Name: Lillian Thomas (known as Lilly to her close friends, known as Captain Thomas by her crew)
Age/Date of Birth: 35, born 1694 to a noble Irish family
Gender/Pronouns/Sexual Orientation: female, she/her/hers, bisexual
Timeline: Pirates of the Caribbean
Lilly is a true Irish lass—she has pale skin, green eyes, and reddish brown hair. When living in Port Royal she spends the brightest parts of the day inside, so her skin remains pale. On the open ocean, however, she’s tanner and develops freckles on her face and arms. She’s neither short nor tall, and is slightly too skinny due to long working hours and few calorie-rich meals. In Port Royal she wears long, loose skirts and light-colored shirts to combat the heat. At sea and away from the expectations of society, she’s in pants, and loves every moment of it.
She’s loyal toward those she loves. The nickname sparrow’s nest was given to her due to the fact that she never gives up on Jack—they will always drift back to each other. She’s witty and can hold her own in a fight, be it verbally or physically. Unfortunately, life isn’t all kind and she’s slow to trust newcomers, preferring the company of familiar faces. As crew of a ship she heeds commands and performs admirably. As captain she’s stern but not unforgiving, and finds that insulting her crew to the depths of Davy Jones’ locker doesn’t exactly boost morale. She’ll leave the insults to Barbossa, preferring to call her crew by what they are: strong women.
Significant Other (if any):
She has had a longstanding romantic relationship with Jack Sparrow, but has been known to enter casual relationships with some women that crew her ship.
Unknown number of brothers
Interceptor (crew, briefly)
Backstory (content warning: mention of sexual assault)
Lillian’s father was a successful sailor and influential lord before the Prostetant Ascendency took control of Ireland in the 1690s. Ousted from his position on the grounds of being Catholic, her father still managed to pull some strings and get work for Lillian and her brothers on ships of the British East India Company. Her brothers were true and (mostly) honest sailors. Lilly was a low-ranking cook, but even that slight taste of life on the high seas solidified her fate. She was eventually assigned to the Wicked Wench under the young Captain Jack Sparrow, who quickly noticed her aptitude for sailing and put her in the crow’s nest as barrelman. When Jack refused to carry slaves and his ship was sunk as a result, Lilly refused to return to proper society and joined him in piracy. Lilly remained barrelman and the pair sailed free, pillaging and causing trouble with a loyal crew on the ship rechristened the Black Pearl.
A few years later the consequences of Jack’s actions caught up with him, and his former employer Cutler Beckett cornered and fired upon the Pearl and took Lilly captive for what would become nearly six months. Sitting in a damp, dingy cell, she was given the pirate’s brand on the neck and raped by Beckett and some other high officials of the BEIC. In a procedure that should have killed her, Beckett ordered her forcibly sterilized so as to prevent her and Jack from having any baby birds. It would be more painful for Jack to live with the knowledge that his bloodline would end if he stayed with Lilly than to kill her outright.
After six frantic months Jack found her, and Beckett willingly gave her up, assuming he would want nothing to do with her anymore due to her ruined body. Beckett was wrong, and Jack took her back to the Caribbean in the repaired Black Pearl. It was there, in Jack’s arms on the deck of the Pearl, that Lilly vowed to kill Beckett herself, no matter what it took.
Lilly was in Cuba, healing in the care of the witch Tia Dalma (Lilly had done her a favor before her capture and the witch was happy to repay her debt to the pirate lass) when Barbossa mutinied, and for the next five years she and Jack drifted, sometimes together and sometimes separate. Lilly eventually ended up in Port Royal, taking permanent root as the chymist’s apprentice, and for the next five years she and Will Turner would build an easy friendship based on trust, wit, and the woes of the working class.
That is, until Jack Sparrow arrives one morning and ruins everything, revealing Lilly’s pirate background and true loyalties.
Read the rest of Lillian’s story in Sparrow’s Nest!
