#but i have way more actually written for izzy most of ed's is just vaguely plotted

[fist-amidst-the-hands]

almost forgot it’s wip wednesday (oops) but hey at least I actually got the right day of the week this time

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Izzy wakes with a start to someone whisper-shouting his name. Not just someone, he thinks through the quick-lifting haze of sleep, Edward. Only Edward calls him Iz. Edward, who was still downing rum by the bottle on deck with Jack when Izzy finally retreated to his quarters. That had to be what, hours ago at least? Izzy groans and turns away from the harsh sound.

“Iz! Izzy, where are you?” Izzy contemplates playing off his initial response as shifting in his sleep but abandons that idea pretty quickly, given that Edward would probably just come wake up him anyway. Better to get on with it… Izzy stealthily hops off his bed, closing the distance between them in a few short strides. “Fuck I can’t see anything!”

“I’m right here.” His quiet delivery gives the exact intended response, which of course is Edward nearly jumping out of his skin and launching into one of his (completely not endearing) nervous rambles.

[bookshelfdreams]

📒

I say this flattered and with nothing but affection but I have never had that many ideas in my life 😅🙈

But okay. You'll get the one that is more than just a vague concept, in that I have actually written some words for it (even though it'll never be finished). Contains: Ghosts and blackbonnet. Also cw for mention of suicide.

So imagine this: Ed is a world-famous author of horror novels. He's a gothic icon, got famous as more of a storyteller (he used to do live events that were half readings, half theatre performances; used to pull all sorts of tricks to make it seem like the venue was actually haunted. To this day, people who are into parascience cite his shows as evidence that ghosts are real). But lately - well, he's not been feeling it. His readings are boring now; he still does them sometimes, big live events, but he's no longer allowed to genuinely scare the shit out of his audiences. And he hasn't done one in years anyway. He sold movie rights a couple of times, and what Hollywood produced made his skin crawl but not in the fun way.

His manager is always on his ass about doing shows, doing more pr (Izzy keeps scheduling interviews for him where he just knows he'll be asked idiotic questions about his "heritage", and "There sure are a lot of queer characters in you novels, Mr Teach", and honestly just thinking about those makes him want to hang himself in front of Izzy. A little.), about how his writing needs to be "more mass compatible". All Ed wants to do is write weird, avantgarde, creepy bullshit. But he can't even do that because he's been having writer's block for months.

Sometimes it feels like he never knew how to write at all.

And then there's footsteps in his attic.

Ed spent the last few hours laying on his couch, staring at the TV; he'd turned the sound off at a commercial block and didn't bother to turn it back on.

Which is how he's able to hear the steps, slow, deliberate, heavy, like the world's most inconsiderate upstairs neighbours is testing their new wooden clogs at 11:30 at night.

Problem: Ed lives alone in his house, the attic is his workspace and there's no one in there.

This one incident could have been chalked up to Ed being mostly asleep, but things keep happening. His half-full glass of really nice brandy spilled with no one in the room. The laces of his boots tied together for some reason. Cabinets left open when he knows he closed them. Etc. Honestly not the most imaginative stuff.

And then there's the dreams.

Ed keeps having vivid, detailed dreams. In them he's in a body that's not his and that he has never seen, and keeps living out scenarios from a life entirely foreign to him, but everything feels so real. It gets to a point where his waking hours sometimes feel like they're the dreams.

In short: Ed is definitely being haunted. By ghost!Stede, of course.

Now Stede, in this scenario, owns a used bookstore. Or well, it's more of an antiquity store that has some books too. Or, if we're being completely honest: Mary threatened divorce if Stede kept cluttering up their house with his "collections", and this is becoming a serious problem, Stede, and where do you even find all this stuff? What on earth makes you think a fucking - chicken skeleton is appropriate kitchen decor?? (It's a pheasant, actually, and it's from 1875!)

Long story short, it got a bit heated (Mary did most of the shouting, and also the word hoarder was used which Stede thinks, is entirely unfair), and Stede agreed to put things into storage.

Mary divorced him anyway.

Which, all things considered, was probably for the best.

