#except Calico Jack

[plantsjustwannahavefun]

Cjizzy for me is like. You know how you come home after a night out completely pissed and all of a sudden you're craving the greasiest, nastiest shit you can get your hands on? And then you find a slice of two day old pizza in your fridge. And it's exactly what you needed. In that moment, nothing else would do. Nothing has ever felt more right. You shove that thing in your mouth like it's your very last meal on this earth and enjoy a few moments of pure, unadulterated bliss before promptly passing out in bed.

The next morning, the very thought of that two day old pizza almost makes you puke. But there's no shame. No regrets. You know it's going to happen again. And you're totally fine with it. Because everything has its time and place, and even when most of the time it might be the last thing on your mind, every once in a while it's the best thing ever.

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Jack and Izzy are literally the not like other girls comics for middle aged men.

Like watch:

❌Likes Parties

❌popular

❌blonde or brunette

❌tan

❌fake boobs

❌listens to Kelly Clarkson

❌only thinks about Sex and Drinking

✅Hates other people

✅loaner

✅dyed hair black

✅pale

✅real boobs

✅listens to mcr

✅yandere, this is very cute and quirky don't think about it too hard

[laceratedlamiaceae]

This is what Izzy and Jack's kid would look like

[temporal-discounting]

OK so you are forced to live out the rest of your days in an alternate universe much like our own except for one change to OFMD.

(See this original post for more deets on each option)

[calamaroo]

CW WARNING FOR GRAPHIC EXPLAINATION OF GRAPHIC IMAGES (no blood, just flesh and descriptive words)

___________________________________________

Calico Jack's missing leg, explained with my headcanons and au:

Calico Jack lost his leg at 20 years old when a kraken attacked the ship he was working on (that young in his life, he moved around from ship to ship doing whatever to earn money)

~~~~~~~

• The kraken's barbed tentacle was what removed his leg, grabbing it, peircing the flesh, and recoiling with enough sudden strength it ripped instead of held

• Calico Jack is very on the fence about his leg. He knows it draws attention - something he doesn't like - but also finds it makes him look brave when he explains his heroic tale of "fighting off a monstrous kraken!" Calico Jack isn't very brave canonically, so I headcanon that since pirates were all about putting on a good show, he brags and boasts about just how awesome he is. In reality, he's cowardly and tries not to let anyone figure this out (despite his fame for it) ----- pretty much everyone knows he's not as macho as he says, but they humor him, understanding that's what makes him feel safe in stressful situations

• as this happens to many/most amputees, Calico Jack has phantom pain, which is when the brain tricks itself into believing that a part of the body that is no longer there is still there, and sends nerve signals for pain, itching, and etc.

---- when it itches, Calico Jack will sometimes comically chew on the stub (like how you gnaw of the palm of your hand when it's itchy, i KNOW im not the only person who does this)

--- when it hurts, he tries to push through and ignore it. When that proves ineffective, he removes the peg and massages it (this is done when he has complete privacy, as he isn't fond of people's starring when they see his mangled stub) ------ Peso has suggested mirror therapy when the pain is too much, but Calico Jack resists, opting to deal with it alone. That's how he's done it for 40 years - it's just always been that way. (Except for rare occasions where he allows his closest friends: Natquik, Marsh, or Kwazii, to assist him)

• his painful phantom pain moments can often be worsened when he has anxious or panic attacks (I hc he has really bad ptsd from his evil pirate days, and it messes with him to varying degrees of severity)

~~~~~~~

That's about it 👍 I love drawing wounds (edge-lord ahh) and coming up with creative backstories for them

[mildy-vibing]

Woe, pirates be upon ye

Alright kiddos, time for my yapping on a kids show, starting with our pirates.

Calico Jack

Loosely based upon the real John "Calico Jack" Rackham interwoven with my personal thoughts and canon. Calico was "partners" with one Anne Bonny (partners is an extremely loose term between them as it was an open secret that Bonny was really in it for her crew mate, Mary Read). Besides that, Calico and Bonny had two kits who later grew up and stayed with the crew. They were known as Elizabeth "Fangs" and William "Terrible Tabby". William so happened to pick up a wife, Louise "Whispers" Reeves. This pairing created our favorite weirdo, Kwazii.

