Lighten Up Would Ye?

Originally posted at LJ under cazcatharsis. It's a goofy story, and I really hope some of you like it. I know there aren't many Davy Jones fangirls out there, but to those of us who are, YAY! Enjoy!
it took me a while to warm up, so the first few chapters are... rusty. lol. it does get better! Promise!


The Isa Chronicles: a POTC Davy Jones Series


Part One: Lighten Up, Would Ye? (1.1)


All work and no play makes Isa a dull girl all work and no play makes Isa a dull girl…

Scrubbing the deck all day, then sitting alone in the Crow’s Nest for most of the early evening, then straight to bed out of pure exhaustion, my schedule set. The Captain had already warned me about singing while I work, so I couldn’t do that. Although we had instruments from various plunders, we weren’t allowed to play em’. Hell, I even got a floggin’ for humming ‘A Pirates Life for Me’.

Yes, this place was a punishment, and I knew I deserved every last bit of it, but only the Sky Father knew why there could not be a respite. Even a temporary one, something that could sustain me through the upcoming years of service, small breaks that would in the future make me smile in remembrance and giggle when the risk of punishment was nil.

The only reprieve I’d gotten during the 2 months on this blasted ship were the whispered conversations I had with Bootstrap, Wyvern (when he felt talkative) and occasionally, Maccus when he wasn’t threatening me with the cat.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The hot sun beat down on my back and shoulders all day, and although I was pretty immune to burns, my shoulders were almost black, and sleek with sweat. My thick black hair kept getting in the way, dipping in my bucket or flying in my eyes. I scrubbed with all my might the deck, which seemed to be covered with some strange black goo that would NOT come off. My temper was quickly fizzling out and I was almost ready to get up and start screaming. The Captain had already yelled at me and threatened to cut my hair off, and Bootstrap was even more morose than usual. Despite the brightness of the day, the mood on the entire ship was gloomy, and it was dragging me down with it.

Surveying the area, I noticed it was just me and Maccus. The others were off doing other things I still couldn’t figure out. I was a land-girl, having never been crew on a ship before this unfortunate imprisonment. If one doesn’t care, one doesn’t learn. And I couldn’t care less.

I risked looking over at Maccus again, hoping to catch his eye and make conversation, but he kept at what he was doing. Maccus was one of the maybe five people I could talk to on this blasted ship, even if most of what he said was derogatory, we somehow lived almost companionably. Maybe it was because we both had pretty rough exteriors, only the gods knew.

“What’s wrong with everyone today?” I mumbled aloud, and I thought quietly enough… but not for Maccus, who seemed to hear everything. His head snapped up and he glared daggers at me.

“Mind your business whelp!”

I sighed loudly and went back to my scrubbing. They never addressed me by my first name. It was either whelp, Shark-bait, Lubber, Lass, or ‘Oi! You!’ Only the Captain addressed me by my given name, and that was only when he was very, very angry.

It’s not like everyone on this ship was chipper on a daily basis, but today seemed more miserable than usual. I secretly wished the day would be over with so I could sneak below decks and nab a bottle of that precious rum the Captain had stashed away. Every once in a while I’d risk the punishment, grab a bottle and hide it in the folds of my coat, and sip from it during the evening up in the Nest. Whoever would be my relief would get the leftovers, so I was never ratted out.

Mmmm, rum.

“What?” Maccus’s harsh rasp sounded right next to my ear and I nearly knocked my bucket over.

“Sink me! Almost scared me to death!” I resisted whacking him with the back of my hand for emphasis, knowing full well his head was bony and painful to hit.

He got that evil pointy-toothed smirk at that, but persisted. “What did ye just say?”

I stared at him blankly. “Rum?” Wasn’t aware I said it aloud.

“What about it?”

“I want some.” I answered matter-of-factly.

He scoffed and stood up straight again, thankfully blocking out the sun a little. “Ye couldn’t handle good rum.”

Insulted, I stood up as well. “Could take it better than you, tea-boy.”
One day I caught him drinking tea during a game of Liar’s Dice and I haven’t let him forget it since. It was well worth the lashings to see his face afterwards.

Maccus turned a darker shade of blue and kicked my bucket over, spilling chunks of the black goo back onto the deck. “Behave, Shark-bait. Ye don’t wanna go against the big boys… might hurt yerself.”

“Oh, please. When was the last time YOU got roarin’ drunk?” I picked up my bucket with a glare at Maccus and started wiping up the goo with my bare hands. “I may be little but I think I could take you and maybe half of the ship in a drinking contest. Seeing as none of ye have had much of an opportunity lately, methinks I have the advantage.”

“Bah!”

“I’d even take on the Captain!”

That statement shut Maccus up… only for a minute. “He’ll give ye a taste o' the cat if he hears ye talkin’ like that…”

“He isn’t going to hear it, is he Maccus?” I growled threateningly, brandishing my half full bucket of black gunk.

