#curse is a curse

[adzeisval]

A Curse is a Curse

Chapter Three: What is real and what is not.

Izzy tries to figure out a way to tell when he's dreaming.

Also on AO3. Chapter one is here, and two is here.

Izzy was going to try to break the bracelet off again once the day’s raid was done. There had to be a way that wasn’t chopping his own hand off. Nothing seemed to be able to cut through or break the metal, Izzy couldn’t get it off his wrist no mater how much he bent his fingers almost to the point of dislocating or breaking them. 

If the bracelet stayed on he was going to go mad. 

No matter how drunk he got, no matter what he tried he would dream every night. And they were horrible dreams, and they felt so real. Ed died in most of the dreams. The crew did too. They lingered all day. 

“We’re approaching the next target Captain,” Izzy said as he entered the cabin. Izzy could smell the booze and Ed looked like shit, a bad night then. Izzy would have to keep a close eye on him during the raid. 

Luckily the merchant ship wasn’t well armed and fell quickly. Another ship down. Many, many more to go. Ed didn’t seem to be in a good mood even with the successful raid and Izzy didn’t know what to do. 

He didn’t know what to do about any of it. Ed was hurting and miserable and Izzy didn’t know what to do. 

“Is there anything you need, Captain?” 

“You were a little too close during the raid.” 

“Sorry,” Izzy said. He wasn’t sure where Ed was going with it but feeling like it wasn’t going to be a good thing. 

“I’m just so tired,” Ed said. 

Izzy tried to think of what to say that would make Ed feel better or at least not go off and drink himself near death. He didn’t know. He was a fucking idiot when it came to this. 

As Izzy tried to think of something Ed suddenly pulled out a pistol and Izzy knew he was going to use it on himself. 

“Eddie no!” Izzy lunged for the gun and tried to pull the gun away. He didn’t know if Ed was really going to do it or if the gun was even loaded but he wasn’t going to risk it. He couldn’t…

The gun fired. 

Izzy knew he didn’t have to worry about Ed. He knew because of the searing pain in his chest, knew because he could already taste blood at the back of his throat. Izzy felt dizzy and weak and fell to his knees. He put his hands to his chest as he gasped for air. 

Fuck. Oh fuck. 

He looked up at Ed who stared down at him with a blank look on his face. Izzy slumped over onto his side while Ed remained motionless. Izzy didn’t have the strength to speak and wasn’t even sure what he would say. 

Izzy’s blood spread out onto the floor as the world around him went cold and dim. He’d failed everything and he was out of time to make things right. 

Izzy cried out and ran his hands over his chest. Nothing. A nightmare. Fuck that wasn’t real. It felt so real. He was certain he was awake. It felt like he was awake. It felt like he had been shot. He had truly felt like he was dying. 

If the dreams were getting so realistic how the fuck was he supposed to know if he was still awake? The pain had been so real, everything had been so real. He looked at his hand with the bracelet on it and thought about chopping it off to get the fucking thing off. 

It was stupid. There was no such thing as magic or curses but he couldn't deny that what was happening had to do with the bracelet. 

Izzy didn’t know what to do.

“This is happening, think about it practically,” Izzy said. The first problem was the fact that he couldn’t tell the difference between reality and dreams. He had to figure that out first or else there would be no way to figure out what the dreams meant or what they were trying to do. 

“How the fuck to I figure out when I’m dreaming and when I’m awake?” 

There had to be something he could do, some simple thing that would let him know. Then maybe he could experiment a bit in the dreams without having real world repercussions. Or if he was annoyed enough he could just go off in one of the dreams and then get back to business. 

The next dream, at least the next possible dream, he went around to the crew and asked if they could see the bracelet he was wearing. He knew for certain that they couldn’t see it in real life and fuck him they couldn’t see it in the dream either. That dream ended with Ed crashing them into a sandbar and they all died. 

The dream after that he looked for some sort of tell in the crew and Ed. Some detail that was wrong or out of place. A tattoo missing, a haircut years old, something they wouldn’t likely say or do in real life. None of those seemed to work and the Revenge went down in a storm. 

