Propping himself up with a grunt, the explanation for that was perfectly simple. “There was a lizard.” She’d crawled up on him when he’d laid down to figure out what was making the scratching noises under his bed – there’d been two of them, but the other one had wandered off and the one resting on him had been perfectly content where she was thanks to the way the sun fell upon them at the time. Eventually, he’d just fallen asleep – it wasn’t like he was needed anywhere urgently today.
Between Rackham and Bones, Charles had been strong armed into staying in his cabin and recovering from the vicious fever coursing through him on account of a few injuries that had gotten infected. The surgeon had already been in, and on the positive side the wounds were clearing off – nothing was rotting, which was certainly a good thing.
However, he was still relatively floored by the illness, and was likely to be bedridden for at least another three or four days – a prognosis he had been less than thrilled to hear. He had tried to argue, and had been dosed for his troubles – he knew a bedridden captain was no good to anyone, but it seemed the fucks were determined to keep him down for now.
That it had come down to being fed was grating – but with the way his hands shook, it would just end up all over him rather than in his stomach anyway, and Charles knew better than to be that wasteful. Pride swallowed down with every spoonful of broth, Charles eventually turned his head away in silent refusal. Something cool touched his cheek then, and he turned – immediately relenting to the drink he was offered out of sheer necessity for it. After which, he laid his head back down and tried to battle down his dizziness enough to sleep.
The sooner he was healthy, the better for all of them.
{ Hurt Prompts }
“Doesn’t matter,” Charles croaked, already reaching for his shirt as he forced his aching body into an upright position, “Bell’s been called. Tell Jack to get himself to bed,” He knew the only reason Rackham wasn’t the one in here was because the damn shit was wholly aware that he was ill and would therefore be impossible to deal with. Doubtless the fuck was hoping Billy could persuade him into resting, and the two had already conspired like he wouldn’t figure that out in a heartbeat. “You’re third watch – feel free to head below as well.”
“They had it coming,” Charles snarled, his teeth bared in fury even as he held still for the smaller man as he dabbed a wet cloth against his skin, wiping away the blood and grime accumulated in the wake of the much overdue cleaning up that had been undertaken today.
Blind eyes had been afforded for too long – if Nassau was going to function for shit, she needed to be self managed – and that would not happen if fucks like Captain Gervaine believed they could waltz in here and start fucking around with everybody else’s business and goods without facing consequences for it.
That the son of a bitch had tried going after Cutler was a very small point of Charles’ reasoning for putting an end to matters once and for all, but he could imagine what it must look like to the other man, and he didn’t want him reading too much into it. At least, not right now, when there were others who had to be convinced his actions had come from a point of pure logic, rather than having any sort of emotional undercurrent.
{ Don’t Starters }
Charles – could identify with the loss that Billy was going through, on various levels. Some were older and long since scarred over, while others were wounds that continued to fester beneath the surface. He wanted to acquire this man for his crew – of that, there was no question – but he had never wanted it to come at a price so steep as the loss of another pirate, let alone one as good as Gates had been, when he wasn’t so far up Flint’s ass it was a wonder he could breathe. Fat lot of fucking good his position up there did him, in the end.
Heaving a sigh, he leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table and folding his hands together as he eyed the other man thoughtfully before asking the obvious question. “So what do you plan on doing about it?” If Billy was going to twist himself up on vengeance – that could prove a problem if he got reckless about it. But if he just needed a way out – that was something Charles knew he could provide, if need be.
{ Wounded Starters }
“Get on with it then!” Charles was not in the fucking mood to be trifled with at the moment. His arm wasn’t responding properly, and he knew that boded ill if he didn’t get it tended to quickly. He had been struggling to push himself back up when Billy had arrived – and he couldn’t even remember what he said, at this point. Pain was mulling him out, and his body was lodging too many complaints for his brain to wholly keep track of everything going on around it.
Clasping the other man’s arm with his good hand, he allowed himself to be hauled up and half carried from the fight – there was no point in dying needlessly. Charles never saw shame in a tactical retreat, and he was hardly going to start today.
{ The Meme }
The explanation didn’t really – explain shit. It was cold outside, sure – he had noticed, and so had everyone else. Doubtless Billy himself was pretty cold all things told – he was no better dressed than the rest of them, when it came down to it. The winds had brought something bitter with them tonight – if they were lucky, it would pass them all by come morning, but until then it was unlikely anyone without someone willing to share their hammock would be very happy until the weather turned back to normal.
“You find one of these for everyone?” He asked, shrugging a bit so he could wrap the blanket around himself for now – making it easy to escape if need be. He knew how much Billy valued equality, so he doubted this had anything to do with him being captain.
{ Random Oopsies }
1. Your character walking in on mine naked.
Charles didn’t particularly react when the door to his room swung open suddenly, other than to shift himself closer to where his pistol lay on the bedside table. Face to face with a suddenly frozen Cutler Beckett, a shameless smile crossed his features as he strode over and reached over the smaller man’s shoulder to close the door – keeping an eye on him in case he tried anything – and then stepped back, raising his brows curiously. “What’s so important you couldn’t be assed to knock?”
It had been a ridiculously trying day – and in truth, Thomas had not thought there would be anything that could calm his overall frustrations until the very moment James all but fell over and rested against his knee. In an instant, the angry energy swirling inside of him bled away, and the need to be absolutely still fell upon him instead.
To be a safe harbor for this man took immediate precedence – and perhaps that should have been a warning to him, a sign of the power this man would eventually hold over him. As it was, Thomas positioned his arm against the arm of the chesterfield and rested his head within the palm of his own hand as the other arm came to rest loosely over James, anchoring him in silence and making it clear, without a word, that they were fine. Regardless of the disaster of the day – like this, behind closed doors with only Miranda to find them, they were just fine.
{ Little Dark Age }
“That bad, is it?” Thomas inquired, strangely charmed by the other man’s dismissive demeanor. He would be lying if he claimed to hold no nervousness about joining the crew of the Ranger, but there was also no denying that he felt a great wealth of gratitude toward Rackham for showing him that there was another option available – another way that he might be able to live and breathe until he could find what he wanted to do, who he wanted to be.
He doubted he could ever explain it – or that Rackham would ever care to hear it – but it was there just the same as he took a seat alongside the man and observed the ‘shitshow’ as they sailed steadily closer to her shores. “Any advice on what comes next?” He wondered, genuinely curious about what the other might have to think on the subject – and what, exactly, it meant to be a member of this crew while at port.
Ocean Archive 