I just got an idea for one of those soulmates aus. like one of those where everything is in black and white until they meet and then they see colour after meeting each other for the first time. except I prefer it when instead of everything just bursting into colour immediately, it happens more subtly, over the course of a few weeks maybe.

so imagine, Stede and Ed meet, and after that everything starts gradually changing around them. except because it's so gradual, neither of them realize right away, except ed realizes a bit before stede does.

so ed realizes that things are getting different during the moonlight scene in episode five. all of a sudden the silk he's had ever since he was child looks slightly different. the sky and ocean he has been looking upon for years look somewhat changed and then he looks into stede's eyes and realizes what is happening. which makes it so much harder to try and get over stede after he leaves in episode nine, because everything is still in colour. it didn't go back to the way it was before because he can never go back to the way it was before.

but then stede realizes that everything is in colour during the conversation with mary in episode 10 after she tried to skewer him. and he realizes it then because the last time he was there, everything was in black and white but now it's not. and similar to how ed compares the silk and the colour of the sky and the ocean that he has known for his entire life, stede notices the difference between how he remembers his room to look, versus how it looks now. and the whole montage thing that happens in his head as mary is describing what it's like to be in love, stede sees that in various different hues/tones/whatever it's called depending on how long he has known ed. and that's (one of the reasons) how stede realizes that he is in love with ed and that he is his soulmate.

(also maybe the speech mary gives is different because now it's about seeing things in colour and how that was a gradual process she didn't notice right away, but then all these little things started popping out to her and that's how stede realizes how his sight has changed over the course of the last weeks)

anyway, that's my thoughts on that