An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Rating: Mature (rating will change in future chapters) Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply (see additional tags) Relationships: Ethos/Praxis (Starfighter), others to come in future chapters
Summary: After becoming obsessed with a fearsome pirate captain, Marcus willingly becomes his captive. In a dance of deception, he rises through the ranks and realizes that neither his preconceptions or his first impressions of Captain Ethos were entirely accurate.
Unlike 95% of fandom as far as I can tell, I’ve managed to avoid the pirate fever of Our Flag Means Death thus far. Considering this, I can’t believe the thing that dragged me back to writing fic—hand recovery be damned—was a bloody pirate AU, but here we are. I even started a new Scrivner project for this bad boy. That’s the first time I’ve done that since the 2019 Summer Challenge. Don’t @ me over the fact that I’ve completed exactly zero of the stories I’ve used Scrivner to plan out thus far lol.
Writing a full chapter was challenging because every time I'd try to do a fight scene segment or bit of exposition, my brain just wanted to get back to the thirst. What about another paragraph of Praxis daydreaming vividly about Captain Ethos here? That makes sense, right? Why not take a break to write down some ideas for a spicy scene from a later chapter? Willing Captive Praxis took my brain captive and all I could think about was how best to describe the charismatic pirate captain. Sorry not sorry. This is even the most restrained chapter in that sense.
Also, if you’re looking for some great pirate-y background music, this chapter was powered in large part by listening to the album Set Sail for the Golden Age by Antti Martikainen.