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gentlebeardsbarngrill · 6 months

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03/21/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Birthday Boy; Rachel House; Taika Waititi; You Wear 50 Well; #RhysRadness; Stats; Watch party Reminders; Articles; Daily Darby/Today's Taika

Wow, I'm sorry all, I literally fell asleep at the computer last night and just.. didnt get up til this morning. I apparently was pretty wiped out! So tonight's recap is this mornings recap! PS: Im behind on all my messages so please dont think im ignoring you :)

== Birthday Boy ==

As you can imagine, Rhys was everywhere today, on his birthday on this side of the world! Some more stills from Uproar from Caravancarparkfilms IG

He also posted some old and new pics of our captain!

Dan Schreiber Posted a video of Rhys starting to sing My Sharona! Thanks @kiwistede for getting that over to tumblr!

Samba also gave us some more pictures!

And then there was the merstede cameo he did!

= Rachel House =

I keep wanting to post more about Rachel's new movie The Mountain but there's been so much Rhys stuff going on I keep forgetting! So here's some sweet promos for the movie that's in select showings in Aotearoa right now!

== Taika Waititi ==

Great news all! Taika got your lovely letters :)

== You Wear 50 Well ==

More tributes to the birthday boy!

@nika_market

@The_MovieDweeb

= Tumblr Highlights! =

Lots more gorgeous tributes by our tumblr sibs!

@ammdakin

@emcolbs

@illustoryart

== Adopt Our Crew ==

Stede Bonnet won #RhysRadness! As well he should! Our leading man in his major leading role. Congrats Stede!

https://x.com/adoptourcrew/status/1770823288752640358?s=20

== Watch Parties ==

= Newark, Newark =

When: Saturday 23rd March @ 7 pm GMT / 3pm EST / 12 pm PST Where: BBC iPlayer, Now TV

Hosted by @lamentus1

Extra Note: The Rhys Darby Faction Discord will be streaming it as well at 5pm GMT / 1 pm EST / 12 pm PST

Watch Party Hashtags:

#NewarkThePlank

#OurFlagMeansDeath

== Wrecked ==

Today is the series Finale!

Times will be 10pm GMT / 5pm EST / 4pm CST / 2pm PST. Watch two episodes per day. Episodes are 21-22 minutes each. Use the following Saturday for the tags/watch if interested but not able to make this time.

Hashtags:

#WreckedPirates

#SaveOFMD

#RhysDarbyFaction

== Fan Spotlight ==

Today's cast card is none other than our fellow crewmate Hugo Pierre Martin! He's been supporting the SaveOFMD effort for a while as well as being a part of the show's cast! Thank you @melvisik for highlighting our lovely friend!

== Stats ==

Thank you @/meowzawowza_ on twitter for these awesome stats!

== Articles ==

‘Night Court’ – ‘The Duke’s a Hazard’ Post-Mortem Interview with Rhys Darby

== Love Notes ==

Hey Lovelies, I fell asleep last night writing so I'm gonna paste in something from our dear friend TheLatestKate today. Definitely get some rest if you can, we can all persevere tomorrow.

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika==

Today's Theme: Button downs and smiles Taika Courtesy of @kiwi-taika Darby Courtesy of @fandomsmeantheworldtome

#daily ofmd recap #daily ofmd recaps #ofmd daily recap #ofmd daily recaps #ofmd #our flag means death #rhys darby #taika waititi #rachel house #dan schreiber #the cryptid factor #adopt our crew #long live ofmd #rhys radness

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rhysdarbinizedarby · 1 year

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Our Flag Means Death Season 2: Exclusive First Look

Vanity Fair joins Stede, Blackbeard, and the rest of the cast on set in New Zealand for an exclusive early look at the second season, debuting on Max in October.

BY SARAH CATHERALL (AUGUST 24, 2023)

Only the fans of Our Flag Means Death can determine whether they’ll be satisfied with the show’s second season, which debuts on Max in October. But if you ask Fernando Frias, who directed three of the season’s episodes, he sounds pretty confident: “If my life depended on saying whether it’s yes or no, I would say yes.’’

