#james flint is SO. PRETTY.

[frau-kali]

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

[sirtadcooper]

Before they took him away, he made me promise him... that no matter what happened next, that you and I... would take care of each other.

[howlerbat]

Toby Stephens and Luke Arnold being interviewed on Fathoms Deep: *thought provoking questions about the narrative of their characters*

Tom Hopper on Fathoms Deep: So Tom, if Billy Bones was a pastry-

[toastywindow]

I feel like Black Sails writers decided not to write in Stede Bonnet because we have enough gays to go against the governor and the British empire

[dumbkiwi]

bellhands is so fucking funny to me. he's not real! he doesn't exist! and theyre matelots nonetheless

[heycarrots]

I would like to bludgeon the Emmy nomination committee with this scene, among many others, but this scene in particular.

BLACK SAILS 1.07 "VII."

[feastofsnakes]

In any other show I'd be pretty mad about a character just blatantly explaining a visual metaphor but silvers' "james flint controls the weather based on how he feels about me personally" is like the funniest possible dialogue so it gets a pass

[dragonsinthedarkness]

When Miranda gives back Meditation to Flint in episode XIII, they somehow make you think that he hadn't seen nor read that book in a while. Of course it was related to Thomas and he remembered that very clearly, but Miranda was the one to keep it and she is the one to say it was a precious thing she shared with her husband and all, over the general tendency of Flint to distance himself from the past, if not ideologically at least emotionally. But in truth, in ep. III he got what Miranda was reading from a single sentence overheard through the door...I mean, he had to know that book pretty well to do that. In fact, I've always liked to think about that book as some sort of comfort through the darkest hours for him as well as it was for Miranda, for what it means as an object at least if not for its philosophy which, as much as in line with Thomas' mind , I believe was pretty far from James' point of view.

I'm honestly relieved by the fact that they somehow confirmed this headcanon of mine. Like...yeah, some parts of his mind try to obscure the past in order to survive, but since he cannot separate himself from something which has defined him deeply he may as well find comfort in what is left of it.

That's so heartbreaking, but I love the way they orchestrated since ep.I his whole story.

[starrose17]

Thinking back on my nearly 40 years of life and the pairings I have shipped in various fandoms.

It occurs to me that only ONCE...actually one and a half and I'll explain in a minute...have I fallen for an American actor in a ship.

No matter who we ship we always favor one of them, think about it, you do I can guarantee it, and maybe it's because I'm British I don't know but I've always gone for British pairings.

Harry/Draco (madly in love with Daniel Radcliffe after the 4th Harry Potter film came out)

Charles/Erik (favoured James McAvoy, Scottish but played an Englishman)

Ragnar/Athelstan (little George Blagden stole my heart)

Flint/Silver (Luke Arnold who yes is Australian, but played an English rascal)

Aziaphale/Crowley (favoured Michael Sheen, Welsh, but again plays an Englishman)

The ONLY fully American pairing I have ever loved is Sam/Dean in Supernatural, and had a massive crush on Jared Padalecki (so pretty!).

And now, Loki/Mobius, favouring Tom Hiddleston (this is my half one).

And everytime I always post about only one of the actors involved plus the pairing I shipped them in. Adored the other actor involved of course, but you always have a favourite.

Like with Loki, I will post Lokius and I will post Tom Hiddleston, but I think only couple of times have i ever reblogged a post that only had Owen Wilson in it.

I don't really know if I had a point to this post, was just sitting here thinking about it.

[storkmuffin]

People not believing James and Miranda are romantic really baffles me as well. I get that its a plot twist that James loves Thomas but this isnt a plot twist where its you think person a loves person b but they actually love person c.

And like the evidence for them not being romantic is like what? That we dont really see them kiss? That the one time we are shown they are having sex its bad? Im pretty sure the sex scene is more to establish that James is not like the other pirates. And there are a plethora of reasons for why the sex was bad this one time instead of jumping to the conclusion they only have bad sex. For example james is wounded at the time. As for the kissing people dont need to kiss often to be in a romantic relationship. Anne and Jack dont kiss that much on the show either. And theres the fact everyone knows barlow is flints woman that would not have come out of nowhere.

