#because it's something we absolutely think stede would say out loud | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

unadulteratedkr · 10 months

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Rules: Pick any ten of your fics, scroll roughly to the midpoint, pick a line (or three) and share it. Then tag ten people.

So @sdwolfpup did this a little while ago and said anyone who saw it should give it a go, so here I am, giving it a go! I decided to just do my most recent 10 fics, so it'll be almost entirely OFMD fic with a small dash of What We Do in the Shadows thrown in the mix.

Between the Sand and the Stardust (OFMD, Rated E)

He could hear the noise of the market behind him—Tongues for sale, give us your teeth for a new tongue—fuck off, last time you took my memories before I was three to get rid of my snores, and you fucking replaced my snores with a fucking train whistle—hey, come back—hey!—but they faded into the far-off sounds of the crashing waves. Ed focused on the waves, focused on putting one foot in front of the other, focused on anything except for the shards of his heart sloughing off to slice away at the only happiness he could ever remember holding tenderly in his hands.

2. plunge me deep (OFMD, Rated E)

“Sit up for me, beloved. I want—“ Stede takes a shuddering inhale, overcome with the simplicity of wanting. “I want to hold you.”

Ed doesn’t even need to push at the ground to sit up; the tentacle cradling his head has Ed upright before he can breathe his agreement with a word. Stede keeps kissing Ed as he maneuvers his way around him, careful, firm caresses of Stede’s lips to his neck, his shoulder, anywhere Stede can reach. Ed grasps at Stede helplessly, trying to return kiss for kiss with little success. It makes Stede laugh again, and Ed could weep now that he knows what that laugh tastes like.

“Love—please—"

Ed doesn’t even know what he’s begging for, all he knows is he trusts Stede enough to plead out loud. Stede takes Ed’s trust into his strong, sure hands and pulls Ed in against his back.

3. let it rain, 'cause you and I remain the same (OFMD, Rated E)

Lucius is swanning against the rat-lines with all the arrogance of a man who was rescued by mermaids. “No. Nope. We’re not doing this. What the fuck is going on, Ed?”

Ed splutters, and if Lucius hadn’t just called him out on the absolute absurdity that is his current situation, he’d be pretty pleased at how very Stede-like he sounds right now. Lucius—the little shit , Ed can’t help but think fondly—just arches his brow and waits for Ed to calm down enough to talk.

“Don’t have a clue, man. Oluwande thinks maybe our… souls have been switched.”

Lucius looks at him expectantly, and when Ed shrugs, he lets out a frustrated noise that sounds something like a strangled goose choking on a garlic bulb.

“Oh because that’s a helpful answer!” He glowers at Ed, settling his hands on his hips. “Anything else of merit you want to contribute?”

4. in the winter wind, be my warm (OFMD, Rated T)

Stede yelps as another snowflake plasters itself to his face. “They’re wet.”

Ed bites down on what Stede suspects mulishly is a laugh, and instead he nods solemnly. “Afraid so, love. Snow’s just frozen water, and you must have had some form of shaved ice at one of those fancy parties. I’ve raided enough ice-ships to know that’s a thing among the gentry.”

Stede huffs petulantly. “Well of course I have, but every story says snow is fine and powdery! I thought it would feel like… like icing sugar!” Ed’s shoulders shake with silent laughs, and Stede glowers at him, indignant. “Well, I did!”

5. crossed all the lines and broke all the rules (What We Do in the Shadows, Rated E)

“Do you have any idea, my darling, how much you’ve been driving me to utter madness since we met?” Viago’s tongue curls around “my darling” like it did around Anton’s tongue not a moment before. “Do you know how much I’ve wanted to know if you taste as irresistible as you smell?” Viago leans down, pressing the flat blade of his tongue into the punctures he’s left in Anton’s shoulder, a wrecked moan joining Anton’s blood on Viago’s lips. “You do, by the way. Dear Anton, do you have any idea how ruinously delicious you taste?”

“Viago—“ Anton manages to gasp, and honestly, it’s a fucking wonder he can form words, let alone Viago’s name at this point, “—please.”