It’s December 8, 2022, and the principal actors on Our Flag Means Death as well as the 800-plus extras and crew members have three days left of their three-month shoot for season two. Things are starting to get emotional. “You’ve been the most amazing crew I’ve ever worked with,” says one actor as he wraps his final scene. Frias says it’s like leaving “a long summer camp,” adding, “it’s like a family.”

Rhys Darby as Stede Bonnet. COURTESY OF NICOLA DOVE/MAX.

It’s “going to be unexpected and surprising, but also very pleasurable and satisfying for those who like the show,” promises executive producer Garrett Basch. It “doesn’t follow the expected route,” teases Con O’Neill, who plays Blackbeard’s devoted enforcer, Izzy. All that means is we’re not at liberty to share too much about what happened on set that day, which included emotional conversations, new cast members, banter with the Kiwi crew, and some seriously killer costumes.

“The viewers will see the scope of their world has expanded based on the fact we’re able to get to these amazing locations within a short travel time,” says executive producer Antoine Douaihy. “You will notice a marked difference between the two seasons in terms of the scope and the scale.’’

Minnie Driver joins the cast this season as Anne Bonny. COURTESY OF NICOLA DOVE/MAX.

There will be plenty of familiar faces too, of course. On set that day in Kumeu, New Zealand, a rural area about 20 miles outside of Auckland, are Waititi and Darby along their fellow returning cast members O’Neill, Vico Ortiz (Jim), Kristian Nairn (Wee John), Joel Fry (Frenchie), Matthew Maher (Black Pete), Leslie Jones (Spanish Jackie), Samson Kayo (Oluwande), Ewen Bremner (Nathaniel Buttons), Samba Schutte (Roach), and more. New onboard are two Kiwi actors, Madeleine Sami (most recently of the Australian mystery-comedy Deadloch), and Samoan-born Anapela Polataivao. And there’s one returning figure impossible to miss on the soundstage: The Revenge, the stately ship that Blackbeard—a.k.a. Ed—commandeered at the end of season one. In real life it was carefully transported across the Pacific Ocean from the show’s original Los Angeles soundstages.

The Revenge is vast and impressive, much larger in real life than it appears onscreen. But it’s not the only stunning scenery in store. There are around 50 sets involved in the production of season two, including the 30-acre forest behind the Kumeu Film Studio, Piha Beach, and the wild, black-sand Bethells Beach.

Waititi, who also executive produces the series, was part of the push to film season two in his native New Zealand. “Taika is an extraordinary talent and what’s really great about him with his international success is he’s remained very committed to New Zealand and very loyal to our industry,” says Annie Murray, the CEO of the New Zealand Film Commission. “The beauty of filming in New Zealand is that you can find incredible varied locations within a very short driving distance. [And] when you get to those locations you can turn your camera in any direction.’’

Rhys Darby as Stede Bonnet, filming at New Zealand’s Bethells Beach. COURTESY OF NICOLA DOVE/MAX.

The scope of the season is very evident back on set, as well. There’s a whole other pirate ship in addition to The Revenge, plus sets for a floating market, Stede’s cabin (empty when we visit), and the Republic of Pirates first glimpsed in season one. Behind the scenes it’s a maze of wardrobe, wig rooms, and dressing rooms. In another facility, props are stacked on shelves, ready to be taken away to storage as soon as filming wraps—vases, plates, antique furniture, and piles of mannequins replicating dead bodies which were used in one of the battle scenes.

Costume designer Gypsy Taylor joined the production this season and has designed hundreds of costumes, checking with everyone on set that day to make sure everything is in place before cameras roll. Taylor says each of the principals have six to eight looks in this season, and that every item—every leather belt, wig, bit of jewelry, even a mermaid tail—has been made by her 60-strong workshop. The costumes this season have a “Mad Max, ‘streets of New York’ feel,” says Taylor. “David Jenkins was keen to give the series a cool rock-and-roll vibe…so we had these rock-and-roll elements with an 18th-century twist.’’ As is evidenced in the image below, even Stede’s crew winds up with some unexpected new looks over the course of the season.

