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Ed is lounging on his chair smoking a pipe, as he usually does, in the hopes that it will distract him from this all consuming need to get out of his body and not be here. Anywhere. Escape this unbearable restlessness that is constantly present and so so loud. But who is he kidding? Nothing helps anymore. It hasn’t in a while. Who knew being the most feared pirate of the seven seas would be so painfully numbing and dissatisfying.
“Captain” he hears. Ugh. It’s Izzy. He’ll want him to do this, be that. Fulfill his piratical captain duties. Now is not a good time. Never would be a good time. Yes, he should ask Izzy to come back at never o’clock.
“Not now, Izzy” he growls. He wouldn’t be taken seriously otherwise.
“It’s about the new pirate who managed to take some English officers hostage.” Izzy clarifies like Ed would care about any fucking pirate.
“Not. Now” Ed repeats. “I am thinking.”
“You’re always thinking these days.” Izzy mutters and Ed pretends not to have heard him.
“I don’t know how, but it was this gentleman playing to be a pirate who was responsible.” Izzy continues ignoring Ed’s protests.
Oh. That’s new. Ed thinks. Nothing new happens anymore. His interest is piqued. That’s inaccurate. He has lost his capacity for his interest to be piqued. But he can feel a prickling of it trying to come out for air from deep within his self where it has been submerged for ages.
“A gentleman, you say?.” Ed asks. Ed did not miss the sneer in Izzy’s voice as he said gentleman. Izzy’s distaste for the gentry ran quite deep.
“Yes, a fool that got lucky, I am sure. But we could follow up. Find him. See what he’s like. Might be best to nip this in the butt.”
Bud. It is nip this in the bud not butt. Ed thinks but does not correct.
“Yeah, go for it.” Good plan, he almost says but refrains. Positive reinforcement does not sit right with Izzy. Or most pirates, really. He has learnt the hard way that fear garners respect and submission much more effectively and less ambiguously than kindness ever can.
His message conveyed, Izzy starts to leave. He knows not to linger any more.
“Izzy” Ed stops him before he has made it out the door. “Update me when you find out more.”
His back to Izzy, Ed does not see Izzy’s shocked expression but senses it all the same. Ed can’t blame him. He hasn’t shown interest in anything captain (or anything at all) in a while.
…
Izzy comes back with intel. “He is a complete fucking idiot. I don’t know how he is not dead yet. Might as well do it ourselves. He was muttering please and thank you like we were at some fancy dinner party and not on opposing sides of a fight.” Izzy declares.
Ed did not miss the part Izzy rushed through amidst the insults. How the fucking idiot, Stede Bonnet, managed to take back a hostage and escape Izzy’s blade. “But he bested you at swordplay?” Ed challenges.
“He got lucky! And we were outnumbered. Fools his crews might be but even fools can do damage when in a large number.” Izzy retorts.
“Bonnet must be a very lucky man then. Brutally murdering an english captain, besting you, surviving being a pirate until now.” Ed says. All the while saying please and thank you, apparently. Fascinating. Ed thinks but does not add.
Ed does not know what this is but he has not been engaged with the world in a long while. The bare modicum of self preservation he has left tells him to pursue it. “Follow them, and arrange me a meeting” he commands.
If Izzy was shocked to hear Ed ask for updates, he is now stupefied.
“He…Captain. I really do not think he is worth your time.”
Oh, to make Izzy Hands pause. He can retire for the day now. He is amused but does not show it. He wouldn’t come this far as a pirate if he did not know how to hold his cards close to his chest. Though it is neither here nor there that he himself does not know what his cards mean.
“I will be the judge of what is and what is not worth my time, Izzy. You will do well to remember that.” Ed challenges.
There. Threat of the day - made. Captaining goals - accomplished. A good maiming would be next, but he’s already drained.
“Yes, captain. I’ll see to it.” Izzy defers.
…
“He is not interested in meeting.” Izzy proclaims.
“What? But does he know who I am?”
“Seemed to, yeah”
“And still, he said no?”
“You can go suck eggs in hell was his response, I believe”
“Fascinating.” Ed is surprised. Another feeling that has recently surfaced. Ed has not met this gentleman pirate even once and he has stirred more emotions in him than all of the people he knows combined in months.
Pursue it. His self preservation repeats.
“Keep following him and keep me updated” Ed commands.
“Captain. Edward. He is not interested and not worth a damn. The best thing to do now is to get rid of him. Preferably, slowly and painfully, for daring to disrespect you.” Izzy says. He looks like he wholly regrets ever having brought up Stede Bonnet to Ed. Serves him right. Always trying to make Ed do things that he doesn't want to. Well, he wants to meet this gentleman pirate.
Wow. Want. What a strange feeling.
“Do not make me repeat myself, Israel.” Ed growls. There, he can use full first name to be taken seriously too. Israel:1, Edward:1.
“As you wish, captain.” Izzy begrudgingly agrees.
…
Izzy does not agree at all when Ed decides to save Stede Bonnet and his crew from the spanish. But Ed is still the captain and he will do as he pleases.
“We will possibly incur massive loss of lives and cause serious damage to the ship and all for what, Edward?” Izzy demands.
I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t KNOW! Ed does not scream as he wants to. He just knows he has not felt anything like this before, has not felt anything for a long time now. He hasn’t wanted anything in even longer. There were things that he needed and had to fight for them, but want? No, no no no. And yet, he wants this. And he will get it. He is still Blackbeard, after all.
“And so we will. Because I am the fucking captain of this ship. And because I fucking say so.” Ed barks, making it clear this is the end of the discussion.
…
When he finally meets the gentleman pirate, he is incapacitated and on the ground. Dressed all in white, he is in complete contrast to Ed’s all black attire. Adds up. He is a gentleman after all, and Ed is anything but.
“The gentleman pirate, I presume.” He says.
“You’ve heard of me?” Bonnet responds..
Even near death, his voice sounds refined. And even more remarkably, it sounds kind. Unlike the many gentlemen he has met. To be fair, most of the gentlemen he has met were either being looted or maimed or both by him and his crew. But even as a child, in the rare times when he came across his mother’s employers, no aristocrat spoke to him kindly.
“Oh yeah, I’ve heard of you. I’ve heard all about you.” Ed says. And I can’t wait to find out more, he feels (feels!) more than thinks.