#trans pirates

You recall earlier to how possessive She’s been; Her holding you close during meetings, one arm wrapped around you with a tight grasp on your shoulder. You remember Her eyes carefully watching you from day to day as you’ve been busy managing the crew. You recollect the special treatment you’ve received, all the private dinners She’d invite you to, the extra cut of the loot you’d receive, even your own private quarters aboard the ship.

Then, it hits you. Suddenly, all of it makes sense. The hungry eyes, the lustful stares... And now She has one more order for you; to join her on the bed and to let her take care of you one more time… You’ve been such a loyal first mate, you’ve obeyed every order given to you thus far; all you have to do is lay back and let Her take care of you. After all, the Captain knows what’s best for you… How could you possibly refuse now?

So, when we first started the Sea of Thieves comics, the game was still in alpha testing. I got the incredibly cool privilege of rolling up on the Golden Shores before other people even had access, because we were basically launching simultaneously. One of the really cool things about the set up was that we got to create our own crew from scratch and tell a story on the sea when it only had a few legends in it, so we were given free reign. I knew we had a handful of issues to tell the story and I hoped we'd get to come back to them, but nothing was certain.

Some of the characters, namely DeMarco and Lesedi Singh became regular characters in the game, which was something I had never even realized was a possibility. Then, of course, DeMarco's death as a big story in the game. It was the first big mystery. And Lesedi was part of it. We even got to hear Lesedi's voice (I was quietly VERY excited they actually cast a South Asian woman in the part).

That led to a new opportunity! Years after their initial adventures, we got to make a new mini-series called "Sea Dog's Search" which centers Lesedi on her quest to find her brother's lost soul. We wanted to change things up and show that it had been years of adventuring on the Sea of Thieves, so even though we hadn't written years of comics, we wanted to show that their lives had kept on going. Since Lesedi was our focus in the series, updating her look was important to me. In the first comic, she started out looking like this:

Then, in the game, she and her brother founded The Sea Dogs and got sharp matching outfits:

Obviously, she stay's looking fly, but it's worth noting that this was a matching outfit with her brother and much more his style than hers (DeMarco loves clothes and dressing sexy, Lesedi has always been a little more no nonsense). So now that she's out from under the shadow of both her brother and legendary father, we've done some updating to her look. First, she had to get rid of the old one and do a bit of fighting of her own:

Over the years, the variety of what you can wear in SoT has improved so we wanted to give Lesedi something that felt like it had a little bit of who she is and a little bit of her home.

But there was somebody else who hadn't really been in the game whose evolution was perhaps more important to me.

When we had done the first miniseries, I talked with the crew about the possibility of having a trans character in the books. They were excited, but one thing they really wanted in the comics was to make sure that things that characters did in the book were more or less achievable in the game and, at the time, there was no way in the build to change your character's look or gender once you started.

But now, there is! There is a potion that allows you to change the look of your character including their gender. Rare and co was very supporting of us then following through with an idea we had during the first fun that was now possible. I had originally written the character of Alessia St. Marina as a person who was not comfortable in her own skin and had used costumes and espionage as a way to cope with that. She was especially fond of going undercover pretending to be male.

At the end of the mini-series, Alessia ended up getting together with her partner in crime, but she was never able to come out as trans. But it has been a few years both in our world and in the game one, so allow be to introduce you to Alister St. Marina.

He's a smooth talkin swashbuckler who just happens to be married to one of the most dangerous cutthroat women in the world, whom our crew has to rescue from her most recent scrape.

So, thank you very much to Rare, Titan, and everybody else involved for letting us tell this wonderful story and bring the first canonical trans masc pirate character into the Sea of Thieves.

Avast! Pirate Stories From Transgender Authors Edited by Michael Earp and Alison Evans

(2024)

From the Publisher:

Get ready to set sail with a crew of rebels and misfits in this thrilling anthology of pirate tales. From CD burners to space pirates with an otherworldly crew, these stories blur the lines between criminal and separatist, playful and heartfelt and showcase a range of unique characters and found families.

