Drabble: 'Rope's End'

[dwgm]

100 words of unbetaed, end-of-CotBP drabble for the current prompt at blackpearlsails...



~ Rope's End ~

Choking, wide-eyed, scrabbling for purchase, for balance, for breath, he's only half aware of the surrounding tumult, the seconds stretching slow and harsh as the rough hemp tearing at his neck.

Then a thunk! and he's falling, standing, on solid ground. The sword's stuck fast, thanks to Will's trick, but Jack frees his wrists, frees the only other weapon to hand, and runs.

Should be some needle-witted saying about nooses turning to lifelines, he muses, but his friend's there, catching the tossed end, and as they begin to bowl over lobsterbacks only one maxim occurs: Time is of the essence.

~.~

Comments

[krystallazuli.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Thank you! You're so quick, too!

[mamazano.livejournal.com]

Love it. Perfect capture of that moment.

Time is of the essence, indeed!

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much, I always enjoy that scene, nonsensical as it is. They're awfully cute, working together like that.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Lovely capture of the struggle and speed of events in that scene. *dribbles honey over CotBP drabble and devours it* *burp*

It's funny how fast one's mind works in a panic.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Oooh, honeyed drabble! Mmmm!

Yes, I could see Jack's mind taking some crazy directions, particularly. *g*

So happy you liked it!

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

'Executed'! Bwahahaha! Thank you -- glad you liked it. Glad I managed to write something. o.0

[mary684.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous! I love them in this scene -- for me, it's the essence of what I love about POTC and no matter what happened in the sequels, this is the moment of commraderie that I cling to -- and, I'm not forgetting Lizzie over there on the sidelines pretending to faint either!

Should be some needle-witted saying about nooses turning to lifelines
And I know if he had just a few seconds more, he'd have thought of one! *g*

I love this and am so glad you found such a perfect way to use the prompt. *mems*

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yes, this was the culmination of all that suspicion and bickering, the three of them working together as one, just like they did in the end at the Isla de Muerta. Would have been nice if we could have seen more of that in the sequels. I think that's what we all wanted, considering the fanfic that came out after CotBP.

I'm so glad you liked this! Thank you for your thoughtful comments.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

It moves pretty fast -- a great scene! I'm glad you thought this worked!

[florencia7.livejournal.com]

Awesome drabble! So perfectly written. The pace, the tension... Reading this FELT like being there. Great work! :)

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad it worked the way I'd hoped. :)

[lady-di75.livejournal.com]

LOVE!! Lovelovelove it. That scene is good old fashioned Hollywood fluff :)

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

It sure is. Maybe they'll get back to that, more, in PotC4. :D

Thank you so much for commenting -- I'm glad you liked this.

[sharklady35.livejournal.com]

You've done a fine job catching the essential essence of that scene.

Maybe you could do that with some other scenes, too?

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Maybe so. I do love CotBP (which happens to be on the dvd player as we speak!). I'm very glad you enjoyed this. Thank you for commenting!

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Nice look at back when Will was still Jack's friend, before he sold him out in the sequel. WTF did that ever happen? I still haven't figured it out ...

/nostalgic

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

WTF did that ever happen?

Not sure why the filmmakers thought that would be a good idea. Maybe they just wanted to go in an opposite direction from any of the fanfic out there. Idiots. Not the brightest idea ever.

Thank you for commenting here -- I'm so glad you liked the drabble.

[pearlseed.livejournal.com]

Yes! I love that scene--"his friend's there..." man that's sweet, they are friends. Timing is everything, no doubt about it. Yes indeedydo--tasty--you've lead me to believe that Jack is a Turkish Vann of a feline spirit, 9 lines and a love of water, even if he's a bit on the seamy side.

I rediscovered the drabble you wrote that just set me back on my heels. It was the one about Jack dueling with Norrington, knocking his pud in the mud and the kick on it was a reference to Norrington's "I half expected it to be wooden". Do you ever just read some something or the other and go--man that is totally (think old John Denver) FarOut!?

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

I remember that one with Norrington! Wrote that a long time ago. I'm so happy you feel my stuff's held up over the long haul.

And yes, they are friends at this point, and I truly wish that had never changed. Thank you for commenting so kindly here. I really appreciate it!

[aravah.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! You've captured the moment so well. :)

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Well, that is a great catch of a wonderful moment! :-D Well done says I!

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[hereswith.livejournal.com]

You always do such a good job with these scenes from the movies, giving us glimpses of what the characters were thinking as well as new insights, and this is no exception. Lovely, and I really like the phrasing and rhythm of that first sentence!

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it. :)

[ladymouse2.livejournal.com]

Reading all the comments here, I agree with most but as usual want to add my two cents.

