#plotbunnie

why are you leaving yourself in my inbox NO KSDFJN I LOVE YOU

The Fool: What is the stupidest thing your muse has ever done?

CHRIST, WHERE TO BEGIN. I honestly don’t think it’s possible to choose just One tremendously stupid thing but I can narrow it down to like, seasons 1-2 in particular, because generally speaking Flint is infinitely less stupid in seasons 3-4. He’s actually less stupid just… post-s1 really bc s1 Flint is an angry ginger cat and a complete IDIOT but anyway.

Handed Billy a blank page on the sheer HOPE that he would decide to lie for Flint (with whom he has basically no rapport other than a brief ‘lol idk what I’m doing ever but aren’t you glad I pretend I do’ conversation), knowing the crew would kill him if Billy told the truth.

Got shot in the shoulder, nearly drowned, swam out to a warship with his shoulder still untreated save for some bandage just crammed into the wound, got tied to a chair and freed himself from it by slamming that shoulder into a table then into the floor.

Tried to kill Silver whilst all of his limbs were still tied to the aforementioned chair.

Followed up all of this bullshit by drawing parallels between his new work-related relationship with Silver, and… his early relationship with Thomas??? Decided they were ‘strange pairs’ too, just in a different way??? Is apparently a duckling who just fucking imprints on anyone that even remotely says something positive to him, even if he knows they’re a lying, manipulative shit out only for themselves??????????? I wish this was just a headcanon but no that is honest to G-d how the narrative presents it, like thematically and cinematically, and I’ll go into that to prove it if I need to but JESUS.

Speaking of Silver, decided that Silver was worth giving a shit about ONLY after Silver… told him he’d been lying to and deceiving him about the gold this entire time… like @ Flint… What The Fuck. I know it’s because he outsmarted you and he gave up his share of the gold to remain on the crew but like. Bruh. Get better standards for friendship, PLEASE.

Decided to try and parallel park a ship because it was ‘worth a try’ in the absence of any better ideas.

SAILED INTO A FUCKING SHIP-KILLER OF A STORM

Waxed the ends of his moustache in s1

Has the world’s stupidest, tiny ponytail

Got a tiny little half-moon tattoo and pierced his left ear upon becoming a pirate

“You might like him, sir”

AND THOSE ARE JUST THE CANON THINGS LET’S TALK ABOUT RP/HEADCANONS

RP-wise, kissed @oceanfoamed‘s Gates out of sheer PANIC because their faces were too close

Had Billy’s hand around his throat and decided it was the perfect time to just tug him down for a kiss, because that’s just how he reacts to close proximity with men bigger than him apparently

Nearly tried to get Billy to fuck him because they were sharing a bed and Well, When In Rome, (although he didn’t so I suppose this doesn’t belong on the list but LISTEN)

Considers @harriedwritings‘ Silver to be Unacceptable To Touch Physically, is somehow convinced that anything more than the occasional hand on the shoulder during emotional moments would be Forbidden 

@tidefated

The point of a dagger presses into Billy’s stomach just hard enough to feel like a threat. Flint is flat against the wall, head tipped back--not in surrender but because he can’t look this tree of a man in the face otherwise--and left hand fisted in the front of Billy’s shirt. Whether he’s more inclined to pull him onto that dagger or push him away to free himself is anybody’s guess. The only certain thing is that Billy, for all his size and strength and intelligence (and for all that Flint has become diminished in the past several months), has yet to intimidate him.

oh my god please I offer my soul in exchange for this

HFHFKJNFKJN PLEASE SKY I’M DYING

ok but like how does one categorize nostalgia to diagnose it legitimate question but also ls;kdjf

GOOD G-DDAMN QUESTION i’m looking it up as we speak and FIRST OF ALL i was slightly incorrect; it was starting to be seen less as a medical condition in itself by the 1850s and more as part of something else (like melancholia) 

“defined it as an affliction of those who had left their home, and which struck them as they remembered fond memories and, in some cases, were crippled by the sense of longing that the memories brought. He said that acute symptoms were often caused when the afflicted individual was exposed to some sort of trigger that reminded them of home, like a song, a smell, or a certain food. 

It was also said to be made worse by foreign lands and customs and was particularly evident in emigrants and students studying abroad.

Hofer defined nostalgia as a mental illness, citing cases in which people suffering from chronic nostalgia would fall into deep depressions. They would be consumed with sadness, apathy, and suffer from an inability to conform to or accept the customs of their new home.“

and:

“ In the year 1782, while I lay in barracks at Tin mouth in the north of England, a recruit who had lately joined the regiment ... was returned in sick list, with a message from his captain, requesting I would take him into the hospital. He had only been a few months a soldier; was young, handsome, and well-made for the service; but a melancholy hung over his countenance, and wanness preyed on his cheeks. 

