#ofmd fanfic recs

[eefaevie]

here’s a crop of the chapter 10 art from wave hello to the void, a completed gentlebeard OFMD cryptid hunting AU by @mxmollusca @zacharybosch and myself — 78k words, explicit, romance/comedy/horror (but don’t let that deter you! this is the most tender monster-loving you’ve ever seen — I guarantee it)

[medievill]

I made them talk to each other.

[medievill]

I get a lot of “wow your Ed is bang-on” comments so uh. Here’s my only explicitly innkeeper era fic:

but feel free to poke around a little while you’re there ^_^ hope you enjoy!

I literally keep running into this shit it’s so annoying

[jaypentaghast]

if anyone needs me i'll be mentally here until next week's episodes

[ofmd-ann]

I recently won a fic commission in the "Our Flag Means Pride" charity raffle by @adoptourcrew

Thank you to the hugely talented @ferventrabbit for donating her time and skills to writing this gorgeous piece for me 👏🔥 Go read it!

Thank you to Fidi @fidisart as well for the art that inspired it 💕 (give that some love too, linked below!)

Rating: E Summary: Ed notices Stede looking at him more than usual, leaving them both a bit hot and bothered. He proposes a failsafe plan to give them both a reset. What could go wrong? Set sometime between 2x05 and 2x06

[soupbtch]

graphic by @spirker 63.6k words / rated explicit / complete

Edward Teach was miserable in cruises. Then he met Stede Bonnet.

-------------------------------------------------------------

this is a modern cruise ship AU. slow burn, idiots to idiot lovers, lots of silly costumes and theme nights. ultimately, this is a story about finding and accepting love despite and regardless of a lifetime of insecurities.

big, massive, heartfelt THANK YOU to @sleepystede and @spirker for the betas.

all 11 chapters are up on ao3 now 🫶

and enjoy some lovely art for ch5 and ch7, both by @innfinders-innkeepers !!!

[aha-my-villainous-thoughts]

A little gift for @bizarrelittlemew, one of the kindest and strongest people in the crew 💜 if you haven't read her heartwrenching fic Five Birthdays and a Funeral, you haven't lived 💜

Here's a sun dappled Stede at a picnic, charming his way into Ed's heart with star facts and definitely not booty shorts, Lucius, they're a perfectly reasonable length!

[naranjapetrificada]

In this weird wonderful AU Georg fandom that is OFMD we have so many beautiful options. I was never, ever an AU type until now, but I truly can't get enough. Just last night I stayed up entirely too late because I finally got into Wave Hello to the Void, which on its face should absolutely positively not be My Thing, but the AUs we're blessed with here seem to always break that rule (especially with mxmollusca involved because holy shit have you read In Favor With Their Stars yet???).

We're so incredibly lucky y'all. I've been in fandom spaces for a long time but I've never felt this lucky.

We get different takes on time travel. We get the multiverse (and in so many beautiful forms). We get thought-provoking fantastical allegories and devastating (but often hopeful?) prequels with fascinating studies of character and fascinating takes on soul mates. We get complete fantasy overhauls that are gem-like in the beauty and precision of their prose and world-building. We get darling modern AUs and heartwrenching (but still ultimately happily-ending) modern AUs and modern AUs in basically every possible permutation, including ghost stories.

We get dystopias and apocalypses and post-apocalypses, meditations on love and existence, metafictional experiments in Not-RPF that draw even the biggest RPF skeptics (*points to self*) in, leaving us to wrestle with fundamentally altered attitudes toward storytelling that we may never be able to reconcile. Hell, even the missing scenes, canon-divergence, and fix-its hit different. Not to mention westerns with outlaws and cowboys, an archetype which conveniently also manages to scratch the proverbial pirate itch.

