Good Man

Prompt #20 - Tell us who your complete opposite would be.

My complete opposite can be summed up in one word: Jack.

I shouldn’t need to say much more than that because it’s Jack but I know that if you’ve not met him you’ve heard of him and even then it doesn’t do his character much justice.

He’s a scoundrel and for reasons beyond me Elizabeth insists that somewhere beneath that self centered and entirely out for himself exterior is a good man. I beg to differ, simply because he tried to sell my soul for his and near condemned me to an eternity on ‘The Flying Dutchman’.

He’d sell us down the river if he thought there was something in it for him, he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity for making profit and he certainly wouldn’t exchange his life for any other.

That’s not to say I don’t like Jack but I know of his faults, and I see his flaws, like I see my own but unlike Jack I do not pretend otherwise. Jack is a pirate, in blood and merit, and I don’t think there’s anything powerful on this Earth to change him and he wouldn’t be Jack if he was any different.

Jack and I are very different, complete opposites and yet we find ourselves on even ground more often than not and I can’t help but wonder what that might say about me?

Muse: William Turner
Fandom: Pirates Of The Caribbean
Word Count: 227

Prompt #18 - Write a ficlet about selfishness

Selfishness is the act of doing something simply because you want it; it is having little to no interest in anything or anyone beyond yourself. It’s about fulfilling what you wish, about what you desire, and there is no pause let alone moment of consideration for whether or not it is the right action or the effects it might have on others.

I have had moments where I have exhibited a certain amount of selfishness, like back when the Commodore and Elizabeth’s father wouldn’t look for her instantly; I took matters into my own hands and I sprung Jack from that jail cell.

I didn’t do it because it was his freedom that was at stake, I didn’t do it because I thought he didn’t deserve to hang (back then I thought the only good pirate was a dead one), I broke him out of that jail cell because he could help me find and rescue Elizabeth.

Every person (pirates included and yes that means you Jack) is capable of being selfish and selfless; it usually depends on the moment and the events leading up to the moment in question but we’re all capable of it.

People desire things, need things, and sometimes the only way they can obtain those things is by being selfish and pushing all other things aside because they want to know, want to feel or just want it.

The line between selflessness and selfishness is thin, easy to walk all over and far too easy to blur. Some people choose their side consciously; others follow through with it unconsciously, it all depends on the person.

One thing is certain: every human being can and will be selfish at one point or another in their life.

Muse: William Turner
Fandom: Pirates Of The Caribbean
Word Count: 290

Prompt #16 - Do you believe in destiny?

I never used to but I suppose with the way that things stand now, I have no choice but to believe.

I have spent so long living a good life and being a good man and I have spent so long denying something I knew to be true long before Jack spoke the words to me. I almost believed that my father had been a merchant soldier that I managed to convince myself that I could be a normal man, a man that did not crave the caress of the sea and the freedom that sails provide.

For the longest time, after Jack told me, I denied it and I refused to believe. My father could not be a pirate because that would mean he wasn’t a good man, how little I knew back then. I had been raised to believe that pirates were the enemy; they had sunk the ship carrying me to family after all.

If you do not believe in something then it cannot be true, no matter how many times you wake from a dream that seemed so real and not even if the home you know is under siege or your blood is pumping faster than it ever has because you’re climbing the sails and setting a course towards the ends of the earth.

Now that I reflect on everything I can see that was simply denying who I was and what I was meant to be, my father was a pirate and his son is a pirate. Not through choice but chance and yet I cannot deny that it does not feel right.

I am a pirate, by blood and through circumstance.

Muse: William Turner
Fandom: Pirates Of The Caribbean
Word Count: 278

Prompt #14 - Do you believe in second chances?

I believe in them if the person in question deserves that second chance.

Jack Sparrow for instance, he’s a pirate and he’s done many things that go against everything I’ve ever believed in and he has betrayed me on several occasions but at the same time, he has also saved my life and the life of the woman I love. In my eyes, he is worth a second chance, even if he did try and exchange my soul for his on The Flying Dutchman.

My father, I thought for so long that he had abandoned me and my mother but it turned out that he had no choice. He’d been sent to the depths with a cannon attached to his feet. Never to be seen again until I was much older and far more cynical and embittered by the years of absence in my life.

In spite of everything, we had a chance to know one another and I have a chance to save him from a fate I would wish on no man, especially my father. My father’s a good man, a pirate but a good man; he deserves a second chance just as much as anyone else.