Dont people like the poly aspect of it? Is it biphobia? I hope not because this is the best i have seen of a poly relationship in media, though I havent come across it a lot. Where i can clearly see how and why three people all love each other rather than it being a convenient way to end a love triangle where i feel like two of them dont care for each other that much.

Can I just say THANK YOU for giving me these Miranda-James thoughts? Because thank you.

Miranda Barlow and her ways of being loving, her ways of being romantic and sexual are all pretty unique and there's not a single thing about her that isn't complicated. In addition, she's a WOMAN woman, not girly, not crushing out, sexually liberated AND discreet about it, not constantly in the throes of some trembly emotion but is actually a very tough person, designed to be a fully grown lady - in sum, she's a bit hard to wrestle with for a lot of people. She's happily (very very much) married to a man and they adore each other as people AND ALSO for how they can together build a joint life they both like. There's a hard edge of pragmatism to her, which I find super hot, because I'm a hard edged pragmatic woman myself, but I think that makes it hard to see how romantic she actually is. The joy of the Thomas-James-Miranda poly connection for me is from the fact that these two men not only find her hot but they find her hardness and pragmatism hot. SO unusual. Second, she likes men who are bi, and doesn't seem to have much interest in monogamy or faithfulness at all. Again, non standard. Third, she DOES have a romantic relationship with James BUT there's always that constantly calcuating, assessing mind that she has - she approaches James because he's cute, she can tell he's a rule breaker and fucking around with rule breakers is ironically a good way to be discreet, AND she can see that he's crushing out on her husband, which she actually likes about him. She recruits James into the group project of protecting and enabling Thomas - that was part of the attraction. It's not a swooning, like, I must have you and will die without you type thing at all, which is generally the easily digestible formulation of romance. Moreover, Miranda uses sex in a variety of ways - for fun, for love, as stress relief, as a game, to make a point to a houseguest - and on pirate island she just does NOT have as many options as she used to in London, so I take it as, we saw her have "make Guthrie unhappy and I need an orgasm" sex rather than "express my desire for you" sex with Flint, which he fully accepted and uh, cooperated with.

And then there's the fact that shipping in most fandoms tends to be done by male-attracted women who want to just do yaoi (very valid, I do this in other fandoms, just not this one) and so it's kind of inconvenient to have to acknowledge that James Flint does actually have a romantic relationship with a woman and does actually have sexual attraction to women, so that may be motivating the desire to just dismiss their romantic connection out of hand.

By the way - I would recommend (unless you are a super very pro John Silver person in which case the episode comes with a warning) listening to this podcast episode made by @heycarrots (It's REALLY great, overall, as a podcast full stop). TLDR for our discussion - in that episode Dr. Tankard posits that James Flint's romantic orientation and real sex life is basically to participate in a group project - he loves being part of a group that is doing a thing, and that's where all his motivation, erotic energy, everything, comes from, and that analysis really works very well for my understanding of Flint.

[frau-kali]

captain crazy eyes™

[bloodyentrails]

Miranda on The Walrus

now i want fic of miranda meeting the crew and shamelessly flirting with all of them. she and james will sit down and compare their relative hotness over a drink. also billy at some point approaches her and they share a bottle of rum between them one evening and have a good laugh about all the shitty rumours surrounding her and invent new ones. she's very good at taking the piss.

she will also take verbal potshots at james and his leadership and how he never fucking explains himself and his plans to anyone and they all roll their eyes in unison

she had a good time on that ship is what i'm saying and you can pry that from my cold dead hands

one night mr de groot teaches her a dance to a tune someone plays. it's pretty fast and she's out of breath. they also teach abigail.