[From left to right] Anne Bonny, Calico Jack, Elizabeth "Fangs", William "Terrible Tabby", Mary Read, Kwazii and Louise "Whispers" Reeves

Getting the family tree over with, they were a particularly infamous and treacherous crew that plundered and captured anything that set sail in the sea. When Calico was 45 and Kwazii 6, operations hit the fan. In a changing ocean, it came to a halt when the Ranger was boarded following a scuffed raid. All except Kwazii were taken prisoner (Kwazii hid and avoided capture).

At this time, the punishment for piracy was, of course, d e a t h. However, to ensure that in the slim chance one did escape the rope, declawing would be performed. The authorities were right to do so, as Calico was able to slip away just before it was his time. He had attempted to break out his crew, only to find Bonny and Read missing and Fangs, Terrible and Whispers long gone. He escaped, finding Kwazii hidden at Port and commandeered another, smaller, ship to sail off with.

It was just the pair of them until Kwazii turned 13. They were on the run and have been unable to rest as long as The Calico Jack was still alive. So, Calico decided to spare Kwazii that fate. He left Kwazii in a fishing village with the story of "I'm going after some of the most dangerous treasure in the Amazon, I need you to stay here and watch yourself while I go."" Sailed out into the sea, taunted some royal ships, made a show of 'dying in a storm' and fell off the face of the earth, allowing "Calico Jack" to die.

He lived in isolation in the Amazon with his parrot and had time to think over everything he'd done. He regretted leaving Kwazii alone but knew it was for the best after what happened to the crew.

Kwazii

We know the story of the goober, but all I can say for MY story is that he came into contact with the Octonauts after trying to steal one of the gups. At the time, there were only three crew members: Inkling, Tweak, and Barnacles. So happened Barnacles was on that gup. What happened is anyone's guess, but the two left the gup, Barnacles covered in scratches and Kwazii soaking wet in sea water, as friends. Kwazii was kept on probation for trying to steal a gup but was allowed to stay on the (then very new and very in development) Octopod. He quickly proved himself to be a very good crew mate and eventually became Lieutenant. Up until finding Calico, everyone believed Kwazii was just a big fan of pirates (except Barnacles who knew of the incident and its details).

Little Bits

- Calico Jack is declawed, meaning he's missing the bone from the final knuckle (fingertips for us). He has golden prosthetics that help him, though they aren't very effective. They're mostly just for show and secondary weaponry.

- Calico is uneasy around Barnacles. Most likely, due to Barnacle's sounding like a British Royal Navy Official. Also, because he's a huge Polar Bear.

- Calico will not allow any doctor of any shape or form examine him (especially Peso). He hides away whenever he is hurt, insisting upon fixing it himself. He still remembers the last time a doctor got near him.

- Checks in with Kwazii frequently now that he has an octowatch. Though this means often getting face timed at 3 a.m., Kwazzi doesn't mind it.

- Has chronic pain in his hands due to the declawing.

- Lost most of his jewelry the first time he was captured, literally broke. He prefers living off the land but will gladly accept any fish biscuits or food Kwazii brings.

- He only wants the best for Kwazii, so when Paani came along, he gladly accepted him into the family. Calico often takes Paani exploring in more remote regions to show him any and all lakes, ponds, and rivers since "you like water, right? I like water too! Here, look at this puddle in the middle of nowhere."

- Calico doesn't smell as bad as one would expect. He smells like citrus and sea breeze. Unlike Kwazii, who smells like he just crawled out of a dentists office.

- Calico has a fear of places with less than 2 exits. He rarely enters the octopod or gups due to this. He always needs an exit in eyesight to feel safe.

Thanks for coming to the yapping session! Have some sketches too

[astro-nautic]

Assorted Octonauts headcanons... Again!

Everything im the octopod is waterproof, EVERYTHING.