Wherever it is these Revenge crew members have found themselves, there’s something that surprised them. COURTESY OF NICOLA DOVE/MAX.

Two armies are part of the action in season two, all of them needing elaborate costumes—around 150 Chinese pirates and a fleet of 100 navy officers. Even the breeches are in studded black leather, and punkified. Says Taylor, “The theory behind their costumes is they would’ve stolen from other pirates…. Although our Wee John has started to become quite the seamstress, so he’s knitting this season.’’ True enough: Nairn is wearing what looks like a hand-knit sweater on set that day.

Wee John isn’t the only pirate getting into crafts. Nancy Hennah, who has managed the hair and makeup for both seasons, points to Blackbeard’s wig—made in London—and tattoos as Waititi works on set. With 14 tattoos on his right arm and 10 on the left, plus plenty of scars, he needs at least an hour in the makeup chair. “Taika wanted most of the tattoos to look like he’d done them himself,” Hennah says. “Like on slow days on the boat when there’s nothing much to do, they sit around and give each other tattoos.”

She gives a hint of a storm in one episode: “One of the hardest days here in makeup was when they were caught in a storm on the back of the boat. [The cast] were saturated for a whole day, which caused havoc with things like tattoos and hair, wigs and beards.’’

Taika Waititi as Blackbeard, who begins the season with a broken heart. COURTESY OF NICOLA DOVE/MAX.

By mid afternoon, Con O’Neill is taking a break in his trailer. He pulls his slim, leather trousered legs up to a corner seat. A candle blazes on the kitchen bench as the veteran actor talks about the physical endurance required during the shoot. “It’s been frantic,’’ he says. His signature gray hair barely moves, frozen by the team of hair stylists who arrived on set around sunrise. (All interviews with actors in this story took place before the SAG-AFTRA strike).

Izzy “goes on a remarkable journey” this season, says O’Neill. “He understands what love is and whom he’s in love with.’’ On a series featuring a variety of joyful queer relationships—not just Stede and Blackbeard, but Black Pete and Lucius (Nathan Foad), Jim and Oluwande, and Spanish Jackie and her many husbands—Izzy’s unyieldingly straitlaced devotion makes him an odd man out. By the end of season one many fans speculated that Izzy was driven by something at the intersection of love and obsession. This season, according to O’Neill, Izzy gets even deeper into that dynamic. “Physically it’s been quite demanding, and also emotionally it’s been quite demanding to be playing a man enraged by unrequited love, who’s basically a hopeless romantic, and to be able to play all that and also remember that this is fundamentally a comedy.’’

Though the show is often warm and fuzzy when it comes to feelings—one of Stede’s mottos in season one is that when faced with challenges, “we talk it through as a crew”—Izzy represents the darker, more violent side of pirate life, which the show doesn’t shy away from either. “What I love about this show is it does allow itself to swing between the two,” O’Neill says. “We’re almost operatic in our darkness at times, and then we swing back to the sweetness of the simplicity of the love of our two guys. It’s been challenging just to get the tone right.”

“We’ve gone further this season than we did last season with those tones,” he continues. “So sometimes it’s quite interesting to remind yourself that you have to take your foot out of the tragedy—literally, your foot—and put it back into the comedy.”

With a season behind them to build the dynamics between the characters and the actors alike, on set there’s been “a lot more spontaneity and script revisions based on what’s happening day-to-day,” says Douaihy. “The cast are so comfortable with one another and their characters, that they move through it naturally.’’

Leslie Jones as Spanish Jackie and Taika Waititi as Ed a.k.a. Blackbeard. COURTESY OF NICOLA DOVE/MAX.

