sparrowsfallingfromthesky

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funny thing about my post with my fic placeholders getting so much activity is that periodically it will circle back around to Ted Lasso fans who will see "[Tedism] he [verbs]" with no context whatsoever and go

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If I had a nickel for every time I've opened a book I thought looked silly to read the first page and found that the epigraph was a Roy Kent quote I would have two nickels

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god they're so fucking stupid

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every time someone says odysseus "just" loves his wife or "just" wants to go home, i get so agitated... you don't understand. odysseus wants everything. he wants to be at home, and he wants to be a hero. he wants to die, and he wants to live. he wants his family, and he wants to lie to them. he wants to tell the story of his life, and he wants to keep his secrets. he wants to go back and for everything to be as it was, and he wants the glory and wealth and reputation he hard-won. he wants to be at peace, and he wants to do violence. he wants to sail past the sirens safely, and he wants to hear them. he wants the war to end, and he wants it to mean something. he wants to have his cake and eat it too. he's the man of many ways. he'll get his damn homecoming but he's a rube goldberg machine. he doesn't "just" anything.

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I'm pretty sure thinking "babe you need therapy" and then thinking "actually that would go very badly for everyone involved" is an extremely common experience for people writing fic about Armand but I'm writing a fic set in 1895 so I just thought about him talking to a mental health professional from that particular era (ie Freud) and oh my god. can you IMAGINE

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Jeopardy clue: "I Dreamed a Dream" and "Do You Hear the People Sing" are songs from this musical

me: Hmmm what could that be? 🤔

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armand + head tilt

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extremely on brand for me to start writing the characters taking their clothes off and go ok time to imagine what they look like with the clothes ON and spend the next little while looking at pictures of 1890s menswear

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my old nemesis... kissing scenes...

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was looking something up and one of the suggested searches was "bluebeard x reader" and I just. no. that's not what I was looking for.

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I think the best speaking verb for the place I need one right now is probably ejaculate but I absolutely cannot bring myself to use that

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absolutely sick that I saw this note and thought "Daniel Molloy"

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took a survey for my radio station and they asked about what social media I use and they listed facebook. instagram. twitter/x. tiktok. bluesky. threads. reddit. linkedin. pinterest. whatsapp. snapchat. fucking myspace. a few other things. but not tumblr!

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Yes! I've been meaning to update the list with a few new titles and that was one of them :)

As a fellow lover of books and black sails, do you have any book recommendations that give off black sails vibes or just seem like something a person who loves the show would love to read? Thank you either way!

Yes!!!!!

First of all, last year I actually made a whole page/post of exactly this, so definitely check that out! (That's two different links and I suspect you'll have better luck with the first link on desktop than mobile, but it's the same stuff in either place.)

Then here are some books I've been meaning to add to the list since then and hadn't gotten around to:

A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee – a total reimagining of Treasure Island as a queer romance about Chinese and Vietnamese girls and women. I loved this book! Two particular characters from the original were merged into one character which never would have occurred to me and it was SUCH a good reveal.

The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold – It’s by Luke Arnold.

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill – About women (especially queer and otherwise nonconforming women) in the 1950s refusing to be silenced and controlled. And they’re dragons.

The Arabian Nights – I recommend the new(ish) version translated by Yasmine Seale and annotated by Paolo Lemos Horta, which is enormous but really interesting. This is a really foundational text that has consciously or unconsciously influenced a lot of other stories over a long time, and I don’t think it’s a leap to guess that Treasure Island, Black Sails, and some of the other books on my list are among them. Plus, here’s a quote from the introduction that might give off some familiar vibes: “Every story in the global canon of fantastical literature is in some way a vessel shipwrecked on the rocks of its misinterpretation… Assessed in these terms, One Thousand and One Nights is perhaps the greatest and most sprawling ruin of them all.”

Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown – Some poor bastard finds himself stuck as the cook on a pirate ship, gets his leg amputated, and falls in love with the ruthless captain. Hmm.

A Conspiracy of Truths and A Choir of Lies by Alexandra Rowland – Explores the roles of storytellers in society through the misadventures of really fascinating unreliable narrators.

