Fanfic / The Piratesverse

Once upon a time, a young troper decided to write a fanfic. Since The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! probably wasn't going to get a sequel, she would make it herself. She soon came upon a problem, however; she had so many ideas that she couldn't decide which to use.

Her solution? Use all of them.

The Piratesverse is a Fan Verse created by Mort08 that serves as a continuation of the Pirates! story. Beginning shortly after the events of the movie, it chronicles the subsequent adventures of the eccentric Pirate Captain and his loyal crew. Their world is a strange one, and the things they encounter are no exception. The series plans to follow the characters through at least the next three years of their lives, and maybe shed some light on their past as well. Originally begun on FanFiction.Net, it can also be found on Deviantart and Archive of Our Own.

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There are currently seven completed stories and one work in progress:

• An Adventure With A Volcano (3 months after movie): The crew decides that it's high time they visited the Galapagos Islands to see Darwin, and they're right; upon arrival, they're captured by islanders who have selected their friend as the next sacrifice to the local fire god. The Pirate Captain's got a plan to save him, but he's going to need a little bit of firepower...
• An Adventure With The Illuminati (approx. 4 1/2 months after movie) Now accompanied by Darwin, the crew discovers that the Pirate King has disappeared, leaving behind only a mysterious map. A map that two Malevolent Masked Men try to kill them over. Men that Darwin, who can't even stab a fencing dummy, somehow curb-stomps to the surprise of everyone. Including himself. And that's when things start getting weird for him.

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• An Adventure With Napoleon (6 months after movie) Captain and crew are all set for a day of relaxation when a funny little man in a lifeboat tries to come aboard their ship. It's Napoléon Bonaparte, who's had enough of this "exiled to Elba" business and is commandeering their vessel to return to Paris and resume taking over Europe. What's the band of misfits to do? Kill him? No. Turn him in? No. Disguise Blood Island as Gay Paree, take him there and convince him it's the real deal? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
• An Adventure With Aliens (1 year after movie, crossover with Doctor Who) When the Albino Pirate wishes on a passing comet to be told why The Stars Are Going Out, he gets more than he bargained for - namely, the comet itself. It's the TARDIS, with the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble inside. Something has pulled them out of the Time Vortex, and not by accident. As it becomes apparent that there are far bigger problems around than disappearing stars, the pirates and the time travelers must work together if they hope to defeat the nefarious forces that threaten them all.

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• An Adventure With Disguises (approx. 1 year 1 month after movie) What do you get when you mix a night on the town, an annoying shanty and your friends having a little too much grog? In Darwin's case, the revelation that your best friend is a woman. Cue a crash course in slappings, stab wounds, True Companions and even something a little more affectionate.
• An Adventure With Pioneers (1 year 4 months after movie) Albino Pirate wished for an adventure when the crew went to The Wild West, but this probably isn't what he had in mind. Swept away during a thunderstorm, he and Polly find themselves in Blue Mud, a sleepy frontier town anxiously waiting for the railroad that will be the answer to its prayers. Too bad the local bandits are dead-set on its destruction. It isn't long before Albino Pirate and the rest of the crew are drawn into an escapade filled with gunslinging, booby traps, unlikely friends and a very annoying bison.
• An Adventure With Dracula (1 year 6 months after movie) A drunken bet with Black Bellamy sends our heroes off to New Orleans in search of the answer to an age-old question; in a straight fight, would a shark beat a Dracula? They soon find a Dracula to test their theory on, and it looks like he could indeed beat a shark — as well as any hapless human who gets in the way of his plans. Before long, there's a new question being asked; can the crew figure out what's going on and sharpen up their vampire-hunting skills in time to save their captain and the world from certain doom?
• The Pirate Games (2 years after movie, WIP) The 1839 Pirate of the Year Awards promises to be like no other, mainly because the Pirate King is making sure of it. He's changing the rules of the game; instead of who can plunder the most booty, the winner will be determined by a Gotta Catch 'Em All-style treasure hunt across several islands. Who will win? The Pirate Captain, Black Bellamy or the upstart newcomer who throws a wrench in both their plans? What begins as a game of skill turns into something far more dangerous, and Blood Island's two greatest rivals will have to work together to save everything they stand for.

