morality before duty ( pullings headcanons )

Master & Commander: Timeline Adjustments

Up until recently I have been playing pretty loose and fancy free with timeline placements for the M&C crew; everything was set to a pirate’s life and that was the catch all with the exception of specially designed ship-related verses.

However, now that I am a bit more focused in what I am doing here just in general, I am declaring all prior threads to this post as ‘under revisement’ – they all still stand and nothing is being dropped, but some details may change in order to place them more properly into the timeline going forward.

These details will be addressed in coming replies and will not affect anything written prior to this announcement – if you notice what seems like a continuity error in our thread, please consult this timeline.

Pre-Acheron: Falling under To Free The Sea Of Piracy, Do Only What You Can Live With, Chasing Shadows And Drinking Gold. These verses cover a twenty-six year span.
For threads taking place a year prior to Acheron, it will be tagged under Chasing Shadows. For threads taking place two – seven years prior to Acheron, it will be tagged under What You Can Live With. Anything earlier ( which is highly unlikely, but worth noting ) will fall under To Free The Sea.
Chasing Acheron: Falling under Chasing Shadows, the chase of the Acheron takes place over the course of a year and a half.
Post Acheron: Falling under We Are The Renegades, which is a thirteen year span. Stop Blowing Holes In My Ship takes place eleven years after the Acheron’s events.

Thomas Pullings spends nearly two years press-ganged and tortured before being rescued by the EITC. These ships are later attacked for slaving by Robby Greene and his fleet – Thomas, despite being rescued by them, finds himself in opposition of the EITC for the practice and aids the pirates. He is transferred aboard Renegade Freedom under Captain Sparrow.

Thomas serves Renegade Freedom through to Stop Blowing Holes In My Ship at which point, he transfers to Sparrow again after meeting up with him and Gibbs in Tortuga, thus making him available through most POTC shenanigans. His profile has been adjusted to the solidified timeline.

This is a permanent starter call for Thomas Pullings, of Universal Pictures’ Master & Commander: Far Side Of The World explicitly.

These calls give me a heads up on who is open to interacting with whom ( which is handy for those who have exclusives among my crew! ) and gives me an excuse to kick you starters whenever something crosses the mind, or blow up your inbox knowing who would be most wanted.

These calls also serve as a final tag dump – when this call is posted it indicates a character has been fully moved into the blog and is ready for action!

For other starter calls, check the tag HERE.

Alright, I have procrastinated on this enough; it’s time to go over Thomas Pullings’ scars from his time aboard the Hércules, where he was pressed into service after Acheron was reclaimed by her original crew. I have made some mention of how these marks have affected his personal esteem, and I imagine I will cover more on his mental state as time continues on ( he’s an interesting mix of healthy and unhealthy perceptions, in all truth ) This, however, is a strictly physical accounting of damages.

His back and front have received the worst of the effects of his time aboard Hércules, as oft he would not yet be healed before insubordination ( perceived or otherwise ) would have him tied before the mast once again. Points were reached when it was easier to keep him awake by alternating flogging between back and front, until he came all but mute and ( as much as he could manage ) competently compliant. Eventually, his floggings became very few and far between – more a result of language barrier than his desire to be challenging of authority.

His back and his chest, therefore, are littered with the crisscross of the lashings he received. These marks decorate his shoulders down to his hips across the back, and his upper arms where leather would at times flash throughout matters. Across the front, most damage is over the chest and upper arms – perhaps in a rare show of decency, but most likely to keep from killing him by striking over organs and rupturing matters within. There are a few singular dashes across his stomach and sides, as well as his lower arms, from points when the risk was taken regardless.

He has along his lower thighs some additional scarring, and across the back of his left hand a mark that crosses from the base of his thumb up to the knuckle on his smallest finger. At his throat, there is a small line from where a sword was held too long and too tight, and just behind his right ear is another scar that is shaped oddly – like an anchor beneath a half circle, in fact. This last, of course, being a service brand granted him shortly before being put aboard Hércules – and it is for this reason, that Thomas no longer holds his hair in a queue but rather, allows it to flow freely, thus obscuring any signs of servitude.

Coming soon to a hell near you; the extent of Thomas Pullings’ scars as a result of his time as a slave. In the meantime, the impact on his sense of personal esteem thanks to them;

He does not see himself as a catch any longer – even with the one scar upon his face he thought himself a bit dashing – but now, he acknowledges himself as damaged goods as it were. Not the sort one wishes to keep and frankly, he is not too eager to allow himself to be seen.

His arms are often bared despite the lashing marks on them ( no pirate’s brand mind you ) and his shirt tends to be a bit open, casting a glimpse of raised flesh – but that is as far as he reveals. While he still gets dandys from time to time, he tends to keep his shirt on for such dalliances, knowing the marks along his legs are at least somewhat easier to ignore. As these are fleeting affairs he feels no obligation to do anything further nor does he feel validated or invalidated by any remarks made by his partner of the night.

Thomas is very proud of all he has survived and is proud of who he has become – but, he does not like thinking upon how he got there, and he is deeply reluctant to trust anyone. Faith and hope are shattered in him, almost absolutely. Captain Sparrow is among the few that can rouse such emotions – and only because he is such a law unto himself, it is all but impossible not to believe he will accomplish anything he sets out to do.

and that’s the tea on that.