Another Saturday night an' I ain't got nobody...

[dwgm]

Which is, of course, just as well as I have a mountain of paperwork to go through and bills to pay. Grandma, after a lengthy afternoon of beauty shop and car trouble, is off to Bingo. Very unfortunately, due to said car trouble and a lack of communication (on my own part as well as ladymora's), I missed meeting hazelhawthorne at the SCA Pirate Festival at Marina Park in Ventura today. I am quite confident she and ladymora and all the great SCA crowd managed to have a good time without me...

*sob*

*considers looking for Eeyor icon, but decides against it in light of Paperwork Mountain staring up from living room floor*

I need to put on a DVD and start my paper-shuffling, but first I have to present my reply to celandineb's Drabble/Ficlet Meme Challenge (Fandom: PotC; Title: Pockets; Pairing: Jack/James; Line of Dialogue: "Don't bite your nails.") This is exactly 500 Words with the title, according to MS Word.

~ Pockets ~

“Don’t bite your nails.”

Norrington, who had merely been nibbling surreptitiously at the edge of one thumb, gave an involuntary start at the severity in Jack’s voice, then gave the pirate a glare. Colouring slightly, James stuffed his hands into the capacious pockets of the bottle green coat he wore and leaned against the grate of the cell door.

Jack grinned. “Got after you for that when you were a lad, eh?”

Norrington managed to restrain a grimace. “You might say so.”

“Poor Jamie,” Jack clucked. The pirate slid fluidly down the smooth stone wall to sit cross-legged on the straw-covered floor. He laid his wrists on his knees, quite at ease. “No worries, mate. All will be well. You’ll see.”

James gave a derisive snort and an eye-roll worthy of Jack himself. Hands still in his pockets, he turned away, attempting to decipher some of what the Spanish guards were saying as they lounged, unseen but far from unheard, by the gaolhouse door. But then his fingers encountered something in the left pocket of his coat. The Commodore’s expression shifted from surprise to remembrance and melancholy.

“What?” demanded Jack.

“It’s…well, this.” James drew his hands from his pockets again, displaying the something in the left. There was a flash of dull gold and sapphire: a ring.

Jack sat up, alert as James brought the shiny object over and got down next to him to show him. James let him take it, smiling at the pirate’s glee. “Oooh, for me? What’s the occasion?”

“I just thought you might like it. It belonged to my Great Uncle Laurence. It’s too small for me, but I know you like such things.” James gave a slight smile as Jack looked at him again. “I certainly hadn’t foreseen presenting it to you under these circumstances.”

“Don’t suppose you did at that,” Jack murmured, and put the beautiful ring on one of his few unadorned fingers. It fit just as it should, and he held up his hand to admire it. “Ol’ Laurie had a good eye. That’s a very fine jewel.”

“And you are undoubtedly qualified to judge such matters.”

“Oh, indisputably.” Jack looked at the Commodore. “Thank you, James,” he said, unfeigned sincerity in his voice, then had to grin at the war of partially subdued embarrassment and pleasure that marched over his friend’s countenance. James made as if to rise, but Jack put a hand on his arm and gave him a coy look. “I’ve something in me pocket for you as well, Jamie-lad.”

James cleared his throat. “Do you indeed?”

“Aye. I was going to wait a bit to show you, but p’raps it’d go better now. Assuage your justifiable but quite unnecessary concerns, an’ all.”

James raised a brow.

Jack reached into his pocket and drew out a metal ring with two keys on it: the keys to the cell. “Better close your mouth, love, or ye’ll be catchin’ flies,” he smirked. “As I said before: no worries!” ~~

Comments

Thank you!

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed that. ;-) "Jamie-lad," hm? *chortle* And yes, definitely James who bit his nails. Jack would've sharpened them instead...

Re: Thank you!

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Jack would've sharpened them instead...

hehehe! You're right!

Glad you liked it. :)

[cicerothewriter.livejournal.com]

Ah, nail biting - one of my favorite oral fixations *g*

This is a very sweet story. I quite enjoyed it.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Sweet. Yes. Well, somebody has to do it. *G*

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[gypsy-nightfire.livejournal.com]

*giggles* that's great!
~Nightfire.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

hehehe! Thanks so much!

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Now that's the icon I needed.

So, so happy you liked it!

[cacopheny.livejournal.com]

You really do, do a good job with Jack's dialogue, the accent and everything ^^ Very fun little scene, there.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I always hope I'm getting him right. The others are much easier, but Jack has such an odd accent--I have to watch the movie occasionally just to remind myself how he speaks (as if I need an excuse).

[seems-innocent.livejournal.com]

That was a lovely little character study for both of them, and sweet and fun as well. Thank you.