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Tropes include:

Series-wide

• Alternate History
• Amplified Animal Aptitude: Polly and Marvin.
• Badass Bookworm: Darwin.
• Big Fancy House: The Pirate King's palace, located in the center of Blood Island.
• The Captain: The Pirate Captain, of course.
• Continuation Fic
• Crapsaccharine World: Blood Island comes across as this sometimes. The pirates happily ostracize and torment those who don't conform to their standards, while the Pirate King is unstable and often dangerous. Downplayed in that these arrangements are made with the locals' happiness in mind and presented as the lesser of two evils in most conflicts.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Illuminati for Darwin.
  • Pioneers for Albino Pirate.
• Enemy Mine: Whenever the Pirate Captain's plan requires Black Bellamy's involvement.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The titles.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Black Bellamy. While he is on better terms with the Pirate Captain than he was in the movie and occasionally helps him out (albeit for a price), he's not above screwing with him and/or taking more drastic actions than he would.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each story begins with the phrase "An Adventure With..."
• Misfit Mobilization Moment: The crew has had several.
• My Local: The Barnacle's Face Tavern on Blood Island.
• Original Character: At least one in almost all the stories, most notably in Pioneers.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Par for the course. Taken Up to Eleven in Napoleon, when Blood Island is disguised as The Theme Park Version of Paris.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen.
• Recurring Character: Black Bellamy and the Pirate King have been upgraded to this.
• Shout-Out:
  • In Illuminati, Darwin notes in his first diary entry that it's been 42 days since the events of Volcano.
  • In Napoleon, the incident leading to the Pirate With Gout's "execution" apparently involved iocane powder.
    • When the Pirate Captain uses pictures to explain his Zany Scheme to take Napoleon to Saint Helena, he draws the Pirate King as a monstrous clown that eats his victim.
  • Chapter 4 of Aliens is called "Victoria's Secret," and Chapter 11 is called "A Matter of Ice and Fire."
    • According to the Doctor, Jack Sparrow is fictional while Guybrush Threepwood is real.
  • The shanty in Chapter 1 of Disguises is "The Mariner's Revenge Song."
  • Albino Pirate's cowboy outfit in Pioneers is meant to evoke Dorothy's gingham dress and ruby slippers.
    • The surname of Blue Mud's sheriff is Hedley.
• Simple Staff: Darwin prefers to fight with one.
• Zany Scheme: Most, if not all, of the Pirate Captain's plans.

An Adventure With A Volcano

• Appease the Volcano God: What the islanders plan to do with Darwin, and later with the Pirate Captain.
• Chased by Angry Natives
• God Guise: The Pirate Captain disguises himself as the islanders' fire god in order to distract them while the crew escapes from the volcano.
• How We Got Here: Opens with the crew trapped in an empty volcano and about to execute their escape plan before flashing back to show the events leading up to this.
• In Medias Res: Starts with the Pirate Captain putting the finishing touch on his God Guise.
• Lady Land: The islanders are implied to be predominantly female.
• Matriarchy: The islanders are ruled by an old woman, prompting the Pirate Captain to decide that the crew needs to start avoiding queens.
• Oh, Crap!: The crew gets two of these, first when the queen declares that the Pirate Captain will be sacrificed to the volcano, and later when lava starts seeping up through the bottom of the volcano they're stuck in.
• Tap on the Head: How the islanders capture the pirates and Darwin.