And now that he had all his books and little oddities inventoried and neatly packed away, it occurred to him that it really was a shame to keep all this fascinating stuff in a storage unit to collect dust. Wouldn't it be fun to be a shop owner? That way there'd be some turnover and he could keep collecting stuff without it ever running out of space!

He ended up renting out a little store in the old town, called it "Revenge: Books and Antiquities" even though it's more his own personal Wunderkammer. And also, he doesn't know the forst thing about running a store, but that's what employees are for, right? Haha.

(a/n: if I were the kind of person who makes pinterest boards there would be so many for Stede's shop. I see it before me and it's the coolest.)

But the Something Happens. I'm not sure what - a robbery gone wrong. An accident. The horrible part of me says, botched suicide. And Stede ends up in a coma.

So that's the setup. Half is Ed trying to answer questions like: a) Are ghosts real? b) If yes, how do I get him to stop haunting my ass c) Or maybe, I should find out who the ghost is. The ghost never leaves me, always has my back. I can rely on the ghost. This relationship is getting intimate. The ghost has seen me cry. I can tell the ghost things I have never told to anyone, and trust that I won't be judged or that my secrets will be held against me. Maybe the ghost is the best friend I ever had. d) Is the ghost single?

While Stede is trapped in an inbetween-state, not quite alive, not yet dead, slowly forgetting everything: his parents voices, his children's faces. Forgetting what it was like to be alive, to have a body, to move through the world a physical entity. The longer he stays like this, the less he becomes, and maybe that's better, maybe if he waits long enough he can just disappear.

Maybe if he forgets he ever was a person at all, that won't be so bad.

But there's Ed, who speaks to him like he is real, and Stede isn't sure anyone ever has, not even when he was fully alive.

So. It's all very aesthetic, very vibes-based, with little actual substance and I'm probably never gonna write it but I like thinking about it :)

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

hi!!! i made this post on a whim and stuck it in the blackhands tag bc i was kinda hoping people would be open to talk abt it, and now that i've gone to bed and woken up and sat in a car for like 5 hours and read the notes and re-read my original post i can see that my tone probably came off more aggressive than i meant it to?? like, im so desensitized by cursing at this point it just feels like sprinkling a little flavor into my sentences, but the "fucking baffled" part probably came off as really rude, especially in written text vs talking out loud. i am genuinely sorry if this post made you bitter, i really wasn't trying to come at anyone for how they interpret the show, i was just saying that some people's interpretations confuse me. which is fine!!! we don't all have to be on the same wavelength. i didn't mean to upset ppl, but if i did that's on me and i apologize

all that aside tho i made this post bc i love this show and i love talking abt this show and i love discussing this show at length, especially with people whose opinions on this show differ from mine, so i do want to respond to the points u brought up.

(fair warning: this gets long)

re: ur first 3 paragraphs. i spent the morning reading + responding to ppls comments on this so i've already talked abt this a bit, but i agree that yes ed is at an emotional low point and exaggerating abt a lot of things in that scene. he is a killer, even tho he doesn't think of himself that way, and he does have relationships that a lot of ppl would consider friendship. but i think when ed uses the word "friend" he's talking abt something more than a friends-with-benefits drinking buddy or a partner-in-crime to watch his back. the way he only refers to calico jack as his "old mate" but calls stede his friend feels significant to me. what exactly ed means by friend is pretty vague and kind of up to interpretation, but to me, when ed says he doesn't have any friends he's saying that he doesn't have anyone he can express vulnerability and insecurity to.

(i also agree that ed isn't rlly a good person. idk if anyone in this show is a "good person." they are... literally all pirates. but being a "good person" isn't rlly the point of this show, imo)

re: calico jack calling izzy sentimental for giving himself up. u say here that izzy "gave himself up to protect ed." im sorry but i uhhhhh genuinely don't know what ur talking abt lol, all izzy did was arrange for jack to lure them to blind man's cove and for the british to ambush the Revenge, and then for calico jack to get ed out of there before the british showed up. when ed didn't get out of there, he convinced badminton that setting the ambush up was enough "service to the crown" that they would hand ed over to him. most british soldiers probably wouldn't have taken that deal, but we know that badminton was so eager to get revenge for his brother that he was alright with letting the legendary blackbeard go so long as he got to see stede dead. but izzy definitely didn't sign an act of grace or anything. izzy didn't "give himself up"

