So sometimes I like to tell myself stories in my head, stories that I don’t have the time or the wherewithal to write down but that I return to periodically to “write” a little more of the story. Between the Tether Series, a Captain America commission (@smilesguaranteed, I promise I’m working on it! It’s about 10k words right now), and my D&D podcast I really do not have time to write this story out all the way. Please note that ahead of time and don’t ask me to. If you really want to read Black Sails content from me, go read the Tether Series.
However. I told myself this story and then I told @completeutterwonderfulnonsense and she said I should at least post the outline, so. She’s the boss.
Black Sails AU: Abigail Ashe Fixes (Almost) Everything
Gap between 2x10 and 3x01: Following the events at Charlestown, Abigail Ashe is her father’s only heir; she has his fortune but also carries the weight of his sins. She cannot forget Lady Hamilton, who showed her such kindness and was shot dead, unarmed, in her father’s house. There is more to this story, hints of which she heard in muffled shouts: this city, purchased with our misery…
Abigail Ashe goes looking for the truth.
What she finds are letters, exchanged between Peter Ashe and Aflred Hamilton, which were kept by her father as insurance, in which Earl Hamilton confessed every part of the plot against his own son. The crown itself was involved. Then, letters between her father and a man named Oglethorpe, detailing the transference of Thomas Hamilton from Bedlam to the plantation.
3x01: While Flint is busy marauding the coast, Jack Rackham is sitting pretty on top of the Urca gold, and Woodes Rogers is gathering his armada, Abigail Ashe visits the Ogelthorpe plantation. She’s expressed financial interest: her father spoke highly of Mr. Ogelthorpe and she’d like to view the grounds herself before she commits any part of her father’s considerable fortune. Ogelthorpe’s hesitations–the need to “protect” his prisoners, a lady visiting such a place!–are overcome by the potential windfall.
She requests to view some of the prisoners. All she has to go on is a half-remembered face, glimpsed a few times and ten years gone…but as the men line up in front of her she comments in a strong voice to Mr. Ogelthorpe, “As you know, sir, Lord Ashe was less inclined to believe in the rehabilitation of evil men.”
At the end of the line, a blond head rises.
She requests to interview one of the prisoners to assess their condition. By now Ogelthorpe is unsettled, especially when she points out the very man who her father secreted away to this place; but considering that she brought the majority of her fortune with her under heavy guard, he acquiesces.
They bring him out to her on the veranda overlooking the plantation. There are chains around his ankles. “Do you know me, sir?” she asks, her voice trembling. He keeps his eyes lowered. Taking a deep breath, she says, “Six months ago, I was traveling by ship to join my father in the South Carolina colony…”
When she says the name Captain Flint, he flinches. When she says that Lady Hamilton found her in Nassau, he finally lifts his head. When she says that Captain Flint introduced himself to her as James MacGraw, he bursts out, “They’re alive? He’s alive?” For of course Peter Ashe had told him that Captain Flint killed both Miranda and James.
She tells him what became of Miranda and he weeps. She waits with him while the storm of his grief passes. When it does, he looks out over the fields. “I had buried them both, and myself alongside. Now I find myself somewhere between the land of the living and the dead, not knowing whether to rouse myself further or remain in the soil.”
“I’m going to free you from this place,” she vows, feeling the weight of her father’s cruelty on her shoulders. “I will bring him here to you, and we will see you revived.”
His mouth quirking, Thomas says, “I loved him. I loved them both, but James was my heart and soul. I would have you know that, before you take any action that might bring harm to yourself.”
Abigail had not quite guessed that from the letters. “I had thought my father a man of principle. He raised me to believe that truth and honesty were the foundation from which all other virtues grow. Since then, I have met pirates who were more committed to their principles than he to his, and a thousand times more loyal to those they called friends. In short, Lord Hamilton–”
“Thomas.”
“Thomas. I think a great deal less about your relationship to Mr. MacGraw than to what my father did to you both. I would see it made right.”
