Confrontations, Taylor

[Tia Dalma]

Tia was looking through the crew for Taylor, the girl that the Singer had been speaking about. She glanced at bodies, at hair, and at just general shapes, before finally finding the one that she knew not to be female, but definately had the most likely body. A final scan of the crew-girl's mind gave her exactly what she needed. One hand was instantly planted on her shoulder, and she yanked her around, gazing into the girl's eyes. She didn't let her go, but motioned towards her private cabin, one that this girl had probably helped clear out.

"A-be needin' ta speak witchoo," she told her, letting every drip of venom she had in her voice leak out so that the words were more of a threat than a request. Most probably, the girl didn't want her secret outed in the middle of the deck on such a fine day, Tia's voice would carry across the entire boat, no matter what anyone did. Then of course, even in the middle of a storm she could make it carry, it wasn't that impressive. She pointed a finger towards the cabin and shoved the girl.

[Taylor Elliot]

<sub>Taylor had just been walking around, minding her on business. She'd been dressed like a man again today: hair braided, eyes rimmed in kohl, her curved body hidden as well as it possibly could have been.

She was only sixteen and already on her own, hopping ships and stealing for her food. She barely scraped by these days, but now, she was on her way to Tortuga where perhaps she could get another ride out. Of course, there was also the chance that if she helped out around the Pearl or if she begged enough, she could possibly stay longer.

When she felt the hand on her shoulder, she jumped, and Taylor was face to face with.. Tia Dalma? She'd heard about this woman, once again from a Jones' spout-off, but she never heard anything more than that.

Taylor nodded quickly to her request, but was almost instantly shoved into a room. She looked at the woman and removed her hat. " Wha'dyou nee' from me?"</sub>

[Tia Dalma]

Tia observed the girl with cold eyes. Only Jack had known about this girl, and he hadn't even bothered to tell her. It had taken the Singer talking about this brat before she finally realized that she'd underestimated Jack's stupidity, and that she would have to examine them all herself sooner or later, hopefully sooner. One of her fingers treaded through the girl's hair, letting the small strand fall over her face, before walking back over to one of her tables.

"For what hav'ye be'n runnin' from Jones?" grabbing her stones and sitting down in front of a table that she'd demanded. She'd been here less than a day, but she knew that Jack was already timid about her being here. He also knew that, what little of his life was left, was now in her hands. It was a terrible position to be in, one that was impossible for her to be in. After all, she was about as dead as alive can be. Only a few on the earth would know what she was talking about.

[Taylor Elliot]

<sub>Taylor's eyes widened when the woman mentioned Jones. How does she know..? she thought to herself, swallowing hard. She didn't bother to ask. She just figured if she fessed up and told her story now, it'd all be over with.

"I uh.." she stammed. "I don't want to be there. I didn't choose! When my father's ship crashed, nobody lived but me, and they came and plucked me out of the wreckage! I was 10..." she said, sitting on the floor now, her face buried in her hat.

She was so upset, that she'd even yelled without her pirate accent for once in her life. It was a rare thing.</sub>

[Tia Dalma]

Tia stared deep into the poor girl's eyes. She probably wasn't the best person to have in a staring contest, as her eyes were burning, and most people could already tell that she was reading them. For some strange reason, the comment about, "I was the only person who survived", didn't ring true. Not particularly from her point of view, but merely from the point of view that someone else 'did' survive. She tossed her stones, but frowned at them, and turned back to the girl, eyebrows knit together.

"'Ave ye a fadar?" she demanded, pushing a few of the stones away that didn't mean much to her. They seemed to form new images as she pushed them, and she sat down to study them, frowning further. She'd have to talk to Jack about being at Tortuga, but for the moment, this couldn't be a very long discussion. She had to speed time for this time being. She could only do this three times a day, and she had to be monitored very closely while doing so, she still had to talk to Jack about that.

[Taylor Elliot]

<sub>Father... Taylor thought to herself. Where are you..? Why'd you leave me? she said, suddenlyt trying to push the thoughts out of her mind. She didn't want to theink about Jamison. Jamison Elliot, the first and only. That's what he always said. It used to make her laugh when she was younger.

"I.. I did..until 6 years ago.." she said, biting her lip on the inside, sighing, moving the hat from burying her face to back on top of her blonde and brown-topped head. Her deep brown eyes stared into no where imparticular for a moment, then looking up at Tia.</sub>

[Tia Dalma]

Tia threw her dice again, ignoring the girl's pitiful whining. She was attempting to help the stupid creature, the least that it could do was keep itself together. She waved her hands, and something sailed towards her. It was the first time on the ship that she'd used such a blatant example of her powers. Said 'something' was her jar of eyes. She lifted one of the disgusting slime-balls out and walked towards the girl, placing a finger under her chin and lifting it up. She placed lifted the girl's hand with her other and placed the slime ball into it, closing the hand.