Sometimes the vegimals will burry themselves in the ground of the garden pod for fun

^They've scared various crew members half to death many times by doing this

The crew have offered to get a more modern prosthetic for Calico Jack's missing leg but he refused because "Its not the pirate way"

Dashi does the daily wordle

When the Vegimals were first brought on to the octopod Peso was terrified of them for weeks

Whenever the octopod is parked above water or in shallow water Panni will just show up unannounced almost every time

Natquik always carries at least two forms of radio/long range communication on him at all times after being stranded in the antarctic

The vegimals have a little secret nook in the library pod that they sleep in

The octopod has its own unofficial time zone that the crew usually follows just beacuse of how much they move around and thus switch time zones

The crew doesn't drink much caffeine. Except Tweak. She can chug energy drinks like they're nothing

Shellington has alot of allergies and keeps and epipen in his bag at all times

Ranger Marsh is incredibly good at wood work

Selva absolutely loves the garden on the octopod and is very impressed about how the crew got crops to grow so well underwater

Yeah thats I all got for now

[brigdh]

Ed and the mortifying ordeal of being known

Ed does not like revealing his feelings. He is incredibly consistent about lying,

hiding

displacing,

distracting, or just outright denying what he's feeling instead of actually talking about it. This is a consistent pattern of behavior with him. There are a few exceptions – most significantly, I think, the bathtub scene where he confesses to Stede about killing his father – but they are a) rare, and b) occur under unusual circumstances, such as a PTSD flashback. In general Ed goes to great lengths to prevent people from recognizing the truth about him.

I don't really blame Ed for this habit, to be clear. He went through an abusive childhood, and though we don't see a lot of the exact dynamics in baby Ed's house, it's very common for abused children to become hyper vigilant of both their own and others' emotions. It's an attempt to exert some, any control they can over the situation, as though they can prevent setting off the abuser if they just always say and do the right thing.

Ed escaped into piracy, but in terms of talking about his feelings, I don't think it was much of an escape. Piracy in OFMD seems to be a place where the idea of having friends (though not the reality – I'd argue Ed might not use the word 'friend', but has had close relationships) is to be scoffed at. "We're all just in various stages of fucking each other over!" says Calico Jack, and being open about your emotions, plans, hopes, etc would just make it all the easier to be betrayed. On the other hand, lying, obfuscating, or just telling everyone about Plan A and then instead pulling off Plan B makes you look like a double-crossing genius who outthought everyone around you. So I'm not surprised that's Ed's learned to be manipulative and uncommunicative. I don't think he's ever been in a situation where emotional openness wouldn't be a disadvantage.

Regardless of why he does this, it's very clear that it's a pattern of behavior for him. This is one reason why I don't think Sad Robe Ed back in Episode 10 was healing – healing requires addressing and dealing with your feelings, and Ed was very much not doing that. I've already written a whole post going through that episode and laying out how Ed never once mentions Stede, or love, or heartbreak, or anything related to what he's going through, so I'm not going to do it again here. In brief, Ed's putting on a performance of sadness for the crew, but it's a generic, vague sort of sadness, without any connection to his personal, specific pain.

Who finally brings up Stede in Ep 10? It's sure not Ed. Izzy:

Which brings us to Season Two. How is Ed doing now?

He's once again making a performance of his pain, and once again keeping it vague, not letting any of his true, personal hurts be revealed.

These:

Are performances of his pain and sadness, but just like before, they're generic, unspecific. This is "Mad Devil Pyrate Blackbeard", not heartbroken, human Ed. Who is it that brings up the private reality of what's causing this toxic atmosphere? Once again, not Ed. It's Izzy, just like before. And this time he gets shot immediately for saying Stede's name, and Ed doesn't even look at him.

In all three episodes, Ed mentions Stede directly only once, and very pointedly, it's when he's alone:

I'm glad Ed has decided that he wants to live, but that's the beginning of a journey, not the end. What I really want to see in the next couple of episodes is Ed finally, for once, opening up. He doesn't want to be vulnerable, but the lack of emotional intimacy that constantly lying and performing has gotten him is, quite literally, killing him.

Ed can't get over his own, very real pain until he's willing to admit that it exists. I want to see him acknowledge where he hurts. He needs friends. He needs love. He can't get those without being honest.

I hope he does. I hope the show will have him do this work instead of skipping him ahead immediately to the happy ending, no behavioral change required. I think they will. It's kind of their motto, after all: talk it through as a crew.

Now if the co-captains would just follow their own advice...

[fuck-kirk]

THE SEAGULL IS TALKING?

I’ve FINALLY started ofmd I’m on episode 3 !

[daintylovers]

hi love! maybe a Spencer Reid request where reader is obsessed with collecting trinkets, calico critters, and/or sonny angels. He doesn’t understand it until he opens one himself and then gets obsessed too. Maybe it becomes their thing after a bad case/tiring day?

don’t know if you’ll see this but ty if you do <3

aaahhhhh i love sonny angels!!! i used to have a cherry one on my phone case named soda pop- but he got decapitated when i dropped him too many times :(

so, because i am self-indulgent- sonny angels win!

