Thecodekeeper - Tumblr Posts

🪐 —open prompt  sent by  @thecodekeeper​             ❝ i kept your tears in a jar. ❞

         ❝ THEN YOU’VE KEPT AS TIGHT A HOLD  on mine as you do on your own. ❞  &  she laughs, the sound rough  &  harsh when it escapes from her throat. captain teague sometimes seemed more than just a man himself. his reputation preceded him, his attentions often singularly focused on his duties as keeper of the pirate code. it was rare that he came to tia dalma seeking help with matters of the heart. far more often he asked for her help navigating without stars, or keeping sirens at bay. but she could still remember the day she had given him the little crystal vial of her own tears to help blunt the sharp edges of his grief. on that day, teague had been nothing more than a man mourning his lost love, gone too soon.  &  she had given him something to help ease his sorrows, but it seemed that the good captain had not understood how to use it in the end. ❝ they didn’t work because tears only have the power to heal once they are released, ❞  she says, her tone incredulous. as if he should have known, as if it’s common knowledge.  &  the priestess taps her cheekbone just beneath her eye, the pattern of her tattoos wrinkling as she smiles. ❝ keep them trapped inside,  &  they can do nothing to help you. you must let them out if you ever hope to be free of them. ❞

🪐 — captain teague ;

     It had been months since Maria’s death yet the pain of her death remained ever potent. Memories of her clung to everything, overwhelming him with a sense of longing. The rum numbed him, at least temporarily, but without fail, grief clawed back to the surface. In a moment of desperation, he had gone to Tia Dalma hoping that she may have a cure. The “tears of a goddess”, she had claimed, would be able to heal his heart. They hadn’t. 

     Now he stood in her shack ready to throw the damn vial back in her face. 

     Her explanation did nothing to pacify him. If anything he was all the more ready to demand compensation. He stared at Tia Dalma in disbelief. She was being more obfuscating than usual, much to his displeasure. “ Released? ” Teague scoffed, “ in other words, they’re useless. ” His hand curled tightly around the small vial in his pocket. The damn thing was meant to make those feelings go away, but it hadn’t. Teague still felt grief clawing at him every day. The rum numbed it, at least temporarily. But he had wanted a permanent solution. 

     He pulled the vial out of his pocket and slapped it onto the table next to them. Then, as if the mere act had served as a release Teague’s shoulder slumped. If this hadn’t worked then what would? 

     “ I want a refund. ”​

          HER FACE TWISTS IN OFFENSE  at the accusation,  &  calypso pulls herself up as tall as she can in light of her pathetically limited form. tia dalma’s arms cross stubbornly over her chest,  &  her spine goes rigid in response to his tone. captain teague might have been near infamous on the seas, but a goddess feared no mortal man,  &  he was no exception.

                             ❝ they’re not useless, you just didn’t know how to use them, ❞ she responds, forming the words slowly so that he cannot possibly misunderstand her.  ❝ when your pain becomes overwhelming, you must take the stopper out of the bottle  &  let a drop fall onto your bare hand. you will find the hurt will recede as the tide. not entirely, of course  —  there is nothing in the world that can heal a broken heart, captain  —  but enough for you to breathe again for a time. ❞                                               calypso did wish that she could do something more for him, but to be a mortal was to be defined by briefness of existence.  &  yet, to be a human was to love in spite of the certainty of death. they would never learn — they would continue loving one another regardless of how doomed it was. but that much, at least, she could understand; she had never been able to stop herself from falling in love with mortals, either. ❝ i am sorry if you believe that i misrepresented my services to you, captain,  &  i regret that you are not satisfied with the results you received. ❞  her hand curls around the neck of a nearby bottle  &  pours rum into a glass, setting it on the table before him. ❝ but the fact remains that  i accept no refunds. ❞

🪐 — EDWARD TEAGUE​   for  calypso !

     “ They think that any culture or state that diverges is degenerate. That we are degenerate, until we speak, dress, act, and worship just like them. ”

    HER LAUGHTER CRACKS, a lightning strike that seems to reverberate through the strange objects in the small cluttered room. the humans all thought themselves so smart, so uniquely able to see the so-called big picture. she almost pitied them  — the blind fools had no idea how small their minds truly were.  ❝ &  how do you prove to yourself that you are above their rules then ?  by creating a book of your own  &  dedicating your entire life to upholding it ? ❞  the laughter comes again, but softer this time, tia dalma’s hand flicking at the empty air near her ear as though at some invisible annoyance.  ❝ have caution, teague, or you may find yourself becoming the very men you claim to hate so. ❞

🪐 — EDWARD TEAGUE​  for  sarah !