Even though pretty much every fandom has these things, for me at least they've never felt quite so imaginative and well-executed. We're so lucky to be here, to be writing for each other and reading for each other and for many of us, feeling creative for the first time in years or even decades. The gay pirates did that for us, because good source material can be the key to great fan works. And whether or not we get a third season, as much as they can't take the show from us, they also can't take away the gift that getting to experience all these fanworks has been. That's something I'm going to keep reminding myself while we wait.

and idk maybe tell your cowboy fanart friends that Ed can also ride horses as a steppe warrior or whatever

[theyoungeragrippina]

✨ 15 gentlebeard fic recs ✨

i have spent the last month trawling the pages of ao3 for you, dear reader, to find the best ofmd fics. all the works on this list:

are longer-form (generally 40k+)

have no steddyhands (simply not my thing)

are generally, all around brilliant (well-written, had me kicking my feet and giggling, laughing, or crying)

are complete!

part 2 and part 3

A Heart Unsated by roughwinds

48k, explicit

"Stede Bonnet has just moved into Orange Crescent. There’s a house on the corner, opposite Stede’s own, with a garden full of flowers and a gleaming motorbike on the driveway. He’s forgotten to buy sugar.

Edward Teach has his morning disturbed by his new neighbour. Enamoured at first sight, he invites Stede round for a chat, and then another, and then another.

This is the story of them."

man i normally avoid fics with lots of alma and louis in them because its just not for me, but literally every second of the family bonding in this was so wholesome i was forced to change my entire mind.

all you left me was a pearl by @sightofsea

88k, mature

"1717. The Golden Age of Piracy. Stede Bonnet sets about wooing the love of his life through any means necessary.

Things do not go as planned."

every day i wish for a precise memory erasing potion to be invented so i can read this again for the first time. i would devour like 2000k more words of this if it was offered to me. brilliant.

forgive & forget by @fool-for-luv

44k, mature

"It hits him then, like a wave breaking on sand, loud as thunder when it crashes, then trickling away into little rivulets flowing back home, murmuring one word over and over and over. Ed.

The problem is, Stede doesn’t recall ever having met anyone named Ed."

so sweet and wonderful, and i wish there was more.

#gentlebeard is trending! by regional_catastrophe

41k, teen

"In which Stede accidentally convinces the pirating world that Gentlebeard (or Blackbonnet or Stedward; there's a poll) is canon, reunites his crew, and gets his boyfriend back."

hilarious & silly & great, but also the most compelling notes of any fic i've ever read. a proper learning experience.

if music be the food of love (then darling, you're a feast) by @fool-for-luv

107k, unrated

"“Hey, so, those two, right, they get together in the end?” Ed asks.

“I would protest spoiling it, but I think it's rather obvious, isn't it?” Stede says. His nose wrinkles as he smiles. “The tension is certainly there from the beginning. It just takes them a while to get there.”

“Good. Would have been a shit story otherwise.""

i love sassy stede and i love ed who is a grump and i love that they share one single braincell at any given time.

If You Were Mine to Keep by @mysterybees

162k, explicit

"Caught between the gallows and the end of an English sword, Ed accepts the Act of Grace: marry into the aristocracy, leave the English ships alone, and live to sail another day. But who in their right mind would ever agree to marry the mad devil pirate Blackbeard?"

Worth every second of tiredness I felt after pulling an all nighter to finish reading.

It's Only Right by hexuponye

53k, explicit

"A modern AU based on Imagine Me & You, in which Edward is a florist who does the flowers for Stede's wedding."

mary gets to be a little silly sometimes too as a treat.

pliocene by unfortunatelyobsessed

75k, mature

""man, it's just ocean for miles.” Ed motions out to the waves, where there is no sign of any sort of ship, their small dinghy pulled far up on the sand. “I told you when the clouds look like seagulls you take fuckin' cover. Goddamn ocean mutinied me.”"

william golding wishes he did something this brilliant and significant when he wrote Lord of the Flies. the best deserted island story.

quite a career shift by @stedesparasol

157k, explicit

"Stede's been posting book reviews on Youtube for two months now. It's taken him that long to finally get a comment, and the person it comes from is rather unexpected."

rip stede you would've LOVED booktube. furious i can never really watch his content.

Semaphore by komodobits

124k, explicit

"Talking things through as a crew is easier said than done, and honest communication has never really been Stede’s strong suit. When it comes to Ed, he is willing to try."

so good that i was properly and truly laughing and gasping and 'oh no-ing' out loud while i read it.