****

he notices one day, the little baby figurine on your desk. it's new, with bunny ears on its head. his first instinct is that it's a toy for jack. but jack comes and goes that day, and the trinket is still in the same spot.

he wants to ask, maybe it slipped your mind, but holds himself back. it's none of his business. except- a few days later- he spots that penelope has one of the things in her lair. and luckily for him, penelope is always eager to share her findings. so he asks.

apparently, they were called "sonny angels"?? she tells him how they are adorable little collectibles that come in hundreds of different variations. and it's a mystery each time.

a few more days pass after that, filled with the angst of a case gone awry. spence had been tense the whole time, the case hitting too close to home. but with you by his side- he felt like he could manage just a little better.

the next day he comes into the office, two coffees in hand. one for him, and one for you. it was his little way of saying thank you for being there for him. he wasn't too great at voicing his feelings, especially the sappy ones. so he liked to stick to acts of service and gift-giving. he placed the coffee on your desk, then made his way over to his corner.

except, this time he had a little gift wrapped package square in the center of his desk. it was shoddily wrapped, and he wondered who it was from. for a brief second, his overactive imagination tried to convince him it was going to be something gruesome. some crazed lunatic dropping off a finger or a miniature bomb. maybe he should lay off the caffeine after all?

but when he saw you trying to subtly watch him from your desk- he knew he was safe. written on the wrapping was a little note saying, "this is for you, stalker. thanks for being an angel."

he unwrapped it as delicately as possible, wanting to save the note for his box of sentiments at home. just because he couldn't voice the feeling well, didn't mean it wasn't there for him. once he finished, one of the little angel babies was looking back at him.

his heart did a stupid little flutter. he had been asking around, partly because he was looking for himself, but also because he was looking for you. he had wanted to get matching ones or something, not really sure how the whole concept worked.

he opened up the box and saw a head of hydrangeas peeking out.

you watched as he pulled the exact one you were hoping he would pull, and couldn't contain yourself any longer.

bounding over to his desk, bouncing on the tips of your toes you said, "hey- where did you get that?"

he matched your cheeky smile, "not sure, maybe pen? she has one of these on her desk too."

"oh, whatever. she told me you were asking around about my little white rabbit over there. so i decided to save you the hassle."

he just laughed with you, "thank you. but seriously, where do you get these?"

"no way, i can't reveal my secrets."

morgan and emily, interested in the commotion from the other side of the room wandered over to the pair of you.

"wait, how come i don't have one of these little guys?"

safe to say, that in the coming weeks, everyone was sporting little sonny angels on their desks.

but spencer and you continued the little tradition. after a tough case, or even just a bad day, whoever was hurting more would receive a little gift.

you- being a tad dramatic, had more bad days than spencer. so he stuck to his coffee-giving habit for you.

while spence tended to rarely show his bad days. but when he did, he knew that the next day, a new angel would appear on his desk.

[maidomaidomaido]

anyways here is my numas as cats and i would also like to write down what color would they be

Sigkin: black bobtail as it is

Bachikin: an orangeish abyssinian cat

Koritora: white toyger

Jack: totally white except for the tail and ears munchkin cat

Otsukin: obviously gray british short hair

Marikin: white with little beige on his paws, tail and ears ragdoll

Axez: grayish burmese cat

fusakin: orange tabby

Syumitaro: silver maine coon

Fukuro: i rather a korat cat so she would be gray

Uie: chartreux so they match fukuro

Arakawa: white scottish fold

Zakuro: black and white kinkalow

Taiyo: white chantilly tiffany

Adukin: calico laperm

Kashikin: average sphynx

Eclair: she was supposed to be a oriental cat!! so she would be a chocolate colored oriental cat

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

ok what do you think every character in ofmd's highest dnd stat is?

Oooh ok let's get going. Ed and Stede are both very long and the others are rather short.

Ed- ok so I think Ed is definitely maxed out in both intelligence and wisdom. I think he's actually got a surprisingly low charisma. He just has expertise in intimidation and proficiency in deception and maybe persuasion. But more likely his player is looking at that persuasion skill and asking can I make an intimidation check instead.

