?"
"T'was nothin' romantic about that, the lass tricked us int' thinkin' it was her blood we needed t' lift the curse!" Pintel retorted. "Barbossa shot me, when it didn't work!" He added bitterly.
"Oh r'ght..." He paused. "It's still romantic though....that is til th' lass fell in love with Jack. But wait...since Will and Elizabeth broke up, would tha' whole scenario be romantic or unromantic? 'Cause I suppose it's romantic for Elizabeth an' Jack then r'ght? I suppose--"
"Ragetti!" Pintel said. "Focus an' help me pull up Jim when he's ready!"
Ragetti nodded repeatedly. "Iye, Iye!"
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Post by Jim Hawkins on Apr 3, 2009 21:07:38 GMT -5
Jim resisted to role his eyes as Ragetti mindlessly prated for the umpteenth time. Instead, he focused on lowering the longboat into the black waters below. The boat hit the waves with a splash, the sound strangely loud on the quiet ocean's surface. Jim handed the rope to Pintel, giving a last-minute check on the knot anround his waist. "If the rope's not long enough, just let go. Breathing's for the living." Jim steadied himself as he stood up in the boat, then briefly stripped himself of his shirt and kicked his canonball-clad boots up and over the side and into the water. He hit the water with a clumsy splash, and the heavy cannonballs took their effect. Jim sank like a stone, deep into the sea. As usual, Jim felt the emptiness of nothing instead of the ocean's cold waters or crushing pressure. Down he floated, into a weightless and blind world of swirling currents. He sank for what seemed like an eternity, but the black waters seemed to erase all sense of time. Jim could only guess how long it was before the cannonballs settled on the sandy seafloor. As his boots touched the seabed, Jim got to work. He settled over the seafloor horizontally, groping about in the blackness. His hands brushed the sand, feeling for anything that could possibly resemble the cursed medallion. ~*~ For what could only be described as hours, Jim had no such luck. Every now and then his hands brushed a rock, but they were always too big, too round, too smooth to be his coin. Jim groped in circles, the sand on the seafloor swirling around him as Jim tried to make out any kind of shape in the blackness with his useless eyes. Jim started as his hand brushed over something. He retraced the path of his hand, finding the object again. He picked it up, tracing its outline meticulously. It was difficult to discern with his limited sense of touch... but it appeared to be a perfect disc. Excited, Jim took his fingernail and ran it along the surface. His nail jumped up and down over the grooves in the surface.. maybe a carving? Jim's hand flew to his waist, yanking the rope to signal Pintel and Ragetti to hoist him up. ((Did the rope hold or run out? You decide!!))
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Post by Milo Thatch on Apr 4, 2009 18:50:15 GMT -5
Milo couldn't help but facepalm as Pintel and Ragetti came by. Leave it to them. At least Milo knew he was no good at talking and kept his mouth shut - those two, on the other hand, didn't know how to do that. During the lovely banter that was going on between the group, Milo retreated to looking through that book about ancient curses.
There has to be something, Milo thought, flipping through the pages. Milo observed every phrase, every sentence, every diagram, reading between all the lines. But still, there was nothing he hadn't read before. All of it was just baffling to the mind.
As Jim dove into the black waters, Milo raised his head from his book, and winced just a little. Milo was quite aware that Jim would be alright - well, except for the whole curse thing - but it still made him a little nervous to see somebody diving into frigid waters with cannonballs attached to them.
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Post by Pintel & Ragetti on Apr 6, 2009 1:05:36 GMT -5
Ragetti continued to muse about the romantic quality of this adventure when the rope tugged. However, the wheel the rope was securely wrapped around spun its last spin and the rope snapped, skidding rapidly over the edge of the ship. " Grab it! Grab it!" Pintel shouted. Both Pintel and Ragetti tried grabbing the rope just before the last of it dropped over into the ocean. Pintel and Ragetti leaned over the edge, as the watched the rope disappear into the waters. "It appears w-we've ran out," Ragetti stated. Ragetti and Pintel slowly stood up right and looked at each other, then looked down at the ocean, clueless about what to do. They then looked at Milo, who was going through some book. Pintel laughed nervously. " Heh, It's okay, he'll find his way back t' th' ship. He's just takin' a lit'tle walk underwater..." Ragetti nodded. "Yeah, a lit'tle breather..." " ...wi'out th' breathin' part." "Yeah, wi'out tha'. " Ragetti gulped Both Pintel and Ragetti's faces remained uneasy and they looked down at the waters once more. " Don' worry, he'll find 'is way back. We walked underwaters plenty a' times when we were cursed," Pintel reassured. "Yeah. But he 'asn't. It's his first, isn't it? It's awfully easy t' get lost. 's dark down there." Ragetti observed. " Ye just th' light a good news, aren't ye Ragetti?" Pintel said rolling his eyes. "No. 's not news a' all actually. Not news t' you or me. Certainly not news for Jim, since he's down there ri' ht now, aye?" Ragetti said, looking at him nervously still. He gazed back at now seemingly still waters. (hey Jim is this okay? Hopefully u can work with this outcome )
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