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With Gleaming Starlight

Introduction

Slash, het, gen, threesomes, the works. I've been obsessed with pirates since I was a wee girl, and Pirates of the Caribbean is funny and has fabulously swishy Johnny Depp in eyeliner. I like a lot of pairings for this movie, but Will/Jack and Will/Elizabeth are pretty near the bottom (Will/Elizabeth/Jack, on the other hand = OT3!). Also, anyone who can write amusing, doofy Pintel/Ragetti (the married pirates in drag) has my undying love.

Will Turner/Elizabeth Swann/Captain Jack Sparrow

Mala's ...And a Bottle of Rum series (eight stories) is an intricate, beautiful, AU about what Will, Elizabeth, and Jack could be. The emotional emphasis is on Jack/Elizabeth, and after the first three stories, the series abruptly becomes darker, so it's probably not to everyone's tastes, but it's definitely one of the threesome fics in the fandom. So, in her mind, Billy belongs to all of them.
And, one day, he'll laugh Jack Sparrow's husky, lunatic, laugh. (also includes Billy [Elizabeth's son]/Anamaria)

moonwhip's writing is usually deft, lyrical, and understated, and Sunrise is no exception. Cute, funny, and happy, with spot-on Jack characterization (and everyone else, of course). She and Anamaria alter clothes together, sitting at the captain's table with a bottle of rum and a sewing kit and telling jokes that would've made Will blush before Jack came. He never knew women talked like that.

Quickening, by Pearl-o, is focused on Will and Elizabeth, whose character dynamics normally don't interest me, but she creates a lovely tension full of unstated possibilities. And one of the last few lines is a killer. And each day, he made swords, and came home to his lovely wife. And Elizabeth read, and practiced, and grew quiet, and stranger to him. (mostly Will/Elizabeth)

Alex SisterWolf's Dance in the Moonlight has a rather darker, madder interpretation of Jack than most, with Will and Elizabeth being his anchors. Lyrical and lovely. Jack dances in the moonlight, on nights when the moon is full and the wind pushes clouds scudding across the sky.

Captain Jack Sparrow/Bootstrap Bill Turner

Jack/Bootstrap is probably my favorite pairing in the film, which left a few rather disturbing loose ends around Bootstrap's supposed death. James Walks-With-Wind's Noonday Sun is a creepy little look into Jack's madness, and the question that haunts him. Behind him, the voice still whispers. When did he die, Jack?

Memoriter, by Vera Dune, is Bootstrap!survival fic (one of my new favorite genres; and really, you've got to expect it if they're just going to tie him by his bootstraps), bittersweet and full of hope and lost chances. "No, no, no," -- Jack waved a tanned and heavily bejeweled hand impatiently -- "you're a pirate, mate." He paused, watching Bootstrap hopefully, but when the desired reaction didn't come, added, "And pirates can't get married."

Jaida's Rum is a lovely, banter-y (shush, I can't think of a real word) romp, with fantastic description (although I don't know as I'd call Jack's hands "delicate"). (If there's a version on her site, I can't for the life of me find it. Navigation via tiny mysterious icons drives me crazy.) Jack Sparrow is an open book and an ostentatious man. His saving grace is that there are volumes of him no man save for one has the time or the inclination to read, and his tastes are specific and high quality.

Captain Jack Sparrow/Commodore Norrington

Gileonnen is astoundingly prolific, and good. I am horrifically jealous. I'm pretty sure she's also responsible for my fondness for Jack/Norrington. First-Name Basis is clever and cute, and, like many of her stories, ends with the boys rather frustratingly not in bed together. Despite this disappointment, I love this story. British officers go by the book, and so a somnambulating Thomas Norrington removed his boots and set them carefully on Jack Sparrow's back before falling dead away again.

A Brilliant Plan is another of my favorite Gileonnen stories; Norrington on opium is just too wonderful, if a tad improbable. "Yeh -- lasses. Slapping you." He couldn't remember the conversation, but he must have been having it. "A fellow...fellow doesn't slap you. Sometimes hits you, but 'sfair."

I also love Gileonnen's Under the Uniform. Norrington is an old-fashioned seaman (*nudge nudge wink wink*), Jack wears a corset, and they are married. Sort of. "Dressed as a what?" Norrington asked, and Jack shrugged affably, spreading his arms. He retrieved his effects from around the room and cinched his belt. "What in the name of God possessed you to do that?"
"I'm Captain Jack Sparrow." He rummaged under the bed, but came out with nothing. "If I knew it was Will chasing me, I'd have been less creative."

Captain Jack Sparrow/Will Turner

So, for the most part, I just Do Not Get Jack/Will. I saw no sparks in the movie, no chemistry, and Orlando Bloom doesn't even do anything for me in the pretty department. But there are a few authors, and a few stories, that make me go "WOW" and believe in the pairing. Shrift's Hurricane Jack is one of those. Too many fabulous lines to list; Shrift compares the style a bit to Good Omens, and I can definitely see the influence. Quirky, funny, daft (like Jack), with spot-on, believable characterization -- and did I mention that it's hot? 'Cos it is. Very. His gaze is so fierce that Jack inadvertently makes a fig hand beneath the tabletop. (Jack is a pirate, and therefore he believes in superstition. But unlike most pirates, Jack's belief in the supernatural is rooted in actual and extensive contact with the accursed living dead, which Jack will grudgingly admit, when in his cups, has had somewhat of an effect on his landscape.)

