JACK SPARROW For Calypso !

🪐 — JACK SPARROW​  for  calypso !

        Jack smiled faintly to himself at her words, casting his gaze down at the wooden table. Strength of spirit. There was something oddly comforting about that description: he’d always remembered her as softly spoken, preferring to never raise her voice if she could. Kind, which he now knew made her a rarity in this world. Compassionate. But there must have been something strong about her too, or else she would have never been able to handle a man like Teague. Jack’s smile turned sad. “ Sometimes I wonder what she saw in him. ” They’d loved each other once. He had to believe that. But whatever she’d loved in him had disappeared in the years since — had likely disappeared from this world the very same moment she had, if not long before.

       “ Did she seem happy? That time you saw her? ” Before he was born. He could not recall anything specific, could scarcely even recall what she looked like, but as a child he had never been able to shake the idea that sadness seemed to cling to her very being. No matter how much she smiled. No matter how many bright, happy memories of her he had. And, while he had never known why at the time, looking back in hindsight made him wonder whether his presence in their lives had been to blame. There were flashes of arguments in his memories, too. Shipwreck Cove is no place for a child. Jack absentmindedly picked at a groove in the table. He couldn’t help but wonder.

     THE BOY BEFORE HER  turns sullen when he speaks of his father.  &  calypso feels her body laugh softly in spite of the seriousness of his tone.  to her, it did not seem so long ago that teague first sat here in this very same shack, at this very same table.  &  he had been nearly the same age then as jack was now  —  at least, so she thought.  but then, it was still difficult to tell the age of the humans when they grew so fast  &  yet lived such short lives.  every time she had seen teague since that first, he had aged noticeably.  &  jack would do just the same.  it was a shame, the way that time had a way of turning curious, quick, handsome young boys into tired, embittered men.  perhaps one day, jack would be more like his father than he thought possible now.                            &  though the goddess had been surprised to find she actually enjoyed the boy’s company  — his quick wit  &  his curiosity helping the days pass just a little faster — she could only hope that she wouldn’t be present to see it. she would loathe to find herself still here in another handful of decades, seated at this same table  &  discussing whatever mortal woman who had caught jack’s attentions with the next in an infinite line of sons who believed themselves so much better than their fathers.         it’s a sour thought,  &  her attentions return quickly to jack as he is before her now  —  still scarcely more than a child himself, seeking solace for his grief.  comfort is something she of all beings is ill-equipped to deliver, but still there is an attempt at gentleness in her tone when she speaks.  ❝ take it from me, witty jack, you can never really tell from the outside whether someone is truly happy or not.  especially a woman. ❞  &  then she smiles wide enough that both rows of tia dalma’s blackened teeth show  &  gives a nod,  the many shells  &  beads in her hair clinking together softly with the movement.  ❝ but your mother chose her life  —  that is the most that any of us can ask. ❞

🪐 — KANG SAE-BYEOK​  for  katiana !

she shows no mercy for katiana's staggering form,   jaw clenched and stare as unforgivingly cold as her hometown winter nights.  sae-byeok reasons against simply leaving the girl to fend for herself,  after witnessing another near missed collision against the pavement.  because despite her harsh demeanor and the hundreds reasons why she shouldn't care at all,  sae-byeok keeps a dangerous secret under close guard:  her heart is too big for the cruel word she has been tossed into and sometimes it still compels her to kindness,  in spite of her better judgment.    '  aish  —  i'm calling you a taxi.  don't get sick on me.  '   she hisses this through her teeth,  still no more inclined to take pity on katiana's alcohol muddled brain enough to be gentle about it.  she wounds an arm around the other girl,  however,  in case she needs to keep her upright while she guides her outside the club,  towards the street's curb.  the music being blasted through enormous speakers follows them there  (   yet another thing to endure in this mess of a night   ),  forcing sae-byeok to raise her voice significantly in order to be heard.   '  can you get yourself home?  ' 