-seems

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

So glad you enjoyed it!

[luenni.livejournal.com]

"no worries", indeed... sweet little story with my fave pairing - and thank goodness it's jamie biting his nails. couldn't imagine jack doing so, guess he's more the one for polishing his nails with his sleeve ;)

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

(Oh, cute icon!!)

Oh, yes. The Image is all important with Jack (although The Image is adaptable to suit the situation).

Glad you liked it!

[the-dala.livejournal.com]

Heee! That was awesome!

Also, James biting his nails as a child is one of those things you see in fic and go "That's canon, right? That has to be canon. It's MY canon now!" So I hope you don't mind if it pops up in my fic now and then.... :)

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Not at all. I think we all must borrow from one another, whether we are really aware of it or not. I woke up this morning thinking I stole the key idea from inkbug who had something similar in her Jailbird fic. However, in my canon, Jack often lands in jail and is very adept at stealing keys if given half a chance, so hopefully inkbug won't mind too much.

[silly-walk.livejournal.com]

i hate to sound like an old parrot, but every one is right. nail-bitting james is perfect. i don't know why, maybe because it makes him seem vunerable.
but BESIDES that, it was still terribly cute. *gigglesnort* i suppose if you were silly you could say that he proposed to jack. and your dialog is really good. your jack accent is nice, but not over done. (if that makes ANY sense)

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Yes. I don't think Norrie would relax enough with anyone else to indulge in such a bad habit. And then Jack goes and teases him.

Thanks for the comment on Jack's accent too. He's the hardest to write of the main characters--I can't hear him in my head as easily so I have to watch the movie quite often to remind myself what he sounds like. He doesn't drop his 'h's, but he does slur certain words together at times, depending on the situation he's in. Tricky.

Glad you enjoyed it!

[ghostkitten.livejournal.com]

I've always taken it as a normal cocknet accent with the odd bit of drunken slurring. but then as my cannon Jack is of the multi-layered variety I tend to let him be slurring and drunk one sentence and almost eloquent the next, depending on how he's trying to fool.

mostly i just write him how i talk, with a lazy north london accent. I sort of think that as his upbringing, intelligence and drunkenness are so murky as long as you can make a case for it you can write him with pretty much any number of accents.

this was a lovely fic by the way, I'm in the middle of writing a sparrington Jail! ficlet and keep imagining this every time i try and picture them! very sorry if it ends up rubbing off on mine, I'll send people back here if it does

[ghostkitten.livejournal.com]

that would be who he's trying to fool. I can type, honest.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

I'm very happy to have any aspect of the fic rub off on yours. As I said in an earlier post to the_dala, I woke up thinking "OMG, I stole the key in the pocket thing from inkbug". But any number of elements in this and other fics of mine were inspired by others' writing--my whole series of long PotC fics smack of Georgette Heyer, and the "OC" cook on the Black Pearl is Anatole from Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and Jeeves stories, same name and everything. I don't know. We don't live in a vacuum, so what one writes can't help but have elements of one's own reading and experiences. And it's not like we're making money from this.

I think you're right about Jack's accent shifting around, depending on the situation he finds himself in. That's one reason he's so interesting: who knows what kind of background he comes from? It's anyone's guess, and I've read many plausible theories.

Thanks for reading and commenting! So happy you liked it! I'll be looking forward to reading your Jailfic, too.

[tseek-unique.livejournal.com]

I just love it when Jack gets presents! His greediness is always so much fun-- as was this delightful bit. *cuddles*

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

teeheehee! Yes, Jack loves teh shiny. Pirate!

So happy you liked it!

Very Creative

[gingersnapps.livejournal.com]

That is a scene that I would never have pictured, but works so very well--you are amazingly creative.

Do you really want someone?? So many of them just completely suck--to put it eloquently.

Re: Very Creative

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Glad you liked the ficlet. They are fun to write.

Someone? You mean in reference to the "Saturday Night and I ain't..." thing? No, actually I like having the occasional Saturday night to myself. Oh! I bet you meant a date or something! Well, if he wasn't an idiot (and they can be in so many ways...) I wouldn't mind going to a movie or something.

[pearlseed.livejournal.com]

Damn, he's good! And James Norrington--love these two gentlemen together, could have been brothers, would have been friends, slightly rivelish, and if I squint and disregard personal bent, then lovers as many have written

>James gave a derisive snort and an eye-roll worthy of Jack himself.< This is for whatever reason very amusing to me--all their little =isms.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

They are much fun to write together -- there's a bit of that snarking in my latest Christmas piece, The Fifth Christmas, which I have to link to on my journal now that the authors have been revealed at 3fan_holidays. Thank you so much for reading and commenting on this -- it's fun to revisit these. :)