The way O’Neill puts it, they’ve also built trust with Jenkins, their showrunner, to follow some bigger swings. “I don’t think David Jenkins is ever going to follow an expected route. I’d hate to drive in a car with him.” Thinking of the fans who will greet the series when the show returns in October, O’Neill continues, “I think they’re going to appreciate what [Jenkins] wants. Season two does stick to the original premise that we created in season one, which is take it on to other levels.’’

One character leveling up in a major way this season is Jim, the quiet badass (there are knives involved) played by the nonbinary actor and activist Vico Ortiz. “Jim really evolves in season two,” they say. “They’re a bit more chatty and a bit more conversational…. Most of the first season you see Jim in disguise, hiding, but in this one you see them a bit more [thinking,] Oh, this is my chosen family, and I feel good. There’s a bit more zaniness and a bit more softness.’’

Like O’Neill and several other castmates, Oritz had attended their share of fan events by the time season two began filming, and the entire cast and crew returned to the high seas with a strong sense that their show had taken on a life of its own. “It’s so beautiful to see that people are finding community within the fan base. It’s about creating spaces where we feel safe and seen, and it’s so great to see that so many people watch the show and feel validated in their experiences, whatever that may be,” says Ortiz. “A lot of people that watch the show are like, “Yeah, I’m a guy and it’s good to see all these dudes being vulnerable.’ We can just shake up [ideas about gender].’’

Ruibo Qian joins the cast this season as Susan, a merchant with secrets of her own. COURTESY OF NICOLA DOVE/MAX.

Basch admits the fan following surprised some of the team, “but it made a lot of sense” too. After years of television shows and movies that built up the potential of queer romance only to stop short, Basch thinks the fervor for Our Flag Means Death “says that shows in the mainstream aren’t delivering that promise or that setup, and we have. That’s really why the fans have gone wild for it.”

That promise, it’s safe to say, is kept in season two, and then some. On set that day in December, for example, there was a major romantic moment between two key characters. But we’d risk Ed Teach’s wrath if we told you any more.

Source: Vanity Fair

#rhys darby #taika waititi #minnie driver #samba schutte #kristian nairn #matthew maher #ofmd #our flag means death #vanity fair #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 spoiler alert

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midnight-train-of-thought · 3 months

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You’re just a guy.

I’m just a girl.

All we have in common is our mutual obsession with the hit 2022-2023 Max Original tv show Our Flag Means Death written by David “Daddy Jenks” Jenkins and starring respected kiwi comedians Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi as historical pirates Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard that are madly in love with each other and constantly surrounded by queer joy and also queer tragedy but mainly queer love and that is why the show means so much to so many, so many that we bought a Times Square billboard and a plane ad to try to save our precious show that was so rudely and unjustly taken from us earlier this year.

We could never work.

(MARRY MEEEEEEE)

#anonymous love note #ofmd #lgbtqia

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londonspirit · 1 year

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The series created by David Jenkins was a surprise breakout hit when it debuted in the spring of 2022, building a fiercely devoted fan base with its silly yet emotional deadpan, and defiantly queer take on the adventures of real 18th-century pirates. Everyone involved in Our Flag Means Death is eager to preserve the surprises in store for season two, which kicks off with gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) and softhearted bad boy Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) ruefully separated after finally realizing their love for each other at the end of season one. It’s “going to be unexpected and surprising, but also very pleasurable and satisfying for those who like the show,” promises executive producer Garrett Basch. It “doesn’t follow the expected route,” teases Con O’Neill, who plays Blackbeard’s devoted enforcer, Izzy. All that means is we’re not at liberty to share too much about what happened on set that day, which included emotional conversations, new cast members, banter with the Kiwi crew, and some seriously killer costumes.

