I wrote a Halloween themed Black Sails fic! It’s as canon compliant as any fic where Charles Vane is a ghost can be.
Summary:
Charles Vane is dead. That much is certain. Jack and Anne come to terms with Charles’ death, and with the fact that they can’t shake the feeling his spirit still with them.
Hey all – if you’re not reading this already, you should! It’s kind of a case of Now for something completely different, but it’s an interesting something different. There’s a fairly large amount of violence and unfortunately period appropriate homophobia. Basically heed the warnings, they’re accurate, but it’s a good read nonetheless, and very well researched!
James flicks the corner of the drying map. “For a man so adamant he
had to leave, you are doing a piss-poor job of staying gone.”
John
is tired and fairly wrecked from his own hangover. He doesn’t think he
has the stamina of an alcoholic, to feel like this every morning. He
doesn’t know how Flint does it. “So once again I end up hanging around
you. Can you really claim to be surprised?”
James finally turns and meets his eyes. “Yes.”
He
walks wearily over to the cot and sits on the edge next to the other
man. Ignoring how James stiffens, he leans forward and examines the map
spread out over the small table.
It’s cleanly done, almost astonishingly so. He notes the neat penmanship of the lettering and the matching “J.F.” signed in the corner. The signature is small and unobtrusive, so unlike the man it belongs to.
“One would never guess the hand that drafted this was prone to shaking,” he comments.
James says, rather severely, “I am
capable of functioning. I was drunk for almost the entirety of my first
year after leaving England, and it didn’t stop me from gaining my
captaincy over the Walrus crew.”
“Do you imagine I find that in any way reassuring?” John asks, and he turns to look at him, honestly curious.
Okay, next chapter! It’s pretty angsty. Thomas and Anne do some angsty bonding. Thomas struggles with his guilt.
———
The waist coat and boots came on quickly. He shifted around in the coat. It too felt like a foreign thing, unbelonging to the body that now wore it. He’d forgotten the weight of it, of the material and all those buttons—ridiculous, really. He placed the hat on his head, giving it a tug for good measure as he used to.
He stood facing the bed, unwilling to turn and face the mirror. When at last he did turn, his pulse quickened. There he was. His hair was much shorter now, with no queue, but even so the face that stared back at him was James McGraw. Everything was as it should be…and yet it was all horribly wrong.
His face carried more worry lines on it now; the lines curving beside his lips were deeper. And his eyes…Christ, were those his eyes? The same color as before, but somehow darker.
It was like someone had thrown a stone into his reflection and it had twisted on itself.
“Ah, Captain, have you
finally grown bored of your juvenile attempts to ignore me?” Silver grinned as
Flint kicked his cabin door shut behind him.
“I’ve not been ignoring
you,” Flint scowled, though at the bird rather than Silver. “And you didn’t answer
my question.”
“Ah right, you’ve just
been avoiding me for four days. Honestly James I’ve been in your cabin every
night, where have you even been sleeping?”
“I’ve not been – oh for
fuck sake just tell me why you have a brightly coloured bird perched on your
shoulder.” Flint was all but massaging his temples, it was nice to know that
even after all this time Silver still had an uncanny ability to annoy him.
“Well, as you would know
if you hadn’t been ignoring me, this is a parrot.” Silver explained, his metal
leg thudding on the wooden floor as he approached Flint, shifting the bird to
his hand and holding him out to Flint, who eyed it suspiciously. “Really James
it’s only a bird not an English conspirator.”
“I don’t believe you.” Flint said, though his tone was not nearly as sure as his words. John didn’t have time to argue, he reached for a small looking mirror left on a decrepit vanity and passed it to Flint.
There was no denying the ten years Flint saw on his face, the face he likely hardly recognised as his own. John felt cruel, for making James face Flint, but he didn’t have time for his disbelief. John waited as Flint stared at a stranger’s face in the mirror.