     “Oh?” Presumably, she had just seen him attempt to assemble a trumpet. An endeavor that had taken him far longer than it should have- he still wasn’t sure if he had done it right. Teague awkwardly gripped the instrument. Give him a violin or even a set of drums and he could eventually figure things out. These brass instruments were another beast entirely. The mechanics of the mouthpiece alone was a nightmare. Still, Teague was determined to figure this out for no other reason than because he had little choice. Of course, he couldn’t do that with some nosey teenager breathing down his neck. Teague shrugged and turned away refocusing on the trumpet. “ The bell is about to ring. Go to class. ”

   SHE DOESN’T EVEN PLAY BRASS,  but sarah can still tell that the finger valves are upside-down on the trumpet the new band teacher is holding.  ❝ i’m pretty sure that front valve-slide goes in the other way, ❞  she says, a brow quirked curiously. mr. teague, as the principal had introduced him on the first day of band class, had so far defied all her expectations of what a band teacher would be like, barely even seeming to care about their marching formations or their symphonic arrangement. but when sarah had slipped into the music room after third period, intending to retrieve her sheet music so that she could run through the most challenging bits over her lunch period, she hadn’t expected to find him trying  &  failing to assemble one of the horns.  ❝ you sure you don’t want a hand ?  kinda looks like you’re struggling over there, mr. t. ❞  &  she smiles slightly, a tiny signal that his secret is safe with her  —  sarah may be a little weird, but she’s no snitch.  ❝ it’s just my lunch now, anyways. ❞

🪐 — INBOX CLEANUP.   @thecodekeeper​​  sent  a meme  :  hc + curse (calypso)

 ●  you  &  i have actually joked about this, ace, but i legitimately do stand by the headcanon that  calypso didn’t intentionally abandon jones  on that one day ashore when she was supposed to meet him.  let’s all remember that calypso is at least 3500 years old,  &  time simply hits different when you’re ageless !  to an immortal goddess, ten years really isn’t all that long,  &  the honest truth is that she just kinda... missed the date when she was supposed to meet him.  she was just off splashing around somewhere.  it was a genuine whoops moment.  &  i could do an entire separate meta post about my ideas on calypso’s relationship with jones, but it’s also important to remember that to her, mortal love is inherently fleeting. i don’t want to say that jones felt more intensely than she did, but he definitely took their love more seriously than her. she didn’t intend to hurt jones, but she also kinda figured that if she did, he would just... eventually get over it. she certainly didn’t expect him to go to the brethren court  &  curse her over it. ●  after being bound in her body, calypso moves to the shack in swamps of cuba because while as an ocean nymph, she needs to be in close proximity to saltwater to live, it also makes her too sad to be able to see or hear the ever-changing tides when she cannot change her own form with them. the saltwater from the sea that filters into the swamp is enough to keep her alive, without making her any more depressed than she already is. ●  calypso does have some subdued powers even when bound in her human body, such as premonitions  &  inexplicable intuition. she is also clearly capable of necromancy as seen with barbossa, as well as some very slight weather control,  &  communication with animals. she also learns hatian voodoo practices to supplement her own powers. it surprises her that human magic is real, too,  &  that it can even be used in combination with her goddess magic. ●  calypso does have some degree of premonition / intuition, which is particularly strong when it relates to her own powers. she is far less able to predict anything surrounding the magic that is used to bind her. for example, she knew upon her very first time seeing will that he would be the one to become the dutchman’s captain, because it was her power that had created the dutchman in the first place  ( this is what she meant by ‘a touch of destiny’ ).  however, she had no idea that it would ultimately be ragetti who broke the curse. honestly, she thought it would be barbossa after she resurrected him  &  all, or maybe even witty jack, who was actually one of her lovers. ●  the scene with calypso  &  jones when he comes to find her in the brig is the first  &  only time they speak after she gave him the dutchman  &  sent him on his mission. yes, including all the long decades she was cursed. in that scene, she tells him that when she is free, they will be together, always. this is a straight up lie, or at the very least, what she means by it is that he will be hers always because she is planning to fucking drown him in her storm lmao. she tells him that the last thing brethren court will learn in their lives is how cruel she can be. but literally the moment jones falls into the malestrom she’s created  &  dies, calypso’s storm calms  &  she departs the battle.  for these reasons, i think calypso never blamed the brethren court for her curse, only jones,  &  it’s him alone that she wants vengeance on. but she doesn’t want to tell him that to his face  —  she doesn’t want him to see her revenge coming.  &  it does seem to me like jones believes her, even going so far as to say that the malestrom won’t hurt the dutchman, which indicates that he believes calypso to be on his side, which she is actively not. ● bonus silly headcanon : it felt literally so good when she finally got to grow all giant before bursting out of her mortal bones take the form of a few hundred crabs  ( which has always been her preferred physical form ).  it was like, if you had a misaligned vertebrae for literally 80+ years  &  you’d been stretching it but you just couldn’t make it release the tension  &  then after decades of this you finally got to go to the chiropractor  &  they just popped your whole damn spine back into place  &  you suddenly realized you’d kinda forgotten what it felt like to stand up straight without back pain ?  it was just like that for her.  but even better, because then she got to go start a malestrom  &  drown her ex.  &  that’s some # girlboss behavior.