this is becoming very titanic

but fuck it

SHE HAD A GOOD TIME

when she compares notes with james she is very filthy about what kind of thing she would do with them individually. james blushes a lot but is also turned on. it makes her giggle so hard. she's very very detailed

idk it just occurred to me that she reasonably actually meets these people and that she is allowing herself to have some fun with all these men and that she would absolutely tease the shit out of james because he spends so much time with them and never introduced her. and she likes them a lot and actually just being let into his pirate life. he's been keeping it from her for so long and she loves the company and like just going places, i guess? and teasing him. she loves teasing him and he loves being teased and they both missed it and yeah

when they teach abigail the dance, she dances with billy. they both die inwardly of the embarrassment. it's very cute and everyone on board ships them

she does meet silver even tho he tries to avoid her. she sees him (she so would) and he doesn't quite know what to do with himself. but he's the one who relentlessly flirts back at her after a while. i think silver introduces her to weed. (i just realised charles is the only smoker in the show??!!) we need to change that. silver has a small stash of weed he shares with her and they both worry about flint and how he has no sense of self-preservation.

randall tries to make her tea the way she likes.

she likes hanging with him in the galleys and watches him cook for the crew. he loves the attention

She gets james to explain the ship to abigail because she likes to show him off and he's awkward at first but gets into it when she's enthusiastic. Her interest feels genuine. He somehow has a powerpoint ready for the occasion. Abigail doesn't ask how he ended up in this life she senses that's a difficult topic. But she is very impressed at how much work goes into getting this thing to go anywhere. She wanders over a lot to watch billy work cough

Abigail will ask billy if she climb into the rigging and he will say no deffo not with a dress and then they organise some vaguely clean pants and she climbs up and feels the wind her hair and he's super close by and maybe they kiss

[thatrandombystander]

Can you explain the queerness of Black Flags? I have zero context other than occasionally seeing gifsets of hot people in pirate gear. Is the queerness actually addressed (somewhat/well/not really) in story or is it people seeing things?

I don't mind spoilers, it's just one that I've had on my to-watch list for a while and I've just curious how much of the queerness is vibes vs reality. Not to diss queer vibes...sigh...I hope you get what I mean...

Also...Lesbions? O.O

It's been a good uhh at least 5 years since I watched Black Sails so some details escape me but the queerness is integral.

It takes a good while before you find out my main man James Flint's backstory and Deal but he is quite truly waging a war against England and polite society for what they did to his (male) lover while also working towards bringing his lover's vision of Nassau into reality

The queerness haunts the narrative and drives my man into his violent bloody bloody pirate rage (warning for violence)

Also lesbians and poly relationships are there for real. Don't remember how early the lesbianism starts but pretty sure reasonably early on?

The first season of Black Sails came out during the peak of Game of Thrones and you can tell but you can clearly see the executives letting the writers have free reign from the first episode of season 2.

Season 1 is still pretty good but it's not Great. It's the only season to feature sexual assault and is the closest season to that sort of male power fantasy that Game of Thrones and Vikings or whatever else appeal to.

Black Sails is literally in my top three shows of all time (on the quality scale not fandom blorbo brainworms scale) and the four or five people I've gotten to watch it have all come back to tell me how good it was and also started spreading the gospel.

If you're not worried about spoilers, Rowan Eliss did a video essay about the show's writing which is what finally got me to have and watch the series.

[lichfucker]

BRAIN DAMAGE IN D MINOR?

lmaoooooo "brain damage in d minor" is a placeholder title and I live in fear every day that it's going to stick. the only other thing I call it in my own notes is "music and lyrics au" so unless something better appears I'm afraid brain damage in d minor will end up the actual title

a million years ago the sunder server watched music and lyrics (2007) for movie night, which is my favorite rom-com of all time, and I. could not stop thinking about how well the conceit works as a silverflint au. because I am the one with brain damage (in d minor)

it's likely the only bs modern au I'll ever write bc in general I find the canon time period far more compelling, but I digress. flint is a washed-up has-been-- he was in a boyband with thomas and peter ashe in the early '00s but it's been twenty years and his career is dead. suddenly he gets a call from gates, his manager, saying, "charles vane just left his band to get out of a contract with guthrie records and he wants to kick off his new solo venture by singing a duet with you, so you need to write a new song. okay bye"

the problem is that flint is a terrible lyricist. sure he could come up with a pretty metaphor, but he can't write things that are Relatable, and pop music is all about being Vague and Relatable. help, of course, comes from the least likely of places: john silver, a guy flint hires to water his plants, just so happens to be an excellent songwriter.