i mean, this is just my opinion, but i don't think jack calling izzy sentimental is rlly proof that ed and izzy are Actually Close. for starters, jack does give the "what kind of pirate has a friend? we're all just in various stages of fucking each other over" line literally seconds later; he considers izzy "sentimental," but still not a friend. and, imo, the reason jack calls izzy sentimental is bc izzy probably had the opportunity to get a huge reward for turning blackbeard in, and bc jack is a huge asshole douchebag who can't keep a crew from mutinying against him, the idea of a first mate not wanting their captain to be captured by the british is sentimental, even tho that's kinda just. the literal job description of a first mate.

re: izzy putting the bows in ed's beard. ur right, that scene wasn't cut for being ooc. but because it didn't end up in the show, i feel kinda weird using it as evidence for the level of intimacy in ed and izzy's relationship in either direction. like, other than "izzy puts bows in ed's beard," we don't actually know how that scene went down. was izzy calmly following his captain's orders? was izzy blushing and stammering? were the two of them laughing about stupid costumes and disguises they've worn in past fuckeries? or was izzy glaring and seething? did ed have to come up with some lie about robbing the boat to get izzy to agree to help him get dressed? did the scene have the same vibe as when izzy couldn't get ed down from the harness in the beginning episode 6? we don't know! and sadly we probably will never know. it could've been something izzy was happy to do, or it could've been an order from his captain that izzy bitched and moaned abt the whole time. who's to say. all we know is that ed had izzy put bows in his beard. considering that ed's ordered izzy to track down some random rich guy who sucked at being a pirate, i feel like this is far from the weirdest thing ed's had izzy do for him.

re: we don't see ed talking to anyone other than izzy and stede. im kinda glad i couldn't make this reply right away, bc i saw this post a few hrs ago and it talks abt how ed's limited social interaction is somewhat by design on both izzy and ed's part. i personally rlly liked the takes ppl had, but my take is basically: ed probably isolates from other pirates for his own safety, and izzy does his best to keep ed isolated

re: ed excitedly dragging izzy around the revenge. yeah, showing someone the things ur excited abt is friend behavior, but izzy is very much not into it. in his defense, the spanish are closing in and izzy isn't aware that ed has a plan, but it's not like we ever see izzy share ed's joy in anything non-pirate related. from the way izzy's demeanor is mostly just weary frustration in episode 4 (up until the outfit swap, at which point he becomes properly pissed off), it makes me feel like this dynamic is pretty standard for them. in general, the vibe i get is that whenever ed shows interest in something that doesn't fit the image of "the legendary blackbeard, bloodthirsty scourge of the seas," izzy tolerates it at best or tries to shut it down at worst.

re: izzy saying he's been taking care of ed for a long time. i have seen. SO many posts (like, so so so fucking many (fair warning if u choose to check out all those links: lotta those posts get Really Long)) talking abt how izzy's whole rant abt "managing your increasingly erratic moods" and "massaging the crew when when they were worried about your judgement" is a massive load of bs. and personally, i'm inclined to agree?? you say we see izzy taking care of ed over and over again, but i rlly don't know what you're referring to. i can't think of a single time izzy provided emotional support for ed before stede leaves, and as for after stede leaves: yeah, izzy is probably the one who got ed the marmalade, but there is no evidence that he helped him build the blanket fort. we don't rlly see how izzy interacts with ed between the end of e9 and the start of e10, so it's hard to say how effective izzy was at dealing with ed's heartbreak depression, but considering ed didn't try to leave the room until after lucius goes in and gives him a free therapy session and starts actually cheering up when the crew all show him support, the conclusion im inclined to draw is that izzy sucks at "managing ed's increasingly erratic moods." if izzy has rlly spent years taking care of ed's emotions, and if ed and izzy have the kind of close intimate history that some fans seem to think they have, surely izzy would've gotten better at cheering ed up by now. the one caveat i suppose is that it seems unlikely that ed's ever experienced THIS level of heartbreak before stede, so izzy probably wasn't ready to handle it. but again, i can't think of any other time in the show where izzy even tries to successfully "manage" ed's mood.

