#end of

I found her!

Stede struggles massively with Jack’s arrival.

Jack mocks his femme presentation, ingratiates himself with the crew against Stede, and then Ed asks Stede to be the bigger person by giving Jack a break, and letting him call the shots as to how they spend their time.

Here, we have just witnessed Stede watching the cruelty of turtle vs crab, seen Ed continue to act like someone Stede doesn’t like around Jack, and he has now taken himself off for a comfort break.

He then hears who he thinks is Ed approaching, and what happens next is interesting: Stede doesn’t tell him how he feels about these games, or his opinion of Jack again - he makes small talk.

Because Stede is still trying so hard, here! He is viscerally disgusted by what he’s witnessed on the beach, yet he’s still attempting to maintain the peace, to be the bigger person Ed has asked him to be.

We often say Stede can’t mask well, but he can when he tries, really tries. He pays a price for it always, but he’s masking at this moment For Ed. It’s polite and a front, because he’s trying to play the role he thinks he should for a person he cares about.

But it’s not Ed approaching, it’s Jack, and he’s here to rattle Stede. And it doesn’t work. Stede stands up for Ed’s character in a way Ed hadn’t for Stede, genuinely doesn’t care about Ed’s past, and suggests Jack doesn’t know the true Ed at all.

It’s only when Jack pisses on Stede, which by modern standards is assault and battery, even sexual assault, that he breaks.

Only then does Stede confront Ed about his behaviour, and only because Ed asks him where he’s going.

And even then, Stede doesn’t ask for Jack to go, doesn’t remove his crew from Jack’s presence. He removes himself only, taking himself back to the Revenge.

But I still can’t get passed Stede being utterly uncomfortable, humiliated and miserable about the situation he finds himself in, yet prepared to have a jaunty conversation with ‘Ed’ about the diuretic effects of hard liquor, in order not to confront him, and be what he hopes, misguidedly, is a good friend.

Also i saw the ‘famed’ post 😭😭

Yeah, hi. I’m not on vgen because I’m a disabled artist who does not have a twitter account or the energy to play the little raffle game required to get an account on there. I literally just do not have the time or the spoons or even the desire to like comment and gamble to try to get an account. (Or anyone willing to give me an invite code EDIT: someone shared a code with me thank youuu!) I would love to be on there and I do need commissions, so no shade to the site itself at all. But y’all are being weird about this for no reason.

Also, I’ve spoken to multiple artists on there who struggle to meet the $100 commission goal to even get their account moving/paid. I’ve seen multiple people get scammed on there, as well. And yes, Vgen handles it really well, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t scammers who get in through the cracks. But you’re acting like it’s this utopia without any problems or crime when the reality is not that different from outside of vgen.

It’s not the only way to find an artist who you can trust, there are other ways to confirm an artist is not using AI, and it’s not an Elite Art Club that only the Quality Artists use. It’s a commission organizing space for creators and commissioners, which is super cool and useful, but not some exclusive space where only the Good and Best artists are.