#idek how i managed to finish this i feel so unmotivated

[justmwahstruly]

I FINALLY FINISHED IT ASCIDBCH

blehp i kinda died on the patterns and the glasses

ofc the beautiful Will Wayward belongs to @kandavers

is jus molly an will vibin

[esta-elavaris]

if you’ll permit me, i’d like to tell you a little story. i was feeling down in the dumps recently and decided to give myself a pick me up. so i decided to watch my childhood favorite movie series — scratch that, my favorite movie series ever. that being pirates of the caribbean. about fifteen minutes in i realized that i’ve never picked up a pirates fanfic before. i tried years ago, but maybe i wasn’t as adept at searching for them then bc i felt like i couldn’t find any that would do this beautiful trilogy (cough cough) justice. but i decided to give it a shot. the literal first one that i came across that stoked some kind of interest in me was Catch the Wind, which i believe i messaged you about as soon as i started reading it bc it was simply That Good.

cut to now. about a week and a half later i have not stopped reading this masterpiece right up until i finished it. in fact, i resolved to finish it even as i was traveling this past weekend. and LET ME TELL YOU. i had people *staring* at me on a plane bc of my reactions, bc i was dumb enough to read the Dutchman balcony scene in a public place?!?! i was internally screamingggg at that and everything that followed so much so that i had my fellow passengers concerned for me.

now i just wanted to come here and tell you some absolutely amazing details that i have not stopped thinking about since. i can’t even go into how much i adore your writing overall, and how much i adore Theo and James together. idek where to start for those aspects so you’ll forgive me if i jump to smaller details that i can actually articulate in this moment. i can say, though, that you will absolutely have a reader and an ardent fan in me whenever you publish your original novel. cheering you on!

ok so first little note i ADORED. pintel and ragetti being the ones to solve the map. genius. this absolutely makes sm sense and i feel like it is totally in tune with their ability to perceive and decipher that around them — well, ragetti at least. pintel’s a nice wingman/cheerleader. second note. barbossa captaining the dutchman. it’s like i finally found a puzzle piece after years of having it lost. i just think that this is such a great and cool direction to go in and your reasoning behind it makes it even more so. the fact that he and jack can continue their competitve rapport without constantly battling over the pearl just eases something in my soul. jack deserves his little slice of happiness that is his beloved pearl.

alright i think i’ve rambled enough for now. although if you in turn ever feel down in the dumps, please come to me and i will shout about your masterpiece even more. i obviously have a lot to say about it. to sum this up though, i *needed* to come and share my appreciation for this story you have so kindly shared with us. it truly had me laughing and giggling and feeling so good, which is the mark of a great work, so thank you thank you

^ dead ass me reading this.

You know what I love most about this ask - well, other than the absolute waves of unreal loveliness that I can never thank you enough for? The timing. I've been having such an unmotivated day/week as far as writing and my belief in my ability to achieve what I want to with said writing is concerned as far as finishing the novel/having it be good/getting it published is concerned, and then this appeared in my inbox. I applaud you, like there never would have been a bad time for me to read this (and trust me, I'll be rereading it plenty of times in the future), but you somehow managed to send it at the absolute best possible time. Thank you so, so much!!

Beyond that feat of timing, though, and the unreal loveliness, you actually hit upon some of the things that I was most nervous about when it came to posting this story. The scene on Jones' balcony was one thing - it was always going to happen, it was the reason I started writing the story, but I knew I'd need to handle it well so that it wasn't just tiring and annoying. Like, it would've been a major insult to James if Theo saw it and just instantly believed he'd been in love with Elizabeth all of that time, so I was relieved when people liked what I did with it and didn't just take it as cheap melodrama. I just loved the idea of her knowledge coming back to bite her in the ass when she thought she was seeing something from the movie come to fruition, but it actually wasn't.

Barbossa was the big, big worry, though. It was actually a pretty late addition, too, I don't think I settled on that happening until I was already writing part three of the fic. The early, early days original plan was to keep that the same and have it be Will, mostly because I was still very intimidated by the canon at that point and scared to fuck with it - especially the third movie, which is just so good and so complex. I lived in fear of reaching that point. But then I figured what was the point of writing the fic if I wasn't going to start really toying with it, and it'd just be disappointing for everybody if I wimped out kept that part the same.

So I started cycling through characters to think of who could fit the role instead, and when I got to Barbossa I stg fireworks started going off in my head. It was just too good, I'm chalking it up to a moment of divine inspiration rather than something that came from my own brain, it had to happen, and I was so relieved that people agreed!! There's just something so un-satisfying about ending the final (👀) movie with Jack not having the Pearl.

It all cracks me up in hindsight though, because I'm noticing a pattern of me furiously defending my decisions and worrying myself sick over them, only to have people mostly like them and have all of that worry and defensiveness be for nothing, so the whole fic was definitely a learning experience in taking on projects that scare me, and having a bit of fucking self belief lolol. The former is easier than the latter, but the latter is massively helped by kindness like this, so again -- thank you so, so much!! 💜💜💜💜💜💜