yes, this is extremely contrived. yes, it is following the plot of the movie to a tee (except, y'know, set in 2023 instead of in 2007).

a meet-cute for your perusal:

The buzzer rings, piercing through the rhythmic discordant chime of Flint repeatedly bashing his head onto the keys of the piano. Great. That’ll be Idelle in to water the plants, and he can either stay in the living room composing Brain Damage in D Minor while she does, or he can spare himself the humiliation and retreat into the privacy of his bedroom. Perhaps he’ll run a bath and drown himself in the lavish tub.

A sigh hauls itself out of Flint’s chest with all the effort of the tow truck that time in ’04 when the tour bus got impounded, and it takes similar heft for him to stand up from the piano bench and answer the door.

Flint registers long black hair before anything else, and his skull is so thick with cement that he nearly turns heel and stalks off to his room without so much as a grunt in hello—but he stops.

“You’re not Idelle,” Flint says.

A very astute observation: the person in the doorway has bluer eyes, tanner skin, and a significantly fuller beard.

The man���s gleaming smile falters. “No,” he says. “Sorry, did she not text you? I’m taking over for a few weeks while she’s away. Can I come in, or are all your plants out in the hall?”

Flint blinks. Considering the man looks like he hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in his entire life, Flint hadn’t expected his voice to be so… smooth. Nor so English, not in Manhattan. Before Flint lets this stranger into his (admittedly, very thieve-able) apartment, though, he looks through his phone and—oh. Idelle had texted. Three times over the last two weeks. He’d even given her a thumbs-up emoji. Well, all right, then. He steps aside to let the man through.

“Thanks,” the man says, his bright smile back and full of teeth. “I’m John, by the way. John Silver.”

“James McGraw.”

Silver drops his messenger bag on the coffee table beside the chaise, looking around with cataloguing eyes at the veritable garden lined up along the floor-to-ceiling windows, the crystalline chandelier hanging over the dining table, the glossy baby grand on the shag carpet, the unmasked luxury in which Flint lives. “Watering can?” he asks.

“Under the sink,” Flint says, pointing him toward the kitchen. He waits a few beats and then follows, trying to keep a wary eye on Silver while appearing casual rather than paranoid. He leans coolly against the kitchen island just as Silver finishes filling the watering can. “So, Joe—”

“John,” he says, not unkindly. “Most of my friends just call me Silver, but I’d rather you call me John. No offense. Less personal, you know?”

“Using your given name is less personal than your surname?”

He gives Flint a pointed look. “I can be one of eight hundred Johns you’ve ever met, or I can be one of half a dozen Silvers, if even that many. Maybe we’ll be friends someday and you can call me whatever you like, but for now I’ll take John, thanks.”

Flint just barely suppresses a grin. “Fair enough,” he says. “Where are you from?”

Silver—John hesitates, and then he says, “London. And you?”

“Cornwall.”

“Really? You don’t sound it.”

“I trained myself out of it, a long time ago.” Flint watches John tend to the orchid on the counter, careful not to over-water it; he’s gentle and methodical with it, which isn’t what Flint had expected. He’s not sure what he expected, in truth. “So,” Flint says, “you’re a friend of Idelle’s? Where is she, anyway?”

The question earns him an indignant snort. “Idelle is in the Bahamas getting married, and I,” John says, crossing the living room to the ficus by the window, “got the great honor of not being fucking invited. She tried telling me it’s because they wanted to keep the guest list small, but I know that’s a damned lie. She invited Muldoon, of all fucking people. Logan I understand, because he and Charlotte are attached at the fucking hip, but Muldoon?” John scoffs. “No, it’s because Augie—her husband—never liked me, not that I have any idea why. Truth be told, I think Idelle herself only tolerates me because she’s close with my sister, and she knows not to say a bad word about me to Max if she intends to say any words for the rest of her life.”