Now if I was playing a d&d game and the assignment was play Ed in d&d I would give him a high charisma because I would stat him out as a lurker of the deep warlock BUT I think in canon where they're all rogues and fighters his charisma is ass.

Stede- Stede's difficult to stat out. I think most of his stats are probably pretty bad but he has the lucky feat. And some other means of making sure he roles well. He's not dexterous, I'm not sure on his strength, his constitution seems middling, his charisma is hard to pin down because everyone initially hates him (implies low) but he frequently wins people over with the power of friendship (implies high) but I'm leaning towards low on charisma because the winning people over is through persistent whimsy rather than true people skills. They become begrudgingly fond of him because he's impossible to get rid of rather than because he's charming is what I'm saying. He's a good problem solved he thinks on his feet and he's got a good insight which makes me think high wis but also every survival check he makes fails in comical ways so maybe this is another situation of his proficiencies tricking me into thinking he's got a higher wis than he does. The one thing he does have going for him is that he's pretty book smart so I have to go with int by process of elimination, but again, maybe strength, that's kinda the dark horse stat for him he doesn't show it but he doesn't fail any strength rolls either. He knocked a guy out with a punch tho so maybe strength. But his defining trait is problem solving so maybe wis? Idk. Not Con Cha or Dex tho those ones are definitely negative modifiers. If I had to guess middling wis, middling but slightly higher int, most of his proficiencies are in int and Wis skills, medium to high strength but he never uses it.

Jim- Dex. I will not elaborate.

Olu- I generally see Olu as the Jack of all trades build. He's a well rounded individual. None of his stats are all that exceptional but he's good to have around because he's got no negative numbers, and can do it all if push comes to shove.

Lucius- Charisma. He's an artist and his most used non-technical skill is being good with people.

Zheng- Charisma. I feel like this doesn't need any explanation.

Archie- fighting your way out of a snake takes grit, not being digested, and quite a few successful checks to not pass out while holding your breath. Constitution.

Frenchie- Frenchie is very cerebral, but not very book smart. That being said artificers are intelligence casters so I'm going with INT.

Pete- strength or con. He's a silly little guy but his mental stats aren't great and he's not giving me dex vibes either. Human fighter build.

Fang- Strength. See him breaking a guy over his leg and him holding onto the side of the ship with the goat in hand for an hour at least so Ned Low wouldn't find them.

Roach- survival and medicine are both Wis skills and historically my DMs have made players role wisdom for cooking checks.

Wee John- Strength but Charisma is definitely second.

Buttons- Druids are Wis casters.

Swede- drank poison. Lived. Con.

Ivan- he wields an Axe which is a strength weapon so probably strength.

Spanish Jackie- Charisma or Dex, but she displays more charisma.

Calico Jack- Charisma definitely.

Anne- Charisma is the one we see her use but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say her Dex is better.

Mary R.- Strength on the Ivan principle. Definitely not charisma

Mary B.- Commoner stat block with proficiency in painters tools

Izzy- Strength. But much like Stede this is a process of elimination. His Constitution is the worst Constitution we see in OFMD (Izzy the spewer), his Charisma is ass (see everything about him) his wisdom is so bad he can't succeed on an insight check to save his fucking life (and his life has depended on it) intelligence is not so good, Dex is good given how often he lurks in the corner unseen and appears places and the thing he does to Stede's shirt in 1.02 but the beginning of the duel with Stede is the most clear instance of a character using a versatile weapon with their strength stat I've ever seen so I think his strength is probably equal to or better than his dex. Also all the things we see him teaching Stede in 2.05 are strength and dex skills so I think that's where his skill set is.

Damn this crew is not a dexy bunch. Jim said "I'm playing an assassin rogue that throws knives" and everyone else said "alright let me not step on your toes then"

[annathefenecfox]

Calico Jack is not a calico cat? (⚠️WARNING: Everything I say is exclusively my opinion and real facts, you have the right not to listen to me and do as you like.⚠️)

I've seen fans draw Calico Jack as a calico cat quite often, but what if I told you that this isn't a logical redesign of the character? What do I mean? I'll tell you now.

First: tricolor male cats exist, but they are much rarer than tricolor female cats. This is due to genetics: males have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes. To be tricolored, male cats must have a specific genetic configuration, such as Klinefelter syndrome (the presence of an extra X chromosome) or mosaicism (when the cells of the body have different genetic information). Such male cats, as a rule, are infertile due to their mutation. Exceptions are even rarer: about once in ten thousand. At the same time, there is a high risk that kittens will have health problems. That is, if we follow this logic, then there would be no Kwazii.

