#Flint only just recently decided to join the pirate crew and even that was more of an offhand thought that Raleigh followed through on

[andsotheuniverseended]

this following snippet of conversation between Flint and a very powerful prophet (whomst Flint is very uncomfortable around because its a Very Powerful Prophet) really i think says a lot about Flint

Actress: you all play significant roles in the original prophecy

Flint: WE do??

Actress: not you

Flint: oh thank gods, okay, thank you

Actress: it’s very concerning, actually. i can’t see into your future

Flint: phew

[blahblahwritings]

Contracts and Captains - III.

A/N: I’m definitely making this a Billy fic sorry lmao. 

Words: 1844

Warnings: Drinking and vomit.

It had been a month since Mr Gates had approached you and you had returned to him with a lead each week for them to hunt, bringing them and yourself plenty of money. You’d given them merchant ships carrying dyes, spices, tobacco, sugar and more that turned a favourable profit when brought back which didn’t go unnoticed by Miss Guthrie. Although you hadn’t talked since the job she needed, she seemed to have let the whole ordeal go after learning you were part of the reason Flint was bringing in more prizes.

The Walrus had returned early this morning and so you were currently walking down to the beach as they unloaded their cargo, hoping to find Flint or Gates to hand them another lead. It had taken a little while for you to find one this time so you had sent letters to some old friends in Port Royal asking for information which you were hoping would bear fruit. If not, you may very well be hunting out new employment.

The sun was still low as you found the crew, tired but in high spirits. They were laughing as they worked, and you’d caught word of a celebration at the tavern tonight as you passed by them to the old wooden dock. A longboat was slowly advancing toward the shore, the familiar faces of the captain and quartermaster among a couple of other crew members sat inside. You shot a friendly smile as they climbed out and quickly moved to join them.

“Another successful haul?” You chimed, gesturing to the surrounding crates and chests. The captain gave a small smirk, squinting against the light of the sun as Gates chuckled.

“Couldn’t have done it without your intel Miss Devereux, accurate as usual.” Mr gates clapped you on the back and you playfully rolled your eyes. “I assume you have our next target.” Flint said flatly. As much as you had proved they could trust you, he seemed a little cold to you since day one. He would give small smiles and be civil but never deviated into any kind of action that could be misconstrued as friendship. He preferred this to be more... professional. You were used to it with the men who would give you one off contracts but never in long-term work.

“I do, captain, here.” You dug through your pouch tied to your thick leather belt and handed him a piece of paper with times and coordinates scrawled across it. He inspected the page with furrowed brows before handing it to Mr Gates and nodded his thanks. “I have to take care of some business, I trust you’ll organise this, Gates. Excuse me.” He spoke briefly before leaving for the town.

“We appreciate you working for us, the crew are, of course, very happy with the results and if you’d like to meet them, I believe they’re having a celebration tonight if you’re interested.” He cocked a brow. The invitation was a little unexpected, seeing as the captain obviously seemed to be apprehensive about you. “Flint is Flint, he keeps everyone at a distance, you shouldn’t feel put off by it. You deserve a drink with the crew you’ve been working for and they should know who you are. Lord knows they’re curious having watched our little talks. If not for yourself, do it for me, I’m sick of the questions.” He laughed lightheartedly though you could tell there was some truth to his exhaustion with the crew. A chuckle left you. “Fine, but I’m not getting drunk.”

--

You were drunk. You’d damn the crew all to hell if you weren’t having such a good time. Gates had brought you along and introduced you to the men who were almost all intoxicated before you’d even arrived so they took to you very quickly, the armourer, Logan throwing an arm around your shoulders and offering you drinks. You drank for free mostly, the men refusing to let you pay as ‘a sign of their appreciation for your leads’.

So here you were, sitting in the corner of the tavern, singing your heart out to some old shanty alongside the others, feeling like part of the crew yourself as the room swayed. Your mug was empty and you’d made the decision that if the room was moving as you were still, you shouldn’t drink any more. Then there was a bang as another mug of rum was put in front of you. You half grimaced, half cackled as you took it, sipping the dark liquid despite your head telling you otherwise.

This was going to be a disaster tomorrow. The moon was high in the sky as you stood from the table, walking outside in pursuit of some fresh air. You were leaning against the wall of the tavern, desperately trying to get the floor to stay straight as someone walked toward you.