He keeps talking as he progresses down the row of plants. “I told Max to bring me as her plus-one just to piss them all off, you know, but she’d already committed to taking her girlfriend, and, honestly, that’s comeuppance enough. I am far more fun at weddings than Anne is. Luckily for you, I’m also a far better plant-sitter, so—Fuck!”

John hisses in pain and turns around to face Flint, sucking on the pad of his thumb. “Fucking cactus,” he mumbles around the thumb in his mouth. The two of them stand there, twenty feet apart, for an odd moment, the air thick with… something. John narrows his startlingly blue eyes, scrutinizing Flint. Flint hasn’t a clue what he might be looking for. His lips work at his thumb all the while.

And then John’s thumb leaves his mouth with an obscene smack, the sound so loud in the dense silence that had befallen them, and he says, “You look really familiar. Are you famous or something?”

[t1oui]

having a hard time working on i slam the door and i'm on my way rn because i actually dislike writing angst lol. not going to stop updating ofc but updates will be sporattic like i said, even if the first few chapters had a weekly update schedule (i updated pretty much every weekend)

anyways, i thought i'd do quick intros to all the fics i have in the works (+ a re intro to istdaiomw for anyone who doesn't know what it is)

teen and up | no archive warnings apply | multiple relationships | incomplete a jegulus-centered fic with background sirius x remus and lily x evan x barty. might (probably will) also have dorlene.

takes place during the war and follows multiple povs (so far james, regulus, and - soon - evan). basically just a what-if if regulus ran away from his family and joined james & sirius at the potters'.

you can find this fic here!

teen and up | no archive warnings apply | multiple relationships | not yet published (or written 💀)

the next wip on this list is troublemakers, which is something i've had in the back of my mind for a while now. originally it centered around lily, rose, and my oc lucy, but i recently i decided to change it so the two povs are lucy and albus's.

basically, it follows (or will follow) albus, the only slytherin in his immediate family, who feels overshadowed by his famous siblings and his friends, who two of which have just become prefects. the fic will show him reconnecting with his family and basically carving out a niche for himself (and will have scorbus)

it will also follow my oc, lucy weasley-wood. she often feels like the laughingstock of her family - like albus, overshadowed by her friends and cousins: confident lily and smart rose. this fic will show her also carving out a niche for herself and might have some romance between her and another oc of mine, a deamus child named henry :)

basically just a dual pov fic about two cousins finding themselves

teen and up | character death | multiple relationships | also unpublished & not yet written

a place called home is the name of the series rewrite i'm currently plotting and i love it sm honestly lol

this rewrite would be very headcanony and would be harry's pov. basically, in this world harry was adopted and raised by the lovegood family and is the older brother of luna. also, pandora doesn't die. xenophilius is lucius malfoy's disowned older brother so luna, harry, and draco are cousins.

the main crew in this fic would be harry, hermione, blaise, and pansy with quite a bit of draco and some luna. harry, pansy, and draco are slytherins while hermione, blaise, and luna are ravenclaws. (this fic will/would have pretty heavy ron bashing for most of it but he gets a redemption arc i promise ;-; not like we really get to see it but yknow i tried)

the focus of this fic is friendship, so no one in the main crew is dating, but the endgame ships are harry x cedric, hermione x cho, and draco x blaise. pansy... she's just there. oh yeah and nuna

there's also background percy x oliver, dean x seamus, lavender x parvati, and sirius x remus. would also have a shorter side story following percy and his friends which i'll talk about next

mature | graphic depictions of violence | m/m | not published or written

so this story was originally made as a story to accompany a place called home, but it could (and might) be published by itself. it follows the story of a slytherin percy weasley through his years at hogwarts & during the war alongside his best friends penelope clearwater, oliver wood, and marcus flint. it would show percy's side of a place called home.

though this fic originally started as purely funny "haha percy and his friends are trying to keep harry alive at school" i honestly think it will be one of if not the darkest of these wips lol. sure there will also be violence in apch and istdaiomw but this is the only fic with super graphic descriptions of any violence bc percy... let's just say bro goes through some stuff.

the title is the name of a spell made by percy that is pretty important both in this fic and in a place called home :) i won't say what it's for but it mixes two latin words meaning show/reveal and secret.