    THE CITY LIGHTS ARE SPINNING  —  or maybe she is.  katiana can’t really tell.  sometime after the fourth double martini, she’d lost her sense of balance.  &  her shoes didn’t help, brand new patent louboutin heels spiky  &  stiff  &  sky-high.  more than once, they catch on an uneven piece of pavement  &  almost send her sprawling, long legs knocking together as she just barely stays upright, giggling the whole time.  some guy had been trying to chat her up inside, but he’d ditched her pretty quickly when she’d turned down his invitation to go back to his place, grumbling something about not getting a proper return on his investment.  as if he had any room to talk.  he’d still been wearing madc jacobs’ winter collection from three years ago, so she doubted he really had any idea what made for a good investment.                        she’s fishing around in her handbag for her cell phone, her untouched roll of cash still tucked into the inside pocket  ( girls like her don’t pay a cover charge,  &  they definitely don’t buy their own drinks ), when sae-byeok appears at her side.  &  katiana gives a drunken squeal of delight, an arm flung clumsily around the other girl’s stiff shoulders.  ❝ sae-byeok, i’m so glad you’re here !  did you see that guy who was talking to me in there ?  he was so boring, did you see ? ❞  she’s slurring, her head pounding in time with the loud music outside the club,  &  it takes sae-byeok’s words a long moment to register.  ❝ ah, a taxi, yes, exactly, that’s just what i was trying to do, but i couldn’t find my phone !  maybe i left it inside.  but it’s fine, i can just get a new one. ❞   &  then katiana breaks off into giggles again, her arm falling from the other girl’s shoulder.  ❝ um, no ?!  you can’t leave, the night’s not over yet — we still have to go back to the flat  &  have girl-talk.  that’s the best part of any night out, don’t you know ?  like you have to tell me, did you have fun ?  did you dance with anyone cute ? ❞ 

🪐 — HERA KOSTOPULIS​  for  nadja !

 ❝ ────── i admit i’m a lil’ messed up, but i can hide it when i’m all dressed up.  ❞

     ❝ OH, EVERYONE IS, DARLING ! ❞  the vampire has to shout to be heard above the pulsing music that shakes through her nightclub, especially if she wants the mortal’s ears to be able to decipher what she’s saying.  ❝ as long as you stay looking like a yummy scrumbly little snack like you do now, i’m sure you’ll be very popular with the patrons here at nadja’s. ❞

🪐 — INBOX CLEANUP.   @thecodekeeper​​  sent  a meme  :  hc + curse (calypso)

 ●  you  &  i have actually joked about this, ace, but i legitimately do stand by the headcanon that  calypso didn’t intentionally abandon jones  on that one day ashore when she was supposed to meet him.  let’s all remember that calypso is at least 3500 years old,  &  time simply hits different when you’re ageless !  to an immortal goddess, ten years really isn’t all that long,  &  the honest truth is that she just kinda... missed the date when she was supposed to meet him.  she was just off splashing around somewhere.  it was a genuine whoops moment.  &  i could do an entire separate meta post about my ideas on calypso’s relationship with jones, but it’s also important to remember that to her, mortal love is inherently fleeting. i don’t want to say that jones felt more intensely than she did, but he definitely took their love more seriously than her. she didn’t intend to hurt jones, but she also kinda figured that if she did, he would just... eventually get over it. she certainly didn’t expect him to go to the brethren court  &  curse her over it. ●  after being bound in her body, calypso moves to the shack in swamps of cuba because while as an ocean nymph, she needs to be in close proximity to saltwater to live, it also makes her too sad to be able to see or hear the ever-changing tides when she cannot change her own form with them. the saltwater from the sea that filters into the swamp is enough to keep her alive, without making her any more depressed than she already is. ●  calypso does have some subdued powers even when bound in her human body, such as premonitions  &  inexplicable intuition. she is also clearly capable of necromancy as seen with barbossa, as well as some very slight weather control,  &  communication with animals. she also learns hatian voodoo practices to supplement her own powers. it surprises her that human magic is real, too,  &  that it can even be used in combination with her goddess magic. ●  calypso does have some degree of premonition / intuition, which is particularly strong when it relates to her own powers. she is far less able to predict anything surrounding the magic that is used to bind her. for example, she knew upon her very first time seeing will that he would be the one to become the dutchman’s captain, because it was her power that had created the dutchman in the first place  ( this is what she meant by ‘a touch of destiny’ ).  however, she had no idea that it would ultimately be ragetti who broke the curse. honestly, she thought it would be barbossa after she resurrected him  &  all, or maybe even witty jack, who was actually one of her lovers. ●  the scene with calypso  &  jones when he comes to find her in the brig is the first  &  only time they speak after she gave him the dutchman  &  sent him on his mission. yes, including all the long decades she was cursed. in that scene, she tells him that when she is free, they will be together, always. this is a straight up lie, or at the very least, what she means by it is that he will be hers always because she is planning to fucking drown him in her storm lmao. she tells him that the last thing brethren court will learn in their lives is how cruel she can be. but literally the moment jones falls into the malestrom she’s created  &  dies, calypso’s storm calms  &  she departs the battle.  for these reasons, i think calypso never blamed the brethren court for her curse, only jones,  &  it’s him alone that she wants vengeance on. but she doesn’t want to tell him that to his face  —  she doesn’t want him to see her revenge coming.  &  it does seem to me like jones believes her, even going so far as to say that the malestrom won’t hurt the dutchman, which indicates that he believes calypso to be on his side, which she is actively not. ● bonus silly headcanon : it felt literally so good when she finally got to grow all giant before bursting out of her mortal bones take the form of a few hundred crabs  ( which has always been her preferred physical form ).  it was like, if you had a misaligned vertebrae for literally 80+ years  &  you’d been stretching it but you just couldn’t make it release the tension  &  then after decades of this you finally got to go to the chiropractor  &  they just popped your whole damn spine back into place  &  you suddenly realized you’d kinda forgotten what it felt like to stand up straight without back pain ?  it was just like that for her.  but even better, because then she got to go start a malestrom  &  drown her ex.  &  that’s some # girlboss behavior.

