#T: Israel “Izzy” Hands' Toe | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dylanndr · 2 years

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Izzy Hands Jams

I finally got my contributor copies for the Songs for 2022 playlist zine, organized by @koricomics! The prompt was to illustrate a playlist of songs that encapsulated some aspect of 2022 for each of us.

Of course, my playlist is all about Izzy.

And look, I set up the playlist in Spotify so you can actually listen to it at your leisure!

I think a lot of these will be fairly obvious, but if you are curious to know more about why I included each song, read on:

AC/DC - "Problem Child"

Izzy's attitude in general. I specifically included AC/DC as an homage to the AC/DC t-shirt Con O'Neill was wearing when they all did their renewal announcements.

Alkaline Trio - "Tuck Me In"

In part about Izzy's internalization of toxic culture ("Tuck me in with the tarantulas, I want to let 'em in my mouth and down my throat to lay their eggs."), but also "tuck me into bed with snakes" as a reference to Blackbeard's snake tattoo, wink wink. I included this song before I knew Izzy's pet of choice would be a snake, but hey. It works.

In This Moment - "Adrenalize"

A song about kink from the POV of the sub, it opens with a negotiation/boundary statement ("Let me tell you how I want it before we begin"). So this is more aspirational for Izzy rather than a description of how he currently operates, but I do think chasing the adrenaline surge is a part of what drives him.

Buzzcocks - "Ever Fallen in Love"

By bisexual singer/songwriter Pete Shelley, this song is specifically about a messy queer relationship with a man he lived with for several years.

The Birthday Massacre - "Cold Lights"

A general vibe of unrequited romantic yearning tainted by deception. "Face of fire" evokes the Blackbeard persona Izzy is lusting after. Also references to the various lies Izzy told, thinking he was protecting his interests, only to watch things spiral out of control.

Judas Priest - "A Touch of Evil"

Another song about kink from the POV of the sub, this time sung by a gay man (though, fun fact, Rob Halford is vanilla IRL; he says he doesn't tend to write autobiographical lyrics). Obvious references to the toe scene, and how it was a positive transformative moment for Izzy.

Joan Jett - "I Hate Myself for Loving You"

Partially about unrequited love, partially about continually trying to leave this person and not being able to, and a general air of self-loathing over the whole proceedings.

Rammstein - "Tattoo"

The title is a pretty obvious surface-level reference, but the song is more specifically about enjoying the pain of being tattooed. I have a headcanon that Izzy has so few tattoos relative to his age and experience because he's extremely particular about who gets to tattoo him. He gets too, erm, excited by the proceedings, and can't tolerate handing that kind of power over him to just anyone.

The GazettE - "Devouring One Another"

Well, now, a song that uses cannibalism as a sexualized metaphor for a toxic relationship. Gosh, how could that be relevant to our Iz. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. The line "Is it not allowed to betray God?" could serve as a reference to Izzy's full name, "Israel" meaning "one who struggles with god," where Blackbeard/Edward = god. Whomst he betrays. Screaming "shut up, dammit!" on repeat is just gravy.

Dolly Parton - "Jolene" (Lil Nas X cover for max gay)

The Lil Nas X version is, AFAIK, only available on YouTube, but either version works. Stede's eyes aren't emerald green, and his hair is a bit light for auburn, but still.

The Stooges - "I Wanna Be Your Dog"

Pretty obvious reference to "love of a pet," and to the submissive nature of Izzy's relationship to Edward.

#our flag means death #ofmd playlist #izzy hands #ofmd meta #zines #Spotify

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phantom-ellie · 2 years

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Temet Nosce Chapter 3: I should have left you on that Spanish Vessel where you were Hanging

Click for Chapter List/Content Warnings

A paper doll, sure. A silly joke, but one headed for the mouth of the whale, and Stede tells himself it's about rescuing Ed but somehow he knows it's actually himself. He can almost feel himself becoming less transparent, returning to flesh. A pathetic joke, a source of entertainment for sure. The crew around him laughs. He knows they're laughing at him.

He's wrong, though. Through his silly puppet dancing and the sad mewling and bright, painted smiles masking the incompleteness of the carving below them, Stede has cultivated something. There is a secret garden blooming on the vessel he seeks to reclaim. The man of the hour, the day, the month doesn’t know it, but he is heading towards nabatea, ad meliora.

“Hey, Ivan! I-van!” Ivan looks up at Fang in the crow’s nest, holding a telescope.

“What is it, Fangie?” Fang closes his lips together in a nervous line and hurriedly beckons with his hand.

“Not in front of the others!”

“Why, what don’t you want us to see, capullos?”

“Shit, Jim, you can’t just sneak up on a guy like that.” Ivan rubs the back of his neck nervously. Since the… unfortunate separation of the crew, Jim has taken to stalking the ship like a malevolent forest spirit, and Ivan hates forest spirits. They make his nose ache.

Jim does what Jim is wont to do and twirls their knife threateningly.