~

so yeah, this is a basic idea of the bigger things i have in the works right now. as for things on the smaller side, i'm actively working on developing a sequel to my oneshot if you stayed as well as working on an evan pov muggle au with rosekiller & jegulus. might post more on those later :)

[thenobleprincex]

fanfic roundup ✨

I haven't done one of these in such a long time and I've actually posted quite a lot since then! So here is a brief description of all my fanfics by fandom. If you're a rareshipper like me, you'll probably find something to read? Anyway, I hope you enjoy it <3

Black Sails

💮 a great comfort in you - Slice of life, very domestic Miranda/James feels. If you don't know me, I'm Miranda's no 1 fan and I love writing her and this is just a (bitter)sweet meditation on her and James' relationship. (I got so many amazing comments on this one when I first published it which I absolutely did not expect and still makes me very soft when I think back)

💮 a house you can build - mostly canon compliant, Miranda lives, fix-it fic. This pretty much sums up my feelings about Miranda/Flint/Thomas (I love them!!!) and was the first longish fic I wrote which I'll forever be proud of.

💮 Rarepair Week - This is actually four fics but I'll just sum it up like this. I wrote four fics for BS rarepair week earlier this year, all set in the same modern au. They're very queer and I adore them all. Pairings include Abigail/Idelle (which I continue to be obsessed with), Miranda/Madi, Madi/Flint/Silver, among others

Downton Abbey

💮 something gave you the nerve (to touch my hand) - Tom-centric, canon compliant (series + DA1). Chetwode/Branson/Lucy with lots of Tom feels and Tom (finally!!) breaking free from the Abbey.

💮 it's a love story - I'll forever be in awe that I actually wrote this. It's over 200k, and follows DA's seasons 2 and 3 - Edward lives. Extreme wishful thinking in the best way. Lots of polyam and queerness all around.

💮 thank you for the music (for giving them to me) - Mamma Mia time!!! Basically, DA but to the plot of Mamma Mia 1 (I even made a poster lol). Thomas-centric, Thomas feels, Thomas gets all the love. Polyam. Perfect summer reading

Gilmore Girls

Both of my GG fics are Jess/Rory/Logan, which is as rare as a rareship gets, but I fucking love them. These fics are so near and dear to me 🩷

💮 but i knew you'd linger - Technically canon compliant (including AYITL). Jess-centric. Non-linear timeline.

💮 i can see us (lost in the memory) - Canon divergent: Jess never goes to Stars Hollows. Very summer themed. Probably my only fic with a bittersweet ending (I said at the time that I inteded to write a sequel and I DO but that hasn't happened yet sooooo.... No promises but you can still hold out hope)

Others

💮 Hollywood (TV): when i kissed - I always forget I wrote this fic for some reason lol, but I love this show so much and wanted to create a little something out of it. Jack-centric, baby queer feels.

💮 F.R.I.E.N.D.S: denial is my greatest skill - Chandler-centric. Canon compliant. Future fic. I wrote most of this during my first year of college when I was extremely depressed and it kinda shows haha I love it a lot though. Also, I think the title is so on point, I fucking love it

💮 Babel: tough, tried, and true blue - I read Babel at the beginning of the year and was throughly destroyed by it, but at least I wrote this. Canon compliant, stolen moment kind of fic. Robin pov, Griffin/Anthony

💮Merrily We Roll Along: there is nothing important (that does not include you) - my most recent fic, which I am currently writing! I love it so so much and can't wait to continue it. Canon compliant, all the soft, nostalgic feels, redemption arc, etc. Lots of Frank/Charley/Mary love. I love it