Pirate, Extraordinaire // Sequel to Take Off Your Dress, Pick Up A Sword

preface

hi! ainsley here. welcome to pirate, extraordinaire -- the sequel to take off your dress, pick up a sword! above, you'll see my original concept art of mah girl, joanna brown. 

thank you so much for your patience. it's been about three months since the last chapter of joanna. writing dead man's chest has been more of a challenge than it was to write curse of the black pearl -- the plot is so much tighter and the stakes seem so much higher. if you're still here after weeks of waiting, i raise my glass to you. i am unendingly thankful! your reads, stars, and comments beam serotonin directly into my brain. if you're here after reading my adeena series, i hope you continue to enjoy joanna as much as you enjoyed her predecessor.

in my longwinded author's note to close the first book, i mentioned i have some qualms with the potc sequels and i'd be tackling them in my own sequels. that mostly involves me tweaking canon to suit my vision of how the sequels should have gone. if you see some minor plot points, dialogue, or characterizations altered, that's me taking creative license. i pulled some fun stuff from the original screenplay and deleted scenes, as well. 

on creative license -- i'm taking as much as possible without altering the final outcomes of the story. i want joanna to be an active participant in the plot, rather than a tagalong character. her presence will alter the course of some events. i'm excited to see what you think of joanna's path! 

no one asked lmao but imma talk about my process. im always comparing my new shit to my old shit. adeena was an angry, volatile character. in contrast, joanna has anxiety, is sometimes clumsy, and empathizes deeply with others -- almost to a fault. when she does get mad, she feels guilty. how do i put a person like that into an unpredictable, stressful story like dmc? idk dawg. ive had so much fun doing it, though.

my writing was low-key influenced by the tv show black sails, another sexy show about pirates; particularly, the relationship between anne bonny and jack rackham inspired me. maybe y'all will see some of those vibes sprinkled into joanna and jack's interactions. honestly, this book feels more like a tv show. it has a lot of in-between moments and a couple of subplots. i don't think it's like other oc-insert potc fics (now i sound pretentious). 

some quick pirate knowledge! members of a crew were often referred to by their ship's name. so crewmembers of the pearl would be referred to as pearls. members of the dutchman would be referred to as dutchmen. i've frequently employed that in this book -- makes it a helluva lot easier to talk about many characters at once.

i plan to update once a week, but we'll see how that goes. as of now (11/8/2020), the story is not entirely complete. my life may get in the way of writing, so if i need to adjust the update schedule, i will. 

the cover art is courtesy of me*. unless indicated otherwise, the art accompanying various chapters is my own. joanna is a character of my creation.

i do not own pirates of the caribbean. i claim no profit from this book. i do not pretend to know a thing about how sailing and ships work.

i've compiled a sickening playlist for pirate (dmc & awe) joanna! it features hans zimmer and moody piano.

here it is: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6NlecQiVS8jMaOQMw7JQ2c\

i'm an aspiring composer, so i wrote joanna a theme! and then i proceeded to write two more pieces about her, since she takes up so much of my headspace. the links will take you to musescore, the site where i post my compositions. you'll notice they have funny names. i didn't want to relate them too much to potc -- that would quickly earn me a copyright strike. i would die of joy if any of you listened to just ONE of these. i'm so proud of them.

joanna's theme...structured a bit like jack's!
https://musescore.com/user/33193000/scores/6359884?share=copy_link

joanna's theme, part two...written in the spirit of dmc.
https://musescore.com/user/33193000/scores/6358594?share=copy_link

joanna and jack's theme...if you listen closely, you can hear their two themes dueling. 
https://musescore.com/user/33193000/scores/6439098?share=copy_link

thanks again! happy reading <3

*i had a lot of trouble formatting the cover -- trying to get joanna to fit in without cutting off the top of her head or the bottom border. can y'all gimme a shout if it looks weird on your end? thanks so much.