Viago hums in pleasure, wetly lapping up the blood dripping down to stain Anton’s shirt. Anton’s not sure, but he’s fairly certain he’ll be able to reattach the buttons. Maybe he’ll keep it, maybe he’ll wait for the bloodstain to set before he washes it, maybe he’ll wear it to sleep every night and jack off to the irrefutable proof that he let Viago feed from him. He’s whimpering at the thought, and a single word falls from his mouth without a second thought.

“More.”

6. Stand to Face Me, Beloved (OFMD, Rated E)

If they were together, there wouldn’t be a sailor on board who could withstand Annie’s ability to fuck with their fears of two women independent on the sea or Mary sliding as effortlessly from lady to sniper as she used to slide from Mark to Mary.

But Annie isn’t here. And she won’t be alive and real and Mary’s until Mary can see her again, so Mary continues to weep and simper and debase every inch of strength she has.

“Please—I just want to know if her baby is doing well. I don’t mean any trouble. Neither of us ever meant any trouble.”

Mary’s tears chase the sailor out of the room with a half mumbled promise to find more information, and when the door shuts, Mary sinks to the floor, stifling her painfully real cries around the hand still emblazoned with Annie’s gold ring.

7. and as I go along, I want you with me (OFMD, Rated E)

Stede gives up trying to undo the last button and tugs Ed’s trousers down impatiently, but he freezes when the trousers are down to Ed’s knees, eyes fixed on the still-healing tattoo on Ed’s thigh.

Ed pushes himself up to his elbows, gazing down at Stede through an over-stimulated daze.

“You like it?” His voice is soft, like that lovely swath of cashmere Ed first stroked across his skin on the day he and Stede met. There’s a whole ocean between then and now, but Edward Teach is the world’s most notorious pirate; he can sail those choppy waters back to the softness of that moment.

“That’s—Edward.” Stede’s fingers are shaking, hovering a hair's breadth away from Ed’s skin. “That’s—that’s my name. You—you tattooed my name. On you.”

8. I'll follow the echoes (OFMD, Rated E)

Since Ed needs a measure more of courage before he can lift his eyes to the man he loves, he turns one more time–perhaps one last time–to the piano, and plays his heart.

If Ed were being objective about this piece, he’d say it was pretty fucking boring, all things considered. He’s not playing any complicated melodies, he’s not adding trills and flourishes. But he doesn’t need those tricks to share this quiet and vulnerable room in his heart with Stede. He’s saved all the good notes for this song, and he plays them without reservations for Stede to see his heart one more time.

9. sin is sacred again (OFMD, Rated E)

He lifts the tentacle in his hand to his mouth slowly, giving Ed every chance to pull away. In the dim moonlight, Stede can see some of Ed’s starry tattoos have become a delicate charcoal pattern on the smooth, black skin. It’s comforting to see something so familiar. It’s beautiful.

Stede presses his lips to the tip of the tentacle in his hand gently. It’s the second time he’s ever kissed Ed, and even though it’s certainly nowhere near how Stede imagined kissing Ed again, he can’t hold back a sigh. He’s grateful for the water and the other limbs supporting him because he doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to handle kissing Ed while standing. It’s never going to stop making his knees go weak.

Stede—

“Ed, I have made some truly wretched decisions since you kissed me. This— “ Stede punctuates the word with another kiss that sets Ed’s tentacles swirling,”—is not one of them.”

10. a mile of clean sand (OFMD, Rated E)

There is so much love brimming in Stede’s heart—a heart so young to love–he feels like he might burst. Stede’s voice cracks as he recounts the bullies of his youth, his father, his marriage, Chauncey’s last venomous words, all the things that had him running, all the while softly stroking the laugh lines and the tear troughs that form Ed’s beautiful, steady eyes.

“I didn’t become the Kraken, Ed. I just decided to let it hold me underwater until I got so used to drowning, I got scared when you asked me to breathe air again.” Stede’s fingers tremble as he works a lather up with the soap—lavender—and he lets them tremble as his fingers trace sudsy patterns in the creases. Stede feels like he has them memorized from seeing them crinkled in laughter.

Ed closes his eyes again, and Stede can feel the shifting tensions against his fingertips. He catches the first tear on his finger as he swipes a thumb through the streaks of paint.

