OOM: Pearl Repairs

[politestpirate]

The sky is cool, grey, and occasionally misting, but that just means when you are working hard you can keep warm enough.

And there is certainly plenty of work to be done. The deck of the Black Pearl has been cleared off, with debris and pieces that are large enough to reuse stacked carefully. All over is the gleam of cut and exposed wood, the splintered edges cut and smoothed in preparation for patching sections. One mast has been cleared of charred and torn sails and rigging, the canvas and rope set in one area to work on before it can be sent back up.

One of the current priorities, however, is fixing the stern section of the ship, the back wall of the captain's cabin, that took some of the worse damage from the kraken-

Scottish autumn nights can start to get chilly, afterall.

Party thread style, slowtimes more than welcome.

Comments

[pirate_jack]

He slants a sideways glance at her.

"Doesn't get cold in the Caribbean, luv," Jack says dryly. "Not used to being bound up in ice and snow."

[gonna_live]

...'bound'.

Kaylee bites her lower lip, and nods.

"We'll get you fixed up." Low. "Promise."

[pirate_jack]

"I have every faith in the applicability of your carpentry skills what can be used to reconcile the pieces together into a satisfactory whole, luv," he says blithely.

"Now. D'you need me to help you, or should I set to putting the oilcloth over what there is of the latticework so far until the 'plexiglas' is available?"

[gonna_live]

"Depends." More businesslike, now. Almost appraising. "You want the back part latticed, or you want it just solid window?"

It's easier to be more firm on her feet when there are questions to be answered, and things to be done.

[pirate_jack]

"Window that big, all of a piece, would be bloody expensive," he mutters. "And a horror to replace if needed done. Best to have the lattice all through, aye."

[gonna_live]

She nods. "Gonna do that first, then." Brisk. "How big you want the squares?"

[pirate_jack]

"Just a moment." Jack leaves the cloth lie and goes to a side chest, which he opens, pulling out a rolled set of papers.

He strides over to the desk and unrolls them. The top sheet is a hand-drawn blueprint, showing the Pearl's drafts and measurements.

He flips through a couple of others before finding one that shows the cabin in detail.

"This here's how she used to look."

[gonna_live]

Kaylee takes the paper -- parchment -- thing -- and turns it upside down, and tilts her head.

And turns, and looks out the back.

And nods, slowly. "That's...gonna be handy." Quiet. "You want her as she was, or...you want to make any changes?"

[pirate_jack]

There's a long silence, and then,

"What sort of changes?"

[gonna_live]

"In design. Anything."

[pirate_jack]

"Nothing like that, luv."

A quick flash of a smile, oddly wry.

"Now, your captain's convinced me of a few things -- like the virtue of plexiglas, savvy? -- but she's me Pearl, and I'd not change the heart of her."

[gonna_live]

"No," Kaylee says, quiet. "There was -- "

She'll blame Mal. Understands why. Understands that he wasn't well. Understands that as much weight as they all were under, he was under more than anybody but River -- and River wasn't in charge.

She'll blame Mal, but not out loud. And sure as hell not to anybody that isn't crew.

" -- we had to trick out Serenity, about a year ago. In a bad way. Mod her up. There's -- the way we fly, what makes her go -- it can poison you, you're not careful to keep everything in shape. I had to -- " A quick breath in, and out. "It was a disguise. To get us through a bunch of ships did the same thing."

"Hurt like hell." It's matter-of-fact. "I'm not sayin' you ought to change anything, it's just -- "

"I know what it's like to -- "

"Yeah."

[pirate_jack]

The glance he slants at her now is surprisingly enigmatic.

"You brought her back, luv. All of you did, aye?"

A beat.

"She's her old beautiful self now, just as she's supposed to be."

There's a certainty that rings through his tone.

[gonna_live]

It's enough to get him a curious glance from Kaylee.

She nods. "Yeah." Quiet.

And she looks back down at the plans. "Only mod's the plexiglas?"

[pirate_jack]

He watches her for a second, and then says quietly,

"Helps to see her as she's supposed to be again, luv. I know."

A beat, and Jack adds,

"That's the only for the time being, aye."

He and Mal Reynolds had discussed a number of things, captain to captain, but issues of cost as well as matching materials mean that Jack's focused first on what's most important.

[gonna_live]

Cautiously:

"I don't know what she's supposed to be."




"She's doin' pretty gorram good right now."

[pirate_jack]

"Meant your Serenity," he tells her.

A beat, and he glances around the cabin with a fond gaze.

"She is indeed."

[gonna_live]

Serenity...isn't, right now.

And won't be.





Kaylee's just tired.



Another question that has yet to be answered, for Kaylee: where's the crew of the Black Pearl?

Striving for brisk, and getting even: "Latticework is somethin' I ain't tried doin' yet. I'm gonna have to do a little research -- see if we don't just want the big sheet, and put it on over afterward, or if there're lots of little squares that got to be put in manual-like. Meantime...can still prep the frame for the stuff to fit in."

She's used to doing this with metal, and she's got a feeling the blowtorch isn't going to get it.

(As much as she loves it.)

[pirate_jack]

Jack sets a random assortment of items on the chart as weights -- a sextant, a mapmaker's compass, a large shell, a bottle of rum-- and then beckons Kaylee to a window that's got latticework in place. It's new, to judge from the color of the wood.

"Come here, lass. Look."

He points to the way the lattice has been made, with small slots to hold what would normally be leaded glass, and what might have been thought scraps lying by to nail in place as braces for a frame.

"You put a square in each, see? That way if the one gets broken, then it's only the one what needs fixing after, and not the whole. Hard to pull the entire thing down and take it apart, and harder still to fix from the outside, aye?"

[gonna_live]

Kaylee reaches up, traces two fingers down one of the legs of a frame. "And one bit for one or two sides?"

[pirate_jack]

"Exactly." He grins at her. "A bit of a brace for each pane, savvy?"

[gonna_live]

"Wo dong." Almost cheerfully, now.

It's a lot easier to deal with things that are broken if the other person's...okay with it.

She's found that out before. It hasn't changed.

[pirate_jack]

Jack looks pleased, even as he runs a hand over the wall by the latticework in an absent, familiar caress.

"I'll let you set to it, then."

[gonna_live]

Kaylee stoops. Picks up a handsaw.

Says, over her shoulder, "Could paint the latticework purple."

Grin just a little teasing.

[pirate_jack]

He looks up from the oilcloth that he's currently unrolling to give her a rather baleful look -- or at least it would be, if there wasn't wicked amusement glittering in his eyes.

"Luv, she's the Black Pearl-- not the Purple Pearl, savvy?"

A beat, and he gestures at his hair.

"Not that there's a thing wrong with a bit of pretty color, but not on me ship like that."