The writers--after they apparently got swelled heads from the reception of the first movie, an opinion I developed based on their own comments in interviews in magazines like Script, newspaper interviews as well as some of Rossio's blog entries--stated outright they wanted to "explore how the audience would react to the characters not having coinciding agendas the next time around".

In other words, they only considered they were "friends" when their efforts dovetailed.

This in spite of the fact they had Will saving Jack from execution, Elizabeth joining them, even Norrington and Swann having an apparent change of heart,unnecessary to the plot if only the aim of getting Elizabeth saved and the evil pirates neutralized was the point.

You had a pair of writers so full of themselves with their initial success, they felt free to go haring off in a complete about face just to play "what if" and experiment as if consistency of character--as also played by the cast!--was irrelevant! They filled both sequels with pointless, time wasting elements for cheap jokes and novelty.

Even the duration of Will's exile is an example of them over-elaborating and writing anything-for-the moment. They said FIRST that it was only for ten years, that the confusion was caused by scenes edited out of the release print and THAT caused the confusion ie. not theirs but the director's "fault". A buck pass if ever there was one since they wrote ALL of the script, including dialogue that had it BOTH ways so it wouldn't matter if scenes were edited out. Later they reversed themselves to insist that Will's term as captain was "always" meant to be permanent.

It's a marvel these people think we don't READ this stuff where they contradict themselves in print???

As for "It had to be something dark and disastrous to explain Elizabeth going back to sea and amongst pirates."

Yes, in order to bring the young couple back into a new story, but there was no need to either have them become adversaries of Jack nor even to go overboard on the supernatural element.

Fanwriters' three years of plots aside, they had the ready made "hook" that they in fact did use to get things rolling: everyone getting into trouble with the crown for Jack's escape.

It's the direction they went with that premise, which became so overblown, inconsistently using the characters as established, putting in an overload of the supernatural instead of the piquant "garnish" the undead pirates made in the first film. Ghost stories and cursed treasure are natural ingredients to fit in the pirate genre, but a Greek Goddess trapped in human form?

Also, frankly a more sparingly seen Dutchman and her captain perhaps used as a glimpsed menace and harbinger of doom and a final rise from the sea to exact retribution from Beckett would have been more effective than to have her playing bird dog for the EIC in broad daylight for two movies.

Did I hate the sequels? Certainly not. Was I disappointed? Absolutely. Will I keep right on "playing pirates"? You bet! Even if I have to use bits and pieces from all the films to cobble my own "universe" closer in spirit to the FIRST film.

Oops, I didn't intend a soapbox but I'm so running off at the motuh/keyboard i'll have to post this in two parts! Sorry!

Motormouth Mouse Pt 2

[ladymouse2.livejournal.com]

I love Tia Dalma and think she'd have been a wonderful character if she'd simply continued to be a mysterious swamp witch Obeh Woman with a shared past with Jack Sparrow as she was introduced. Beckett is a marvelous little monster whether he'd had any prior dealings with Jack at all. It's a bit much to have him personally do Jack's branding. Having everyone slotting neatly into some relationship with everyone else or previous plot point smacks of everyone in Star Wars being related to everyone else!

I personally don't think Jack and Lizzy, nor Jack and Will, for that matter are about to jump each other's bones nor that Norrington was so weak-willed and self-deluding he'd turn into a sot after running his ship into a hurricane nor blame everyone but himself afterward.

I wish they'd continued to have Anamaria there to pick up again with Jack, a nice foursome instead of a manufactured "triangle" that was used to tease no matter how out of character for both, then simply dropped with not so much as a scene for resolution in the third film!

All that said, I am perfectly happy to let a good writer convince me at least for the duration of a story on any of the above or other combination. The sequels frankly made such a shambles of continuity or consistency all elements are up for grabs. That CAN be an exciting opportunity in fan writing. Anyone who cares to bring back Anamaria as Jack's "lady" and let Will and Elizabeth remain the consistent steadfast lovers they are in the first film will have my undying gratitude.I am not at all unhappy with the "triangle" resolved into a OT3 done by certain very thoughtful and plausible writers and I don't even normally care for slash!

The sequels are a mess, pure and simple. Their chief value is in extra footage of characters we all fell in love with. I can live with that!

Re: Motormouth Mouse Pt 2

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I personally don't think Jack and Lizzy, nor Jack and Will, for that matter are about to jump each other's bones

The difference being, of course, that Disney would NEVER drop a hint that the latter could happen. Therefore, as a J/W fan, I don't have to worry about being a canon nazi. ;-)

[tuesday-suit.livejournal.com]

Love this: scrabbling for purchase, for balance, for breath. Great rhythm to start off the drabble. Fab work! :-)

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[danglingdingle.livejournal.com]

Very energetic, just like on film. Nice job.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much!