🪐 — CAPTAIN TEAGUE   for  calypso !

Tia Dalma’s laughter always gave him pause. There was an ominousness to it as if she was amused by a secret joke rather than anything you had said. Teague grunted in response as he walked over to a corner of the shack adorned with colourful bottles filled with what were surely very expensive potions of questionable usefulness. He had never claimed to be above their laws. They simply weren’t his. Still refusing to look at her, Teague picked up a small, rectangular bottle that was half filled with thick crimson liquid. “ Too late for that, then. I’ve already accepted the position. ” The decision still weighed heavily on him. He hadn’t even wanted the bloody thing but with Jack being so young it was the best option. He shrugged as if trying to throw off some of the exhaustion from the past few days, “ someone has to keep the brethren in line. ”

    SHE COULD REMEMBER  when teague had been a young man himself.  but like all men, he had grown up in spite of his best efforts.  responsibility, it seemed, could turn mortals old faster than time alone could.  ❝ &  you believe yourself to be the right person to do such a thing, do you ? ❞  the room is crowded with items, yet she moves to his side without jostling anything, well used to the way her body moves through limited space of her shack.  ❝ you say you wish to be the one who upholds the brethren’s so-called code.  but why ?  is it because you have such trouble following rules yourself — ❞  her fingers pluck the bottle from his hands  &  place it back on the shelf with a soft but decisive tap,  dark eyes glaring pointedly up at him.  ❝  —  & so your solution is to place yourself in a position above them ? ❞  teague is among the most difficult men she has met ( &  she has met more than a few in her time ), but something in the way he avoids her gaze now makes the goddess curious, her head tilting slightly to one side.  ❝ or perhaps you don’t actually want the position at all; don’t tell me that even the fearsome captain teague has now found himself bending to the will of others expectations. ❞ 

🪐 — MR. TEAGUE   for  sarah !

     TEAGUE’S HAND HOVERED over the incorrectly placed valve for a moment longer than was necessary before dropping back to his side. Perhaps he should have been more concerned that he had been caught. But if the kid really wanted to ruin his day she would have just marched over to the principal. He suspected he was already on thin ice. Finding out that their newly hired band teacher had no idea what he was doing would have surely been grounds for firing. By the looks of it, the student had no intention of snitching on him. Yet here she was, offering to help. While Teague wasn’t the kind of person to put his faith in the trustworthiness of others, especially a random teenager, he really didn’t have a choice. With a look of resignation Teague handed her the instrument, “ it’s Sandra, right? You play the saxophone, second chair. ” He watched with thinly masked interest as she began working on the trumpet. “ What’re you even doing wandering the halls?I thought lunch was supposed to be everyone’s favourite period.  ”

    ❝ IT’S SARAH, ❞  she corrects him, but her her tone is more curious than annoyed.  little awareness about the layout of a fairly basic instrument  &  he’s also bad at remembering the names of the relatively small number of students in the marching band ?  yeah, this guy definitely wasn’t a teacher.  or at the very least, he was brand new to the profession.  &  that observation combined with his accent  &  his habit of pushing the hawkins high dress code to its limits officially made the new band teacher the most interesting person on campus.  so maybe spending her lunch hiding out in the music room wouldn’t be so bad after all  —  even if it did include helping him assemble instruments.  ❝ yeah, well, it’s still better than algebra, ❞  she says, dropping her bag  &  sitting down cross-legged beside it on the tile floor.  ❝ but honestly, it’s just been a bit of a zoo out there lately.  &  i’m not interested in fighting for territory or finding a mate, so.  i thought i’d come in here to get some peace  &  quiet instead.  ❞  &  sarah sets the trumpet in her lap to slide the valve into place.  it’s a little sticky,  &  could use some oil, but at least it’s put together properly now.

🪐 — @thecodekeeper​​​   sent   a meme   for   stede   :

12  —  change  by  djo   ▶︎

   ❝ LET’S NOT GO KNOCKING  on that door ;  there are  entire years  i’ve locked away. ❞

🪐 — @thecodekeeper  sent   a meme   for  calypso   :

59  —  daffodil  by  florence + the machine   ▶︎

     ❝ I PRACTICE RESURRECTION nearly every night — always out raising the dead under the moonlight. remember this : i'm not bad, & i'm not good. ❞

IT WASN'T THE FIRST TIME he'd had a gun leveled at him — & he rather hoped that it wouldn't be the last — pirates were known to have notoriously quick trigger-fingers. the best course in these situations was to take the threat without reaction as izzy does now, arms crossed stiffly over his chest. ❝ you don't know me, but i imagine you've heard of my captain. ❞ he pauses, shifting his weight off his injured foot, the ache of which has become familiar & near manageable. ❝ goes by the name of blackbeard ? ❞ speaking the name usually changed people's tone considerably, especially with his recent list of crimes growing ever longer. but captain teague might have an unpredictable reaction as keeper of the pirate code, & izzy watches his reaction closely for any shift that might indicate danger.