Shipwreck Cove; 1750: Inside a sort of courtroom, the nearest thing Katri has to a friend, in the pirate world, is Captain Barbossa stands at the head of the table, his monkey Jack on his shoulder. Barbossa glances around the room before he starts banging a cannonball on the table.
"As he who issued summons, I convene this, the fourth Brethren Court. To confirm your lordship and right to be heard, present now your pieces of eight, my fellow cap'ns" Barbossa announces. Ragetti walks around with a bowl and each person puts a piece of junk in it.
"Those aren't pieces of eight, they're just pieces of junk" Pintel comments, Gibbs nods.
"Aye, the original plan was to use nine pieces of eight to bind Calypso, but when the first court met, the brethren were to a one, skint broke" he explains.
"So change the name"
"To what? 'Nine Pieces of Whatever We Happened to Have in Our Pockets at the Time'? Oh yes, that sounds very piratey" Gibbs argues.
"Mr. Ragetti, if you will" Barbossa asks of the fellow pirate.
"I kept it safe for you, just like you said when you gave it to me"
"Aye, ya have, but now I need it back" Barbossa whacks Ragetti on the back of the head and his wooden eye pops out and he puts it in the bowl.
"Sparrow!" Villanueva points out looking to Jack Sparrow at the other end of the table. Sparrow touches coin dangling from his bandanna.
"Might I point out that we are still short one pirate lord, and I'm content as a cucumber to wait until Captain Mikaelson joins us" Sparrow points out. Katri chooses this perfect moment to enter the room.
"Then you're in luck, Jack" she comments looking to him, he smirks a little back at her. "Listen. Our location has been betrayed. Jones is under the command of Lord Beckett, they're on their way here" she announces looking around at the others.
"Who is this betrayer?" Jocard asks looking to her.
"Not likely anyone among us" Barbossa answers. "And it matters not how they found us. The question is, what will we do now that they have?"
"We fight!" Katri answers.
"Shipwreck Cove is a fortress, a well supplied fortress" Mistress Cheng points out. "There is no need to fight if they cannot get to us"
"There is a third course" Barbossa corrects. "In another age, at this very spot, the first court captured the sea goddess, and bound her in her bones. That was a mistake. Oh, we tamed the seas for ourselves, aye, but opened the door to Beckett and his ilk. Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures, but from the sweat of a man's brow and the strength of his back alone. Y'all know this to be true. Gentlemen, ladies. We must free Calypso"
"Shoot him!" Ammand shouts.
"Cut out his tongue!" Jocard corrects.
"Shoot him and cut out his tongue, then shoot his tongue. And trim that scraggly beard" Sparrow offers.
"Calypso was our enemy then, she will be our enemy now" Jocard informs them.
"And it's not likely her mood's improved" Chevalle adds.
"We release Calypso!" Villanueva shouts.
"You threaten me?" Chevalle asks.
"I silence you!" Villanueva counters and then all hell breaks loose, Katri pulls a face looking around.
"This is bloody madness" she states.
"This is politics" Sparrow offers.
"Meanwhile our enemies are bearing down upon us" Katri adds.
"If they not be here already" Barbossa tells her and then fires gun to silence them. "It was the first court what imprisoned Calypso, and we will be the ones to set her free, and in her gratitude she will see fit to grant us boons"
"Whose boons? Your boons? Utterly deceptive twaddlespeak, says I" Sparrow counters.
"If you have a better alternative, please, share" Barbossa tells him.
"Cuttlefish. Let us not, dear friends, forget our dear friends the cuttlefish. Flippant glorious little sausages. Pen 'em up together and they'll devour each other without a second thought. Human nature, isn't it?...or....or fish nature" Sparrow talks as he moves around the table, he places his hand on Mistress Cheng's shoulders. "So yes, we could hole up here well provisioned and well armed and half of us would be dead within the month, which seems grim to me any way you slice it. Or, as my learned colleague so naively suggests, we could release Calypso, and we can pray that she will be merciful. I rather doubt it. Can we in fact pretend that she is anything other than a woman scorned, like which fury hell hath no?" Sparrow winks at Katri who rolls her eyes. "We cannot. Res ipso loquitur tabula in naufragio, we are left with but one option. I agree with, and I cannot believe the words are comin' out of me mouth, Captain Mikaelson. We must fight"
"You've only ever run from a fight" Barbossa argues.
"I have not!"
"You have too!"
"Have not!"
"You have too!"
"Have not!"
"You have too, and you know it!"
"Have not, slander and calumny! I have only ever embraced that oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit here and now, that is what we all must do, we must fight... to run away"
"Aye!" Gibbs agrees.
"As per the code, an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the pirate king" Barbossa points out.
"You made that up" Sparrow argues.
"Did I now? I call on Captain Teague, keeper of the code"
"SeSumbhajee proclaims this all to be folly! Hang the code! Who cares..." SeSumbhajee's assistant states before he is cut off by gun shot.
"Code is the law" Captain Teague walks up behind Sparrow. "You're in my way, boy" Sparrow scurries out of the way. Two old men carry up the code and set it on the table.
"The code" Pintel whipsers.
"As set forth by Morgan and Bartholomew" Capt. Teague whistles and the dog comes with the key. "How did...?"
"Sea turtles, mate" Teague opens the books and looks through the code. "Barbossa is right"
"Hang on a minute" Sparrow checks the code. "It shall be the duty of the king to declare war, parlay with said adversaries... fancy that"
"There's not been a king since the first court, and that's not likely to change" Chevalle points out.
"Not likely"
"Why not?" Katri asks.
"Because the king is elected by popular vote" Gibbs answers.
"And each pirate only ever votes for hisself" Barbossa adds looking to her.
"I call for a vote" Sparrow tells them all, the room groans before everyone looks at everyone else. Then each pirate captain votes for themselves.
"I vote for Ammand, the corsair" Ammand votes.
"Capitan Chevalle, the penniless French man" Chevalle votes.
"SeSumbhajee votes for SeSumbhajee"
"Mistress Cheng"
"Gentleman Jocard"
"Katri Mikaelson"
"Barbossa"
"Villanueva"
"Katri Mikaelson" Sparrow votes, everyone looks at him.
"What?" Katri asks.
"I know, curious isn't it?" Sparrow asks her back.
"Why didn't you vote for me?" Jocard asks Sparrow before they all start arguing, again.
"Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code, then?" Sparrow asks, Capt. Teague breaks a guitar string and the room goes silent.
"Very well, what say you Captain Mikaelson, king of the Brethren Court?" Madame Chang asks her.
"Prepare every vessel that floats. At dawn, we're at war" Katri tells them all.
"And so, we shall go to war" SeSumbhajee announces in a high pitched squeaky voice. Barbossa signals Ragetti and he makes off with the pieces of eight.