An Adventure With The Illuminati

• Afraid of Blood: Darwin (which is actually Truth in Television). Considering what he witnessed shortly before losing his memories, it's not surprising.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Darwin fears that if he regains his Illuminati memories, his current personality will be erased and he'll become a ruthless killer just like them. When he does start getting his memories back, it's apparently played straight before being revealed as a subversion.
• Amnesiac Hero: Darwin, although it takes him a while to realize it.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Illuminati, of course.
• Backstory: Darwin gets one.
  • Backstory Horror: And how.
• Badass Family: Darwin's biological one. When your parents are pirates who disguise themselves as Illuminati, steal important plans from under the society's nose, sacrifice their lives for you and remain brave to the very end, you belong to one of these.
• Big Bad: The Quartermaster.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • The pirates of Blood Island, led by Black Bellamy, coming to save the crew and the Pirate King from the Illuminati.
  • Darwin saving the Pirate With A Scarf from the Quartermaster.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: The Quartermaster leaves Darwin and the Pirate Captain to drown in ice water without making sure it actually happens. He does send two mooks to check on them later, but they've already escaped.
• Break the Cutie: This story could very well be called "Let's Torture Darwin."
• Broken Ace: Black Bellamy in the beginning. Having fallen out of favor with the Pirate King, he has been reduced to living as a hermit in the Barnacle Face's cellar. He makes a comeback.
• The Confidant: The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate is this for Darwin.
• Darker and Edgier
• Dances and Balls: The Illuminati seem to be fond of these.
• Epic Fail: All of Darwin's attempts to learn seafaring/piratical abilities end like this. At first.
• The Faceless: The Illuminati are always depicted as wearing masks, which they never remove. The only ones to do so are pirate spies.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Darwin's father is eviscerated by the Illuminati during his Last Stand, and his mother is tortured to death in front of him. The Quartermaster cracks his head open on the steps of a ziggurat.
• Flynning: When the Pirate Captain tries to teach Darwin swordfighting. He even uses fencing terms. Subverted by the actual swordfighting, which is much less sophisticated.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Darwin's first nightmare is a surreal version of his mother's death.
  • In Chapter 2, the Pirate With Gout jokingly remarks that Darwin could defeat an adversary by talking to them. Which is how Darwin manages to overcome the Quartermaster's influence.
• Forced to Watch: The Quartermaster has Darwin's mother tortured to death in front of him as punishment for not killing her.
• Forgotten First Meeting: It's implied that the man who waves to Darwin in his Chapter 10 flashback is the Pirate Captain.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Quartermaster.
• The Illuminati: Duh.
• Island Base: The Illuminati have one.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him: What the Quartermaster was planning when he told Darwin to kill him. It fails.
• Journey to Find Oneself: For Darwin.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Invoked by name when the Pirate Captain is planning the attack on the Illuminati's Island Base.
• Malevolent Masked Men: The Illuminati's masks are the Mardi Gras/Venetian variety mixed with Rage Helm.
• Missing Mom: Darwin mentions that his mother died when he was eight. His adopted one, anyway; his real one died a year earlier and in a much more gruesome fashion.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: The ruby ring that Darwin wears around his neck. It's actually an Illuminati emblem, and his mother was planning to sell it so they could begin new lives in England. When she dies, she gives it to him as a reminder to survive and seek a better life.
• Mr. Exposition: Black Bellamy teaches the pirates (and the readers) about the Illuminati.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Most of the Illuminati wear red outfits, and the Quartermaster wears black.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Darwin does this to the Quartermaster when the latter pulls his If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him gambit.
• Those Two Bad Guys: The Illuminati who menace Darwin in Chapter 5.
• Took a Level in Badass: Darwin.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia
• Wham Line:
  • Chapter 7: "I've been here before."
  • Chapter 9: "You should know better than to speak such things...my student."
  • Chapter 10: "What happened to me?"

An Adventure With Napoleon

• And I'm the Queen of Sheba: When Napoleon first announces who he is, the Pirate Captain's response is "And I'm Good Queen Bess."
• Amphibious Automobile: Inverted. The Pirate King's ship has wheels for sailing on land.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Cutlass Liz passing herself off as Napoleon's wife. To Napoleon. Who completely falls for it.
• Big Entrance: Coming over a hill in a giant ironclad that can sail on land. Doesn't get much bigger than that.
• Busman's Holiday: The pirates have anchored their boat and are simply enjoying the nice weather when Napoleon finds them. Lampshaded at the end, when they sail off to find a "proper holiday."
• The Caligula: Napoleon.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Napoleon vs. the pirates in Chapter 1.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Napoleon's sanity is debatable, but his competence in battle certainly isn't.
• Darkest Hour: Napoleon has discovered the crew's trick and escaped with their ship, intent on taking over Europe. The other pirates not only refuse to help them, but sell the Pirate Captain out to the Pirate King with no remorse.
• Expy: Napoleon is basically a crazier version of the French Taunter.
• Faking the Dead: Has to be done with everyone that Napoleon wants executed.
• Noodle Incident: Why the Pirate With Gout had to be "executed." All we're told is that iocane powder was involved.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Napoleon.
• Shaming the Mob: The Pirate With A Scarf does this to the people of Blood Island when they try to capture the Pirate Captain so he can be taken to the Pirate King for punishment. It doesn't work.
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz say this in response to the Pirate Captain's plan for getting Napoleon off Blood Island. They later try it themselves, with unfortunate results.

