#ofmd fanvid

i will not be explaining myself

“Don’t wanna be an untold story, wanna go out in a blaze of glory -

I CAN’T HEAR YOU, I DON’T FEAR YOU!”

TW: mentions of ableism, oralism, violence, and abuse.

The teacher had promised food, clothes, and a place to sleep in exchange for nothing more than an extra pair of hands around the house. He’d even thrown in an education.

You - so named because he’d forgotten he’d ever had another and no one cared enough to name a kid who couldn’t hear or speak - thought he’d found heaven. He wanted so badly to read and write just so he could get a proper job with proper money and not have to scavenge anymore.

It was nice at first. He’d point at things, the teacher would write it down and he’d learn what a pot was, what a cat was to Hearing people. But then he’d ask him to say the words and You could not understand.

He couldn’t speak - scratch that, he couldn’t speak verbally. He signed. He didn’t need to speak, did he? That’s why he was going to learn to write. That was the point.

But the teacher insisted. Then demanded.

Then forced.

No food unless he said - in English - what he wanted. Gloves over his hands when he used them too often.

The cellar unless he spoke.

- If you can’t learn to speak, the teacher explained, you’re too stupid to learn anything else.

Luckily, You wasn’t too stupid not to learn to pick a lock.

And he’d gotten right to the front door when he stopped. He had the man’s money, his jewellery, and even his warmest hat. That was punishment enough, right?

But then You saw the blood, the bruises and looked back to see the teacher snoring peacefully in front of a dying fire like he’d never done anything wrong.

An hour later, he stepped out of the house into the dark with the teacher’s pistol.

He’d tried to beg for mercy, but You signed, “Only if you sign. If you sign, I let you live.”

He couldn’t.

You liked the last look on his face, liked the fear in his eyes.

Liked the way the blood ruined the wallpaper.

After all, he reasoned, there was no reason he couldn’t have begged for his life in sign language.

He seen it often enough.

Because a gay Deaf pirate behaving like a cat with his claws caught is EXACTLY what Our Flag Means Death needs.

It’s BSL, but I’m still learning.

I think Our Flag Means Death needs a wee Deaf gay pirate who uses (grammatically terrible because I’m still learning) BSL and lots of knives and guns.

Because they are - as a commenter put it - a portable apocalypse. Also, how FUCKING lonely must it have been to be the only Deaf signer you know of? How messed up would it be to be isolated because no one bothered to learn your language and you couldn’t speak? They deserve a few stabbings.

(Also they still need a name. I’m thinking Eli, Urchin, Greenie, Boom, Artie, Faolan, or just You)