But these exclusive new images give a hint of what is in store. There are fresh faces—Minnie Driver will guest-star as the real-life Irish pirate Anne Bonny, and Ruibo Qian joins the cast as the mysterious merchant Susan—and a lot of New Zealand actors and locations, now that the production has decamped across the Pacific. “The viewers will see the scope of their world has expanded based on the fact we’re able to get to these amazing locations within a short travel time,” says executive producer Antoine Douaihy. “You will notice a marked difference between the two seasons in terms of the scope and the scale.’’

By mid afternoon, Con O’Neill is taking a break in his trailer. He pulls his slim, leather-trousered legs up to a corner seat. A candle blazes on the kitchen bench as the veteran actor talks about the physical endurance required during the shoot. “It’s been frantic,’’ he says. His signature gray hair barely moves, frozen by the team of hairstylists who arrived on set around sunrise. (All interviews with actors in this story took place before the SAG-AFTRA strike.)

#our flag means death season 2 #our flag means death s2 #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 bts #making of ofmd s2 #ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd s2 spoiler #our flag means death #ofmd #vanity fair #first look at ofmd s2 #article #vanity fair article

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hang-on-lil-tomato · 9 months

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youtube

#rhys darby #kiwi #new zealand #New Zealand pop culture #rhys montague darby #rhys with a beard #He said he couldn’t grow a beard but here we are #David Dane #wow just wow #ofmd #our flag means death #stede bonnet #Youtube

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downstarr · 2 years

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Stroke of Midnight - An OFMD New Year's Eve AU

Stede Bonnet usually goes home to New Zealand for the Christmas season. But this year, he's decided to stay in Victoria, BC where he's been living since he came to Canada for school. At a house party thrown by expats, Stede unexpectedly runs into his teenaged crush, Edward Teach.

Stede's been struggling with loneliness and a lack of belonging, and Ed re-entering his life hits him like a ton of bricks. 10k words, complete. CW: references to child abuse and homophobia. Referred to, but not seen.

Stede Bonnet never sought out his fellow New Zealanders on purpose. Usually, his trips home to Wellington from Victoria, BC where he’d been living for the past few decades would fill his Kiwi quotient quite satisfactorily. But life circumstances and various logistics meant he hadn’t been home in several years.

Which lead him to an Anzac Day gathering at a local pub that past April, and to an invite to a New Year’s Eve house party some months later.

The house, a grand affair in Brentwood Bay just outside of the city, had a wonderful view of the inlet and the twinkling lights across the water where snow drifted in the air instead of a haze of rain. It was an unusually cold late December by Vancouver Island standards. They’d had a few inches of snow that made the steep, winding roads up to the house that weren’t designed for snow quite treacherous. It also meant that Stede dug out his winter jacket usually reserved for ski trips up-island or to the mainland.

“Just toss it in the spare bedroom,” said Arnie, one of the two hosts for the evening as he pointed the way down a long hallway.

“This way?”

“Yep, first door on the right,” said Arnie.

Stede nodded and held his blue puffer jacket aloft. “Cheers.”

On his way back from the spare room where his jacket joined a growing pile on the bed, Stede slipped into the nearest bathroom and slid the barn door style door closed. It took him a few times to clasp it correctly. For a moment, he was worried he was going to throw the heavy piece of stained wood off its pretty wrought iron hinges.

It was then that he realized that his hosts must be new money. Stede hated that snobbish part of himself, but he’d grown up with and around a lot of money. That meant he’d been to many parties at the houses of people whose wealth was gained in their own lifetime rather than inherited.

Those people really liked barn doors. And marble countertops. And grand staircases. All of which were on display at the home of Arnie and Marlo.

Door finally latched, Stede turned to survey his appearance. He slid a comb from his pocket and carefully rearranged his blond curls that had gotten tousled by the wind and wetted by snowflakes. He slid a hand down the fine fabric of his deep blue button-up to make sure there were no creases in the fabric. He was pleased to see that the impeccably tailored shirt highlighted the effort he’d been making at the gym the last few months.

“Now don’t look desperate,” Stede mumbled to himself. “And don’t be a peacock,” he paused, “...or too much of one.”

