i need – to not write when im like this

I have been yelling at Malakh about Vane and his perceptions of intelligence so let me do a brief run down for you folks.

Vane does not view himself as smart – he views himself as adaptable and capable of surviving anything just short of a motherfucking apocalypse, provided he has the right resources.
Smart People Are A Resource.
How??
Smart people can tell you if that pardon in your hand is In Fact a pardon and not a letter which reads This Is Charles Vane, Arrest Immediately, Don’t Worry, He Thinks This Is A Pardon complete with overdramatic flourish that was the 16th century standard for the cry-laugh emoji and whose meaning has been lost over time to translate simply as those bitches were extra.

In all seriousness though Vane was kidnapped at the age of seven and forced into hard labor for 13 – 14 something years I am too tired to check my own chronology on this so whatever, sleepdrunk headcaons ahoy.

In any case – after busting out of Hell he meets Edward Teach who is ruthless and big on the whole animal food chain philosophy of Only The Strong Survive – but also, deeply valued the power of intellectual warfare and emphasised the importance of being smarter than the enemy.

He taught Vane a lot of things – including his letters, which nobody in that era understood as Fucking Impressive because you learn your letters as a child or you’re Just A Dumb Peasant for struggling with it as an adult – but above all he emphasised that fear inside of Vane, that internal terror of being dragged back to Hell – by making it clear that if you Were Not Strong & Smart Enough, You’d Be Fucked.

So Vane – a very big, very powerful lad – learned quick to be The Strongest Fuck On The Docks and to establish his dominance as fast as humanly possible. Because with dominance and strength comes reputation and with reputation comes the power to encourage smart people to ally up because often times smart people tended to have a need for strong people, and thus transaction is crafted between the two.

However Vane also knew he could not survive as a dumb people. Not if he wanted to ensure he never, ever found himself on the stocks again. He needed to be more than strong he needed to be smarter than the strong, he needed to be strong and smart. Which leads in to his observational method of learning – he learns by osmosis, to be perfectly frank – and that is why the more exposure he has to the people he registers and views as smart and in charge, the more likely he is to sound vaguely like them when he enters into his own verbal disputes.

Vane is in fact a very quiet fucking person. He is more often than not reluctant to engage in lengthy conversations – for fourteen years of his life talking was often punishable by the lash and learning to overcome that training is difficult. It often takes a mask or an armor to manage, and at the same time he cannot sound like a parrot or people will see right through him.

So he listens and he watches and when he speaks he measures and paces himself, but his focus is generally on how to maneuver this situation like [ insert person best suited to maneuvering this situation ] and builds from there. The only times Vane really sounds like himself is when there is no fight or threat at hand, and generally tends to involve minor domestic moments with Rackham or Bonny – the only people aside from his ‘family’ and Teach who really know he’s a very simple man with very simple needs and goals.

What even they don’t know though, is that while he boxes it up in powerful ways so people will listen, at the end of the day the only thing Vane truly wants is the guarantee that he and those he cares about will be able to live free, and feel safe. And as someone who has never felt safe a day in his life – its the moments when he doesn’t feel like he has anything to prove that he is at his most honest, though more often than not – he is in a safe situation, and just doesn’t realize That Is What This is.

And that’s a rambly headcanon that covers a whole lot of shit to ultimately say if you’re wondering why I often portray Vane in nonthreatening positions its because I want to learn who he is in those situations because I know exactly who he is when he’s threatened and the point of development is putting characters in situations that are abnormal to learn about them :V

And also I just really wanted an excuse for that calligraphy joke. And also to tie in the whole Everything Is A Transaction To Vane thing I nattered about when I was 150% more coherent than I am right now ❤ WOO!