Maccus’s roaring laughter was my only reply and I went back to scrubbing with a vengeance, just imagining how good a nice chilled bottle of rum would taste tonight. Out of spite I flicked some black slime onto his back when he was looking the other way and laughed at him for the rest of the afternoon.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

By the end of the day, half the ship knew of our conversation and Hadrus weaselled in on the bet even before the evening meal.

When the sun was set, most of the crew was below decks with an old faded deck of cards and I had snuck a few bottles of rum out of Captain Jones’ stash, risking life and limb (literally) to get them safely below. So far, it was myself against Maccus, Hadrus, Clanker, and one of the new deckhands from two weeks ago who didn’t know when to shut up. He'd taken a liking to me whereas I thought he was disgusting.

Candles were lit as the five of us huddled around the cards and I explained the rules of the game to them. The others stood silently, watching and grinning.

“To start, we play until one of us passes out… then we keep playin’. The one who passes out first has to scrub the decks tomorrow.” I state, rubbing my sore back. The crew laughed hard at that and I smirked back at em. They may hate me during the day, but at night I was one of them, cursing and fighting as an equal.

“Okay. First person draws a card, does what it instructs, and it goes around clockwise… to the left, Hadrus, ye idiot… and we keep going til the deck is gone.”

As I explained the rules to them I kept an ear open for the tell-tale thumping of the Captain as he roamed the deck, IF he roamed the deck. He’d been spending more and more time in his cabin, playin’ the organ and making us all depressed. Beautiful song as it was, it got repetitive over the weeks and I felt sorry for the crew who’d been here for decades. He hadn’t started playin’ yet, so I worried as I related the rest of the rules to the challengers.

I spoke as cleanly as I could and as loud as was needed over the voices of the excited crewmembers.

“You draw an ace, you make a rule. Rules can be almost anything. Point, take a drink. Call someone by their name, take a drink. Scratch, take a drink. You get the idea. Try not to make it TOO nasty though, you have a lady present.” I finished with a badly done accent of nobility and a fluttering of eyelashes that threw the crew into a fit. I had to shush them for fear of alerting Jones.

“Two to five, you hand out as drinks to the others. Six means everyone drinks. Seven is the Waterfalls card, the one who draws it starts drinking, and the second person can't stop until the first person does and so on around the circle. Eight is the Piss card. Hold onto that if you need to… you know.” This was met with more laughter.

Suddenly the Thumping sound was heard. I prayed that it was further away than it really was, but to my disappointment and utter terror, the sound originated from the nearby stairs. From under a curtain of hair I looked up to see Davy Jones standing there with a bottle in his hand and an evil gleam in his sea-blue eyes. The rest of the crew, (except Maccus for some reason) ducked their heads and waited for the expected outburst of pure rage from Jones.

It didn’t come. I looked back up at him and was amazed to see amusement. His infamous tentacle beard swayed with the rocking’s of the ship and his own body as he shoved a crewmember over and silently sat. Curious, I continued to stare at him and wondered if Maccus actually told the Captain what I’d said. If so, I was in for it…

The rest of them were all frozen, unsure whether to continue or not… but me being me, I risked it.

“Welcome Captain.” I said dismissively, turning my back on him, knowing I’d probably get a flogging for it later. “Now, to continue. Nine is the story card. Each challenger adds a word to the story after reciting what has already been said. For example, I’d say ‘Once’, Maccus would say ‘Once Upon’, Clanker there would say ‘Once Upon A’, and it would go around and around til one of us buggers up and has to drink. Get it?”

The crew nodded, all still taking quick glances at the steadily more interested but still silent Davy Jones.

I continued. “Ten is the Thumbs card, but since a good chunk of us don’t have thumbs, we’ll change it up a little. For tonight, it’s the Truth Card. Whoever draws this card can ask anybody at the table a question, and they can either answer truthfully, or take something off.”

The wicked grins from the crew pointed in my direction were enough to get me past the tension of having the Devil of the Seas breathing down my neck, and laughed. “Phhht. You’ll all be down to yer breeches before you see ANY of me flesh, so bugger off.”

The non-challengers around us all drank to that.

“Jack is Categories. Drawer thinks up something, and we all have to say something along the same lines. Like, if I say ‘plunder’, Maccus would have to say ‘booty’… and so on, til you get caught thinkin’ or mess up. Then you drink.”

“Queen is the ‘Piss Off’ card. Keep that one… anytime during the rest of the game, just randomly yell ‘Piss Off!’, and whoever repeats it last, has to drink. And finally, King… means to Chug your bottle til its allllllllll gone. Understand?”

In answer a rousing chorus of “Aye!” and “Arrrr!” was heard. Out of the blue the bottom of a bottle hit the table with enough force to shake the candles and collapse the deck. I glanced over to my right (after saving myself from a near topple on the floor) and there sat Davy Jones, full bottle of rum in his hand and challenge in his eyes.

“Aye, I’m in.”

The collective sound of multiple jaws dropping was the only sound in the galley for almost a full minute.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~