Such Joie de Vivre by @louciferish

94k, explicit

"Professional thief Edward Teach is tired of hole in the wall apartments, shitty pub food, and skipping town every few months to keep the cops off their tail. He’s well past the age he meant to flee the country and retire, and all he needs is One Last Job to set him up for life. When he hears that some rich bastard outside of town has just the sort of treasure he’d trade his good knee for, Ed sets out in disguise to get the lay of the land."

i (so so foolishly) avoided reading this for a while because i simply didn't think i was one for nanny aus. i was so, terribly wrong. don't make the same mistakes i did. showstopping. incredible stuff.

The Chains of Flowers are Fragile Things by @grandmastattoo

62k, explicit

"Stede can't see the shop he's inherited from his late father as anything other than a burden, another insult added to a life that's going nowhere fast. Then he meets the charismatic man who owns the tattoo studio next door, and Stede finds himself forced to consider the idea of home."

maybe i love tattoo shop owner ed fics, sue me. i love this stede and i love his embarrassing mistake tattoo.

The Love Experiment by karawrites

65k, mature

a married at first sight (aus) au. i didn't know i needed it until i read it.

Water/line by @the-gentleman-mermaid

60k, teen

"During a raid on a smuggler ship, Ed finds a merman named Stede locked in the hold."

So good that I would actually pay the author real person money to do a similar story but where Ed is the mermaid.

Where the Daylight Begins by @xoxoemynn

116k words, explicit

"Modern day AU slow burn featuring a pining Ed, a clueless Stede, found family, roughly a million animals, and a very magical house."

This one sort of gave me House on the Cerulean Sea vibes; it was so much fun and genuinely necessitates a proper use of the word whimsical.

[eefaevie]

Suddenly, the room goes silent as the front door opens. In walks the single most breathtakingly gorgeous man Stede’s ever seen. Everything about the man is striking; he’s dressed provocatively in a well-worn black leather jacket over dark jeans and boots, and his long, silvery hair is piled into a high bun exposing the bronze expanse of his elegant neck. Stede can see the edges of faint black inkwork peeking out from under the cuffs of his jacket and across the top of his chest, and his short-cropped beard emphasizes an absolutely stunning set of cheekbones. And his eyes, god, his eyes; they’re luminous, as vast and dark as the swath of sky held aloft by the telescope on the hill.

art and excerpt from chapter one of Wave Hello to the Void, an ofmd gentlebeard fic written by @mxmollusca and @zacharybosch with some art by me ❤️ check it out on ao3!

[medievill]

good news, monsters: I updated "tell me something I don't know," and I made Ed cry a lot. you're welcome.

[fairfowl]

As promised! Izzy-centric fic recs!

These are all gonna be pre S2 (and all Steddyhands because I was obsessed for like a year)

@crabgrave

Starting off strong with

1) Battle of the Boyfriends

This fic makes you laugh before it makes you cry. A steddyhands centric dramady mostly from Izzy's point of view, and I love this Izzy very much.

Isn't he precious? They absolutely hurt his feelings

2) Doldrums

This one is a two part series that starts with Izzy leaving the Revenge as Stede and Ed reunite post S1. He recruits Calico Jack and becomes captain of his own ship while he and Jack have a lot of sex (I actually enjoy Jack in this one lol) Ed and Izzy eventually partially work things out

The second part involves Izzy back on the ship in the beginning stages of steddyhands

I think the real strength of this series is Izzy's interactions with everyone, but especially Stede and Oluwande

3) The Nook is for Talking Shit

This is a Calico Jack hate!fic and I'm here for it. Also steddyhands because I've got a problem

In this fic Stede and Izzy bond offer a mutual enemy, and Izzy teaches Stede how to craft the perfect insult

I like that they laugh together, and I really like it when Stede stands up for Izzy ♡ (I also like that Izzy has a very good reason to hate Jack that involves him having been injured very badly)

4) Navigating By the Light of Your Stars

A delicious sandwich of a trilogy where the bread is BlackHands and Stizzy relationship studies, and the meat is steddyhands smut.

Featuring: GrayAce!Izzy, whump, Stede’s introduction to BDSM, and discussions of mortality ♡

5) A Pirate Triptych

Another steddyhands trilogy!

This is one I've seen on many recommendation lists and it is worth it. These men and their guilt I swear ♡

Post S1 Izzy schemes to get Stede back into Ed's good graces at his own expense.