Real life didn’t seem real. Raid after raid during the day, the horrible dreams at night. Izzy thought he might be going mad. 

Another dream and he just wanted to get it over with. He almost felt like just staring at the sun the whole time and…wait…fuck…wait just a fucking minute! Izzy did end up staring at the sun because he realized that it didn’t move. The clouds didn’t move. There was a breeze he could feel but the sky never changed. Or rather didn’t change like it should. He thought back to the dream before when the ship sunk in a storm and he couldn't remember seeing the storm coming. It was just suddenly there. 

“The fucking weather,” Izzy said. Well it was fucking stupid but it was a start.

[serial-unaliver]

me: lmaoo my mom really thinks a few salty crackers and ginger ale will cure my nausea

me 2 minutes after ginger ale and crackers, no longer nauseous:

[sadclowncentral]

nearly had a medical emergency today because - and i cannot stress enough how little i am making this up - a helicopter landed in front of an open grain silo while i was getting off my ship and i am deathly allergic to the wheat that said helicopters rotor blades proceeded to blast in my face at full force. the cosmic forces are plotting against me ass situation to be in

[valtsv]

SEETHING rn because when i was getting ready to go out my housemate saw my platform boots and told me "watch out for low-hanging branches" thinking he was being sooooooo funny and guess what i walked straight into on my way into town. well why don't you just fucking guess.

[greseadraws]

dungeon meshi but they end up in the back rooms, a cursed idea that was eating away at my brain

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[starridge]

from the same six hour drawing session where i devolved into hyperfixation-based madness

[churroach]

Full of Desires

[lazylittledragon]

can't believe we're all adults being forced into the club penguin level of censorship in 2024

[bluenightcomedies]

[k-eke]

Cursed cats!

[adzeisval]

A Curse is a Curse

Chapter One: The Cursed Bangles. Also on AO3.

Ed stumbles upon some cursed bangles that are supposed to give you want you deserve. They don't seem to work. Meanwhile Stede and Izzy find one of said bangles and start having nightmares. Can they figure it all out in time to save Ed?

Ed noticed two of the merchant ship crew running down into the hold with looks of determination, not terror, on their faces. Intriguing. There was something good down in the hold then and Ed gave chase to find out what it was before the merchants could destroy or hide whatever it was. 

The two merchants were in a small room in the hold whispering furiously about some sort of box. Ed let them dig about the room; he wanted to know what they were looking for. 

“What have you got there?” he asked when they finally found what they were looking for. They jumped and cursed and almost dropped the small box. 

“B…Blackbeard…” one of them managed. 

“Yep, that’s me. So what is that and why are you so desperate to get it? Valuable?” 

“Cursed,” Both men said. 

Ed scoffed, “Sure…” 

“No, truly. We were going to drop them into the ocean they…they’re supposed to give you what you deserve but all it seems to do is drive those around you mad.” 

“Fascinating. I’ll be taking those,” Ed said. He didn’t really believe in curses or magic or any of that but it was an interesting thought. The two merchants looked at each other and neither made the move to give the box to Ed. He pulled out his pistol, “Hand them over.” 

“You’re going to kill us anyway,” one man said. 

“If you give me the box, I’ll make it quick,” Ed said. One of the men handed the box over. 

Later, when the raid was done and they were back on the Revenge, Ed went to the Captain’s Cabin with the box to see the cursed item. He opened the box and found three no wait there were only two bangles inside. Odd. Ed could have sworn there were three when he first looked in the box. 

They didn’t look like much, maybe silver but not good quality with no markings on them. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to get any sort of good coin for them and they were too ugly to wear. 

“Cursed my ass,” Ed said and picked them up, “So you’re supposed to give me what I deserve are you? Well I’d appreciate it if you'd get on with it.” 

What he wanted and what he deserved were the same thing and he wanted it all to be over. He thought it might be nice to have a curse do the job for him so he didn’t have to wait for Izzy or the crew to do him in. Or wait until he broke Ned Low’s record and tempted that particular end to come for him. He’d rather have it done sooner than that. 

