i fight { d i r t y } `` jack

[Belladonna Langley]

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this city is your city ,
H E E L S O N T H E S I D E W A L K B E G G I N G F O R A B A C K B E A T

usually, bella didn't even bother listening to the rumblings that went on behind people's backs in port royal. she didn't have much of a reason to, since she already knew quite a few were the old hens chattering on about her. then again, that could be the occasional paranoia kicking in. after the first few times of being talked about--and subsequently informed of this gossip by friends--behind your back it was bound to eventually take its toll. belladonna absolutely swore (up, down, and sideways) that the things people said didn't bother her. and they hadn't, not for a long time, but the older she got the more fed up with it she became. women that had known her mother chattered on about what a shame it had been that the woman died and how sad it was that bella had no female influence in her life. because a nanny wasn't the same as having a mother: the woman that bore you for nine months and of whose flesh and blood you were created. regardless of the fact that this nanny had taught bella all the woman could and she'd been so very young herself at the time she was employed to do the job. honestly, bella thought her nanny had done a wonderful job and no one had any right to blame the woman for bella's outcome. and if they weren't blaming her then they were blaming the baron for being too lenient on his daughter, for not taking charge of her the way he should have. though, from what bella had heard, there was no controlling her mother either, but everyone seemed to forget that mary had a rebellious streak a mile long after the woman's death and she became a saint. not that bella didn't think her mother was probably the most flawless person on the planet...if only she'd gotten to know the woman. either way, bella's paranoia today was ill-founded, as it seemed to be most days anymore.

her daily routine was entirely boring to the woman, but at the same time absolutely necessary to keep her the perfect image of an upstanding lady. well, not that she had a perfect image anyway, but she had to at least look the part, regardless of what people thought. she enjoyed having the things she wanted and dressing, mostly, the way she wanted, but at what price was this? virtually a caged bird in the aviary she called life, bella seemed to do very little singing. then again, she was not really the prized pet by anyone's standards anyway. or at least by most. idly plucking at the lace surrounding the neckline of her pastel green dress--a nervous habit that had taken no time at all to form--bella watched the clouds roll overhead as she stood outside the mansion's front door. a somewhat spacious lawn loomed before her and the winding, pebbled pathway ended at the wrought iron gate, usually guarded by two large danish dogs, who were actually nowhere to be seen. mostly likely running around the yard chasing butterflies or birds, maybe even bees if they were stupid enough. grudgingly, the blonde set the matching, wide-brimmed hat with the ridiculous chiffon trip and feather atop her curled up hair. pressing a hand to her corsetted stomach, bella started that long walk down the pathway and out the gate to the cobbled walkway that lead into the main part of town. with no real destination in mind, bella had to make up her plans as she walked, only vaguely paying attention to the people she passed--though she must have been paying close enough attention, seeing as how she had the presence of mind to tip her head in greeting to whoever was walking by her, though if you were to ask her later she probably couldn't name them.

as was per the usual, the sun shone brightly over the town of port royal and people were milling about as usual. there was a slight apprehension in her step this afternoon as the aforementioned thoughts of rumors and various mumblings came back to her. tapping a finger to her lips, the noblewoman wondered whether or not it would be worth it to ask someone if the stirrings were true or just go find out for herself. such indecision coming from such a usually determined woman. well, she wouldn't be caught dead in a tavern and god forbid she ever try to enter one, her already tarnished reputation would go wild. she'd become the very wicked belladonna langley, despite having never been 'wicked' a day in her life. but how was anyone supposed to ignore the talk of such an infamous pirate captain being back in town? no one with the natural curiosity that bella had could ever hope to ignore such a thing, therefore, she wasn't even going to try. except he was certainly going to prove to be a hard character to track down, even if bella wasn't entirely sure what she was going to make an attempt to say if she did manage to seek him out. she had a notion, an inkling of a minuscule thought, but whether or not her usually bold demeanor would shine through or take a back-seat to insecurity was anyone's guess. it clearly could not hurt to try and, as she walked along the road toward the docks, she idly wondered if captain jack sparrow would be so daft as to dock the black pearl with the masses, or find an alternate means to enter town.

don't worry i fight dirty.

THIS POST IS FOR HARLEY WITH JACK. IT HAS A
TOTAL OF 930 WORDS, HOW EXCITING! TEMPLATE
AND GRAPHIC MADE BY ME <3. IN THE END I JUST HAVE
TO SAY I LOVE YOU IMMENSELY FOR PLOTTING AND POSTING
WITH ME <3 I AM EXCITED.