3x02: While Flint is busy raging against the machine storm, Rogers, Edward Teach, and Abigail Ashe all make their separate ways to Nassau. Upon arriving, Abigail visits what she expects to be Eleanor Guthrie but instead encounters Max. She’s wary about revealing too much and so pretends to be a relative of Mrs. Barlow; she expresses a strong desire to see Captain Flint.
Leaving the tavern with a few men she hired to protect her, Abigail literally runs into Charles Vane on his way in.
Abigail, silently: AW FUCK
Charles Vane, silently: WHAT THE FUCK
Her cover blown, Abigail books it out. Once Vane reveals her identity to Max, she sets Idelle to spy on the girl, suspecting that she might be here to exact revenge for her father’s death. They’re all a little preoccupied with converting the gold to gems.
3x03: When news of Woodes Rogers’ imminent arrival stirs up Nassau, Abigail outright makes contact with Max through Idelle and says that she’s actually here to repay Captain Flint’s kindness to her and that she’d like to help with the defense of the island in any way she can, with an eye to keeping Flint alive as long as she can. Max is skeptical of the offer but agrees to meet with a proposal.
They sit in the tavern room upstairs, Max in her Chair. “Your father undertook the building of an entire colony in the New World,” Max says. “So you are perhaps in a unique position to understand the size and difficulty of such a venture.”
“I am. He spoke of the supplies and manpower needed, the–”
“Debts,” Max says, cutting to the point. “Loans which would have been repaid by the first fruits of the new colony. Debts which, if purchased by the wrong person, could be called into default sooner than would be convenient for such a man as your father.”
“Or for such a man as approaches on the horizon,” Abigail guesses.
Except then Woodes Rogers makes landfall behind the spearhead of Hornigold and the pardons, and the news that Captain Flint is dead.
3x04: Flint & crew make it to the Maroon Island, but are still believed dead. While Nassau is in upheaval, Abigail takes to her room in despair. She’s failed, she believes, in her attempt to right what her father did wrong; she came too late. It’s Idelle who winds up counseling her, as no one is inclined to visit the brothel presently in the midst of this turnover.
“What did you think of him?” she asks, wiping her face and taking another sip of the rum that Idelle brought with her. She grimaces as she swallows.
“Flint? He never visited the brothel, never so much as looked at the girls. He kept his men in line about us, though, better than any other captain I could name. He always had a dark look about ‘im, though–some men turned to piracy outta greed, some outta desperation, but he? He always had some other reason.”
She trails off. Abigail is staring out the window, her eyes distant.
“That’s a dark look, there,” Idelle murmurs.
“I’m going to ruin him,” Abigail says. “Woodes Rogers. I’m going to ruin him.”
“Why? What’s he done wrong by you?”
“Not by me. By Captain Flint. By James MacGraw. They all did a terrible wrong and if I cannot have justice…then I will have vengeance.”
She meets Idelle’s gaze and holds it.
“Do you want to help me?”
At that moment, a fight breaks out on the street. It’s Charles Vane, making a run for it with Teach’s help. Watching them go, Idelle says, “I’ve seen a lot of captains come and go from this island. But the women–they’re the ones who stay.” She’s on board with the plan.
3x05: Woodes Rogers secures his position on the island and the pardons continue apace. With some coaching by Idelle, Abigail presents herself to him and a very surprised Eleanor Guthrie with the story that, having barely survived the evils of piracy and having lost her father to the same, she’s determined to help reform Nassau and establish a trade route between them and the South Carolina colony. Woodes Rogers sees dollar signs. Eleanor is more suspicious. Abigail asks to be made part of the consortium, where she will have access to financial information about the colony’s development.
Max also sees her there, but holds her tongue for now. She’s good at playing both sides of the line and keeping her options open.