An Adventure With Aliens

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer
• Aerosol Flamethrower: Used by the Pirate Captain to break himself and those captured by the Rutan out of their prison, and later to kill the Rutan.
• And the Adventure Continues: A dark variation; the Doctor is taking Donna to a planet called Shan Shen...
• Be Careful What You Wish For
• Beware of Vicious Dog: Dash, at least initially.
• Big "WHAT?!": The Doctor does his trademark Rule of Three version when he is told that Victoria knows about him and is looking for him.
• Brought Down to Normal: The Doctor, in a way. He loses the TARDIS, sonic screwdriver and psychic paper early in the story and spends the bulk of it trying to make do without them.
• Call-Forward: When he meets the Pirate Captain, the Doctor makes references to Pioneers, Disguises and other future stories.
• Clock Tower: The Rutans' teleporter ray is inside Big Ben, and the heroes go there to dismantle it.
• Continuity Nod: The Library and River are briefly mentioned, as well as "Midnight". The story is meant to take place shortly after the latter.
• Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Lots.
• Determinator: The Doctor cites this as one of the Pirate Captain's admirable qualities.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Victoria is shown to have a soft spot for Dash.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Dash.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Tower of London, especially with that weird green light in the window.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When the plans for the Rutans' teleporter ray are discovered, the Doctor says that it couldn't function without a durable electrical contact, preferably made from a platinum group metal...and then he remembers the missing ruthenium.
• Featureless Plane of Disembodied Dialogue: Used intentionally at the end of Chapter 3 to conceal the identity of the alien speaking to Victoria.
• Happily Ever Before: For the Doctor and Donna. See And the Adventure Continues.
• Kill It with Fire: How the Rutan is finally destroyed.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The Doctor mentions having read stories about the Pirate Captain's adventures.
• MacGuffin: The ruthenium.
• Mythology Gag: The Bishop of Oxford and his villain status, hiding out in the Royal Society and the sample of ruthenium are all taken from the original Pirates! book.
• Origins Episode: Also functions as the story of how Strax and the Doctor first met.
• The Stars Are Going Out: At the beginning, albeit very slowly. It's meant to reveal where in the Doctor Who timeline the story is set.
• The Reveal:
  • Victoria has made an alliance with Sontarans.
  • The Bishop of Oxford is a Rutan.
• Sickly Green Glow: The pirates keep seeing one in and around the Tower of London. It's the Bishop of Oxford in his Rutan form.
• Victorian London: The main setting.

An Adventure With Disguises

• Adaptation Dye-Job: In Real Life, Emma Darwin had black hair. This universe's version of her is blonde.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Everyone in the crew except Darwin, Mr. Bobo and Polly in Chapter 1. Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate accidentally drops her fake voice, which is how Darwin discovers her true gender.
• Breather Episode: A three-chapter character study following the high stakes of Aliens.
• Distracted by the Sexy: When Darwin is bandaging Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate's ankle.
• Historical Person Punchline: See Given Name Reveal.
• For Want of a Nail: "Things might have stayed the way they were, forever, if the Pirate With An Accordion hadn't chosen that moment to strike up a shanty."
• Given Name Reveal: Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate's real name is revealed to be Emma.
• "No. Just... No" Reaction: Darwin's initial response to his discovery.
• Ship Tease: The ending.
• Unsettling Gender Reveal: For Darwin, at least. He gets over it.
• Wham Episode: Deals with exposing and getting rid of Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate's Sweet Polly Oliver position.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate asks Darwin this. He says it was nothing.
• Your Mom: The fight between the pirates and another crew is caused by one of these.