“You left. ”

I don't know if I have ten people to tag, but I'm gonna throw this to @ignisentis, @thebrimmingheart, @bizarrelittlemew, @oatmilktruther and anyone else who wants to share off some words they're proud of 🥰

#my writing #ask/challenge game #our flag means death #ofmd #what we do in the shadows #wwdits #gentlebeard #vianton

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amuseoffyre · 2 years

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Since I did my wee heart's content flail about Stede's autistic coding, of course I can't leave Ed out. I am absolutely 100% on board with ADHD Ed. (Natch, here be spoilers for the whole series)

That man may be a brilliant tactician but the fact that Izzy has to chase him around a ship, telling him to stop getting distracted by clouds and model ships and shiny things immediately sang out to me. "Focus, Ed", Izzy tells him. "Yeah, but I'm bored," Ed replies, bored by the monotony of the same old over-and-over-and-over again.

To Stede, piracy is a life of excitement and adventure. To Ed, it's become routine and humdrum. "I don't even need to be there" he says. There's nothing that sparks his interest, keeps his focus, or makes him want to stick around but he can't see any other choice because he's Blackbeard. That's who he is and has to be. "Do you ever feel like you're just treading water, waiting to drown?" he says, trapped by his role, his name, his position and his own perception that it's all he can be in a repeating and tedious loop that is making him miserable.

And then you see him on Stede's ship, getting to try new things, have his world view shaken up, experience different kinds of behaviour and he blossoms. He's sparking with Stede, their two variations of neurodiversity fitting together just right, both of them getting to have the support and validation they need from a peer and the stimulation and interaction they have lacked.

Honestly, Ed looking at Stede and going "you're a fucking lunatic and I like it" feels like the dynamic I have with so many of my neurodiverse friends :D

I love that both of them have the same outside-the-box thinking when it comes to feral planning, but Ed - when he needs to - can look at a dozen random things that no one else would notice and go "huh" and work out a plan based entirely on that.

Ed looks at the shape of clouds and can calculate to the *minute* when things will happen - when it's something he's good at and gets excited by (which has the double-header of exasperating Izzy), he loves it. He looks around Stede's room and sees a way to construct an improvised lighthouse on a ship. And he's so proud of himself when it all works out.

Of course, it doesn't all go well. He gets so caught up in giddy excitement by the new things that he impulsively decides he wants to go to a posh party. And of course, gets entirely overstimulated, starts behaving in ways that are seen as too loud, too strange, too rude, egged on by his hosts and doesn't realise until he becomes the butt of the joke. My emotions when he goes running to Stede saying "I want to go home now" because it hits him so hard becoming the focal point of mockery. Lil sprinkle of rejection-sensitivity for you, my good pirate.

Plus there's the clash when he and Stede do the treasure hunt. Stede, from his perspective and belief of what pirates enjoy, is trying to keep Ed stimulated and happy enough to stay. Ed, from his perspective, is being forced to do something embarrassing and cringy, leading to him losing his temper and getting angry. It takes Lucius explaining the miscommunication of what Stede is trying to do to make Ed realise this wasn't what he thought it was and immediately tries to make things better for Stede.

Add the fact he can't sit still, he's constantly swinging, climbing and bouncing on things. There's a frenetic energy to him, big physical reactions, big motions, and the only time we see those slow down - even stop - are at the end of the season. Ed was on the verge of becoming a Captain like Stede for the crew. He was so close to it. Sad, but slowly processing things (talking it through, as a crew), until Izzy yelled at him about all the things he fears he is and that make him bad (ie. the very things Izzy loves about him because Izzy is a leeeeeetle bit murdery).

At first, it's not so obvious, because he's still very visibly grieving but when he's holding that little bit of silk, remembering when Stede treated him like he was good enough, and then Stede Just Left Him? Was it because he wasn’t fine? Was it because fine things are what Stede really wants? The moment he lets go of that silk, when he puts on the the Blackbeard mask again, he's still and grim and it's a performance. A very taut, controlled performance that only falls apart when no one can see.

Izzy has been trying to get him to mask his behaviour the whole season and finally, finally he gets what he wants. He wants Blackbeard in command and focussed and as he was. But that isn't Ed. That's never who Ed was. And Ed, who is already not good at dealing with rejection, is in pieces hiding under a costume.

#ofmd #our flag means death #here be spoilers #neurodiversity #Blackbeard #edward teach #ofmd meta

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