M。

oh, excellent. i love the pirate au i have with cali, and quite frankly there’s so much backstory in this verse that will probably never make it into the fics or our threads, so this is great. :3 as far as RPERS/FANDOM’S HONORARY COPYRIGHT for a plot or storyline goes, consider this one marked ‘CHIP & CALI’. And if that wasn’t clear enough, lemme translate it for you: THAT IS JUST MY SUPER POLITE WAY OF SAYING, ‘DON’T LET ME CATCH ANYTHING SIMILAR TO THIS POPPING UP IN THE TAGS ON TUMBLR OR AO3 BECAUSE I’LL KNOW WHERE YOU GOT IT FROM, YOU THIEVING UNIMAGINATIVE PRICK.’ because seriously guys, own your own work, don’t kipe shit off someone else’s; don’t be tacky.

and now: an au w/ five headcanons.

★ miles & bass weren’t always sailors; their families were farming folk, from a small town where the cows outnumbered the people three times over. the boys were originally slated to follow in their fathers’ line of work (as was the standard) but were always a little more adventurous than their peers, always looking away to the horizon, to what might be beyond the fields and the plains. they were also always more interested in the idea of being militiamen than farmers, nevermind that at that time ( the 1680′s ) the militia was a volunteer, part-time activity taken up by their fathers and the other men in town when necessary, and that it wasn’t actually a trade by which men could feed their families. as they got older, they were disabused of the notion of adventure by their parents and peers, and were encouraged to embrace their future as farmers instead. that didn’t sit well with either of the boys, to be honest – not when bass had harbored notions of maybe trying to enroll at harvard to become a scholar despite lacking the funds/sponsorship to accomplish it, or when miles was still ( always ) rearing back from tedious stability, from a place and a lifestyle where nothing ever changed but the seasons. neither of them was made for the small town life, and finally they got sick enough of it to leave – in the dead of night they set off for the coast, for boston, to seek out the next best alternative for two farm boys with no love for their trade, and no prospects: seafaring. they took work learning the ropes and waves on fishing boats, and then later apprenticed on merchant vessels, and in less than a decade ( seven years, actually ) they were considered accomplished seamen.

★ they weren’t originally naval officers; they just ended up that way. in 1700, they pooled their resources and purchased a schooner of their own, intending to go into business for themselves as merchant sailors – but when the british called for captains willing to sail under british orders during the war of the spanish succession, miles & bass instead joined up as privateers and took their commission as the chance to modify their schooner to carry ten guns. they sailed their quick, agile vessel up and down the american coastline, and into the caribbean, becoming infamous for blindsiding their opponents, for their cunning tactics, and unusual sense of acumen in sea battle. they captured and were awarded numerous captured ships and sums of treasure in the fourteen years they served as privateers for the british, and when the war came to an official end in 1714, they were offered the rare privilege of continued employ by the british navy as officers in the coastal us colonies in acknowledgement of their service to the crown. they readily accepted and were made captains of the british navy; they were subsequently given shared command of a flotilla of confiscated and repurposed vessels captured during the war, the majority of which were anchored in the port of philadelphia. 

★ both bass & miles were pirate hunters once; infamously so, in fact. amongst their gifted naval force, miles & bass eventually handpicked a few select captains and organized a small, elite brigade of heavily armed schooners & sloops – fast ships, with an array of guns, intended to steal up alongside a pirate vessel and pepper them with canon fire before quickly moving on to another position for a second volley. the bigrade, jokingly called ‘the blackjacks’ ( after the gamefish ), became the most well-known pirate hunting party down the eastern seaboard and caribbean. they spent weeks at a time at sea, vigorously eradicating the scourge of post-war piracy creeping up on the coast and caribbean islands.

★ bass’ family was killed by pirates. after so many years away and after finding so much success in their chosen life, miles & bass both send letters back home, inviting their families ( their parents, their siblings ) to come join them in philadelphia for a few short weeks, to visit, to catch up. ( the goal of course, as far as bass was concerned, was to get his parents to entertain the idea of staying in philadelphia permanently, or at the very least, to send his intelligent, vivacious kid sisters to philly, where they could get more of a chance at being something other than being a farmer’s wife, an opportunity bass was in a position to assist with now. ) ultimately, miles family declined to come; his brother ben was recently married, their parents not inclined to travel. miles wasn’t too upset. but bass’ parents and sisters made the trip and spent nearly a week in philadelphia, days which bass reflects on as some of his best. but unfortunately, their latest raid [ the sinking of a trio of small sloops, the arresting of their crew ] on a notoriously ruthless pirate came back to haunt them when the man ( supposedly dead ) sailed an armed cutter down the delaware river into the heart of philadelphia and rained canon fire on the city’s unprotected streets. pirates swarmed ashore, sacking and looting and murder washed through the city for nearly three hellish hours before –– finally –– the ship was taken from within and the vengeful pirate killed ( for real this time ). but by that point, the damage was done. several of those canonballs had torn through the quarter of the city where bass and miles resided; bass’ parents –– and his beloved sisters, too young, too fragile –– were dead, crushed beneath rubble, suffocated by blackpowder and flames. bass was never quite the same, and the loss of his family only redoubled his intensity for the hunt, for the punishment of those who would lawlessly tear through the civilized world maiming and killing as they went. in a very particular way, the deaths of his family made bass a much more ruthless hunter, the sort of relentless pursuer pirates would curse for the rest of their days.

★ nora was one of their best captains; before she defected. nora was a trusted right-hand and confidant to both miles & bass for some time – and one of miles’ former lovers. but, following the death of bass’ family, and the months of blood soaked decks and endless cannon fire, nora became disenchanted with bass’ ever-increasing thirst for vengeance on the pirates & their associates – and discomforted with miles’ refusal to do anything to rein bass in.  the final straw, as it were, came in the form of bass’ reaction to a surprise attack on the blackjack’s favorite portside taven; an attack that nearly cost miles his life. while miles recovered, bass tore through philly and the neighboring cities, witch-hunting pirates from door to door, and ship to ship. in the end, nearly two dozen people were dead – some only guilty of the family of the pirates responsible for the attack – and nora’s ability to stomach the slaughter abruptly ran dry. the night after miles was well enough to be up and moving again, she cornered him and confessed in hurried, furious whispers that she was taking her ship and leaving. miles tried to talk her out of it, but she stood firm – only relenting enough to beg him to come with her. when miles refused – incredulously, like he couldn’t believe she’d asked – nora stormed away, hurt and exasperated, but with a bittersweet understanding. ( miles might have refused to come away with her – but the shadowed horror in his eyes wasn’t as invisible to her as he might have hoped. ) stealing away in the dead of night, nora took her crew and her ship, and sailed down the river unchallenged. in the morning, when bass was alerted to nora’s defection – ( and it was called a defection, despite the blackjack’s being a volunteer force; bass was nothing if not a stickler for loyalty ) – he accused miles of being complicit, a charge which miles denied right up until the day he left.