3x06: Flint, having made allies of the Maroons, moves to make contact with Charles Vane and Edward Teach, trying to reignite the rebellion and having to fight Teach. Meanwhile, Abigail uses her position on the consortium to get the names of Rogers’ creditors, and writes them letters.
She’s also there when Jack Rackham is taken into custody, which she quickly communicates to Idelle, who passes it along to Featherstone. By now Idelle is full in with the plan to undo Rogers–it was never really explained in the series why she deviated from Max’s side of the war, but in this version it’s because she sees the possibility of Abigail’s plan (which was originally Max’s plan) working. Unfortunately Max is fully aware of the plan, too, but can’t directly warn Rogers of it without revealing that she was the one who came up with the idea. Cue a lot of significant glances between Max and Abigail across the office of Woodes Rogers, glances which Eleanor sees but does not quite understand.
3x07: Awwww, sheeeit. Long John Silver makes his appearance in the tavern, stomping Dufrense’s head in. Which means that somewhere, Captain Flint is alive! Abigail immediately turns to Idelle, hoping to make contact with him. What she gets instead is an invite to the secret meeting between Eme and Madi.
Madi: “I do not know you, even by name. Why should we trust you?”
Abigail: “I know someone. A friend of Captain Flint’s, someone who he thought forever lost to him, but who was merely stolen. This friend entrusted to me a message, one that I now entrust to you.”
Later that night, Madi returns to the Walrus to find Flint speaking to Silver post-head-stomping. “I met someone tonight. A young Englishwoman named Abigail Ashe, who told me she had a message for you, one that she insisted I repeat word for word: ‘know no shame.’ She said that once you heard those words, you would be ensured of her allegiance to our cause.”
Flint: o.o
Silver: o.o?
Madi: o.o?
Flint: O.O
Silver: o.O?
Madi: O.o?
Then Flint goes to the meetup with Rogers and the first words out of Rogers’ mouth are, “Thomas Hamilton.” For a terrifying moment Flint thinks that Rogers has him, that that’s what all this is about–but no, Rogers is just playin’.
3x08: Flint, Anne, Billy, and Vane rescue Jack, but Vane gets captured in the meantime. Flint is also pretty invested in trying to get a face-to-face with Abigail, or at least get a better explanation of WHAT THE FUCK.
Max, however, is through playin’ and finally confronts Abigail, saying that she knows she’s been moving forward with the plan to undermine Rogers. She shows her the letters that Abigail had sent to the creditors, letters which Max had Idelle intercept. She’s also been blocking attempts by Abigail and Flint to communicate with one another. But Abigail smiles. Surprise! Those aren’t ALL the letters. Idelle can play both sides, too. The primary creditors for Rogers’ debt have already been contacted. Max is alarmed but again, can’t do anything without convicting herself as well.
Abigail: “Are you so convinced of the inevitability of Captain Rogers’ success?”
Max: “Captain Rogers? No. But civilization will come to Nassau, and I fear that one of the faces that follows will be much darker than his.”
Abigail stands. “Then let me propose an alternative. A lord governor far more sympathetic to our goals, one who can not only gain the trust of the pirates, but their unbending loyalty as well.”
“I’m listening,” Max says, her eyes narrowed.
“Let me tell you a story,” Abigail says, “about a man named Thomas Hamilton.”
3x09: Max is on board. With her help and Idelle’s, Abigail gets in contact with Billy and tells him that she’s going to get Vane out of the fort. Billy is nonplussed but agrees.
Girding her motherfucking loins, Abigail heads to the fort and asks to see Vane. “He’s the man partly responsible for killing my father,” she says. “I’d like to see his face before he hangs.” Eleanor, who also lost her father to Vane, is sympathetic and allows it (remember, Rogers is sick at this point). Once in, though, Abigail picks the lock on Vane’s chains (Idelle taught her how) and gives him a gun. They escape through the same tunnels which–IRONY ALERT–Eleanor once used to help rescue Abigail from Vane’s clutches and though there’s a fight they make it out to Billy. During the skirmish Abigail seizes a gun and shoots a man dead.
