TRP Application
Apr. 28th, 2022 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saltnpepperbeard
OUT OF CHARACTER:
Name/Handle: Devon
Contact: Devon#4359 - Discord, silversomber- Plurk
Other characters: Billy, Catra, Beck, Bucky
Reserve: here
Referral: Bear
IN-CHARACTER:
Character name: Edward Teach, Blackbeard
Character journal:
saltnpepperbeardSeries name: Our Flag Means Death
Canon notes: End of Episode 8.We Gull Way Back
Species: Human
Age: 37
Arrival Condition: Was stabled through his left side within the last few weeks. He wouldn't consider it a big deal, but medical assistance might be nice?
History: Here
Currently this only leads up to his wanting to meet Stede Bonnet, which is where he enters the story. So to continue where the wiki leaves off... (I wrote...so much more than I meant to. Feel free to skim or skip entirely!)
Due to his extreme dislike of the man, Izzy Hands extends Blackbeard's offer to meet with Stede Bonnet without informing him of who his boss is, leading Stede to refuse, as well as offering up the insult that Izzy's boss can go 'suck eggs in Hell'. When Izzy reports this to Blackbeard it only intrigues him more.
He and his crew rescue Stede and his people from the Spanish navy, where Stede was gravely injured, but delighted to know that someone had heard of him. Blackbeard, along with Izzy Hands and two other crew members accompanied Stede back to the Revenge, where Blackbeard watched over the feverish Stede.
When Stede awoke he didn't recognize Ed as Blackbeard, surprising him and allowing him for the moment to just be Ed. Stede noticed Ed's interest in fine fabrics, and happily showed him his his hidden secondary closet, learning shortly after that Ed was in fact Blackbeard himself and not just a member of his crew.
Curious and feeling alive, Ed purposes they do something crazy, switching clothes and introducing Stede to the crew as Blackbeard, while he plays at being Stede. It still requires some strong words on his part to get the crew to play along, but it delights Stede, and that in turn makes Ed happy.
Stede tells Ed about the concept of retirement, something which Ed had never really thought possible, and he sees this as his way out.
Later, when confronted by Izzy, he proposes that they will make it appear that Stede is Blackbeard, before killing and disfiguring him, allowing Ed to disappear as Stede Bonnet into retirement, and Izzy to become Captain in his place.
However, more than two weeks pass, and it becomes more and more clear that Ed has no intension of following through on the plan. He teaches Stede about piracy, fencing, how to take a sword on your left side (and miss all the important bits); while Stede teaches him about the finer things, place settings and all the things in life that Ed thought he could never have.
Ed learns about passive aggression, a tool of the upper class he finds diabolical, and very triggering. Ed insists they go to a fancy party they intercept an invitation to, where he tries on the roll of 'Jeff, the Accountant'. At first he is jealous of Stede, but quickly he gains the favour of the crowd and lets it go to his head. Soon he witnesses the cruelty of passive aggression again, and storms out near tears. Ready to return and kill the lot of them, Stede instead comes to his rescue.
He later sees Ed's scrap of silk from childhood, a reminder that he is not made for these things. He folds the fabric and places it in his pocket for him, telling him he wears fine things well. They nearly kiss, but part ways for the night without acknowledging it.
During a fencing lesson Ed forces Stede to stab him, holding him at gun point, and the other man reluctantly complies. Ed tells him he takes it in the left side where it misses all the important bits, showing off a dozen or so scars. Stede wonders about the liver, but Ed says he's not even sure what that does.
By this point Izzy and the rest of Blackbeard's crew have had enough. They confront him, telling him he's begun to think of Bonnet as a pet, and by his own rules he needs to put him down, as pets befoul the ship and the love of a pet makes a man weak. Ed's not entirely comfortable being confronted with his past self. Izzy offers to end it for him, but Ed reluctantly agrees that it's his mess, and he'll do it, maybe while Stede is doing something that makes him happy.
Stede and the crew then gleefully attempt to put on an act of Fuckery, inspired by Blackbeard's teachings. Ed prepares to take Stede's life, but finds he can't, before being triggered by the show they've put on.
