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Title: In living colour
Author: oneiriad
Summary: James Norrington encounters some - colourful personalities
Disclaimer: Neither PotC nor Good Omens are mine. All I own is a paperback and some dvds...
Rating: PG-13?
Warnings: non-con, death, generally unpleasantness - but considering the people involved, that almost goes without saying.
Notes: I was just playing around a bit and then concertigrossi asked for "Good Omens/Pirates of the Caribbean, James Norrington". This came out.
At first James is relieved - at least this slaver isn't a smuggler going to do his level best to get rid of the evidence before the navy ship catches up with him. At least this is a perfectly legitimate vessel that just happens to be French and therefore also a legitimate prize. His relief is gone by the time he enters the cargo hold. Monsieur Jaune, the ship's physician, wrings his hands as he describes the usual course of the illness - and later James will remember the strange gleam in the man's eyes, as his own ship lies at anchor outside of Port Royal, waiting while his men die around him, waiting for the end of the quarantine.
Author: oneiriad
Summary: James Norrington encounters some - colourful personalities
Disclaimer: Neither PotC nor Good Omens are mine. All I own is a paperback and some dvds...
Rating: PG-13?
Warnings: non-con, death, generally unpleasantness - but considering the people involved, that almost goes without saying.
Notes: I was just playing around a bit and then concertigrossi asked for "Good Omens/Pirates of the Caribbean, James Norrington". This came out.
At first James is relieved - at least this slaver isn't a smuggler going to do his level best to get rid of the evidence before the navy ship catches up with him. At least this is a perfectly legitimate vessel that just happens to be French and therefore also a legitimate prize. His relief is gone by the time he enters the cargo hold. Monsieur Jaune, the ship's physician, wrings his hands as he describes the usual course of the illness - and later James will remember the strange gleam in the man's eyes, as his own ship lies at anchor outside of Port Royal, waiting while his men die around him, waiting for the end of the quarantine.
Frau Karmesin does not at first seem like a particularly memorable passenger, even if James wonders why the Admiral insisted on him sailing her to Hispaniola instead of simply paying for her passage on the next post boat. Later he'll remember only too well how she laughed in the middle of the pitched three-way battle - and the taste of his own blood as she bit into his lips, the strength of her as she pushed him down on his cot, impaling herself and laughing as she rode him, laughing as he tried to push her off. Later he'll try to forget.
Johann van Zwart might be a succesful merchant, but listening to him talk about his business ventures is making this dinner party unbearably long - and the usually so very good food at the Governor's table tastes bland today - well, the better parts of it, anyway. James is a sailor, so he soldiers on, defiantly chewing and swallowing, while around the table gentlemen and ladies are trying to discreetly not eat. And next to him, van Zwart drones on and on about his latest deal, a favourable monopoly on the selling of supplies for the slaves on some of the Windward Islands.
He never actually sees the man on the horse. He barely even sees the horse. He's fairly sure it's white. Reasonably sure. Maybe. Perhaps more yellow than white. But he'll stand before the gallows as the hangman opens the hatch or by the market as a rolling barrel crashes into a child or at the beach as the man whose second he was slowly collapses in a growing red pool - and he'll hear the sound of hooves and turn around one moment too late. Always too late. He's starts to hear it aboard ship and thinks perhaps he's gowing crazy, then later in Tortuga and tries to drown it with rum, as the hooves sound as the echo of fired shots and angry shouts. Then he hears it aboard the Flying Dutchman and this time he finally manages to turn around in time, but he's still not entirely sure what colour the horse is.
Johann van Zwart might be a succesful merchant, but listening to him talk about his business ventures is making this dinner party unbearably long - and the usually so very good food at the Governor's table tastes bland today - well, the better parts of it, anyway. James is a sailor, so he soldiers on, defiantly chewing and swallowing, while around the table gentlemen and ladies are trying to discreetly not eat. And next to him, van Zwart drones on and on about his latest deal, a favourable monopoly on the selling of supplies for the slaves on some of the Windward Islands.
He never actually sees the man on the horse. He barely even sees the horse. He's fairly sure it's white. Reasonably sure. Maybe. Perhaps more yellow than white. But he'll stand before the gallows as the hangman opens the hatch or by the market as a rolling barrel crashes into a child or at the beach as the man whose second he was slowly collapses in a growing red pool - and he'll hear the sound of hooves and turn around one moment too late. Always too late. He's starts to hear it aboard ship and thinks perhaps he's gowing crazy, then later in Tortuga and tries to drown it with rum, as the hooves sound as the echo of fired shots and angry shouts. Then he hears it aboard the Flying Dutchman and this time he finally manages to turn around in time, but he's still not entirely sure what colour the horse is.
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I do not know about "Good Omens" But I still really enjoyed this ficlet! I also liked the bit with Frau Karmesin.
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I finally get the first chance in some while to scurry by for fanfic reading and here is a surprise treat!
Not only YOUR name in the author line--I haven't seen you in a loong time--too long, unless I've been browsing in the wrong places but you've crossed the two fandoms I read regularly, Good Omens and PotC!!
I've read other fiction that memorably crossed Pirates with Gaiman's other Endless/Sandman universe and at least one that did with Good Omens, but that was the main characters of angel and demon.
This is the first I've seen with the Horsemen, er, Horse Persons since War is female. I got an extra delight in your naming them for their "aliases" from the novel in the different languages, Dr. Jaune for Mr White, Pollution or rather still would have been Pestilence (who didn't retire until they'd discovered Penicillin), Frau Karmesin, Ms Scarlet, War, the merchant Sable, Famine and finally yes, the one who doesn't need a name, the final Horseman on the "pale horse".
These characters are both funny and still rather scary in their own book and you've woven them into James's life with chill irony. And the pleasure of the premise reaches a point of startling power in the last paragraph. James has known of THAT presence through the years, but on the Dutchman when at last it's HIS turn to be "collected", he finally sees the Last Horseman and the context from the movie makes the encounter both somber and icy. His remaining puzzlement over the color of the "pale horse", an irritant in an unfulfilled effort, which is actually of no relevance to his fate, is like a diminishing chord ending a symphony.
The overall tone is more elegiac than the Good Omens model but very much in keeping with Pirates and the supernatural beings are spot on as they go about their duties in the background of James' life. Poor, poor James...*sniffle*
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And James. Lots of love for James, but then he's always been my favourite POTC character. *smiles, snuggles him*
This is awesome!