joshamee_gibbs

❦ Mun
Name: saralinda
Journal: saralinda
Contact Info: AIM: ohwehavefun
Other Characters: None at D.A.

❦ Character Info
Name: Joshamee Gibbs
Movie/series: POTC
Year/Position: Staff/Maintenance
Non-Speaking Animal Companion(if any): No
Powers(if any): No special powers. As First Mate, Gibbs is expected to know each station on the ship. He is an expert sailor, a fair shot with a pistol and a reliable swordsman. He has a rare talent at storytelling and perhaps also a wide knowledge of maritime songs.
Canon history: Go here.
AU history:

With Jack, Elizabeth, and now Barbossa, too, gone on to the Academy, Gibbs felt it his duty to keep order aboard the Pearl. He was able to maintain authority over its increasingly ragged and wild-eyed crew partly through dark tales (made up) about how the Black Mist would be upon them if they mutinied or abandoned ship. Things were getting increasingly strained, however. Each night Gibbs took the darkest watch, listening and looking for any sign of his friends or the infernal ghosts of the black breath that was spreading across the ocean. The night the principal's longboat nosed alongside the Pearl was Gibbs's last; he entrusted the ship to Marty and Cotton before setting off to rejoin his companions and seek an end to the madness that was ruining all their piratey fun.

Personality:

Joshamee Gibbs is a tough old salt who has sailed on both sides of the law. A former warrant officer turned pirate, Gibbs is an affable enough fellow, especially if you supply him with rum. By this point in his canon, he is an avowed pirate who lives by the ruling of "Take what you can, give nothing back!" Here are a few of his most outstanding characteristics:

Loyal (for a pirate, at least): This is probably Gibbs's defining characteristic. He is loyal to the Code---although he seems to accept it when Elizabeth teaches him Barbossa's creed that they're more like guidelines anyway---and is especially loyal to Jack Sparrow. It is suggested that Teague and Gibbs were once friends, which might in part explain this connection. At the Isla de Muerta, Gibbs honored Jack's demand to keep to the code should he be left behind; he also helped Jack back onto the Pearl several times: after his daring coffin-prison-break, his leap from the fort, and notably as a member of the party who sought Sparrow at World's End. Finally, Gibbs's tales of Jack's adventures help shore up the captain's pirating reputation throughout the Caribbean.

Alcoholic: Yes. He is one. Gibbs loves the rum, to the point where he at times falls down on the job. This is most often a weakness, and likely the number one reason he fell into piracy in the first place. He almost always has a leather flask on his person.

Superstitious: The downside of knowing so much pirate and maritime lore is that Gibbs is prone to superstition. When he sees the black spot on Jack's palm, for example, he does an elaborate dance to ward off evil. When young Elizabeth sings about pirates on her voyage to Port Royal, Gibbs advises Norrington that it's bad luck to have a woman on board.

Cunning & Often Unscrupulous: Gibbs is notably the first ally Sparrow seeks out upon his return to Tortuga. Jack trusts the older man enough to tell him his plan for Will Turner, and Gibbs is unscrupulous enough to sign on and try to help the captain gain his ends. Additionally, Gibbs has to be on his toes enough to serve as a go-between for captain and crew. This means, as in the beginning of the second movie, that Gibbs must both warn Jack of the restlessness of the crew and attempt to rationalize Jack's purposes to said restless crew. Poor Gibbs.

Greatest Fear:

Gibbs has faced down many terrifying things alongside Jack and the rest of the crew. However, I would say that he holds a special terror for curses and the supernatural. Considering all of his little superstitious mannerisms and his fascination with the story of Barbossa's crew, I would have to name a horrible curse upon his soul as Gibbs's worst fear.

What are your plans with this character?:

I would like to see Gibbs take up his comic relief and otherwise supporting role in the POTC cast. I'm hoping to give him a chance to spin some yarns and possibly terrify some children with his horrible stories, because, hey, it's Gibbs, and he enjoys that kind of thing. Also, he's a bit of a troll. I tend to be a plot-oriented player in general, so would be glad to get him involved.

❦ Writing
Third person writing sample:

It had seemed like a long time since Mistress Elizabeth--King, really, though the title still left a strange taste on Gibbs's tongue--had set forth on her quest to discover the secrets of the infernal black breath that had been plaguing Caribbean waters since the day they were to have lost their lives.

"To a man," Gibbs muttered, staring into the darkness and picturing the fleet of EITC ships ready to strafe them to the depths. He was perched rather precariously on the forward rail of the Black Pearl as she lay at anchor off Dominica. "We'd have lost our lives to a man." With Jack and Barbossa gone as well, the Pearl had fallen to the first mate's care, and he'd found himself standing watch night after night for some sign of their return: Jack, Barbossa. Elizabeth. The Pearl needed a captain as much as the Dutchman ever did, and while Joshamee Gibbs knew the ship well, he was no captain.

With these and other dark thoughts occupying his brain, he uncorked his flask and drank. There was no mist in sight, but it was on his mind. It always seemed to be on his mind these days. "Cloud of the devil himself." Gibbs repeated that several times, nodding each time and then breaking off to take another long drink. Privately he suspected the mist was a foul creation engineered by the EITC to poison the waters to world's end. The thought renewed his determination to let no sail or sound escape him.

Keeping watch was a lonely job at night, but the rum was good company. When eight bells finally rang out, the mate's rather hairy ears perked up: alert to the sound of muffled oars as a longboat made its way alongside the Pearl.

"Who goes?!" Gibbs demanded, peering into the darkness, cloudy eyes registering surprise when a bottled message sailed over the rail and landed in his hands.

Joshamee Gibbs took leave of the Pearl that night in that very same mysterious boat, trusting Marty to look after Sparrow's ship until he returned from the Academy. "With answers! Or sewn up in my own hammock!"

First person writing sample:

I know what yer thinkin', so allow me to put your fears to rest on that account: the Pearl's in good hands. Marty I'd trust with your life, and Cotton...well, Cotton's not nearly mad enough to make off with her. No imagination, Cotton--that's why he shifts as helmsman whenever possible. He takes orders, does the sensible thing, and ain't scared off by figments and cobwebs and nonsense. Marty, he's got himself enough imagination to make him dangerous, but he'd never abandon a man. What he lacks in height the boy makes up for in smarts; won't be "managed" by no crew of Tortuga wretches, neither. So calm the mad Christmas in your gullet, my good Captains: the Pearl will awaiting us when we return: this I'll swear by Poseidon's dodgy left knee, and by all those gone on before.