“I’m assuming they’re having quite the night by the looks of you.” An unfamiliar voice sounded above you. It took everything you had to stand up straight and look at the man. He was tall, far taller than the others and he wore an old shirt, sleeves rolled to the tops of his arms. His arms, Jesus, they were big. You’d have been ashamed of staring at them for so long had you been sober but those thoughts quickly faded as you met his eyes. Your body wobbled and you pressed your shoulder against the wall to keep you upright. “I’m Billy Bones, Boatswain.” He introduced, scanning you to ensure you weren’t just going to tumble right there.

“Try sayn’ tha three times” You slurred with a giggle. He scoffed, a smirk apparent on his face, knowing you were trashed. “Am ‘Lizbeth Devreux” You smiled at him, offering a hand to him in greeting but stumbling in the process. He quickly steadied you, hands on your shoulders. You tried to play it off as if you were perfectly sober but, well, you weren’t at all. Your stomach lurched and you pushed away from him, turning and falling to your knees unceremoniously. You wretched twice before the contents of your stomach made an appearance onto the sandy floor. Billy’s nose scrunched up at the stench but knelt beside you, pulling your hair back so it didn’t get caught in the mess. You kept bringing up the liquids from the long night  for a few more seconds before collapsing back onto your behind, head leaning against the wood.

A groan of discomfort left you as you were forced to open your eyes again, the feeling of being spun threatening to make you vomit again. Billy gave you a pitiful smile and grabbed your hand, hoisting you up off the floor. “Let’s get you some food.” He said.

“I’m sorry ’m such a mess, I don’ usually get in this state.” You said slightly clearer than before, finding your footing. You hated that you’d just vomited in front of the boatswain of all the crew and he was handsome too which made it worse in your head. Another lighthearted scoff from him. “It’s alright, I guess you’ll just owe me one.” He jeered, raising his eyebrows at you and you laughed. “Deal.” You replied.

He had a hand outstretched behind your back, not touching but there just in case you were to fall again. Walking back into the tavern and through the crowd, you both found a seat at the bar and he ordered you some warm stew and bread. Stopping him as he went to pay with a few coins, you took out your own money and handed it to the barman.

“You’ve done enough and the crew have been paying for my drinks all night at least let me buy my own food.” You insisted. A smile found its way on his face as he nodded. You grazed at the meal, the feeling of it filling you taking away some of the nausea and decided to strike up a conversation. “Why aren’t you drinking with the rest of them?” You questioned, blowing lightly on a spoonful before eating it. His lips were brought into a tight line for a moment.

“I don’t drink very often and I’ve learned from past mistakes that drinking with the men has… painful outcomes.” He gave you another glance and a small smile. You snorted, looking away for a moment towards the crew, Logan was making his way over, bumping and crashing into every table and chair in his path until he reached you.

“Trus’ Billy Bones to take the lady to dinner.” He prodded, beaming. Your eyebrows flew up, nearly choking on your next bite. Billy rolled his eyes and looked at the armourer. “That is not what this is, I’m just making sure she was still in one piece after a night with you lot.” The taller man returned as you looked between the two of them. “Well res’ assured we’ve invited her into the crew with open arms and plenty o’ rum, she's a fine drinker and keeps up with the best of us.” Logan shot you a wink and a pat on the shoulder. “Now, if y’don’t mind I’m gon go see my beloved Charlotte.” His speech slurred as he turned on his heel and headed through the crowd and across the street to the brothel.

“Well, good to know I kept up.” You laughed, turning and finishing the last of the stew. The world was surely spinning a lot less and you thanked Billy for looking after you. “What did he mean? Trust you to take a lady to dinner?” He sighed and his shoulders slumped as he looked back at you with a look that said ‘please don’t’. This only led you to be more curious, cocking an eyebrow and leaning in slightly. “Come on, you wouldn’t leave a lady in suspense would you?” A snigger left you as you teased him, knowing that you were anything but a lady. He snorted, the recent memory of you puking your guts up just an hour ago replaying in his head.

“The men like to joke, I just don’t think women should be bought, I mean good for them because they make a living and all but I prefer to earn their fondness.” He explained, a light blush on his cheeks as he stood. You tried not to smirk or laugh, your mouth struggling to stay in a straight line not because it was funny but because it took you by surprise, a big burly pirate wooing a girl with wine and chivalry. “Don’t- Please don’t laugh.” He chuckled, throwing his head back and betraying himself.

“No! No, it- you just shocked me a little. I don’t usually take pirates for the romantic type.” You grinned. “It’s sweet really.” You added hoping to reassure him. He huffed out another sigh.

“Come on, you should probably go get some rest.” He didn’t look you in the eye as he led you to your room, leaving you to sober up for the night.