First Warning, by Rave, is another such incredible story. Detailed, beautiful, and grittier than most (Jack wouldn't smell like roses, would he?), with a fabulous use of sea chanties. They bicker! They banter! They (almost) have hot sex! Sparrow lifted his eyebrows, then fluttered his hands dismissively at him. "Boy, let me tell you something: this would go quicker if I had a bloody one-legged dwarf for a crew instead of you. One day in Tortuga's not going to kill you. I mean the people there," he added, reconsidering, "now, yes, they'll kill you. But the extra year we'd have to spend on the ocean with me trying to teach you the difference between port, starboard and your own arse and you taking a wrong turn and steering us to bloody France -- well, that'll kill your strumpet too. And me as well. Since I'll shoot myself."

I seem to like Jack/Will the most when it's funny. I've also read more romance novels than is probably healthy. Thus Ashlle*s How Powerful My Pirate could almost be tailor-made for my sense of humor. Before Will could lower his hand, Jack had swiftly moved into his personal space, nuzzling Will's neck. "I suspect that you're just jealous of the sweet, virginal maiden Roxanna. She gets ravished by the dashing Captain Robert in the next chapter, I'm sure..."

Anamaria/Elizabeth Swann

rachael sabotini's Barbary Corsair presents a different characterization of Anamaria than I would have thought of, but she convinces me, and the historical context is well-used. Money speaks stronger than laws in the Barbary States, and if she could afford it, she'd could set herself up as the head of a family there, with her own ship and a wife to come home to, perhaps one with a few children already in tow. Good strong girls who would prefer life at sea to grubbing in the dust, trying to make plants grow.

Captain Jack Sparrow/Elizabeth Swann

Mala's Twinkle and Twirl give a possible version of what happened that night and morning on the desert island, in a snarky, sexy way. Jack is a drunk, Elizabeth is a tease, but it's strangely satisfying for all that. A nice, happy chaser to follow her "...And a Bottle of Rum" series. "I beg your pardon!" Her bosom does NOT heave. And 'bosom'...there's a horrid word if there ever was one. 'Bosoms', in itself, implies that she has four. And she has to peek down the bodice of her threadbare garment just to check.

Miscellaneous and multiple pairings

[This fandom has spawned more anthropomorfic than I would ever have imagined of a mainstream fandom. I am both amused and pleased.]

The Sea's Embrace, by niqaeli, is about Anamaria, the sea, and the Black Pearl, a description which really doesn't do it justice. It is the women of the sea who discern her whispers clearly, for women have always had understanding of one another that no man can ever share. (Anamaria/the sea, or gen, however you choose to look at it)

Boca de Muerte, by Nisshoku, is funny, lyrical, and clever. I wouldn't have thought such a collection of, er, pairings could be pulled off, but Nisshoku did it. Or maybe, Barbossa thought with what would have been a leer if he had any expressions that weren't some variation on leering, maybe he would keep someone to chew for him. ("Barbossa/Apple, Jack/Black Pearl, Jack/Barbossa, Apple/Black Pearl. Heh.")

Kapunua's First Night in Tortuga is Jack conversing with the sea. The characterization is impressive, Jack's madness rather...logical. Kapunua brings a bit more depth to Will, as well, in his entirely understandable irritation with Jack's odd ways. "Unless, that is..." Jack spoke slowly as he circled around Will, looking him up and down. "Unless you don't speak to her. Perhaps you are too pure, and she is too good for the likes of you. Perhaps you just...pine for her as it were, and think chaste thoughts. Perhaps you truly are a eun--"
"Do shut your mouth, Jack." (Captain Jack Sparrow/the sea)

Ladybee's salt, the content of my heart is a flowing, lyrical ramble about Jack, from the point of view of the sea. Don't laugh; it works really well. time is liquid and i am liquid and we together are strange sisters, strange sisters in a way...she and me, we dance and sway in swirls and eddies and thus it goes that i though ancient, i though ancient have swirling currents along the edge of memory... (Captain Jack Sparrow/the sea)

Gen

His Holiness, Captain Sparrow, by Beth/Cobra Girl, is a clever, perfectly characterized, and damned funny explanation for the "impersonating a cleric of the Church of England" charge against Jack. His thoughts swerved to a new track as he noted the guarded look in her eyes. "That is...." He stepped down from the pulpit and sauntered toward her, lowering his voice. "That is, unless the reason you visit this house of God is not to confess your sins, but maybe...commit a few more? Hm? You looked a bit disappointed when you saw me face. Maybe you were expecting this Mathis fellow, eh?"
"Reverend, with all due respect, exactly what are you implying?" she snapped.

In Discontent, by Collie, Bootstrap Bill, more-or-less-alive at the bottom of the ocean reflects. Creepy, sad, and rather Gollumesque. We wish to feel our hands on that wooden wheel and hear the hollow thud of our boots on deck, and why we can remember that, we will never know.

James Walks-With-Wind also wrote a lovely little untitled snippet about Bootstrap Bill surviving. I'd rather like to see some more fic exploring a few of the comments on the entry. It's difficult to track the passage of time when you can't see the sun or the moon.

Ladybee's trilogy about Jack's hair ornaments (A Bone of Contention, Charm, and Chance) provide lovely, clever little explanations for three of Jack's more obvious hair ornaments. I especially like the first, although I'm not sure I can imagine Jack ever being that innocent (and I remain convinced that it's a stingray spine, not a bone). "A man's legend is a man's life."