The pep talk Stede was giving himself was necessary because he’d heard through rumblings that there were queer people at the party. He’d been having absolutely no luck on the dating or social scene. For a long time, he convinced himself he was bisexual, until his now-ex fiancee Mary finally helped him realize that any attraction to women was deeply forced and based on a foundation of self-delusion.

Satisfied that he hadn’t gotten too rumpled from the trip over, Stede awkwardly pulled the impractical barn door back and stepped out into the house proper.

Stede was no stranger to grand houses. But something about this one felt a bit much. After years away from home and the socialite scene in New Zealand, he’d forgotten how to move in posh circles. He didn’t know Arnie and Marlo very well at all. They’d only spoken a handful of times at the Fernwood Inn’s now-monthly informal expat meetups. But he had become friends with Declan Finch, who was an old friend of Arnie’s.

It was him that Stede sought out after tidying up his appearance. The house was the epitome of West Coast elegance - massive and A-frame with a staircase leading to the upper level, but with the kitchen, dining, and living areas offering views of the ink-black inlet below. Like the bathroom door, Stede found himself picking out various nouveau-riche touches that took the shine of the classiness.

“It’s a lot more impressive in the daytime. Well, I mean, it’s impressive anytime. But less so in the dark,” said Declan as he appeared beside Stede with a beer.

“Ah, cheers! I was just coming to find you. This place is…” Stede paused as he tried to articulate his admiration at the style and grandeur of the place with the details his upper-crust self found tacky, “...quite something.” said Stede as he took the beer.

Declan grinned, “Mhmm,” Then he leaned in, “...I find it a bit magazine-y, m’self. But I don’t want to be a dick, so I hold my tongue. “ The other Kiwi was tall, with a mop of dark hair, strong features, black glasses, and a gap between his front teeth. He suspected the man might have a crush on him, which he didn’t reciprocate. He liked Declan well enough, but not as more than a friend. But they’d never had a conversation about the limits of their relationship. Stede felt it coming, and he feared the awkwardness and the potentially broken friendship that would follow.

For the moment though, the two men were still friends.

“I appreciate the invite, by the way,” said Stede, finally.

“You look a little shell-shocked,” said Declan with a teasing lilt as he leaned in towards Stede. “I thought you came from richie riches. So this would be normal for you.”

“Came from, yes,” said Stede, eyebrows arching as he gestured with his beer. “But things have been strained with my family for years. I was supposed to go home after school, you see. But instead I stuck around. It was expected that I go home and do the whole Wellington society thing, but it wasn’t for me. So it’s been a long time since I’ve made a habit of being in houses like this,” he said as he gestured around.

“Well, they come by it honestly. Marlo’s an architect who made her own way. And Arnie’s…”

“...a marketing or social media guy?”

Declan grinned, putting the tooth gap on display, “Marketing manager for a bunch of restaurants.”

“I recognize a few people from the meet-ups. Are they mostly expats?” asked Stede as he gestured around the room. He exchanged a few nods or smiles with the people he knew. As he did, he caught sight of someone with long gray hair who turned away just as he was about to get a good look at him.

“Not all of them. Some are work friends and stuff. To tell you the truth,” Declan leaned in towards Stede, “I don’t recognize a bunch of them. I think some of them are other parents at their daughter’s school, or work people. But Marlo likes to collect people from home. Says it helps keep her grounded.” He swatted at Stede’s shoulder and motioned towards the kitchen where most of the people were retrieving drinks or snacking from the impressive spread laid out on the kitchen island, “C’mon, I’ll introduce you to some people.”

Stede took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “All right.”

Then Stede did what he’d been doing all his life. He slipped on a mask of cheery confidence. As Declan introduced him around, he made friendly conversation and learned how each of the people he was introduced to knew their hosts.