Second: So why is his name Calico Jack? His name is a reference to John Rackham, an English pirate captain who operated in the Bahamas and Cuba in the early 18th century. His nickname came from the calico clothes he wore, while Jack is a nickname from "John".

I hope you understand me.

[cobra-creampuff]

I uh. I forgot to reblog the "who do you think is in this scene NOW" poll so it only got paltry votes, and then I thought hey. It would be fun to run this after every non-backstory chapter. For me. So that's what I'm gonna do.

READ CHAPTER I.V. HERE IF YOU MISSED IT

[calamaroo]

OctoDads my beloved (I will make more drawings of them in future, school is just keeping me busy)

To start, I'd like to say that this drawing WAS intended as ship art, as I do like the idea of all three of them (Calico Jack, Natquik, and Marsh) as silly old man yaoi

BUT, I also like the idea of them as just pals, so take it however you want :))

HOWEVER, DO NOT GIVE HATE TO ANYONE WHO DOES OR DOES NOT THINK OF THEM AS A SHIP OR OTHERWISE, people can have opinions and heacanons, regardless of whether that hurts your feelings or not 🙄

Excuse my rant lol, I've just seen this ship/not ship start a lot of arguments, and if one is started on my blog/over my art, I will not tolerate it.

Headcanon dump now ~~~~~~

Natquik :

1.) I imagine his time in the Antarctic messed him up a good deal, so he's very on the fence about being alone for extended periods of time (sure he had the penguins, but I imagine they weren't shifters/humanoid in interpretation of my human-styled art)

So, he's very clingy when it comes to people he likes. Having had not to share a living space with anyone for YEARS, he has ZERO sense of personal space, and along with being naturally quiet/sneaky when moving around fot biological reasons, he seems to just appear out of nowhere all up in anyone's grill (Barnacles secretly loves it)

--- Arctic foxes (and foxes in general) are very cuddly crestures, and it is a form of affection, so I imagine Natquik is just as cuddly, even if he doesn't mean to be

2.) It is a VERY rare occasion that Natquik leaves the Antarctic and/or Arctic, as any not 0° is uncomfortable to him (he doesn't like hot places). However, he will make an exception when he is feeling particularly lonely (mostly to hang out with his the other OctoDads + Barnacles, Bianca, and Tracker)

Marsh :

1.) Uuuuhhhhhhh... Florida man

Jk, jk, 🤭

2.) Marsh is a lonely man, but in a different sense than Natquik or Calico Jack. He has all his animal friends in the Everglades (which he is very close to and sees as family) but they aren't the same as other people. So, when anyone offers to help out or just visit, he is OVERJOYED, and does NOT hide it very well

--- in short, he loves having company

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That's all for now, but don't be surprised when my love for the old man goobers surges and suddenly they're all I think about

[girlbossblackbeard]

i know we're all still reeling from the confirmation that stede has ALWAYS known ed - past the rose-colored glasses of falling in love with someone (or just the idea of someone) - and stede proves he knows how ed's mind works when he asks izzy point blank what they did to ed, but. i cannot stop thinking about s1 ed not being able to look stede in the eye as he says "you were always gonna realize what i am" before leaving with calico jack because he was so terrified of the judgement he'd see in stede's eyes. he revealed a less-than-ideal (but comparatively pretty benign) part of himself to the person whose opinion he cares about the most and was too afraid to stick around to see if/when stede would finally reject him for not living up to the standards that ed thinks stede deserves. he'd rather leave the person and the place he's felt the safest and most alive around in YEARS than stick around and watch stede lose interest or show signs of disappointment with ed.

and yet.

we now know with actual proof that stede not only never judged ed for his past, nor did he just gloss over any erratic behavior/violent reactions he witnessed from ed during their time together in favor of keeping an idealized image of ed in his mind, stede understood ed on a profoundly deeper level than practically anyone else in the whole world, with the exception of izzy, ever did. stede was so intimately aware of the exact kind of person ed was and what his thoughts and behavioral patterns were that he knew without a shadow of a doubt that there were only two fates for ed if stede didn't reach him in time: he was either gonna watch the world burn or die trying.