🪐 — EDWARD TEACH   for  stede !

❛  ’s yours.  ❜   head drops against the sturdy wood to his back as he speaks,  tongue loosened up and mind rendered to a heap of half coherent jumble.  with the whole of his attention snagged by the sight of stede’s grin growing deeper,  this is even worse than the night edward asked to run him through.  foolish thoughts and the thundering of his heart plaguing him with no mercy.  well,  only the gentleman pirate can say to have made a fool out of blackbeard himself,  doing nothing more than simply dropping into his life with his linens and lavender soup and that lovely grin of his that scrunches up his nose sometimes.   ❛  aren’t ya supposed to be a gentleman,  though?  or have i already made a scoundrel out of you,  stede bonnet?  ❜   it’s edward’s turn to flash him a grin,  a valiant attempt at appearing unbothered on his part.  or at least,  a little less like someone that desperately wants to kiss the bloke in front of him silly.  just a little would suffice,  truly.

    IT’S SUDDENLY UNCLEAR  to him if they’re still dueling, given that edward’s not even struggling to free himself from stede’s pin.  &  his smile grows suspicious, eyes narrowing slightly as he takes in the unbelievably gentle look that edward graces him with. perhaps this is all a test, some kind of lesson to never let your guard down, even when you think you’ve gotten your enemy beaten.  &  he lifts his blade just a degree, anticipating some trick to come. even now, he had to believe that edward could slip out of his hold if stede drops his focus even for an instant, quick  &  graceful as he ever was. but he only smiles, still  &  relaxed, as if content to have lost.   ❝ one can be obey all the rules of good etiquette  &  still be a fearsome foeman, i should think, ❞  stede replies.  &  his arm does not budge from edward’s chest, reveling for another moment in his win. whether temporary or not, stede intended to enjoy the moment of triumph. one day, perhaps he could tell his children he had conquered the fearsome blackbeard in hand to hand combat.  ❝ &  the rules of battle dictate that to the victor go the spoils.  so it would seem to me that your life’s now mine to do with as i please. ❞

🪐 — ANONYMOUS  sent :  Same anon back: I'm glad my intent came across, I was really worried it was going to seem hostile or something, and I really enjoyed reading about your take on her powers! You made some really good observations and you're very right about the way the powers would be perceived. It feels silly to say thank you for being polite but... thank you for being polite and hearing me out! Your care for your characters is a delight, I look forward to seeing more of your writing ^^

    you’re so cute, anon.  i get it, no one wants to be told how to write their muse.  but i definitely didn’t feel like that’s what you were doing with your message, just pointing some things out for my consideration.  &  believe me, i am someone who loves to consider all the things.  so thank you  —  you’re a sweetheart,  &  i appreciated the question !   feel free to come back  ( on or off anon )  any time you like, lovely.  💖