(also, like. i don't rlly see ed's moods as being particularly erratic?? mayyyyybe he's more prone to mood swings before the show starts, but based off of what we see and know from the show, pretty much all ed's moods are like, pretty notmal and consistent reactions to the situations he's put in; the only person who seems to think ed is "insane" or "erratic" is izzy)

re: izzy grabbing fang's beard. i agree with you that izzy's line there is not so much a betrayal of ed's trust as it is izzy's way of trying to intimidate the crew into submission by banking on the reputation of blackbeard. but i feel like this is a pretty clear example of izzy's approach to "massaging the crew," and i... don't think it's an effective method. like, as far as i can tell, fang and ivan seem totally fine to keep following ed when he's relaxing his blackbeard persona and hanging out with the Revenge crew (ivan says ed's "open and available" in a way that makes it seem like he finds this to be a good thing, and fang was excited by the talent show and seems to be drinking a lot in the background once ed goes Full Kraken). izzy's management style is not as great as he seems to think it is. and because this casts izzy's claim of "massaging the crew" into doubt, it puts that whooole speech into doubt.

re: izzy and ed being casual around each other. i mean, a first mate is gonna spend a lot of time hanging around their captain. on a boat, which is kinda a very isolated and cramped environment. you're gonna get to a certain level of casual griping at each other. i don't really see this as evidence of an emotionally close relationship, just a comfortable one. which, after so many years of working together, of course they have that.

re: ur last paragraph. ok but like. izzy doesn't just say "im not friends with you anymore." izzy quite literally threatens ed's life. he insults ed's masculinity by calling him a namby pamby in a silk gown and tells edward to watch his back. he makes it clear to ed that unless he goes back to his old ways, ed is in danger. and again, by ed's definition of friendship, izzy and him already aren't friends (maybe never were). ed already knew that izzy didn't like when he did things that didn't align with the fearsome image of blackbeard. izzy being mad at him for singing songs and putting on a talent show probably isn't a surprise to him.

and for what it's worth, i don't think ed going full kraken is him being "pushed over the edge" into some kind of emotional breakdown. ed already had the emotional breakdown; he built a whole pillow fort over it! the way ed behaves, donning blackbeard once again and calmly going about putting izzy in his place—there's like, no emotion there. he's not angry. he's not erratic. he's fully in control of himself, and he's making these decisions for a reason.

more importantly tho, i don't think that reason actually comes from that convo with izzy, at least not entirely. i don't think that conversation is enough to "push him over the edge" on its own (he was fine with izzy leaving from the Revenge after the duel with stede, wasn't he? he smiled through izzy's very colorful resignation). ed's just been abandoned by the only person we see him refer to as a friend in the entire show; he's shown stede the squishy vulnerable part of himself that everyone else has rejected, he's thrown away everything to be with stede, and as far as he's aware, stede saw more of ed teach than anyone has in decades and decided he didn't want it. he's been abandoned for being himself. and when he goes back to the crew and sings his song and starts recovering from that heartbreak he's suffered, izzy comes at him and threatens his life. and if what you meant was that this conversation is the final straw for ed, i don't really agree with that either! bc in that scene, right after ed leaves, we hear the crew call out for ed. for eddie. and that is the moment that ed—still heartbroken from stede, freshly reeling from izzy—decides to retreat back into blackbeard.

these posts go into it so, so well, better than i could (and they're a shorter read than all those other posts i linked before). to borrow some quotes:

And we also seem to be agreed that this is sparked because the crew shout "Hey Ed, sing us another song!" and start chanting his name, and this hearkens back to "Play something for us, Jeff." They're a fickle crowd.

#connecting that with what happened at the dinner party #and the social anxiety trauma from that ... There's a connection there, with him not being able to read the situation correctly when he was out of his element and probably now thinking "is this the same?"

And finally, the crew. This crew stuttered in fear when they met him. This crew couldn't stop calling him sir and hung on his every word. They believed in the reputation of Blackbeard, and they feared and respected it. And yet so quickly, when he showed softness, that fear vanished. They rushed to call him by his given name and make demands of him. They saw him vulnerable and they stopped treating him as a captain. Ed can't count on his crew.