"Ye b' holdin' onta dat," she warned her, grabbing her stones and tossing them again. They took a different shape, and the shape was seen through the eye, which was connected to the girl's skin. A jolt would be sent through the eye, to her mind, sending her a picture of her father, what he would have looked like after the crash. Tia didn't know why she was getting this image, but was very prevailent. "Yuh fadar b' a strang' man..." she muttered, more to herself than to Taylor.

[Taylor Elliot]

<sub>Taylor blinked, a little disgusted as she felt the eyeball in her hand. It was alls limy and disgusting, though she figured it was better than the nasty rope burn she remembered getting the first time she'd tried to climb up to the crow's nest on her father's ship. Horrible experiance that was.

The salt stung like crazy. Anything thing she merely touched seemed to hurt her to no end, and there was nothing she could do about it until her mother managed to dig up an aloe plant and some bandages. It helped a little, but not very much. She couldn't cry about it though. She wasn't supposed to a lass, and boys didn't cry, usually.

Also, she was not going to let go of that eyeball. She just nodded stiffly, trying to forget it was squeezed in her hand, trying to forget she was holding an eye, what could perhaps have once been her mother's eye, or perhaps her father's even.

The though disgusted her more than the reality did. She missed her mother and father terribly, and in no way did she want to squeeze their eyes. That was dishonorable. Her grandfather would have hit her with his belt for that one. Thank god he wasn't here now.

She could remember her father, perhaps not the tallest man in the world, only about 5'8". He was built, but not ripped and rugged. She remembered the way his jetblack, shaggy hair seemed to fall in his eyes, his pale, green eyes. She could picture the thick coal around his eyes, his yearning to wear all black.

Taylor looked up at Tia. " What.. did you say about me father?" she said, a little surprised.</sub>

[Tia Dalma]

Tia frowned again, then waved her hand. "Ya famlee es strang' fe mi. A-be wantin' ya ou' naw, ya fadar es hauntin' ma mind. A-be tinkin' dat 'im naht dat dead," she said to her, waving her out of her room. Jack could deal with this strange girl. She didn't need her head being too blinded by someone else's mysteries. It didn't matter that she'd never met this man before, the sheer thought of him was sending ripples down her spine, as though they were going to meet in the near future. It happened whenever she'd thought of someone that she remembered.

"An-a, bringeh Jack fe mi," she demanded, and turned before the girl could exit. She walked over to her, and motioned to her hand, her face very serious and observing, eyes boring into the girl's very soul. "Yoo be keepin' dat eye witchoo, et will ke'p ye safe." That was a very distinct warning. They eyes that were in the jar were all from the villagers that she took care of, all of them had had the inner eye, or the ability to see the future. When they'd died, she'd taken their eyes into collection. Most people couldn't use them, at least not without her help.

[Taylor Elliot]

<sub>Taylor quickly nodded, not wanting to anger the woman. She bowed her head for a moment, murmuring a quick, " Thank you" before she headed for the door, carefully placing the eyeball in her satchel, which was strapped over her shoulder. She wiped her hand off on her shirt, only turning when she heard the woman talk again.

She wanted Jack in here. Taylor could manage to do that. She could walk a step out the door, yell "Sparrow", and he was bound to come swinging out of no where. She'd learned to deal with his sudden appearances. It was something she'd had to get used to.

She didn't want to keep the eye with her, but she was going to. It didn't seem wise to enrage this woman. Also, Taylor seemed to have a bit of trouble understanding her at times. It was a very odd accent. One of her father's friends spoke like that, and Taylor could never understand a lick of it.

Taylor flashed a quick smile at Tia before taking a step out the door and yelling. " 'ey, Sparrow!"</sub>

[Jack Sparrow]

Ever since Tia Dalma had informed Jack of the truth of Taylor, something he hadn't known and would have been happier not knowing, he had been a little more wary of the girl. Sure, she didn't seem to pose any threat yet, but could things not change?

It was an oddity about Jack, that he could continue to put faith in someone despite the fact that all evidence to the contrary was present - just as things had seemed at the moment with Taylor. However, for some odd reason, he felt that, given time and the chance, she would be one of those that could change - if indeed it was true about her being a member of Jones' crew. He had yet to speak with her on his own, and had only heard such rumors through word of Tia Dalma's mouth, and that couldn't always hold as the most honest of words to be taking.

It seemed that the mind had an odd way of working, in which it could process one thought and spit it out into reality just as quick. For as soon as said ponderings and cases were closed in his mind, he could hear distantly behind him the cry of Taylor Elliot, beckoning him to come her way.

He let out a sigh; it seemed that she was near the opposite end of the ship where he had last seen Tia Dalma, close to her room, which couldn't bode one hundred percent well on either his nor the young pirate lass' behalf. However, he rounded the bend in the ship where the mast stood, and paced his way down the length of the Black Pearl, his strides long and decided in how his foot was set down.

Swerving around a handful of his shipmates and crew members, he finally rounded the last of the entrance ways before he spotted the two females of the crew. "Ladies," he greeted with a slight droop of the shoulders.

He turned himself to face Taylor, fixing her with a fleeting look of uncertainty, which he wiped from his features quickly. "Yes?" he asked her in response to having been called.

