I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue

[touchofcashmere]

Who: Stede Bonnet and you!
What: New Shipmate Shenaniganry
When: End of April, beginning of May
Where: Everywhere
Warnings: None yet



I. Welcome to the World of Tomorrow
There is very little about this new world that Stede understands. It's all baffling to him, some of it downright incomprehensible. So if you see a flickering of lights coming from a nearby room, you might find the gentleman pirate turning the lightswitch on and off again.

"Would you look at that? Amazing! And so bright! You could read all night with something like that. But how does the fire extinguish and go back on so easily? Or burn without heat?" He glances at whomever found him. "Listen... you don't think we're dead, do you?"

II. Sign-ups Here
Stede is a professional at these things by now. He feels disjointed in this strange world and the best thing to do when you're disjointed is to seek the familiar. So he has a deckchair and a little table-managed to procure a pen and paper from somewhere and accosts anyone who passes by.

"Hello! Would you like to sign up to be a pirate? No pay just yet but adventure and glory and a cut of any treasure we come across. You wouldn't say no to some nice booty, would you?"


III. Room-Mate [locked to Gogol]

Somehow or another Stede has found his room, but when he pushes open the door his expectant face falls.

"Please tell me this is a closet."

Then he notices the room is occupied.

"Oh, sorry, is this yours? It's a very nice closet. You could do a lot with it."



IV. Hit him up with anything. He is down for adventure.

Comments

[touchofcashmere]

"I know that feeling..." That rush. That addiction. That pulse of adrenaline that keeps him high spirited and waiting for the next one, longing even for the next one. Sometimes he can hardly sleep at night wondering what the next day will bring-- what adventure or mishap they'll get into next. And he still remembers the slide of steel on steel up his arm and the closeness of that first dance.

He realizes he's gazing a bit too fondly at Ed's wild rugged profile and turns his gaze back to the deck.

"From reading." It's a lie. "Love a good book." Mostly a lie. Reading did fire the blood back in the day and still does now. But it's like a candle to the slowly building fire in his gut whenever -- whenever Ed's around. Because he's such a wild dashing pirate and so cool, that was why.

The backs of his fingers accidentally brush Ed's and he has a half mad idea to hook his pinky with the other man's like they are little girls at school. He clears his throat and links his hands behind him instead.

"I don't know. Hadn't really thought about it. A flower maybe. A line of poetry." And then because he realizes this isn't rugged at all. "A skull holding a dagger dripping with blood. The usual."

[saltandpepperbeard]

Ed thought he was going to say the Sea, sailing. That would have been something they had in common. But no, it's those bloody books again. Fuck, why could he not read?? Maybe if he could read, he could suggest some pretty poetic line for Stede to scrawl over his arm and it could be like--Ed helped put that there. Ed helped make him more of the pirate he wants to be, made a permanent mark on him, like he was making on Ed.

"Now you have to think about it, because now we're going to do it." Skull and dagger and blood? Nah, not at all Stede's style. Not even a mermaid or some busty naked wench. Mother's name, wife's name, something religious? The traditional were all out. "I like the flower idea. Do those yellow clustery ones--" great description, Edward, "--that are on the trees everywhere? Could get them--" emboldened by that brief touch, he chases that high again as he trails his fingertips up Stede's arm to about the middle of his bicep before gesturing over the whole arm with a flutter of his hand, "--up and down your arm, make it a whole thing."

[touchofcashmere]

He can see it in his mind's eye, yellow and pretty, trailing up his arm. He traces the path Ed made with his own fingertips, fancying he can still feel a bit of lingering warmth. Yes, he could get a chain of flowers...

And then what? Roll up his sleeve or get his shirt slashed for someone to see it? He clicks his tongue.

"Yes, that'll make a splendid impression. Tough pirate he is, that Stede Bonnet. He's got flowers on his arms." He sighs and drops his hand. "I need something better. Something intimidating. I am so tired of being laughed at, Ed. I'm so tired of people thinking I'm stupid or foolish or a soft little rich boy. Do you know what it's like to walk into a room and people look right through you?" Probably not.

"It's got to be something stronger than that. Something that sends a message. Something that says don't tangle- no, don't fuck with Stede Bonnet. But...you know...tasteful." Because he is a gentleman pirate after all and he wants to get something at least reasonably aesthetically pleasing.

[saltandpepperbeard]

Tastefully sending a message. Ed doesn't know what to do with this man sometimes. He's so damn baffling. So contradictory to everything a pirate is expected to be, and that's Brave and that Works and he's so immensely jealous of how Stede can just embody this exuberance for life and this kindness and unexpected way of just BEING. It's beautiful. It's so fucking beautiful and yet somehow Stede doesn't see that.

He doesn't want to see Stede painted with blood and daggers. That's not the man he is, or that's not the man Ed wants him to be, and maybe that's being selfish. He just really likes Stede in his foppish coats and his ridiculous stockings, with his perfectly coifed curls. With his library, and his ideas about the crew, and his tea-set and auxiliary closet and his fireplace. But with a sword in his hand and the ability to stab a man if need be.