(oouohg baby that last quote is from the 2nd post i listed and god it's one of my favorite fucking metas. christ.)

aaaand last but not least!!! re: why would either of them do what they do if they didn’t have a close relationship. (this was in the middle of your post but i saved it for the end bc it felt like a good jumping off point for me to basically elaborate on the stance i made in my original post. bc that one sentence doesn't fully convey my interpretation of these characters)

so for starters. i dont exactly know what specifically u mean by "do what they do," but im gonna guess u mean like, ed telling izzy to stay at the end of episode 4, izzy challenging stede to a duel, izzy going to jackie and the british to try and get ed back, ed immediately asking for izzy to chat when he gets back from the pirate naval academy, and so on. so! Why Are Ed and Izzy Like That:

again, this is just my interpretation, and a lot of the details i could probably be persuaded against, but the reason i would give for Why They're Like That is that once upon a time, ed genuinely had a blast being blackbeard, and he and izzy got along much better. they had each other's backs in raids, probably saved each other's lives more than once, but they also probably didn't know each other very well outside of piracy. as ed got more bored, he would try and express interest in other things, but izzy wasn't bored yet. izzy was ecstatic to be number 2 for the biggest baddest guy around and he didn't want that to end.

that last part i'm pretty much 100% sure abt; when izzy talks abt managing the crew and ed's mood swings, the reason he gives is that he was honored to work for the legendary blackbeard. not that ed was his friend, or that he cared abt ed, or that he and ed had been through it all together, or that he helped build ed's legacy. he's honored to work for blackbeard. this, in my mind, answers the izzy half of Why Do They Do That. i feel like a lot of ppl consider loyalty to a legend to be unrealistic, that izzy must have deeper feelings than just hero worship to do the things he does for ed. but like, the secret service isn't willing to jump in front of a bullet for joe biden, they're willing to jump in front of a bullet for the president of the united states. dedicating your life, risking and giving your life, to an idea that's bigger than the man that stands behind it... that's literally a thing that ppl do irl all the time. blackbeard is izzy's potus, basically, and he doesn't want that legend to die. he would rather kill ed than let that happen. it would be a betrayal of everything izzy has worshiped and worked towards for the past however many years.

as for ed's side of Why Do They Do That: Divorce Era for Pirates Who Never Even Dated. im gonna be real the only things ed's done that i can think of that could arguably imply a deep emotional connection w izzy are 1. try and include izzy in his excitement abt stede's ship, 2. tell izzy to stay after the lighthouse fuckery, and 3. immediately asking izzy to bring him tea when he gets back from the pirate academy. so, here's why i think ed did those things:

including izzy in his excitement abt stede's ship. like you said before, we don't really see ed interact that much with a lot of characters, and there is a level of comfortable casualness between ed and izzy that ed doesn't seem to have with a lot of characters. i've admitted that ed trying to include izzy in his excitement is friend behavior, but i've also said that ed's definition of friendship seems to be more like. intense. or vulnerable, i guess. like i said, i think this is probably not the first time ed has tried to chat with izzy abt things other than Being Pirates, but i don't think they were ever met with much enthusiasm. i think the reason that ed still tries tho is bc izzy is one of the only ppl ed like, regularly talks to. so i feel like even tho ed knows he's not gonna get the response he wants, he's still going to talk to izzy when he's like, giddy with excitement abt this rich guy's weird boat (and ALSO i wanna point out that those scenes seem to be izzy following ed around; i don't think ed was seeking out izzy's company, but while izzy was there nagging him abt the spanish ed was gonna take the opportunity to talk abt how much fun he's having)

telling izzy to stay after the lighthouse fuckery. ok so my interpretation of the whole "murder stede and take his identity" plan seems to differ from most ppl's take on that plot point, which is to say that i actually do think ed planned to kill stede (or have someone else kill stede) and take his identity. i think ed rlly liked stede, but he was still operating in pirate mode, where the only way to get what you want is to take it, and what ed wanted was to retire from piracy and roll around in luxury in the upper class. as for how that progressed to ed signing the act of grace and kissing stede on the beach, that's another post; point is that ed was planning to kill stede, and he did need izzy there for that. if he was gonna hang around this ship and learn to be fancy, he needed his first mate there to have his back.