Commodore Norrington, he was a good man if not a little fixated on rules and correct procedures but his grudge against Jack led to his downfall. He’s now nothing more than a pirate, the very same thing he hunted for so many years. Some could say he deserves a second chance for being a good man and for being loyal to his country but he betrayed trust and I don’t think he’s deserving of a second chance.

At the end of the day, second chances come and go, sometimes they go to those that deserve them but sometimes they don’t. I’m afraid that’s just how it goes.

Muse: William Turner
Fandom: Pirates Of The Caribbean
Word Count: 306

Muses Involved : Will Turner (itsinhisblood) and Jack Sparrow (have_heardofme)
Chosen Prompt: 07. A Tattoo Parlor
Fandoms Involved : Pirates Of The Caribbean
Format of Scene : Chat Service

( I think there's a rule somewhere...'bout bitin' one's captain... )

Prompt #13 - Do you regret anything about the way in which your life has gone?

My mother passed away when I was younger and the governing law decided to send me across ocean to her brother because my father hadn't been seen in weeks. It was in the ocean that I had my first brush with pirates and the first time I tasted my own mortality. It was in the ocean that I discovered just how alone in the world I was until I opened my eyes and there was Elizabeth Swann.

If my mother hadn't died and the pirates hadn't come and destroyed the ship I'd been travelling on then I never would have met Elizabeth and I would never have become a citizen in Port Royal. Leads me to think that things happen for a reason. I regret never having known my father and I regret that my mother had to die, some said of a broken heart and others blamed the cough.

You see, if none of these things had happened then I wouldn't be the man that I am today. I'd never know the fine art of crafting a sword, the rush of adrenaline when you're swashbuckling a pirate and I'd never tasted fear like I did when I heard Elizabeth had been taken. I do regret not having known my parents; I regret not understanding the love and concern that Elizabeth has so presently with her father but this is my life.

If I regret anything about my life then I regret not knowing my parents, nothing more and nothing less.

Muse: William Turner
Fandom: Pirates Of The Caribbean
Word Count: 251

Prompt #12 - Write about trust

Trust, something that's earned, and something that isn't free and doesn't come without consequence.

I have trusted a few people in my time but I have never put the all of my heart into it, except for Elizabeth. I have trusted her with everything that I am and I have never doubted her love or her loyalty.

( Locked From Elizabeth And Jack )

Jack, well Jack is another matter.

He's a pirate and I once trusted him to play fair and he very correctly pointed out what he was but as it turns out he has his moments. These moments being the ones where you can trust him to do as he says but a lot of the time you have to take a lot of what he says with a pinch of salt.

Trust is something that once given is very hard to take back and it is not something to abuse or even taken lightly.

It’s a gift, and I don’t think enough people realise that.

Muse: William Turner
Fandom: Pirates Of The Caribbean
Word Count: 220

Prompt #11 - Is there a song that you feel describes you perfectly? Write about your "theme song" and why it speaks to you.

( 3 Doors Down - Life Of My Own )

William Turner after being pulled from the ocean had made it his life plan to be a good man, to have a job and to have prospects. A man was nothing if he had no prospects; he would have himself no wife and no way to support a family.

So he became an apprentice, a student to a teacher often too drunk to teach his craft with the dedication that was required. He learned everything he learned by teaching himself and no one ever knew because he had gotten so good at pretending.

The sea didn’t call his name, he was not a pirate’s son, his father had been a merchant sailor but something about the story always rang untrue in the back of his mind. William had flung himself into the life he was leading with such fervor and he had so many hopes and so many dreams.

Then the pirates came and life changed, he was forced to take control. To become what he’d always hated to save Elizabeth. It came so easily that it frightened him. He’d always believed he was a fine man and yet in the company of Jack Sparrow it was like he was a totally different person.

From that point onwards, everything changed.

William Turner was no longer the quiet man that sat back and let life pass him by, he acted first and thought second. That had been a flaw with him and Elizabeth, he’d never been able to say the words but he could now. He almost sacrificed his own life for Jack’s without blinking an eye and he stared into Norrington’s eyes almost daring him to move the tip of his sword.

Now, he’d been forced into a situation out of his control but he did not do things blindly. He did whatever was necessary, to save Elizabeth from certain death and to safeguard the promise he’d made to his father.

William Turner was a man that had control - over himself and over the future that lay ahead even if the present seemed bleak and the journey long and arduous. At least he was living his life.

Perhaps he had finally become what he was meant to be, a pirate.

Muse: William Turner
Fandom: Pirates Of The Caribbean
Word Count: 371 (excluding lyrics)

( Topic 1: Describe a dream you had as a child that has stayed with you. )

( Topic 2: If you could change one thing in history, what would it be and why? )