He complained of a universal weakness, but no fixed pain; a noise in his ears, and giddiness of his head. ... As there were little obvious symptoms of fever, I did not well know what to make of the case. ... Some weeks passed with little alteration ... excepting that he was evidently become more meager. He scarcely took any nourishment ... became indolent. ... He was put on a course of strengthening medicines; wine was allowed him. All proved ineffectual. 

He had now been in the hospital three months, and was quite emaciated, and like one in the last stage of consumption. ... On making my morning visit, and inquiring, as usual, of his rest at the nurse, she happened to mention the strong notions he had got in his head, she said, of home, and of his friends. What he was able to speak was constantly on this topic. This I had never heard of before. ... He had talked in the same style, it seems, less or more, ever since he came into the hospital. I went immediately up to him, and introduced the subject; and from the alacrity with which he resumed it.. I found it a theme which much affected him. He asked me, with earnestness, if I would let him go home. 

I pointed out to him how unfit he was, from his weakness to undertake such a journey [he was a Welchman ] till once he was better; but promised him, assuredly, without farther hesitation, that as soon as he was able he should have six weeks to go home. He revived at the very thought of it. ... His appetite soon mended; and I saw in less than a week, evident signs of recovery. “

SO BASICALLY those sources aren’t fuckin great (the first is a journal article, the second is wikipedia) but i can’t get access to the g-ddamn academic articles on google and i’m too lazy to search jstor

but it basically seems to be like... one of those “well SOMETHING’S wrong but it’s nothing specific enough for a diagnosis of anything else, and--OH you’re longing for home??? IT’S NOSTALGIA.”

@tidefated

It’s not as if he’s never seen the man shirtless before, for Christ’s sake. He’s seen Billy sweating in the sun, seen him labouring both at sea and on land, seen him scrub himself as clean as one ever gets, working on a ship. He’s seen his back before. The shift of his shoulderblades, the ripple of muscle. The dip in his spine, going down.

But it had been Flint seeing those things. Flint, who turned away from all of life’s delights. Flint, who ignored any and all interests that did not serve his image. Flint, who had fashioned himself into something that could neither touch nor be touched, and ignored all things that made him wish it were otherwise.

(Fuck, but he misses Joji- Joji, who could be touched- Joji, who wanted to touch him-)

Whoever he is now, it is still forbidden. Touch is still a thing stolen and coveted in frantic, helpless bursts: Brushing Vane’s fingers when he hands over useless trinkets and old books he knows Flint will like. Standing too close to Silver, now and then, so that their shoulders brushed as if they were on deck again, two halves of the same thing. Goading Billy until he’s left with no choice but to restrain Flint or risk having to beat him. Touch is still half-forbidden. 

But he looks at things a little differently, now. And standing frozen in the doorway, with Billy’s back to him- Billy is something he can look at. That much is allowed. So Flint looks, and his expression would be carefully blank if not for the blazing--something in his eyes, and when Billy turns and looks momentarily surprised to see him standing there Flint somehow doesn’t balk. All he did was look. All he did was look, he hasn’t touched, he hasn’t done anything. 

1. IT WOULD DEPEND ON THE CONTEXT REALLY. If he was offered it by friends, or in a familiar, safe location, he’d be low-key delighted because food like that is so g-ddamn rare for him now. But if he’s like... being offered it by someone like Richard Guthrie, for example (like if he’d showed up there and Guthrie had given him That Way Of Greeting, You Know, The One For Straight-Passing!Flint) he’s just sort of... DontLikeThat.png. Same with any fancy foods, honestly- even having dinner with Ashe (and not knowing he’s a traitor at this point), he barely touches the food. BUT ANYWAY YEAH NO if someone in Nassau rocked up to him like “hey we could afford some Fancy Ingredients try this” he’d be amped about it.

2. PleASE seeing the (people he actually cares about in the) crew getting to try fruit tart would be a delight, even for Flint. As much as he distances himself from the crew as a whole and sees himself as above them, etc, he absolutely empathises with the fact that... their lives... are sHIT... AND SO ARE THEIR CHOICES OF FOOD, ALL THE TIME (and Flint, who has had the best of both worlds, Knows This Very Very Acutely All The Fucking Time). So yeah no if there’s enough to share he’s almost definitely going to do so, particularly since it guarantees a morale boost among the crew and makes them less likely to y’know, mutiny against him. If there isn’t enough to share and there’s no reason for him to give it to anyone, It’s His And You Can Pry His Cold Dead Corpse Off Of It.

I'm gonna regret this but like. Flint. Come bother Billy.