An Adventure With Pioneers

• Adult Fear: The crew finding out that Albino Pirate has disappeared after the Pirate Captain left him on the ship for his own protection.
• Ambiguously Jewish: Wechsler. He occasionally uses Yiddish words, doesn't come inside the town chapel and Albino Pirate mentions that he's missed eating ham while living with him.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Jennifer sees Beatrice as one of these, and she's not completely wrong.
• Chekhov's Skill: Jennifer's ability to climb comes in handy when she has to escape from her house after discovering her father's true plans.
• City Mouse: Jennifer.
• Co-Dragons: Yellow-Eyes Jackson and Phineas Winters.
• Corrupt Politician: Averell Winters, who made a deal with Jackson to destroy Blue Mud so he and his cronies could have sole access to the silver mine beneath it.
• Cowboy Episode
• Daddy Didn't Show: The ending of Chapter 9.
• Daddy's Girl: Jennifer, in spades.
• Deadpan Snarker: Sheriff Hedley.
• Dirty Coward: Jackson and the Winters brothers, who attempt to flee the scene when their plans fall apart.
• Doomed New Clothes: Jennifer's white dress.
• Dying Town: Blue Mud in the beginning.
• Eyepatch of Power: Sheriff Hedley.
• Funetik Aksent: Dr. Wechsler.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Jennifer is the Beautiful One, while Beatrice is the Smart One.
• Gray Rain of Depression: After Albino Pirate is forced to leave town. Becomes plot-relevant when it helps the heroes figure out that Blue Mud is built over a silver mine.
• Herr Doktor: Dr. Wechsler.
• Historical Domain Character: Martin Van Buren.
• Ice Queen: Jennifer.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: After Albino Pirate and Wechsler save her from bandits.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Jackson attempts this with Emma, who shoots him in the foot for it.
• Loss of Identity: By the end of the story, Jennifer feels this way due to her Character Development. Which is why she joins the crew.
• Made a Slave: It's implied that this is what would have happened to the Native Americans that Jackson captured.
• Mad Scientist: Wechsler is a benevolent version.
• Native Americans: Encountered in Chapter 8.
• Nice Hat: Albino Pirate finds and wears a white ten-gallon hat.
• Outlaw: Yellow-Eyes Jackson, who leads an outlaw gang.
• Parental Neglect: Averell Winters towards his daughters.
• Parody: The first part of Chapter 8 parodies The Oregon Trail.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Yellow-Eyes Jackson and his gang, who are seen hunting down Native Americans to sell into slavery.
• Railroad Baron: Averell Winters, Jennifer and Beatrice's father.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Sheriff Hedley.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Inverted, as it's the hero who has them.
• Rich Bitch: Jennifer.
• River of Insanity: Albino Pirate and Polly are separated from the crew thanks to a literal one.
• Rollercoaster Mine: Used briefly when the pirates are fleeing from Jackson and his men in Chapter 12.
• The Sheriff: Hedley.
• Showdown at High Noon: It's mentioned that Jackson's gang always attacks the town at noon.
• Socialite: Jennifer, who briefly mentions that her first debutante ball is coming up.
• Training the Peaceful Villagers
• The Wild West
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Yellow-Eyes Jackson, of course.
• Yiddish as a Second Language: Wechsler sometimes does this.

An Adventure With Dracula

• Aristocrats Are Evil: Count Dracula, of course.
• At the Opera Tonight: The pirates attempt to kidnap Dracula by following him to a production of The Magic Flute in New Orleans.
• The Bet: The plot is kicked off when the Pirate Captain makes a bet with Black Bellamy. If he can prove that a shark would beat a Dracula, Bellamy will give him half of his treasure. If he can't, Bellamy will get half of his silver.
• The Big Easy
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The Pirate Captain is brainwashed by Dracula.
• Coincidental Article: The captain finds one announcing Dracula's arrival in New Orleans.
• Cryptid Episode: Of the "going to find a cryptid" (and pit them against a shark) variety.
• Dance of Romance: Jenny's waltz with Dracula is set up to look like this until she finds out who he is.
• Dracula: Really? No way!
• Fish out of Water: Jenny, who isn't adjusting to the pirate life very well.
• "I Know You're In There Somewhere" Fight: The hypnotized Pirate Captain vs. the Pirate With a Scarf. The former only just manages not to kill the latter before he's knocked out.
• Looks Like Orlok: Dracula, of course, once he abandons his charming façade.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: The guys are either oblivious or confused by the sisters' advances at the party in Chapter 4.
• Southern Gothic
• Sycophantic Servant: Renfield, of course, who is Dracula's butler in this version.
• Third-Person Person: Renfield talks like this.
• Threatening Shark
• The Vamp: Dracula's sisters.
• Vampires Are Rich: Implied by the parties Dracula is able to host.
• Watch It Stoned: Pirate With Gout's opinion of The Magic Flute.

The Pirate Games

• Affectionate Parody: Of The Hunger Games, with a few shots at Pirates of the Caribbean.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: The twelve map pieces given to each contestant. Putting them together will reveal the location of the treasure.

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