"Flowers are badass," he said, lamely defending his idea. "A tattoo of a dagger won't make you any more intimidating than you are--it's just...a thing you wear. Like--" He flailed/gestured at himself. "--All this. It's just stuff. Giving up a cushy life and buying a ship and starting a pirate career because you just want to is badass. Dueling Izzy Hands is fucking badass. Telling Blackbeard to suck eggs in Hell now THAT says don't FUCK with Stede Bonnet. You hear me?"

[touchofcashmere]

He perks up a little under that. Giving up his cushy life-- well he didn't give up all that much of and it was either give it up or suffocate. Dueling Izzy Hands well, that was pretty badass. Not everyone could say they had did that and won no less, after being taught swordsmanship by Blackbeard himself.

At the last, though, he snorts.

"The little shit just told me his boss wanted to see me. He didn't say who it was and at the time, if I'd known-- oh I don't know what I would have done but I would have been terrified." But that was then Stede who hadn't learned some lessons and wore leather and gotten stabbed by Izzy Hands-- but not before he himself had actually stabbed Blackbeard, technically, and lived.

How many pirates could say that.

"Well as an old school master used to say, clever is what clever does. Which means that you're right. It doesn't matter what I have on my arms-- or anywhere. I'm still..." He stops to pose a moment, half jokingly, hands on his hips, tossing it his hair a bit in the wind.

"Captain Stede Bonnet. Gentleman Pirate and Badass." Then he gets an idea and arranges his face into something he hopes approaches cold and at least a tiny bit chilling. Reaching up, he coils his fingers in Ed's beard, surprised again at how soft it is, and tugs his head down a bit, though gently.

"And you can go suck eggs in hell." He smiles. "Or at sea. With me."

[saltandpepperbeard]

Izzy, that little shit, is threatening enough. Even if Stede didn't know who his boss was at the time--and that was gutsy too, not knowing who he was tangling with when he went running his mouth--he still looked that bastard in the eye and told him to send a message that was unequivocally fuck off.

Clever is as clever does, and Stede Bonnet is a clever man. He's charming and bright and creative and ballsy, and Ed's never known anyone like him and suspects there won't ever be anyone of his kind again. He's kind. Ed adores him. He thinks Stede is a fucking moron sometimes, but like attracts like, and he fucking adores him.

The play-acting isn't quite as cold or deadly as Ed has seen Stede (usually genuinely angry when opposite Izzy), but it still does something to his insides and Ed instinctively should draw his knife or pull away. But he doesn't. Stede has him by the beard, is threatening him, could have absolutely slit his throat, and everything in Ed is begging for Stede to follow through on ...anything.

If he had more self-reflection in this moment, he might have considered that Izzy had been wrong when he accused Ed of thinking of Stede as his pet.

The pet isn't the one who is holding the leash.

Or at sea. With me. With me. With me.

When the coldness melts away and he seems a little pleased with himself behind that smile--Stede's fucking stunning. Somebody really had to do something about that, and god, he wanted to be that somebody. Can't be, but want to.

Ed blinks and looks away, schooling his face into cool confusion. "You gonna suck 'em too? Seems like less of a threat if it's a group activity, but," he offers a goofy shrug from the position of a man still pinned by his beard, "whatever floats your boat."

[touchofcashmere]

The come back is a cool one and Stede is trying to decide whether to roll with it or not when an even better one comes to mind- one he is sure will impress Ed.

"Oh you misunderstand. You're the one going to be sucking." He gives Ed's beard a playful tug and leans in which is a horribly bad idea as the man's proximity is intoxicating, but the adrenaline of the perfect follow through keeps him going. "I'm going to be the one enjoying the show."

And then he lets Ed go and struts on ahead.

No, not struts, swaggers.

It was good. Spot on. That landing was not just stuck it was absolutely devastated.

Game, set, match for Captain Stede Bonnet, Gentleman Pirate.

The only thing that might have made this better was if the miserable little trash gremlin himself was here to witness this and curl up in incandescent rage.

[saltandpepperbeard]

Ed, slack-jawed at that comeback, tries to swallow and finds his throat dry and his mind preoccupied with the thought of Stede enjoying his sucking. Or Stede enjoying watching. Any and all of that. He can't even be sure Stede knows what he's implying--even if the man does spend time around Lucius--but Ed hopes. Oh, he hopes. Fuck it, even if Stede Bonnet somehow is straight (unlikely) or prefers handsome doctors (likely) and only teases him, the Gentleman Pirate could blueball him and Ed would practically thank him for it.

He is so far gone.

That swagger was going to be seared into his brain until his dying day, the sway of Stede's steps, the swing of his arms, his motion slightly exaggerated by the heels of his shoes. He lets out a low breath, trying to keep it from becoming a whistle or a groan as his eyes rake down Stede's backside, all the way to his shapely calves. Damn, boy. Salivating over his only friend like a dog--Ed's barely got himself a friend and already he's a bad one. He smooths out his beard, curls up his mustache, and readjusts his leather trousers. Then he gives a glance around to make sure no one might have been witness any of that, and trots along after Stede.