Shaken by her actions, Abigail escapes with Vane and Billy to the interior of the island. Vane and Billy make plans to stir up the populace. Abigail gives him her father’s letters as a propaganda tool to further delegitimize Rogers and the British, and Billy begins to spin the tragedy of Thomas Hamilton alongside that of Long John Silver.
“And you,” Abigail says to Vane, “are going to help me rescue him.”
“The hell would I do that for?” Vane growls.
“You tried, once, to ransom me to my father for five thousand pounds.” (or however much it was) “I’ll ransom Thomas Hamilton to you for four times that.”
3x10: While Flint, Silver, and Madi fight Hornigold’s men on the Maroon Island, Abigail, Vane, some of Billy’s men, and some of her men make their way to the Georgia plantation to rescue Thomas. Abigail, still shaken by having killed a man last episode, has a long conversation with Vane about morality which is too much to relate here but boils down to: to him, freedom is the most important thing in the world, and it’s something he’d die for.
Silver, having noticed Flint’s intense distraction since receiving Abigail’s message, asks to hear the truth. Flint gives it to him.
At the plantation, they at first are greeted by Ogelthorpe but then have to fight their way out when he gets wise to their plans. Vane sacrifices himself to cover their exit. Once they’re on their way to Nassau, Thomas reveals that, “I have spent these last few months digging my way out of the soil, Ms Ashe, and I am resurrected. I paid an African slave to smuggle out letters to the crown and several former colleagues, revealing my wrongful incarceration and announcing my intention to take back what is mine: the Lord Proprietorship of Nassau.”
4x01: GUESSSS who shows up in Nassau lookin’ fine! By now Woodes Rogers’ creditors have mysteriously disappeared, being replaced by Abigail. Most of Rogers’ forces have been recalled to Britain. Abigail and Thomas have sent word to Flint&etc via Billy, telling the pirate fleet to hold position: they want this process to be as peaceful and “legitimate” as possible, and the presence of a pirate fleet is not going to help.
So Billy, Abigail, and Thomas stroll in with as many men as they can muster, and calmly assert Thomas’ right to assume the role of Lord Governor. Rogers orders them all arrested but what ho! Max prevents that! And where Max goes, the Consortium (reluctantly) follows.
Thomas: “Put simply, Captain Rogers, we have no more use for you.”
Rogers and his soldiers are put on a ship and sent off, though Eleanor stays behind as leverage against him (and because Eleanor wants to see what the fuck is going down). But Thomas and the others know full well that Britain is not going to tolerate what they’ve done–basically asserting themselves as a semi-independent colony–and will send someone else.
Their best weapon, Thomas decides, is shame.
“Shame?” Billy asks, frowning.
“Yes. I have brought with me from Georgia England’s bastards, their sodomites, their heretics and political unfortunates. Everyone whom English society did its best to forget–everyone whom England itself has wronged. We’re going to write down everything that happened to us, and send it everywhere. To France, to Spain, to the colonies, to Londontown.”
It’s the four of them: Billy, Abigail, Max, and Lord Hamilton, who has quietly but pointedly deferred The Chair to Max. “To what end?” Max asks, but she’s leaning forward.
“Right now, England sees what we’re doing as a challenge of civilization, one which they are all to eager to squelch. I want to make this personal. I want every Lord of Whitehall to cringe whenever they hear the word Nassau and feel it reverberate in Madrid and Paris and Boston, echoing the multitude of their personal embarrassments. I want to make this a place that they are all too eager to forget. You’ll work with the former inmates,” he adds to Billy, then catches himself. “If you please, work with the former inmates of the plantation. You’re a gifted writer and I can think of no one better to write such a pamphlet.”
Billy, who is accustomed to Flint snarling orders at him, says, “…all right.”
(YAY NO DARK!BILLY.)