[Captain Sparrow]

Jack had never particularly been a fan of Port Royal. It seemed like every time he was there he got arrested at least and more often than not, nearly hanged. However, that had never stopped him before and it certainly wouldn't stop him now when he'd promised young William to visit his dearly beloved. But after his run-in with Norrington, he'd had to find some more creative ways to get around the city in between visits with Lizzie. Not least of which had him hiding the Pearl behind a nearby island and forcing one of his crew to row the men ashore, himself included. Of course, he ordered most of his men to stay aboard and guard the ship, switching out the members of the shore party at each port so everyone had a chance to stretch their legs and their other bodily extremities. He'd also resorted to disguising himself by leaving his coat and trademark sash belt on the ship and donning a hat that was a little too big so he could dip it down to hide his eyes and tie his hair up under it as well as tying a fake beard over his chin. It wasn't a perfect illusion, but it gave enough doubt that most looked over him as a common beggar.

He was loathe to enter the Royal Anchor again after discovering a few Navy men frequenting it enough to be troublesome, but there weren't any other decent bars in the city. So, he was forced to pace around the city until he figured out what he was going to do. He'd even considered imposing on Elizabeth to pop in and fetch him some rum, but he knew she'd only lecture him about the abhorrence of alcohol. Damn women today didn't understand the importance of a man's drink. He wasn't even sure if there was still a woman who could handle her liquor, they were all frail and fragile things in their corsets and heavy dresses. Jack had always preferred a more natural woman, someone like him who at the drop of a hat could enter a duel and possibly win. He gravitated toward women who could take care of themselves and didn't need constant saving. Of course, he did quite like all manner of women and he wouldn't turn down a night or two with a damsel in distress. In fact, he had a track record a mile or two long of the broken hearts belonging to the poor souls who thought they could tame Captain Jack Sparrow.

With his hat pulled down and deep in his musing about the vexation that was womankind, Jack wasn't paying nearly enough attention to his surroundings and subsequently bumped into such a poor, pretty lass. He not-so-silently cursed as his hat went tumbling to the ground, releasing his hair to the wind and beyond all conceivable bad luck, causing his fake beard to fall away carelessly. All that well-worked planning put to waste by one simple touch of a woman. He'd barely had time to catch her from falling before two Navy men were bearing down on them. "Bugger!" He grabbed the woman around her middle and whipped out his pistol to point at her temple, giving a mean glare to the soldiers. He didn't need to utter any threats as they two young men stopped, probably not seasoned enough to know how to handle a hostage situation. Luckily, he and his crew had only just stepped onto the dock so they were able to back away into the rowboat again with Jack still holding his distressing damsel in his arm, unfortunately having to drag her along to keep his getaway smooth.

Once they were far enough away from the dock and no gunshot could reach them, he settled back into the small boat. "Forgive me, miss, but I seemed to have need of your services. I greatly appreciate your cooperation." He gave a small little smirk to his crew before leaning close to her ear, wary of being too generous to anyone after his first mutiny. "You'll have to be a guest on my ship until we're clear of the Navy, but I assure you that no harm will befall you as long as you behave, savvy?" He used his most sultry, seductive tone and let his nose brush against her ear in order to add a little persuasion to his words as well as provide a predatory act that marked the girl under his care so the crew were aware that she was claimed and none were to touch her unless they wished to face his wrath.

word count: 777. tagged: Bella outfit: as described in post notes: Sorry, this is really awful. >__< A bunch of drama came and stabbed my muse to death. Also, apparently Jack decided this is how this is happening.

[Belladonna Langley]

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this city is your city ,
H E E L S O N T H E S I D E W A L K B E G G I N G F O R A B A C K B E A T

if there was one thing bella had come to learn, it was that port royal was almost painfully boring and utterly predictable. by this time she knew almost everyone's routines and could probably sit back and predict them to the second. normality wasn't entirely a cause for reproach, but it did make for a very...unenlightening day. at least, in her opinion. most people around here didn't seem to have any trouble doing the same things over and over, so maybe she was just a freak? alright, well that went without saying, she was definitely the black sheep in this perfect little flock. perhaps save for elizabeth, as everyone knew the ordeals she'd been through and she lived with whatever gossip ran rampant about her. which bella admired, really, even if the means to her stardom were less than pleasant, people gave liz some amount of respect, despite her antics with pirates and whatever else. since belladonna didn't gossip she wasn't involved in the scene and, therefore, usually had no idea what was going on. she preferred to hear personal things from someone's own mouth because there was always something that got lost in translation. but back to the point, she was growing increasingly bored of the whole scene unfolding before her. local busy-body mrs. carmichael was doing what she did best and that was spying on people from her cracked window as she pretended to be cleaning it, while the town's most beloved couple were walking down the street and towards the park to sit and stare at each other for hours. belladonna rolled her eyes as she slowed her pace and took a deep breath.