Featuring seven long-form pieces of writing, including a graphic novella and a verse novella, this collection has been edited by and features trans and non-binary writers, ensuring a fresh and diverse perspective on the pirate genre. So come aboard and discover a world of queer pirates, grey morals and homebrewed ale.

Stories from:

The Rapper stared for a long moment. "None that'll accept a Lady, miss," he gruffed. "Y' better git back t' yer home 'fore someone else sees ya."

The figure's teeth audibly groaned as his jaw tightened. "I'm no miss. Not a Lady either, not anymore. My name's Steven, and I'm looking for work."

The Rapper laughed, but Steven held still, deadly serious.

"Alright, kid," the Rapper sighed. "We know your kind well enough." He leaned close, impressed as Steve did not flinch away. "But these ain't respectable men. Yer gonna work hard, an' yer gonna learn to kill or be killed. Y' understand?"

Slowly, Steven nodded. "Get me some trousers and a shirt, and I'll work harder than any ship's cabin boy ever worked."

The Rapper grinned and clapped Steven's shoulder. "Come with me, boy." They passed all the ships along the dock and, for a moment, Steven was sure he'd meet an untimely end. They turned a corner on the dock to the end of a pier that seemed empty until Steven could see, at the end bobbed a dinghy. There, a man stood, face lit only by the faint glow of his pipe.

The Rapper approached easily, though the man paid them no attention.

"Ackles, I have a new boy for yer ship," the Rapper announced, voice hushed. "This's Steven. He only needs, ah, proper uniform."

Ackles didn't bother to turn his head to look, but did lower his pipe. "News travels fast for me an' mine, Rapper. You ask more 'bout this boy than 'is name?" His eyes lifted, piercing past the shadow of Steven's cloak hood. "Lady Siobhan Conner sneaks outta her estate, an' a boy in a dress shows up on th' docks?"

The Rapper shrugged, but Ackles' piercing gaze turned to him, stilling him. "Y' tryin'a get me an' my crewmates arrested?"

"Not if you shut up and get me out of here, quickly," Steven hissed. "Whatever urchins are spreading rumors will be the least of your worries when my father finds me gone in the morning and sends police, instead of drunkards." He took a deep, steadying breath. "And I am not going back."

"You assume I'll take you," Ackles sneered.

Silence wrapped around them for a painfully long minute before a small whisper floaded from inside Steven's hood.

"Please, Sir."

Ackles looked to the Rapper, who raised his brows, expectant. Ackles sighed.

(because gay pirate brainrot is real rn)

Canon identities are kept the same dw!!

**not all characters are listed, such as new ones from s2 bc I don’t know enough about their character yet to headcanon them

Stede Bonnet | Edward “Ed” Teach

he/him | he/she/they

Cis man | Genderfluid

Demisexual | Cupiosexual

Gay, nebularomantic | Toric

Ambiamorous | Polyamorous

Israel “Izzy” Hands | Fang

he/him | he/she

Trans man | Genderqueer

Demi aroace, gay | Polysexual

Ambiamorous | Polyamorous

Lucius Spriggs | Black Pete

he/they | he/him

Nonbinary | Cis man

Gay, demiromantic | Achillean

Polyamorous | Polyamorous

Jim Jimenez | Oluwande Boodhari

they/them | he/him

Nonbinary | Cis man

Bisexual | Demisexual, unlabeled

Polyamorous | Ambiamorous

Frenchie | Wee John Feeney

they/he | he/him

Transmasc demiman | Trans man

Aroace, queerplatonic | Gay

Ambiamorous | Ambiamorous

Roach | Nathaniel Buttons

he/they | it/its/he

Trans man | Agender

Bisexual | Aroace

Polyamorous | Nonamorous

Swede | Spanish Jackie

she/they | she/her

Trans woman | Cis woman

Pansexual | Bisexual

Ambiamorous | Polyamorous

Ivan | Calico Jack Rackham

he/they | he/him

Transmasc | Cis man

Asexual, gay | Pansexual, aromantic

Ambiamorous | Polyamorous

Mary | Doug

she/her | he/him

Cis woman | Trans man

Bisexual | Straight