Oh. my. god. I bet James ‘secret soft nerd’ Flint found it on some rich merchant ship they plundered and rescued it so he could set it free once they got back to Nassau.
james flint, the most fearsome pirate captain, walking around on deck with the world’s tiniest birb perched on his shoulder
james flint waking up to a bird song (even though they’re miles from the nearest coast) and smiling a lil bc he’s romantic like that
james flint working on his maps and the tiny birb hopping all over them, getting in the way of his measuring tools and demanding to be fed
james flint lowkey stealing seeds from the kitchen
Fun fact: There was a gay, kind psychologist at the hospital who helped Thomas out, and they wrote him off as dead to save themselves from the scandal. But he actually boarded a ship to Nassau that was taken by pirates, who spared him because they needed someone literate. And he slowly worked his way up to eventually become captain, and right now there’s a ship of really clean, polite, well mannered, merciful pirates on the way to Nassau.
Holy shit ಠ⌣ಠ Imma write a fic
I feel the need to point out that there exists a fic series that is basically this with the exception that Thomas gets listed as a suicide because the hospital staff are tired of dealing with his blatant sabotage. Go read the Give Him a Blanket verse by Shirogiku on Ao3.
So, in honor of Writers’ Appreciation Day, I’ve decided to do a rec post for some of my favorite Black Sails fics! This is not going to be a comprehensive list by any means, and I can’t express how much how many good fics I just haven’t gotten around to reading or plain old don’t know about, but if it’s on this list, you can bet I’ve read it and bookmarked it somewhere! They’re in no kind of order of preference or liking – they’re just all awesome.
1. Nature’s Delight by Fyre – Written by @amuseoffyre. I read this fic probably before any others in the fandom and loved it. It’s a James/Thomas fic set after Season 2 and written before Season 3 came out and the characterizations are A++
2. Garraway’s by Beatrice303 and Meglifluous – Another James/Thomas fic set before the Fall, so to speak. It features Thomas with a college friend, a nickname, and James trying desperately not to deck someone and failing!
3. Charleston; Meet Charles by Ithika and Meglifluous – Features Pirate!Abigail who refuses to be sent to Savannah and ends up going on the Walrus after Charlestown. I’m always a sucker for a good Abigail fic, and this one is definitely that!
4. Uncharted Waters by Farasha – Features a young James McGraw meeting a young John Silver. I’m really hoping that the author at some point decides to follow up at some point with them meeting each other again post-Hamiltons, but this stands on its own and is lovely! I’d also recommend The Power of the Telling by the same author for further Silver/Flint goodness.
5. What’s in a Name? by Craftnarok – I won’t lie – the author slew me with this story. As you might imagine, it’s all about the power of a name, particularly for Flint, and I love the way the emotions are handled in it. Arguably one of my favorite Silver/Flint fics!
6. Courtesy of Thomas Hamilton by @char7 – I won’t lie. I have a special soft spot for this one because it was written for a prompt I posted, but that does not in any way, shape, or form affect the fact that it is a genuinely awesome fic of the feel good sort. Based on the idea of what might have happened had James been the one to go to Bedlam instead of Thomas, with the requisite happy ending. I love every tiny piece of it.
7. In Darkness Dwells and A Hellish Alchemy, both by @iwtv2007 – These are both excellent James/Thomas fics, one of which is based on my prompt and the other of which is an excellent, well-thought-out, wonderfully descriptive and emotional multi-chapter reunion fic that goes AU as of Season 3 or so. The author is also working on a sequel to A Hellish Alchemy and the first chapter’s really grabbed my attention!
8. Anything at all by @shirogiku. She’s on Ao3 here and I can’t say enough about her wonderfully researched, well-written, frankly freaking amazing writing. I would particularly recommend her Books and Memories, Tyranny of Teacups, and Give Him a Blanket series – they’re all really excellent!
10. Fifteen Men in September by @bal-lantine (Ballantine) – I’m sure everyone and their brother has squeeed about this fic, but I’m doing it again, because it’s frankly fantastic and the characterization is so, so, so good. I can literally hear the actors talking when I read the dialogue and the whole thing is just so good! Flint, Silver, and part of the crew get marooned by Teach. If you haven’t read it already, go read it now!
11. Please Come Where It’s Warm by vowelinthug – A really good Silver/Flint piece with a happy ending, which I am always up for! It’s fluffy and light and both are desperately needed in the fandom! Also features a tattooed Silver as a very, very good shot, which is awesome.
Again, this is a far cry from all of them, but those are all the ones that come immediately to mind! There’s also a very good Pacific Rim AU being posted currently, and I really, really need to get to reading all the good fics out there that involve the rest of the BS characters like Vane, Rackham, Bonny, and Max for starters.
Meg's Mumbles 