He hides away in Stede's bath, and when Stede tries to comfort him he admits that the only person he's ever really killed (personally) was his abusive father. He tells him how he was supposed to kill him, and that he's a bad person, which is why he has no friends. Stede offers to forget the killing, and to be his friend, and Ed tearfully accepts.
However Izzy is not all right with this. He challenges Stede to a duel, with the terms that if one of them should survive he would be banished from the ship. Ed tries to dissuade Stede, but he accepts. Ed doesn't intervene, even when Izzy runs him through. Stede however has used the technique Ed showed him, taking the blade through the left side, and the sword became lodged the in the mast, handle breaking when Izzy tried to remove it. The crew declares Stede to be the winner, and Izzy leaves.
Following this, Ed thinks he should take his leave. This leads Stede to desperately try and plan out an adventure worthy of Blackbeard to make him stay, purchasing a treasure map and insisting they search for it. Ed tries to refuse, but as they've decided Stede is the Captain while they are on his ship, he orders Ed to come along. Ed complains, trying to hide his face from being recognized, and generally have a very poor time with nature.
He relaxes enough for Lucius to see how much the pair of them clearly care about one another, and after the map gets burned and Ed tries to leave Lucius confronts him. Ed's surprised but actually does take his advice, returning and encouraging Stede to continue their quest. Ultimately they dig up a petrified orange, which Stede is delighted with. Later that night, the pair of them agree to try being co-Captains, Ed agreeing to stay.
This is soon ruined, however, as an old friend of Ed's- Calico Jack, finds his way to the ship. A drunk and a prime example of toxic masculinity/frienship, Jack brings out the worse in Ed and the crew, inspiring violent and foolish behavior. He mocks Stede continually, driving a wedge between him and Ed. He pointedly asks Stede if they're 'buggering' each other, revealing that 'Blackie' and him had had their dalliance's.
He confronts Ed, telling him he doesn't like who he is around Jack, and Ed insist this is who he is.
Jack later kills Button's bird Karl with his whip, insisting it was an accident and the bird's fault. Stede demands he leave the ship. Jack insults Stede and agrees, welcoming others to leave with him. The crew won't, but when prompted Ed agrees, though he seems sad to do so.
Stede tries to convince Ed to stay, but he again insist this is who he is, and that Stede can finally see him for the person he is.
Alone with Jack, Ed begins to realize he doesn't really enjoy it quite so much as he thought, drinking until he passed out on the beach and reluctantly caving to the pressure to drink more in the morning, despite his initial protests.
It's only when they're rowing away in the morning that Ed finally pieces together that Jack didn't show up by chance. He was sent by Izzy, who had sold out Stede and his crew to the English. Jack was to get Ed out before they showed up. Ed breaks their oar and curses Jack out, swimming back to the Revenge just in time to tell them to put up the white flag.
The English take the ship and as the crew are captured Stede and Ed are forced to the deck beside each other as their hands are bound. Ed assures him that he never left and touches his boot to Stede's.
Personality
Ed vs Blackbeard
There is very much a struggle between Edward/Ed and the role he plays as Blackbeard and which of those is the real him.
Though it is said in the episode after he will be taken from this quote from his first mate illustrates this split between the two halves of him well.
"Blackbeard is my Captain. I. serve. Blackbeard. Edward better watch his fuckin step."
As Blackbeard, Edward is confident, sure, and steadfast. He is more myth than man, and has to live up to the image he has created. It's take the fun and excitement out of life, people surrendering the second they see the flag, noting that 'he doesn't even need to be on the ship' at this point. He yearns for something new, feeling trapped in this life and in this role.
He's led a violent life, one that only a few short weeks after staying with Stede and the crew of the Revenge feels distant. His crew quote back commands to him that he seems surprised by, and his first mate Izzy hands berates him for the man he believes Stede is turning him into.