Meanwhile, on the Maroon Island, Madi is like, “YOU PROMISED ME A WAR, MOTHERFUCKERS.” And Flint is like, “I DON’T EVEN CARE ABOUT A WAR RIGHT NOW, MY BOYFRIEND IS ALIVE.” And Silver is tearing his hair out trying to keep them from killing each other.
4x02: Because Woodes Rogers is a punk bitch, he goes straight to Havana and is like, WHADDUP to the Spanish. Except because he doesn’t have Teach’s head this time, he’s thrown in the stockades to rot, because fuck Woodes Rogers. He has conveniently alerted the Spanish to Nassau’s vulnerability, however, because he’s a punk bitch.
Meanwhile, Abigail remembers that Eme and Madi were talking about raising the plantation slaves, so she gets in touch with Eme about that. Basically, they need an army, and who better to lead a fight for freedom than slaves? She introduces Eme to Thomas, who, having spent however many fucking years as a slave himself, is all too willing to consider turning this into an abolitionist colony. Max, of course, is in full support. There’s the problem of the plantations, however, and how to proceed: they need the commerce and they need allies to whom they can trade that commerce.
In walks Eleanor, because fuck her Season 4 makeover as Woodes Rogers’ quiet seamstress wife.
Eleanor and Max are dispatched to Philadelphia to contact her grandparents. Thomas lacks the manpower to simply commandeer the plantation slaves but he sends word that any plantation owner who donates their slaves’ time to the rebuilding of the fort will be compensated. Privately, however, they have absolutely no intention of returning any of the slaves.
One of those slaves is, of course, Julius.
4x03: OH SHIT SPANISH INVASION. Sails are sighted. Word is immediately sent to Flint and the rest of the fleet. Billy rounds up everyone he can from the street to man the fort and defend Nassau. All the slaves are freed and handed weapons, at which point Julius immediately grabs control and retreats with his force to the interior.
There follows a bloody fight, as their ragtag army tries to hold off the Spanish long enough for the pirate fleet to get there.
Then, sails on the horizon.
Spanish sailor: ¡Señor, el barco pirata está en camino de embestirnos!
Spanish captain: ¿Qué nave es esa?
Spanish sailor: No lo sé, pero el capitán parece estar en la proa de la nave echando espuma por la boca y disparando láseres de arco iris desde sus globos oculares.
Spanish captain: Mierda. Mierda. Mierda.
Flint leads the fleet against the Spanish armada with the full force of his rage and love. Unfortunately the Spanish came to win it and the Walrus is forced to abandon ship. Silver goes in the drink, to Madi and Flint’s horror. Thomas and Abigail can only watch as the Walrus is sunk, and they fear the worst.
4x04: In Philadelphia, Eleanor and Max hear about the Spanish invasion secondhand, and fear for their home. They also possibly make out a little bit. Whatever, they’re not getting back together but damn, for old time’s sake, yeah? They do visit with her grandparents to establish trade connections for Nassau, and also to deliver Billy’s Pamphlet of Shame to the publishing machine of Philadelphia, which in turn would have sent it throughout the colonies.
Back in Nassau, Abigail is freaked out about the possibility–yet again–that Flint has perished, and she leaves the fort to go look for him in the Wrecks. Instead what she finds is Israel Hands holding John Silver hostage. A struggle ensues: a one-legged half-drowned man and a teenaged girl vs. Israel Hands. Somehow they prevail and Israel Hands dies long before he can whisper poison in Silver’s ear.
Silver: “Who the fuck are you?”
Abigail: “Who are you?”
Thus begins my favorite part of the not-story, which I like to call Abigail and Silver’s Adventures on New Providence Island. Basically it’s them going around and convincing the slaves who have armed themselves and are busy freeing other slaves that they should come to Nassau and fight the Spanish. They meet up with Julius and Silver rolls a Nat 20 on Persuasion, while Abigail gives her most solemn word that she will see every slave on Nassau freed, and while that seems like an unbelievable claim from some random white girl, she says it with such fierce conviction that Julius kinda believes her as much as he believes Silver.