And the recent reads that prompted the post I think you're responding to were The Drowning Empire trilogy (beginning with The Bone Shard Daughter) - a very compelling fantasy series which I initially picked up primarily because the covers look kind of like the Black Sails intro sequence - and Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco, which yes! I did look at entirely because it had Silver in the title. It's a vampire book and it has some weaknesses BUT it's a polyamorous romance which counts for a lot. Plus I've been resisting reading Flint and Mirror by John Crowley which. has Flint in the title.

Hope this helps!

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was trying to figure out where in Paris Hanschen is living in this fic and almost lost my fucking mind when I read that there's a historic VINEYARD in one of the possible locations but it turns out it wasn't there yet at the time the fic is set

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might do something crazy

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“Please don’t do this.”

So after binging the whole four seasons of Black Sails last month, I’m now on a more leisurely rewatch… or so I thought.

But god everything hits so much worse or better or harder knowing about Flint’s past and motivation now. And then this scene came up, and I’m just… fuuuuuck. Crying, screaming, throwing up. I’m not okay. This is devastating. (Did I mention I cope with art?)

On my first watch, Flint killing Gates truly shocked me. He would really kill his friend just because he wouldn’t go along with his plans? To not have to give up on the Urca? Sure, Gates is going against his command. It’s mutiny, but Gates seems to be trying, and he sounds so bloody reasonable. And more importantly, he’s been a loyal friend up until now. A fatherly friend (I want to throw up). And even now he’s… trying to protect Flint, right? (Fuck. Seriously. Feeling ill.)

But yeah, I was shocked. And as he whispered broken apologies to the friend he just murdered, I wondered… could I forgive him for this?

And now…omg now it’s like watching a completely different train wreck happening, and it all makes perfect, tragic, horrible sense. The way the whole scene mirrors James McGraw’s futile attempt to convince Hennessy of their Hail Mary plan to save Nassau. Every step. The urgency when things have already gone sideways, but James refuses to give up, because it can still work. People just have to listen. Let him explain. Have a little faith. Back then he trusted Hennessy, and now he still trusts Gates. He trusts them to understand, asking them to believe in him. He doesn’t see it coming. (How does he not see it coming this time?)

And then the moment the floor is ripped out from under him. And it’s all there, on Flint’s face, in the moment when Gates says “They know.” It’s not the mutiny. It’s the betrayal. The way Flint’s face falls, and for a moment he looks just like James McGraw in Hennessy’s office. The same devastation and disbelief when he asks “You told them?” And of course for him it is the same betrayal. It is the same fight, to prove Thomas right. To stand against those who took him and everything else away from James.

And Gates, that poor bastard, doesn’t even understand what sin he is committing. He doesn’t even see it as mutiny. He sees it as doing the right thing, containing a madman. (Omggg…) And then there is Flint, reliving the worst moments of his life. And that point it doesn’t feel like it’s about the Urca anymore. It’s an emotional massacre, to which Gates seems completely oblivious. When Flint asks if he will see him get hanged, only to be promised an opportunity to flee for him and ‘Mrs Barlow’, Gates thinks he is doing him a kindness. Like Hennessy probably thought he was doing him a kindness, saving him from the gallows. It’s all right. Flint just has to leave, vanish and never be heard of again. He should be grateful. And the way Flint’s eyes close briefly in disbelief that this is happening. Again. The way he pleads with Gates, just like he pleaded with Hennessy. So unlike Flint. But once more he is told that his actions are unforgivable. Simply too much. He’s not just rejected, but he is abandoned. He is cast out for who he is and his supposed sins. A monster that can’t be allowed to exist amongst the rest of them.

The whole scene is executed so brilliantly, the way he fluctuates between James’ almost innocent appeals to be understood and Flint’s anger at being denied. But he keeps trying until the last moment. And then, when he acts, it’s not a calculated move. It’s pure desperation, the only purpose to do something, to stop what is happening. Because James McGraw didn’t. But where James McGraw hesitated, where he maybe still hoped, still didn’t comprehend, and where he still thought he had something to lose… Flint doesn’t. And yet we can see it break him. We can see how it breaks another part of his soul. 

(And of course it will happen again. Screaming. Crying. Throwing up.)