[sweetsunrayssr]

Max, the stray cat

“Many men have played a role in Nassau's story, but none have been able to break the cycle of brutality and failure. Your granddaughter came as close  as anyone before or since. But at the end of the day and despite her best intentions, there was one truth even she was unable to see. That at some point, progress cannot begin and suffering will not end until someone has the courage to go out into the woods and drown the damned cat.” (Max to Grandma Guthrie, XXXV, 4x07)

We know what Grandma Guthrie did with Richard Guthrie’s tomcat. And certainly 4x07 had the plot guns veering into the direction to aim for Flint. But is that the sole cat in focus, or is there another stray cat who was saved by a Guthrie so many times? There is: Max.

Remember those fairytales where an envious friend/sister/chambermaid abused the trust and generosity of a female lead character, procured her posessions, status and power, displaced the trusting soul by manipulating her? Right at the end of the story this social climbing deceiver is asked by a powerful ruler who suspects her of wrongdoing how she would punish someone who committed such crimes. And after the deceiver answers with a death sentence, she is demasked and executed in the manner she offered.

The whole scene between Grandma Guthrie and Max has that same foreshadowing vibe. The entire focus is on Max revealing bit by bit something about herself, including her unwillingness to answer certain questions that are dangerously close. It appears that Grandma Guthrie is not unsympathetic towards Max, but I would wager it is pure appearance alone. Grandma Guthrie is doing needle-point the entire conversation, something that visually connects her to Eleanor who was learning in 4x01 to look the part, to play her role. In other words, Grandma Guthrie is pretending here, playing a part, playing a role, including being sympathetic to Max. Eleanor was taught needle-point by her spying chambermaid. Grandma Guthrie was spying earlier in the day, when Rackham sought an audience with Grandpa Guthrie. She is observing and assessing Max in the later scene, like a spy.

Now let’s inspect some very relevant and pointed questions from Grandma Guthrie

“So, Richard would feed the tomcat  and Joseph would flog him for disobeying,  kick the tomcat for instigating. But the next night, the tomcat would return,  and on and on and on it went. See, none of them was capable of changing. The cat a slave to his hunger, my son to his decency, my husband to his rage. [...] Suppose the question is in Nassau's story, which of these roles do you play?” 

Grandma Guthrie stresses that none of them was capable of changing their nature. One can grow, one can pretend to play a role, but the nature to hunger to be given power/wealth, the nature to rescue and the nature to rage is an unchangeable instinct that returns over and over. And in Nassau’s story, Max was a stray cat, while Eleanor was repeatedly her savior: from Charles Vane, from Mr. Hammond and his colleagues, Woodes, Berringer, the pirates.

What was Max’s response to this? She blamed Eleanor for the Ranger crew raping her and remained with her rapists. She stole leads and gave them to Ned Low. She got her hands on Eleanor’s business.

Not so coincidentally Eleanor’s needle-point scene has Max being alarmed how much they are changing, with Eleanor responding that nothing important or fundamental would change quickly. And it did not.

Max managed to manipulate Eleanor into holding Vane’s trial on the island, to manipulate her into believing Nassau was lost and that Eleanor and Woodes alone were to blame for it, to guilt trip her into Max losing everything (though she arrived with nothing and all she owned was Eleanor’s business she had undermined and bought cheaply). And Eleanor kept feeding her stray cat Max.

Max never answers Grandma Guthrie’s question about the role she played in Nassau’s story. But notice how Grandma said the cat was a slave to hunger. That was a deliberate word choice of hers to a woman who obviously had some slave origin.

Richard and Eleanor’s roles in Nassau’s story of Black Sails were those of saviors. In Richard Guthrie’s office in 1x01 Billy eyes a painting strangely: it’s a painting of beheaded John the Baptist, the man who heralds the coming of the savior who ends up on the cross or martyred. Richard is found murdered by Vane on a cross in S2, where earlier Ned Low was beheaded by Vane. Eleanor pretty much dies as the villified martyr, majorly because of Woodes’ choice, Woodes who also had Blackbeard beheaded. 

Grandma Guthrie: “So, how exactly does one rise  from a slave plantation in the French West Indies to a library in Philadelphia, trying to remake the world?” 

Max: What difference does it make?    

Max’s evasion and Grandma Guthrie’s dagger look suggests that it makes quite a lot of difference. Eleanor’s grandmother is on to Max, or very soon will be.

What reason could Grandma Guthrie possibly have to “drown Max, the cat”? Woodes Rogers gives us a hint earlier in the episode.

