#priates

"Well, well, welllllll. We meet again!" Luke grinned, meeting Darcy under the mistletoe for what had to be the 12th time that night.

Focused on nothing but her as the noise of the rest of the party and the sway of the ship as their crewmates partied the night away was washed out.

As usual, she was decked out in all black but it was Christmas-y enough that none of their friends gave her shit for it. Her long black hair was braided and she was even decked out in her best gothy makeup (the expensive kind he'd gotten her last month for her birthday, he was sure).

She rolled her eyes, unsuccessfully trying to hide a smile as she took a step closer to him. "Not that surprising. We always seem to find each other, even on a ship as big as this one is."

"Yeah. What a coincidence."

Their relationship wasn't that new. They'd been together since they were 13 and they were 16, now. Yet they were still in the 'honeymoon phase' as his dad liked to call it.

Luke hoped they never grew out of it.

Darcy leaned in close. Giving him a mischievous smile. "I'm starting to think that it isn't a coincidence."

"I guess you can say I'm like Santa Claus. Always-"

John cut Luke off by jumping on his back "MISTLEFOE BITCH!"

"OW! WHAT THE FUCK, FACILIER?!"

"Did you just say Mistle-FOE ?"

——————————————————————————

*Like 5 minutes before*

"Why the fuck do we have a mistletoe? Almost everyone here is single or a little kid." John groaned upon arriving to find the aforementioned decoration, glaring at it as if it had personally offended him.

His twin sister, Kallani—or Clever, as their friends had taken to her—just shrugged as she stripped off her coat and hung it on one of the hooks on the wall. Almost tripping over Skelebar as the toddler ran past her—and was nearly mowed down by not-so-little-little Levi as he ran after her.

"You know how Hannah likes to go overboard with decorating. I mean.... Just look at that—" she gestured at the skulls that were mounted on the wall with stockings hanging from their mouths. "I'm sure she didn't really think about how if anyone is actually kissing they're probably not gonna like it."

"I ain't kissing Luke if I end up under the mistletoe with him." John made a face at the thought, crossing his arms.

"No one's gonna make you kiss Luke" Kallani rolled her eyes. "Or anyone else for that matter. I don't think anyone here is gonna wanna kiss you anyways."

"What do I do if I DO end up under the mistletoe with him?"

Kallani paused.

It was quiet for a moment before she shrugged and said what she never should have "then turn it into a Mistle-FOE and fight him."

Then, upon seeing the look in her brother's eye, she added "I said fight. Not maim or kill. Hannah will kill both of us if you do that."

John pouted even though later he'd deny that he did. "You fuckers are no fun."

"Hey, I don't make the rules I just enforce them. Now let's go find something to eat. "

——————————————————————————

Kallani winced, remembering the previous conversation as Luke, Darcy, and John started fighting.

"Whoops."

——————————————————————————

I’m currently taking a mythology class, and reading Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. While reading about Greek myth, I stumbled upon the fact that while doves are normally seen as the birds of Aphrodite, so are swans and sparrows. I know that everyone has noticed the parallel between Elizabeth’s and Jack’s surnames, but this just adds another layer of beauty to it. The fact is, Elizabeth and Jack are just two sides of the same coin. They both represent this idea of freedom, being apart from the constraints of society. We watch them flourish in these roles, utilizing whatever assets they have to achieve their own ends.

Aphrodite is most commonly known as the goddess of love and beauty. Paris named her the most beautiful goddess. With the common depiction of Aphrodite as a young blonde woman, it’s easy to connect her with Elizabeth. Lizzie is portrayed as being desired by most of the men around her, each in their own way. Even Sao Feng finds himself inexorably attracted to her, and actually thinks that she’s a goddess. She’s also played by Keira Knightley, aka everyone’s queer awakening. That being said, Jack, too, is pictured as being attractive. Not only is he played by Johnny Depp, but we know that he’s had multiple lovers—Giselle, Scarlett, Ayisha, Angelica—just to name a few. Many others are attracted to him, as well, like Tia Dalma (dmc hints at it), Beckett, and Elizabeth herself. Beckett actually went as far as using Jack to seduce Ayisha into giving away the coordinates of Zerzura, a magical island holding great treasure. Jack and Elizabeth even flirt with each other, though they’re also portrayed as using each other to accomplish their own ends.

Hamilton writes that Aphrodite “laughed sweetly or mockingly at those her wiles had conquered; the irresistible goddess who stole away even the wits of the wise”. Both Elizabeth and Jack have coy smiles and find amusement in the people they toy with. We watch Elizabeth give that grin in cotbp when she threatens to drop the medallion overboard in front of Barbossa, mockingly, having outsmarted him. Later, we see a sweeter side of her as she smiles stupidly about Jack and James teases her for it. James, too, had his wits quite obviously stolen by her. Jack is portrayed as a trickster, smiling every time he works his way out of trouble. Sometimes convincingly, sometimes not so much. But he has a signature grin that makes the audience love him, even as he lies through his teeth.

So comes another important aspect of Aphrodite: she was seen as a goddess of war. Hamilton writes that she is “treacherous and malicious, exerting a deadly and destructive power over men”. Aphrodite wasn’t afraid to have her way, and neither were Jack or Elizabeth. Again, we see Elizabeth more as the main warrior, named King of the Brethren Court and declaring war on the EITC and navy. She progressively gets more dangerous as she gains access to weapons and better training. She utterly embraces this new role; when she’s mistaken for a goddess, she doesn’t back away from it, and when she’s named pirate king, she takes it right in stride. But Jack, too, is a figure of war. He believes, when necessary, in the principle of “fighting to run away”. He carries a pistol with one shot left in it to kill a man who wronged him. He faces the kraken with sword in hand. He gives Elizabeth his whole speech on doing things just because she wants to do them, and in the end, we watch her kill him. They’re both pirates, treacherous and deadly.

Yet another aspect of Aphrodite that hardly anybody mentions is that she was considered a goddess of the sea. She supposedly rose fully formed from the ocean. Aphros, in Greek, means ‘sea-foam’. Here, Jack is the most representative. He begins and ends the series a pirate and sailor, with his ship being the most important thing in the world to him. Pearls are another of Aphrodite’s symbols, and the Black Pearl suddenly becomes the most apt of names as Jack is often shown as the darker parallel to Elizabeth, even if in the end, we know they’re much more similar than we originally thought. Elizabeth, on the other hand, begins as a model of society and ends being mistaken for Calypso, another sea goddess. We watch as these two become tied to the sea so that the audience immediately relates both characters with the ocean.

Probably the least connected symbol is that of the apple. The apple is one of Aphrodite’s sacred fruits, and we see the apple as a symbol with Barbossa. Here, the apple is destructive, covered in poison, meant to kill the consumer. But both Jack and Elizabeth are shown eating—or nearly eating—Barbossa’s apples. They’re the only two characters, other than Barbossa himself, connected to the apple at all.