loosening the chiffon tie from under her chin, the woman plucked the hat off and held it while she tried to find all the pins keeping her blonde hair in place. coming to a stop she focused on that, tossing each pin to the ground once she was done--she lost more pins that way and always upset the maid that did up her hair each morning when bella failed to bring back all twenty. allowing the lightly curled locks to drop down about her shoulders, bella felt oddly vindicated and rather successful. having nothing to do with her hat, she affected to simply place it back atop her head, though left the tie undone; as much as she disliked the fancy hats, they were expensive and did go with the outfits, so something always stopped her from discarding them. her destination was the docks, just to take something of a peek at the ships nestled there, more so out of curiosity than anything else. god only knew if she was going to go through with her original plan of looking for sparrow or not, though bella highly doubted she would. while she was anxious to find her freedom, she really wasn't sure if she had the guts to do anything about it. usually she was a girl that did what she wanted, acted mostly on impulse, but this was a big decision to make. a rather life-altering decision at that. that was if she got that far, anyway. and she was so clearly doubting she would. in fact, she was entirely ready to set foot onto the docks, stare a moment or two, and leave about her own daily routine--which would consist of stalking along the docks and heading back up to the center of town.

as a breeze picked up and threatened to rip the hat from her head, two things happened all at once. she first reached up to steady the item, thus taking her attention off of where she was walking, and secondly, she collided with a much sturdier figure than her own. the impact took her completely off balance and the thick heel of her strap pump dipped into an imperfection in the wood, only worsening the matter. she gasped, momentarily fumbling to keep her balance, her green hat falling off anyway, belladonna could only think about what a hassle it was going to be getting up from the ground with all the layers she was wearing, rather than the fact she should be apologizing for not paying attention. several more events unfolded in front of her eyes before her heart could even stop beating frantically against her caged chest, most notably would be the fact the man she'd bumped into and had, subsequently, been caught by was exactly the person she'd been intent on seeking out. but as the situation progressed, bella found herself without the proper words; an arm wrapped dutifully around her stomach, the flintlock against her skin, and the relatively unceremonious way she was being dragged to a longboat, gave her very little room to protest or even to recover from the momentary scare of nearly falling. in fact, she was quite dumbstruck by the whole thing, wondering what nasty little trick the cosmos was playing on her at that very moment.

licking her suddenly dry lips, the blonde found herself becoming equal parts confused and intrigued. she would have made some comment about her cooperation being unnecessarily coerced when the man leant forward into her personal space and threw her off on all levels. bella remained relatively still, her brows furrowing and lips drawing into something of a pout before she was so bold as to tilt her head away, her nose wrinkling slightly. the flirtatious nature of his words were not lost on her and, instead of the perhaps desired effect, only caused her to tense her shoulders and shift somewhat awkwardly at the lascivious feeling of it all. something she was entirely not used to. bringing up one hand to anxiously pluck at the lace trimming on her dress, bella kept her eyes evenly posed on the pirate and, after a second, she was suppressing the hint of an amused quirk of her lips, "you are quite forgiven, mr. sparrow."

obviously she hoped her voice sounded stronger than it felt. swallowing gently, she dropped her hands to her lap, chancing a glance behind her at the docks that seemed infinitely farther away than they probably were. well, this was her 'in'...wasn't it? she planned something like this...well, alright not the kidnapping and hostage part, but she did plan on trying to persuade him into something...right? sure, that's what she was going with. shifting again, a little laugh left her lips and she arched a curious eyebrow at him. "behave?" she echoed. shaking her head slightly, bella gave a hum of disapproval, though her tone was somewhat playful, "you should not use words that you, yourself, have little understanding of. i fear that you have chosen the wrong hostage, for behaving is far from what i, supposedly, am capable of. if i ever was capable of such a thing to begin with."

she followed this up with another soft bit of laughter, brushing off the unease she felt and hopefully appealing to a much wittier side of captain sparrow, "though i do fear for your safety, mr. sparrow, not my own. once word of my abduction at your hands reaches my father the navy will, most likely, be active in seeking you out within the day. may i perhaps suggest a bit of ransom? the least you can do is get something that is actually worthwhile out of this ordeal, yes?"

bella rather hoped she wasn't overstepping her bounds, perhaps realizing she was talking probably far too much, but she always tended to do that in times of duress.

don't worry i fight dirty.