[Taylor Elliot]

<sub>Just like she'd assumed, Jack had indeed appeared in response to her call. Taylor looked at him as he greeted them. When he requested to know why Taylor had called him, she pointed to Tia.

" She'd like to speak with you.." Taylor, lowering her hand, remembering that pointing was often considered rude, sometimes highly insulting. She'd done it to her mother once, and it had not ended very well at all. Very painful actually.

She noticed the bit of a wary look in Jack's expression, and immediatly, she knew what that was for. He knew. He and Tia both. They knew she was with Jones. This was not good, at all. What if they turned her over? Or worse, what if they left her stranded?

So many different ideas were running through her head. She didn't mean harm, none at all. Taylor simply wanted to get to Tortuga, to escape Jones, not to do anything to Sparrow, barbossa or Dalma.</sub>

[Jack Sparrow]

"She'd like to speak with you...."

Jack cast Taylor a fervent glance. Why was she the one that had to call him forth rather than having Tia Dalma, who he had spoken to just moments before? And didn't Taylor have something that she very well could have said to him? After all, she was the one that should, by rights, have told him about being a member of Jones' crew rather than having it been passed off as a daily-sort of conversation.

Glancing over his shoulder, he looked once at the aforementioned witch doctor before looking back at the girl before him, tongue pressed against the inside of his cheek. "Okay, then," he said before he slowly turned around and took a long, over-exagerated step toward the voodoo priestess.

He stopped just short of her, casting his gaze around the small room that had been given to Tia Dalma and cleaned out immediately upon her boarding of the Black Pearl. It was certainly something different than it used to be, that was a for sure.

There were jars of who-knows-what hanging from every latch and hook the ceiling could hold, undoubtedly all that had been shoved in his arms at her little hut. He didn't want to know what pour soul offered the eyes that were contained in a glass jar that had taken to staring at him just then, and so he didn't bother to mention the fact that it was less than homely in the case of getting what-for and rather unpreferred objects thrown at his head.

Ripping his staring eyes from the ones in the glass container, he replaced them upon Tia Dalma, who stood now before him. "Yes?" he asked her in turn, more than eager to leave the room.

[Tia Dalma]

"Ya need ta be sittin' down, Jack... A-be findin' sumtin' dat we di'in know," she muttered to him, placing her stones back in the box hidden in the layers of her skirt. She glanced at him, as though it were something that should have been common knowledge. Jack, however, had no clue of how to work voodoo. He and her were mirrors, he couldn't even read the thousands of clues on this amazing ship of his.

"Der be-a problem wit da slowin'. Liek anytin', time must be replaced. In orda fe mi ta be slowin' et, a-be also havin' ta speed et, or da time wan't be shifted," she told him, wondering if this was going to sail right over his head. Occasionally he was simply that clueless, but this should have been fairly obvious. She'd discovered it when she threw her stones upon asking them this very question. It would prove to be a problem, but in some ways, it could also prove valuable.

"Da questin' in dis mada, es when? Do ya be wantin' fe mi ta speed time now, or lada?" she asked him curiously. It was mostly up to him, he'd hired her, and as soon as he brought her Davy Jones's head, it was just a matter of delayed payment. She had faith in her Jack, despite the fact that he'd left her the first time without a word. Her eyes drilled into him, intense and black, wondering what his answer would be.

[Jack Sparrow]

"Ya need ta be sittin' down, Jack... A-be findin' sumtin' dat we di'in know."

He turned to Taylor with something of a question in his eyes before he spun slowly back toward Tia Dalma and watched out of the corner of his eye as she tucked away the stones. Pulling out a chair from nearby, he lowered himself into the seat, his eyes constantly on the voodoo priestess, as though he was guaging her every action and movement.

For a moment, he felt a lump of worry rise in his throat. The only thing that she could possibly conside talking to him about findings and similar said things would be the slowing of time. Was she going to tell him that there was no way for it to work out, and that it was in vain?

Like anytin', time must be replaced. In orda fe mi ta be slowin' et, a-be also havin' ta speed et, or da time wan't be shifted."

He bit down on his tongue for a moment; at least they were still able to do something with it, Jack sighed mentally. Just as soon as the thoughts registered in his mind, both a plan and a question jumped to his mind. "Do we 'ave the choice of when to speed time up again, or is it ou' of our 'ands?" he asked of Tia Dalma with one raised brow.

"Da questin' in dis mada, es when? Do ya be wantin' fe mi ta speed time now, or lada?"

Again, he stalled. There were the bonuses to slowing time, but if they sped it up, would their actions also hasten? Either way, there was only one way to go about it: "Later," he said with hurried finality in his voice.

He blinked, realizing that Taylor was still standing behind them, and that she must have had no idea what it was that they were talking about. There was the chance that, in the case that she was not on their side in all actuality, that she would go a'running to Jones to tell him what it was that they had in mind plan-wise, and it would all be futile in the end.

Seeing only one way to get to the bottom of it, he spun in his chair, facing the girl with a stoney look in his eyes. "Wha's this I 'ear abou' you an' Jones?" he asked her with no trace of amusement.