First and second hands accounts of the man he was show him to be cruel, delighting in maiming and the cause of countless deaths, though Ed maintains to Stede that his father was the only one done by his own hand. The rest he distances himself from, discounting them different. "It was the fire that killed them" when he locked a crew inside a burning ship, etc.
Even before meeting Stede, he was struggling with maintaining this image. Izzy references his 'increasingly erratic moods', as well as him now being 'insane', 'unpleasant' and a 'shell of a man posing as Blackbeard', showing that this life, and these expectations of who he's meant to be have weighed heavily on him as the years passed.
As Ed he can be surprisingly sensitive. He wants to fit in, to be accepted and to explore the things he never felt he was able to or deserving of. He hides this part of himself that doesn't fit the image of what Blackbeard (or strong men) should be.
Both sides of him can be quick to anger. This anger can draw quick and vicious violence, or trigger Ed's flight response and bring him to the verge of tears depending on the trigger and how vulnerable he is feeling in the moment.
Toxic masculinity- As part of his bid to fit in, when met with certain people (such as his old friend Calico Jack), Ed can revert back to a complete toxic, 'one of the boys' type person, more akin to what he was like as a younger man. He partakes in wild, dangerous and often self harming actions, and despite being literally Blackbeard, bows to the whims of the men he views as stronger/more masculine. This is a running theme, with many instances where he doesn't intervene in events he disagrees with, clearly uncomfortable but bowing to the pressure of his old life over the one he wants. Even when confronted with the fact that he doesn't really like being that person anymore, he still thinks that's who he really is, and is all he is capable of being.
Abilities:
Blackbeard inspires both his own crew and that of the Revenge with ease, leading, guiding and teaching. It's clear he used a much firmer hand with his own crew than Bonnet's, but it is a cruelty they seemed almost happy to accept to have the honor of sailing under Blackbeard.
Edward has been a sailor for a large part of his life, and before he had his own ship/crew to Captain he served under Captain Hornigold, who reported treated them like dogs, likely inspiring much of his own treatment of his crew. While he hasn't had to put some of these skills to use in a while as Captain, he knows the ins and outs of operating and maintaining a ship, navigating, and pillaging/looting.
Blackbeard doesn't merely rely on brute force or violence. He shows he is actually quite clever when the occasion calls for it, and he delights in showing off his plans. Sometimes this is demonstrated via 'the art of fuckery', whereby they play into the stories of Blackbeard's intrigue and use drama, fear and impressive special effects to scare their targets.
He constructed another plan to slip by a Spanish fleet unseen, correctly predicting the fog, but forgetting to calculate the leap year, he was off by one day, and thus wrong about the strength of the tide. That his plan was calculated down to the day however shows the level of thought he puts into things.
He and Stede then formulate and enact a plan to pretend the ship is a lighthouse, very quickly constructing a fairly impressive set up that succeeds in fooling the Spanish.
Other skills are not quite so clever by modern standards, but have worked well for him- such as always taking a blade in the left side, because science teaches us all the important organs are on the right.
He knows when to fight, and when to surrender to live another day.
Ed is skilled with a sword/dueling. He passes on some of his knowledge to Stede, a playful and patient teacher.
(Not really seen fired on screen, but he does carry a flick lock pistol.)
Ed is able to deduce an approaching fog down to almost the second, based off of an observation of some frankfurter shaped clouds in the distance.
Ed can swim, at least for short distances.
Though he claims not to be very musical, he can play some melodies (mostly shanties).
*A note: Historically it is speculated that Edward Teach could read, but as Our Flag Means Death has deviated from history quite a bit, as well as firmly established this version of Edward to come from a very poor background, in addition to signing his contract with an X while Stede signs his full name, I will be interpreting this as him not being able to read/write.
Personal Item: Old, worn piece of red silk fabric.
A question!: If accepted, can Ed arrive with his hands still tied? If not totally fine, just had an idea for a starter using that and thought I would ask.
Sample:
Here
Accepted!
Date: 2022-05-25 04:42 pm (UTC)Your application has been reviewed and accepted - welcome to The Revival Project! As for your question: Yes. That is fine.
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