“Eleanor turned her guns on me. Eleanor betrayed me. Surrendered Nassau out from under me. None of that sounded like anything that would ever occur to her to do. Not her. Not after everything we'd been through.  But if it had occurred first to someone else [...] Someone standing so close to her,  who could and would manipulate her to secure their own survival.”  (Woodes to Mrs. Hudson, 4x07)

Ding-dong! Not Mrs. Hudson, but Max was close to Eleanor. She throws a pity-party over all she lost, blames Eleanor and Woodes. Eleanor apologizes and makes emotional amends by revealing she loved Max enough that she wanted to say yes in 1x02.

“I truly am sorry. For all of it. If there was a way I could make things right here, I'd do it.” (Eleanor to Max, 4x04)

Shortly after Woodes Rogers appears in the bay with the Man O War and Eleanor beames with love and relief. And she gives Lieutenant Utley the orders to move the guns in the direction of the beach.

And then Max decides to remind Eleanor of what she is willing to do, to make it right again for her.

Afterwards, Eleanor sends an invite to Flint and Silver and proposes the fated cache-exchange deal.

Eleanor obviously saw it as a way for Woodes to repay his debts, rather than give it to Spain. Spain and England are at war. He could have legally regarded it as a war prize. Woodes suspects Mrs. Hudson and Eleanor had a deal. But Eleanor needed no such deal to relieve Mrs. Hudson, and Mrs. Hudson would have helped her regardless her plan. There was a deal between Max and Eleanor: Eleanor promised to give a portion of the cache to Max.

When the Spanish fleet arrives, Eleanor is at the beach at the other side of the island to retrieve the cache. While the rest of the council is unwilling to try and retrieve Eleanor, Max flies to the site with ONE HORSE, not two, not a cart, but ONE HORSE for HERSELF. More importantly, as self-sacrificing it seems of Max to ride to Eleanor’s rescue and Eleanor’s whereabout is all that Max is interested in when she finds Rackham on the beach, she easily abandons Eleanor to her fate and boards the governor’s sloop that Rackham captured. Something is very off here. It just doesn’t add up at first sight.

The key is that Max is not phased, not disturbed about Eleanor in the interior during the discussions between Mr. Frasier and Mr. Soames on whether to defend themselves or surrender to the Spanish, until Lieutenant Utley informs them that the lead ship just sent the governor’s signal and ordered them to stand down.

And she shows signs of extreme nervousness and fear the moment Mr. Soames decides they will follow Woodes’ orders.

So what about it being Woodes behind the Spanish fleet coming upsets her more than the Spanish fleet arriving without Woodes? It meant that Woodes intended to give that cache to the Spanish. On top of that Berringer had accused her of treason, and while Eleanor might have protected her from Berringer, she would be unable to protect Max from Woodes, especially since her closest associates Featherstone and Idelle were with the pirates. It was game over for Max, and she raced on horseback to Eleanor to get her portion of the cache at least, hoping to inform Eleanor of Woodes bringing Spain and hide in a cave or take a boat, likely with the intent to convince Eleanor into leaving with her.

Max did not go to the beach for Eleanor, but herself, for the cache, so she would have something “to show for”. And so when no Eleanor, no cache, she joined Rackham to the ship, making no effort at all.

In a way, Max is likewise responsible for Eleanor’s death. And this is something that Grandma Guthrie would not like.

Which brings us to the last question by Grandma Guthrie to Max:

“But there is one question remaining  that you will have to show me you can adequately answer. What will you do when the cat fights back?”

As Grandma Guthrie has not yet made any demand here about Flint, the cat can be seen as Nassau, but certainly Woodes. What happens to Max if Woodes is arrested and taken to Philadelphia and learns of Max’s involvement? What happens if Woodes fights back, connects the dots and accuses her of putting ideas into Eleanor’s mind that forced him to get Spanish help and all her “treason” before that? Hence, Max pronounced her own demise to Grandma Guthrie when she suggested to drown the cat.

ETA: I’m not trying to point out that Max does not mourn Eleanor. I’m not saying she does not care for Eleanor. But that there is far more self-interest (and a material one at that) in Max’s motivations and behavior, especially in S4. I don’t think ill of Max looking after herself more than the ex-lover wedded to another. I’m only pointing out that Max did manipulate Eleanor into choosing to do more for her than she was wiling to do in return, and it set recent chain reaction events in motion with deadly outcome. I don’t see Grandma Guthrie particularly shrug that off plot-wise, especially when Max uses the emotional angle of “revengeon the person that got your granddaughter killed.” Grandma Guthrie proved to have a larger scope than just the obvious link to Eleanor’s death by wanting Flint taken out.