@oceanfoamed liked for a starter from calico jack !!!
jack never cared for port royal. it might have been subconscious pride for his own home port or the raving attacks on the spanish that kept him constantly on edge to see those great, red – crossed sails on the horizon. his dislike didn’t stem from unfamiliarity, as jack prided himself on being an adaptable creature. perhaps it was simply something in the air.
the sky bled scarlet and the sun shared the hue of a firing canon as it kissed the wavering, oceanic horizon. purple bruises rolled across the sky, threatening a storm festooned above the east. a great, sun – tanned slab of muscle, tattoo, and knives glared at him from the adjacent jetty, surely thinking that jack was staring at him rather than the foreboding sky. rackham held his gaze and put his sunglasses on with a flick of insouciance before turning his brown eyes front.
heading into town, the two made their way to the rendezvous point with a mysterious caller who was looking to hire their ferrying service, taking less – than – savory cargo from one depository to the other. the meeting wasn’t to convene until long after the sun went down, but jack was eager to sit down at an inn somewhere and eat something that he didn’t have to pick maggots or rat shit out of, and hoped that charles was of the same mind.
“do you know where to find this man? from what i know of him, he’s a lizard looking fuck, but it seems like this place is crawling with people that fit that description uncannily,” he said to charles, who was looking as leonine as ever in the shadows of the sunset.
Port Royal had a bite to it that Charles held little fondness for. Her fortifications were becoming frightfully admirable, and the noose of England throttled the freedom from her more and more with every passing day. While it was not necessarily dangerous to conduct one’s business here, if England’s interests became more focused in this region it was of little doubt where at least one of her fleets would anchor itself.
When that day came, business in Port Royal would become quite a deal more difficult, and the risk of it would either make the profit increase tremendously, or would force it to take place elsewhere until this area, like so many before it, became too dry for any free man to drift in, let alone conduct himself in the avenues of services rendered.
Yet again Charles found himself grimly grateful for the legitimizing papers – even if it did mean a port to answer to, it was a free port in it’s own way, and one not even England would fuck with. It made striding beneath the growing shadows of an English-dominated fort a little less daunting, all things considered.
Jack’s voice drew his gaze away from the shadows, and distracted him from tracking the movements of the redcoats. The man’s irritable manner caused a twitch in Charles’ lips that might have indicated a smile had almost occured on reflex before being subdued. Leave it to Jack to dismiss the ominous sense of foreboding with his saucy observations.
“Lizards ain’t done nothing to deserve being thrown in with this lot,” He pointed out in spite of the seriousness of the situation, “Though I imagine I get your point.” He did – he no more liked this than Jack did, admittedly. “We’re meant to meet up at the Broken Spear, though from what I hear the only thing decent there is the ale.” The food, apparently, was better meant for pigs than people. “Figure we might as well wait somewhere with better fare, in the meanwhile.”
Which would explain why they weren’t heading down toward the Spear, but rather up farther from the docks, toward some of the better establishments. “Unless you had something else in mind.”
Charles was not unused to compliments on his physique, particularly from those who wanted to ply from him some coin while getting the benefit of enjoying it personally – but it wasn’t usually the eyes people went for in those cases. His eyes had been described to him a few times – but not as beautiful.
“What do you want.” Whatever the man was selling, he was starting with one fuck of an odd pitch.
There was neither announcement nor acknowledgement of the other’s arrival or intentions, beyond a shift to make room for a second body on the narrow bed. His arm raised mutely, accepting and inviting as he continued to mark things down with his other hand, book balanced precariously against his propped up thigh.
He should have done this earlier, when there was more light than the flickering sway of the lantern overhead – but there had been better and frankly, more interesting business to attend to then, and he knew where all the numbers went either way. It made sense to pen it down while it was still fresh, but with Rackham ashore dealing with negotiations it had been his focus to keep the men in line.
This place wasn’t anything like Nassau, and if he ended up losing half his fucking crew because they started acting like it, he was not going to be keen on finding replacements here – he had one man on this crew from this place and while it had been one of the better investments ever made for the Ranger outside of Rackham and Bonny themselves, he highly doubted he could afford any more Lamarans short of becoming one himself.
Although, if Rackham had his way – chances were that might end up being the course.
The question sounded like the kind of thing a man didn’t want an answer to – either because he already knew his thoughts on the matter, or he intended to make a point through the inquiry itself. For that reason, Charles maintained a steady silence in its wake, which proved to be the proper course as William carried on.
He was a strange sort of man, and it was at times like these Charles found himself reminded as to why he had taken interest enough in him to begin with, to have Rackham run him through the duties expected of a man aboard the Ranger.
Although the other man captained Fancy and was no longer technically quartermaster to Ranger, the two ships operated in perfect tandem together, resulting in their crews tending to share space and resources often enough that come hiring rounds, Charles and Jack would head out together, their respective quartermasters minding the men as they set to work hiring for a combined crew.
William was a man who at times appeared too soft for this life, and at others – such as this moment – where he seemed to lack anything resembling fear as he challenged Charles on what appeared to be some sort of philosophical level. There were contradictions to the man that were beyond fascinating, but as it was Charles could tell the rhetoric had reached an end, and sought an answer in its wake.
“If these ideas are a comfort to you, then I see no reason why you should not keep them,” Charles was not a man for philosophical arguments – a man’s beliefs were his own, and it was not for other men to sway them unless it held some sort of personal benefit to do so. Manipulating a man through his philosophies was the sort of intellectual warfare that set people apart from others – Charles himself had met many masters of the craft – but it was not his strong suit, so he did not partake unless he felt it absolutely necessary to achieving his own ends.
“I do wonder what you hope to accomplish by sharing them.” Was William perhaps attempting to manipulate Charles into revealing some better side of himself – or was the man working to delude himself into an idea of who Charles Vane was, and seeking to shroud himself with false comforts to escape the reality of him?
This is a permanent starter call for Charles Vane, of Starz’ Black Sails explicitly. Though the disclaimer is made loud and clear on his profile I must stress that I write the fictional character created by the Starz team and not the historical pirate by the same name. Furthermore he is an exclusive muse and I reserve the right not to interact with him if I do not feel comfortable.
These calls give me a heads up on who is open to interacting with whom (which is handy for those who have exclusives among my crew! ) and gives me an excuse to kick you starters whenever something crosses the mind, or blow up your inbox knowing who would be most wanted.
These calls also serve as a final tag dump – when this call is posted it indicates a character has been fully moved into the blog and is ready for action!
Ocean Archive 