THIS POST IS FOR HARLEY WITH JACK. IT HAS A
TOTAL OF 1259 WORDS, HOW EXCITING! TEMPLATE
AND GRAPHIC MADE BY ME <3. IN THE END I JUST HAVE
TO SAY NO WORDS CAN DESCRIBE JUST HOW AMUSED I
AM RIGHT NOW WITH THIS WHOLE THING <3 AND I KNOW
JUST HOW THE MUSES DEMAND THINGS XD ALSO...WORD
COUNT...MY BAD D: ITYPETOOMUCH

[Captain Sparrow]

Jack would never say that he didn't like making people nervous. In fact, he rather enjoyed seeing people squirm under his words when they couldn't quite understand him. That air of mystery had kept him thriving for years and he expected it would continue to do so for many more years, but contrary to the normal pirate stereotype he wasn't really dangerous. Well, he was but not to everyone. He was only dangerous to those who crossed him and even then he preferred to negotiate his way out rather than fight. He especially didn't like scaring innocent young women purely for the sake of it and never would he do so to worm his way under her skirts. He had never had a problem getting a woman to offer herself to him freely and if the time ever came that he did encounter such a problem he would merely take it in stride and find another.

The second he noticed his close presence was bothering the young maiden, he pulled away enough to give her room to breathe. Her ridiculous dress was probably constricting her lungs enough without him crowding her as well. He had to admit that he was quite pleased by her teasing reply. She wouldn't behave? Then he would simply have to convince her that it was in her best interest to do so and that always proved to be fun. With that prospect whirling in his head he wasn't even offended, mock or otherwise, by her suggestion that he didn't know how to behave. It wasn't that he didn't know, he just preferred to act otherwise. He never understood how so many people could choose the life of boring rules and restrictions that came with living a so-called 'proper' life. Was the safety of a sheltered life really worth the suffocation? He didn't think so, obviously.

Once he'd pulled himself away from the lengthy contemplation that was always inevitably aroused by pondering life on land, Jack noticed he quite liked his captured lass. She was witty and challenging and obviously wasn't going to lie down and let him, the man, tell her what to do but he found himself wondering if she was merely putting on an act to seem confident. Well, he'd soon find out as he was sure the good Navy was planning their route to follow them so he'd have to spend a bit of time with her. Then again he could send her off in the little boat and escape with the Pearl...but even as the thought entered his mind he pushed it away; he would never be able to leave a woman defenseless in the open water without some assurance that she wouldn't drown or could at least get back to shore on her own.

He didn't even want to consider asking a ransom for her though he was very sure anyone would pay high price to have her returned. It wasn't that he wasn't interested in the money, but he couldn't exactly see her as property; it just seemed wrong somehow to think of bartering her like common goods. He nodded as if he was considering it, though, and remained silent for the rest of the ride to the ship. Oddly tense, he had more than a few things on his mind to consider--not the least being what to do with the bonny lass. His instincts screamed at him to leave her and run, sailing far away from the troublesome port, but something in him shouted for that part to kindly shut it and gently requested that he take her aboard and get to know her better. It had been a very long time since he'd wanted to actually take the time to get to know someone, much less a woman, but the foreignness of the feeling was convincing all in itself.

So, as the dingy bumped against the shiny wood of the Pearl, he stood expertly and lifted her toward the ladder. He had specifically ordered his men to precede them so she wouldn't be bashful about a swarm of pirates attempting to catch a glimpse of her knickers. Of course, he wasn't the most trustworthy man and he would very much like to catch a glimpse of said knickers himself but his motivation was pure and he didn't exactly trust her 'fashionable' shoes to keep proper hold of the rungs in order for her not to plummet back into the sea. True to his intentions, as they climbed up he kept close enough to her to make it impossible for him to spy up her skirts even though it was a rather intimate position and everything in his blood longed to take her to his cabin to act it out properly. However, he managed to keep his composure and hoist her on board in a gentlemanly enough fashion before barking a few orders as to their heading.

Once he was confident they would be safe enough from the Navy, no one could catch the Pearl when she was determined not to be, he grabbed his captive a bit roughly, mostly for show, and hauled her into his cabin. He locked them in and let go of her as soon as they were out of the range of prying eyes. "Sit while I decide what I'll do with you." His order was soft, but strong enough to imply that he fully expected it to be followed and with a hint of a warning that he would make her sit if need be. "I don't believe for a second that anyone would pay to have you returned, you're too much trouble. That means no one would miss you if I were to decide to drop you off on the nearest deserted island." His hands tapped on the glass of a nearby rum bottle for a few moments before popping the cork off with his teeth and taking a long swig. When his eyes swung back to her they were twinkling to betray that he was mostly teasing her, wanting to judge how she would take it.

word count: 1023. tagged: Bella outfit: as described in post notes: <3<3<3 I love you and your patience. Also, I haven't talked to you forever. Come back now. <3