4x05: At the fort, shit’s going sideways fast. The Spanish are making landfall, the fort is besieged. Teach, Anne, and Jack are still on board their ship and are playing cat and mouse with the Spanish fleet. Flint and Madi make it to Miranda’s house, but have no way of getting through to the fort. Then: out of the darkness rides Abigail and Silver on a white horse.
(Earlier)
Abigail: *behind Silver on the horse* STOP STOP STOP.
Silver: *reining the horse in and almost making it rear up* WHAT.
Abigail: HAVE YOU NEVER RIDDEN A HORSE BEFORE IN YOUR LIFE?
Silver: A couple of times.
Abigail: Just…let me ride in front, okay?
Flint and Madi are, of course, desperately glad to see Silver alive. I think that, despite Thomas being alive, Flint is plenty in love with Silver in this version of events, too. Thomas is his priority, though, so he basically grabs Abigail and is like WHAT THE FUCK TELL ME EVERYTHING.
Then there’s the big showdown. Flint, Madi, Silver, Abigail, and Julius storm Nassau with their combined forces. The Spanish are driven back to their ships. The gates of the fort open up and there he is. There’s Thomas. He and Flint embrace right there in the street in front of everyone because who fucking cares at that point? Billy has been subtly spinning hoyay about them for weeks now, it’s practically required that they confirm the rumors and kiss a little in front of God and Nassau to confirm it all. Abigail sheds more than a few tears, relieved to have made it right but feeling the weight of everything she’s had to do to make it happen.
4x06: In the aftermath: Teach, Jack, and Anne circle back around to Nassau. Silver totally dug up the cache at some point, which Flint can’t even be all that mad about because Thomas is there, so they’ve got the cache. They’ve got the remains of a fleet; a lot of it was destroyed fighting the Spanish armada, but they’re rebuilding fast. And once Maxanor returns from Philadelphia, they’ve got trade routes to fill with commerce. Their Pamphlet of Shame is certainly making international waves, fighting an entirely different kind of psychological warfare, and the fact that they fought off a Spanish invasion certainly lends them a kind of patriotic leniency on the part of Britain and its other colonies.
There remains the question of the Maroons and the slaves who fought alongside the pirates, and the slaves elsewhere on the island. It’s the subject of much debate between the idealists and the pragmatists on the island. The matter is decided, however, when Abigail stands before the council and says: “‘As I am free, so Nassau is free.’ Those were the words of Charles Vane. I did not know him as well as others, here, nor can I stand before you and say that I thought him a good man. But he did believe in one principle with his whole heart: freedom. We were fleeing a slave plantation in Georgia with our Lord Governor, and when its forces would have overwhelmed us, Charles Vane turned to me and said one word: ‘run.’ He knew that for this vision of Nassau to live, he would have to sacrifice his life, and he did not flinch. He did not hesitate. He died for that vision. Will you now pollute it? Will you dishonor his sacrifice? I stand with Charles Vane, and with the Maroons, and with all others who would call themselves free; anyone who calls them an enemy calls me their enemy.”
That, more than anything, turns the tables: Thomas informs the plantation owners to go fuck themselves, and Nassau is made an abolitionist commonwealth. England hasn’t decided whether or not to accept this state of being, but as Thomas predicted, a lot of people in Whitehall would rather pretend that Nassau doesn’t exist than make a big fuss over the degree of its independence. Teach does go off to fight the entire colony of Georgia in revenge for the loss of Charles Vane, and gets himself killed, because no one cares about Teach.
Uhhhhh, and then they all live happily ever after? Flint gets Thomas back, Silver and Madi are together, Anne and Max make up, Eleanor raises her baby to be a BAMF, Abigail made a thing go right.
Whatever, I spent all day on this instead of my other projects. Here it is, I’m done.
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