“Whatever you tontos del culo have to say to each other you can say to me.”

Ivan has nothing against Jim. He has nothing against the rest of the crew, really. He is loyal to Blackbeard, sure, but he is beginning to suspect that the Captain has gone a bit too far this time, isn’t quite right in the head.

Fang shrugs his shoulders. “Aw, Jim, don’t worry about it, don’t need to get mad at us like that-”

“It’s Stede! It’s the crew!” Frenchie points out at the water and is practically dancing a jig, his voice the loudest stage whisper imaginable. Jim runs to the edge of the ship and strains to see. There they are, all fifty of them, or however many, piled on top of each other in the dinghy, moving about and jostling so much Jim is surprised they haven’t capsized. It is hard to tell them all apart, they are so far away, but Jim sees a hand shoot into the air and stay there, as if to acknowledge that they are being watched. That Stede fucking Bonnet is being watched.

“Fuck!” Jim growls.

“Fuck yeah!” Frenchie cheers as quietly as he can manage, fist pumping the air.

“Oh god, here we go again.” That’s Ivan.

“Oh man, Izzy is gonna be so mad,” Fang starts the climb down from the crow’s nest, hunching his shoulders like the world’s most resigned teddy bear. What he doesn’t say is how happy everyone else will be to have them all back.

Jim whips around and points the dagger at Ivan’s face.

“You’d better let them board,” they say through clenched teeth. Ivan lifts his hands up in surrender.

“I don’t have no beef with any of that lot, but it’s Captain and Izzy that call the shots around here, you know that.”

“Hey! Do you think he can fix him? Blackbeard? Make things nice again?” Fang huffs as he continues his climb down.

Ivan looks at Fang. He turns back to Jim. Then he gives a side-eye to Frenchie. Finally, he rests his palms on the edge of the ship and sighs.

“Aw, hell.”

***

Izzy. He looks at his own reflection in the knife he’s holding. Izzy. Fuck. Fuck. Maybe that’s been the problem all along. Maybe that’s why I don’t get the respect I deserve. Couldn’t be Israel, no, had to go with a cute nickname. Fucking Fang has a scarier nickname than I do, and he’s jolly as a fucking creampuff. Izzy Hands is, to no one’s surprise, brooding. His toe hurts. Well, the place where the toe would have been if he hadn’t shat out said toe three days ago hurts. That was an unpleasant experience, but it was the kind of unpleasant experience that happens to be quite pleasant for Izzy- uh, Israel.

For a moment, he casts a pensive look up at the ceiling above the bunk where he is sitting.

Is that fucked up? Is it fucked up that I take pleasure from being abused? Isn’t it possible that this pleasure-from-pain experience is linked to some form of childhood traum-

Frenchie, master of subterfuge and distraction, bursts into the room, and Izzy loses that train of thought forever.

“Izzy! Izzyyyyyy,” Frenchie holds out both hands palms up like he’s about to ask a huge favor.

“What the fuck do you want?”

“You know, um, I’ve just been thinking about what a hard worker you are and all, and I just wanted to come down here and thank you-”

“What. did. you. do?” There are so many clenched teeth on this vessel that they might have to bring a dentist on board.

“Oh, nothing! Nothing. I just know you’ve been down, ‘cause of… the foot? You know?” Frenchie widens his eyes above his obviously nervous smile and sort of thrusts his hands towards the foot as if to say, that’s definitely a thing that exists in this location.

“My foot is fine. What are you trying to do?” Izzy gets up off his bunk and starts limping forward.

“No!” Frenchie throws out his hands again. “No, don’t move! There’s no need to move at all! Just stay there-”

“Get out of my way,” Izzy sticks out an arm to shove Frenchie aside, whose mind instantly goes white as a clap of lightning as his instinct kicks in.

He does what he has to do. He stomps on Izzy’s injured foot as hard as he can.

“Aaaaughhhh! You fucking-”

“Sorry! Sorry, it was an accident! Why don’t you just-” The knife comes out and Izzy lunges at Frenchie, who quickly evades it and backs towards the door.

“No need for that, really,” Frenchie whimpers with a hint of hysteria, quickly casting an eye towards the Lair of the Kraken, which is really where Stede used to sleep but Frenchie doesn’t think he’d appreciate it much right now. Oh, he’s gonna be so pissed. Please don’t hear, please don’t hear.

“I will flay you alive, you-” as Izzy hobbles towards Frenchie menacingly, Frenchie has a choice to make. He can return to the deck, or brave the Lair. Thankfully his self-preservation kicks in and he books it towards his friends, turning around to blow an ultra-mature raspberry.

***

Stede had been the first to board. He had expected a wave of raging hot ire to descend upon him. He wanted to take the brunt of it. It was his fault, after all. The pain between him and Ed was like an invisible line of fire that linked them in their pain and misery, burning anyone who haplessly stumbled into its path. Stede expected a sword to the gut, and wasn’t afraid, because he knew he wouldn’t feel it above the white-hot burning that was already there.