They were all nice enough, but from what Stede could tell, they all were straight, or at least in straight-passing relationships. As he met more and more people, he began to feel the heteronormativity of the room wash over him. That sensation, along with the conspicuous touches of magazine-glossy wealth began to wear him down and churn more of his loneliness to the surface. He began to think he was the only queer person in the room aside from Declan, and he wasn’t even sure about him.

No one Stede spoke to would have any hint of his growing discomfort or disappointment. He was an expert at deceiving others about his own happiness, and continued to chirp friendly conversation and tell bad but charming jokes.

He’d always made acquaintances easily, but friendship, let alone something greater, had been evading him since his split from Mary. He hadn’t figured how to transition into queer social circles from the primarily straight ones he’d moved in before now. Drag shows and gay bars only introduced him to people he had little in common with aside from queerness, and many were often younger than him.

Stede was hungry to meet people his age, who preferred pub trivia or a wine tasting over club nights and casual sex. He knew those people existed, but he had no idea how to go about finding them. He’d hoped the party would be a way to find those people, but so far he was just feeling how he always felt - like an imposter wearing a veil of straightness that he had to fight to keep from slipping clean off.

After a while, the effort to keep it up began to exhaust Stede, and he politely excused himself from a conversation with Naomi and Brett, a perfectly nice, but painfully straight couple who had spent the past thirty minutes talking about the psychological effect of paint colours in nurseries while both kept touching Naomi’s pregnant belly.

For Stede, who’d spent almost every Christmas season of his life mired in the default straightness of the Wellington social scene, it was a special kind of torture.

He needed another drink.

Stede made his way to a giant, trendy cooler laden with craft beer and cider. He pawed through until he found a cider he’d had before. For that moment, he let the mask slip and he stared for a moment off into the middle distance, gaze fixing for a moment at another one of those impractical barn doors next to a wall that looked like it was set up specifically for Instagram selfies.

He looked at his watch.

It was only ten. At least two hours before Stede could excuse himself. After all, why would he leave a New Year’s Eve party before midnight?

He took a couple of hungry gulps of the cider, then took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, closed his eyes, and willed the mask of chirpy conformity to slip back over his face.

“Stede?” came a voice mid-way through this meditative exercise.

Stede turned, confused by his name in an unfamiliar voice.

The man he saw caused Stede’s throat to clench and a shudder to slip down his spine. He was grateful for long sleeves, because they hid the cascade of goosebumps that raised every hair on his arms and his chest. He felt a flush of warmth dappling his cheeks, and he hoped that this man would just think it was the alcohol.

“Ah, yes?” Stede croaked.

The stranger was tall, warm-skinned, with a cascade of gray hair with streaks of black. He had a short gray beard and the sides of his hair were pulled back in a haphazard fashion. He’d either not expected the buttoned-up and date-night-dressy vibe of the party or he’d chosen to ignore it, because he wore low-slung moto jeans and a loose black t-shirt with a ragged hem. The shirt displayed arms covered in black tattoos. He wore a diamond stud in one ear with hoops higher up, and a necklace with a chunk of polished hematite. His eyes were deep and dark - chocolate brown and full of winking warmth.

“I thought that was you,” rumbled the stranger.

Stede took a closer look, head canting, brow furrowing. Surely if he knew this man, he’d remember. He made every queer little synapse in his brain fire off happy chemicals.

Bit by bit, Stede started to piece it together. He mentally replaced gray hair with black, and removed the beard from his face. Then he peeled back the years and spun his memory back to Wellington. “Ed?” he breathed after an incredulous moment. “Edward Teach?”

Ed smiled and then chuckled. “Ah, yeah, it’s me. Fuck. What a coincidence.”

Aside from breathing Ed’s name, Stede was at a loss for words. Here, thousands of kilometers away and decades later, he found himself staring into the eyes of his teenage crush.

Continue reading on AO3

#ofmdfanfic #ofmd #ofmd fanfiction #ofmd fanfic #completed fic #blackbonnet #blackbeard x stede #stede x blackbeard #stede x ed #ed x stede #ofmd modern au #modern au #new years eve #first kiss

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