If you like Izzy whump this is the fic for you

6) More Vivid than Sunsets, Brighter than Stars

On a shorter and sweeter note this little steddyhands bdsm fic explores Izzy running his mouth and Stede and Ed going a little too far in order to punish him. Everyone gets their feelings hurt ♡

Everyone is characterized well here but Ed is kind of the star of the show, he has to mediate this incident and he's hilarious

7) House of Mirrors

This one is pure Izzy whump with steddyhands caretaking. Izzy is sick, Ed spirals, Stede is Exhausted (tm)

I reread this one often

anyway I think this is what I have for now, I might post another list at some point because there are a couple of longfics that are very near and dear to my heart, plus S2 is not gonna stop me from reading new fic. I look forward to seeing more amputee!Izzy

[firesprite1105]

This is a PSA to my fellow OFMD fic readers out there. This fic is one of the funniest & most in character things I have ever read and it’s insane to me that it doesn’t even have 1K hits. What if Mary’s book club found Stede’s letters?

[marbledwings]

Fanfic Friday! ✨

Have I been compulsively reading fic instead of dealing with real life? Maybe. While I don't recommend that as a coping mechanism, I DO recommend all of these wonderful stories.

I even remembered to include word count and ratings this time.

Dear Ed (sorry, wrong chat) - @chaotic-neutral-knitter

Words: 3,140, T

The widows find Stede's love letters. All I can say is, poor poor Mary 😭

Yours in Every Way - ClaireGregory

Words: 5,122, M

Another epistolary fic! I love AUs where Stede is a tailor, what a perfect profession for him and him falling in love with a customer through their choice of fine fabrics is very on brand.

Pete & Prejudice - shieldmaidenofmithrilhall

Words: 13,943, T

This fic is so funny and romantic that the examination of how courageous it is to dismantle your own toxic masculinity sneaks in while you're giggling over Lucius's POV (and Ed and Stede being so over-the-top into each other).

A New Season - @amuseoffyre

Words: 128,624, T

Fyre's take on S3 - an incredible, ambitious, triumphant pirate's tale which gives every character (and some new ones!) time to shine. This has been such a fun WIP to follow and it's now finished!

quite a career shift - shipmates/ @stedesparasol

Words: 156,570, E

Booktuber Stede and criminal turned author Ed meet via youtube comments. Deliciously angsty with both Stede and Ed's internal conflict written so well. I devoured this one in record time.

[mermaidinn]

fanfic friday!? ofmd innkeeper era recs part 2:

Hi all! I posted a list of brilliant innkeeper stories back in march, here’s a part 2 with some of my favorites that have come out since then! 💖

innkeeper era recs p1 ~~~ season 2 missing scene fic recs

bread and roses (7k)- oddishly

Lovers of Beauty (4k)- Jodalyn 

Down in the Ol' Gravy Basket (3k)- pirate_captains_captain_pirates

One Last Job (10k)- Shermanic

Talking About Things (2k)- Chocolatepot 

Just a Little Fall of Rain (3k)- pirate_captains_captain_pirates

Swan (3k)- YellowMustard 

like your heart’s a pomegranate (20k)- ingydar

Connecting the Dots (20k)- YellowMustard

read me like a book (10k)- xoxoemynn

bigger than the whole sky (1k)- gentleblahaj

the poor groom's bride is a… (5k)- ingydar

An Uncharted Level of Waves (5k)- Living_City

the taste of marmalade (2K)- ghostalservice (plantainleaf)

Fortunate (4k)- Jellybeanium124

No More Running (2k)- eperonae

gonna build you up, gonna help you believe (8k)- Jodalyn 

Flowers In Your Hair (7k)- Followsthebees

True to Life (28k)- ipomoea_batatas

don’t worry about it, kitten (7k)- Adamarks

Nudist Shark Freak (4k)- the_hitcher_is_my_dad

Still Here in the Morning (5k)- pirate_captains_captain_pirates

Caution: Spider on Board (3k)- YergiiDzov (Yergink)

soft like silk chiffon (12k)- mediocrepirate

[soupbtch]

The Caretaker

5.6k words / rated mature

“Why d’you bring me the pastries?” Frenchie looks up at the ceiling, then tilts his head to the side. “Just a nice thing to do, innit? Thought it might cheer you up to have a little treat.”

———————————————————————————

here is some kraken era whump and emotional hurt/comfort. as a treat. <3