telling izzy to bring him tea when he returned from the pirate academy. for one thing, we never actually see how ed and izzy interacted while ed was in his depression fort, so it's hard to say how much ed was rlly telling him. his tone when he says "i'll take tea in my room" is pretty quiet, and he does pretty quickly duck out of there without actually meeting anyone's eyes, but like. did ed cry in front of him the way he did with lucius? or did he just order izzy to bring him stuff and brush off any questions izzy had abt what happened while he was gone? did izzy actually ask any questions, or did izzy just start asking ed what the plan was and when they were gonna get moving? did they hang out, or did ed try to get izzy out of there as soon as possible? did izzy try to get out of that room as soon as possible? now that i am typing these questions down i am literally dying to know what actually happened in that room before lucius went in, but i doubt we'll ever get to see that. point is that much like the ribbons in ed's beard scene, we don't rlly know what happened in there, so it's hard to use as evidence either way. (my headcannon, unsurprisingly, is that ed just asked izzy to bring him stuff, brushed off any questions izzy had, and tried to be alone as much as possible. and then he also cried a lot whenever he was alone and only called for izzy (and then lucius) when he wasn't in tears. but that's just headcannon, i'm not gonna try and argue that that's irrefutably what happened)

so yeah. izzy Does All That bc he's obsessed w the idea of blackbeard. ed Does All That bc izzy is the closest thing he has to a friend (but by his own admission he doesn't consider izzy his friend) and has a long history of having ed's back when it comes to pirate shit, even if they aren't emotionally vulnerable the way ed wants (and a quick note abt your line that "'emotionally vulnerable' is Ed’s state of being right now and has for awhile": i... do not agree lmao. ed's been looking for something new, and he's probably tried to reach out and open up to izzy in his own way a few times, but i don't think izzy's been giving ed what he wants. but i don't think ed ever opened up in a way that was truly vulnerable, not until stede, or else he already would've gotten that harsh rejection from izzy that we see in episode 10.)

in conclusion: sorry if i made u mad with my original post. also sorry if i made u mad with this reply!!! it's not my intention to come after ppl who interpret the show differently than i do, all i meant by the original post is that im confused by ppl who interpret the show in that way, not that my interpretation is better or more correct. however i am obsessed with this show and if given the chance i will talk abt why i interpret this show and these characters the way i do. as you can very clearly see, lmao.

anyway literally all of this is just my opinion tho, please do not take me too seriously lmao. im literally just a random bitch obsessed w gay pirates. you and i very clearly disagree abt many things going on w this show, but i don't see that as a bad thing!! if anything, it's kinda cool to me how many ways this show can be read. and like, who knows, maybe season two will give more insight into their relationship and show that there's more between ed and izzy than i currently think, in which case i'll eat my words! as of right now i still don't fully understand the interpretation of them being friends, but at the end of the day that is a me problem.

EDIT: wait also fuck fhjghkdfjhg im gonna answer ur first question even tho u probably meant it rhetorically. yes i've 100% had a moment where my self worth was at rock bottom and i told someone that i ‘didn’t have any friends’ even if there were people that would absolutely consider me a friend. what i would say abt that moment of my life was not that i literally did not have any friends who i could talk to, but that there was nobody in my life (aside from like, my parents) that i felt would make an effort to hang out with me outside of the times when our routines would naturally force us together, like school or clubs or whatever (and also this took place during summer break and i was still to young to drive, so i didn't have school to give me any social interactions and i didn't have a car to get anywhere. this was an incredibly fun period of my life). i feel like this kinda makes my original point stronger, tho? like, i wasn't saying i had no friends, i was saying i didn't have any relationships at the level of intimacy i needed. ed was saying the same exact thing. maybe ed's relationship w izzy could be described as friendship, but it wasn't giving the level of emotional intimacy ed needed. which again, makes me struggle to understand some people's interpretation of ed and izzy's relationship. but again!! that's just me lol

no offense to any fans this applies to but im so fucking baffled by ppl who think ed and izzy have an intimate and emotionally vulnerable history as if ed doesn't literally tell stede he doesn't have any friends