Instead of the sword, he had been offered a friendly hand by Ivan and was asked to wait patiently so the others could follow him. Thus Stede sees the first hints of his garden, in flore, as he raises his head in greetings to Jim while Fang claps a happy hand on his shoulder.

Now he stands awkwardly by the ladder, welcoming his family home.

“There you go, welcome back Buttons, Olivia-”

“It’s good to be aboard, cap’n.”

“Watch your step, Oluwande, there you go, see there’s Jim right there, safe and sound, off you two go… Up and at ‘em, Black Pete! I haven’t seen Lucius yet but I’m sure he’s around here somewhere. No, Roach, I don’t know if anyone messed with your good knives. Swede, yes, maybe stand over there and dust yourself off a little, you’re covered in- Hurry it up, Wee John, we have a ship to take! No, I don’t know where Frenchie is but apparently he’s safe.”

Stede begins to try on his captain persona again, to be who these people need him to be, to be the man who reads them stories and encourages them. To begin the performance. But God, he’s tired of the performance. He needs to be himself, to demand to be accepted as himself, because he can’t live in this weird performative skin anymore. He just can’t.

But the crew can’t read his mind, and therefore Fang grabs him around the shoulders.

“Captain, you gotta help us. You gotta talk some sense into him!”

“Who, Izzy? That probably won’t work.”

“No! Blackbeard! He’s making it miserable for everyone! Fix him!”

“I’m sure it’s fine, Fang, just take care of the crew. I’ll make things right.” Stede suddenly realizes that throughout this conversation there has been a mounting roaring sound, getting louder and louder until he stands up straight to figure out its source. Not two seconds later he becomes enlightened, as Frenchie runs out onto the deck followed by a mad, spitting, angry ferret.

“Hi Captain! Sorry Captain!” Frenchie bolts straight past him like a World War I soldier trying to outrun a frag grenade.

The ferret stops when he hits the deck and the roaring is cut off in a wet sputter of rage.

“You.” Izzy the ferret waves his knife in Stede’s general direction. “How the fuck did you get on my ship?”

“I climbed the ladder, dickhead! Let me talk to Ed!”

He needs this to be over with. He can only hold onto the adrenaline for so long.

“I’ll slit your fucking throat-”

“Qué cabrón!” Izzy is interrupted by Jim, who smashes their boot into his hand and sends the dagger flying.

“Aaaugh, you-” Fang tackles Izzy to the ground with a crunch.

“Sorry, Iz. I mean, I’m a little sorry, honest, but not too sorry.” Ivan sort of dances around his apology as he stuffs a gag in Izzy’s mouth before reaching up to take a coil of rope from Frenchie.

“Wow. So much for loyalty.” Black Pete has his arms crossed and his eyebrows raised.

“We’re pirates!”

“Okay, okay! I’ve just never watched a mutiny from this end.”

Watching Izzy struggle in vain sends an initial wave of relief through Stede’s torso. It was so easy. They did it for me. They want me back, they love me.

Killing with kindness actually works. Stede isn’t a fucking lunatic.

This relief lasts only a few moments however, as the door to the deck bursts open. A thunderclap hit’s Stede’s heart. This is him, isn't it? A dark wave flowing out onto the floor of the deck. A black cloud. A trio of tentacles grasping towards Stede's neck.

“Izzy, what the fuck is the fucking commotion up here-”

And there he is. The love of Stede’s life, drunkenly staggering onto the deck. He’s swaying a bit as he takes the last few gulps of what has to be his third bottle of rum. Stede's breath catches in his throat as Ed looks him dead in the eyes. The bottle of rum just hovers there.

And in seeing that kohl-smeared, inebriated Demon King, something drops from the top of Stede’s brain down to the floor, only to curl upon itself and rise through his legs and up through his arm and shoot out of the top of his head like a geyser, a mélange of adrenaline, courage, and wanting. His shoulders straighten. His chin rises a couple of inches. Stede Bonnet looks Edward Teach dead in the eyes as everything else threatens to roll right out of his body and crash upon the deck.

“You. You and I need to have a talk.”

Death it is.

He expects Ed to throw the bottle at his head. He expects Ed to rage and challenge him to a duel. He expects Ed to take out his pistol and shoot a hole through Stede’s torso. He expects Ed to throw a knife at his face. He expects Ed to collapse onto his knees, tears streaming down his face. He expects Ed to stride forward and bend Stede backwards in a kiss.

Instead he hears the groans of the crew as Ed pitches forward and spews three bottles of rum onto the deck.

Stede sighs.

“I guess I just have that effect on people.”

Romance is dead. It will happen the hard way.

Chapter 4

#Our Flag Means Death #ofmd #ofmd fanfic #our flag means death fanfic #blackbonnet #gentlebeard #stede x ed #cross posted on ao3 #ellie golden age #stede bonnet #ellie tn

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