“You know what I deserve so give it to me,” Ed said. Nothing happened of course because curses weren’t real and Ed dumped the bangles back in the box and shoved them away. He reached for a bottle of rum and spent the next several hours getting too drunk to care about anything. 

In the morning when Izzy came to report their approach to the next target he’d all but forgotten about the bangles so he did not notice that they were gone. 

*****

Izzy woke up and groaned. A raid a day was already starting to wear on him and he didn’t know how much longer Ed was going to keep it up. To break Ned Low’s record, it wasn’t impossible but it was insane. Of course Ed would be the one able to pull it of if he set his mind to it and he seemed absolutely set on it. 

Ed seemed set on other things too. Izzy tried not to think about that or his part in the current situation, or at least tried not to dwell on it to the point it would put the crew in danger. 

Izzy didn’t really know what to do, how to fix things, but he was going to try to keep everyone alive and safe. 

Izzy stretched and dressed and only winced a little as he put his boot over the still tender stump where his pinky toe had been. When he reached for his comb his hand hit something strange and he looked down to see a silver bracelet of some sort that had not been there the night before. He looked around his room for signs that someone had been there the night before. Had Ed been in the room? Izzy didn’t think he could sleep through his door opening, not anymore, but he wasn’t certain. 

Izzy picked up the bracelet and had the sudden urge to put it on. He put it down and stared at it again. The desire to put it on continued. 

“Fuck it,” Izzy said and put the stupid thing on. Nothing happened. Nothing had happened or was going to happen. Izzy went to pull the bracelet off. It wouldn’t come off. It was almost as if had shrunk around his wrist. 

“Fuck.” 

He’d have to deal with it later, he needed to make sure everyone and everything was ready for the coming raid. He’d cut the fucking thing off later. He only wished he put it on his right wrist and not his left. He’d just yell at whoever noticed it first and hopefully that would be the end of it. 

He went to inform Ed and the man didn’t say anything about the bracelet. Maybe it hadn’t come from Ed. No one else would dare go into his room would they? No one said anything about the bracelet, no one even seemed to notice it. 

Izzy felt like he might be going a bit crazy and made several attempts to get the crew to notice and say something but nothing happened. 

Once the raid was over Izzy spent the next several hours trying to cut the bracelet off with no luck. 

“What is this fucking thing,” Izzy said. Izzy didn’t believe in magic or curses or anything like that but there was something about the bracelet that was…just not right. Well he couldn’t fucking do anything about it and it was getting late. Maybe something would come to him in a dream. 

“Fucking stupid,” Izzy mumbled. 

*****

Stede cleaned up his fifth broken bottle of the night with a sigh. And it had only gotten busy and Jackie’s for a few minutes. It was going to be one of those nights and most nights were one of those nights. 

But his crew was safe, they had a place to be, and he would get back to Ed one way or another. He could deal with a few more broken bottles. 

“Olu…” 

“You know they aren’t on the house, not last night not tonight,” Olu said. 

“Ugh I know,” Stede said. Things were…they were alright. Things would be alright and he would be able to get to Ed and he just knew it would all end up alright. 

Stede went to clean off another table and found a silver bracelet, bangle sort of thing laying on top of the table. 

“Odd.” 

No one else had picked it up, which was strange in a bar full of pirates. Stede picked it up looking around as she did. No one saw him or looked at him. Very strange. He felt like putting it on right away but slipped it in his pocket for the moment. If no one claimed it he would put it in the money jar and it could bring him one step closer to getting to Ed. 

For the rest of the night he had the urge to reach into his pocket and pull out the bangle and put it on. At the end of the night as he lay down to sleep he put it on. It was a rather ugly thing but it felt good to have it on for a moment. 

“A bit crazy,” Stede said. He went to remove the bangle and it wouldn’t come off. He tried again and again and it looked like the thing had shrunk around his wrist in the few minutes it was there. 

It didn’t make any sense at all. He spent a few more moments trying to get it off but he really needed to get to sleep. Maybe he would dream up a solution. 

[barkeroodle]

… I just needed an excuse to draw cursed cat Alastor before it dies out

[beebfreeb]

[cicadaart]

I can’t get him out of my head