"Not mine, no," Jim replied with a shrug, “but I know how to use it. I could show you sometime, if you’d want." He couldn’t help the way his grin mirrored Ariel’s; she was so enthusiastic about the little things, the naval navigation devices in her window, but could let the bigs things pass right by as though they meant nothing. It was almost bizarre, but entertaining nonetheless.
And she turned out to not be the biggest on negotiating, for what it was worth. Alright, so he’d be the one to give first, even if, as she claimed, her own explanation wasn’t particularly interesting. And perhaps to someone who lived with magic as an everyday occurrence, it wasn’t. But he’d never encountered the stuff before Storybrooke, and even now was still trying to wrap his mind around its existence, even if it wasn’t something that could be rationalized. Sometimes all it took was extra explanation, and though not everyone had the patience to break down their reality int bite-sized pieces for him, there were some who didn’t mind. And when such a person surfaced, they were too rare to let go; it made far more sense to keep hold until he’d heard it all.
So he drew in a breath, tilted his head back to stare up at the sky, and started his story. It had, Jim explained, been a day very much like this one - sunny, just a faint breeze, but much earlier in the morning - when the Swiftsure had found itself under attack. The assailant’s ship had crept in through the fog that obscured the rolling tops of the waves, looming out of the sunlight with flags, black and red, flying. No quarter would be offered.
For the next few minutes, Jim wove voice and visuals and verbs, action and adverbs and ardor into his story, using his hands to show just how the two vessels had maneuvered about each other, the precise way in which, after bring boarded, the crew of the privateering craft had defended their decks. But it had been no use. Taken by surprise and outnumbered from the start, the crew was overwhelmed by the pirates. Those who weren’t officers had been set loose as a warning, and those with commissions had been put to the sword.
He fell quiet after that, tip of his tongue darting out to swipe across his lips, stare averted and distant, as though he wasn’t seeing the mermaid or the water in that moment. But he blinked and it was gone, grin returning as he glanced back to Ariel, cocking an eyebrow and changing the subject. “So? About that tail of yours."
theartofmadeline
gamechangershow
turnnoffyourmind
kianamaiart
amandla
izzy806
