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So he's a fancy man with a fancy ship.
Yes, Stede Bonnet certainly was. He was the Gentleman Pirate, after all. He turned the words over in his mind as he entered Spanish Jackie's—his soulmate's first words about him, the words he'd had imprinted into his consciousness for as long as he knew what words were.
A fancy man with a fancy ship who was about to make one hell of a first impression.
Izzy's tale of the strange so-called pirate intrigued Edward greatly.
So much so that he instructed Izzy to invite the man aboard his ship for a chat. Anyone cunning and bold enough to pull off a successful ambush against some of Blackbeard's best crew was a force to be reckoned with, and one that Ed would be eager to meet.
Or, alleged ambush, at least, but Ed was skeptical—he had a better nose for fuckery than Izzy did. Even so, that was only more reason to want to get to know the man.
"Edward, can't I just send the boys?" Izzy asked, a pained look on his face.
Ed shook his head and said, "No, I want this done right." Izzy may not always trust Ed's judgment, but Ed trusted his diplomacy nonetheless. At least, he trusted it more than anyone else's on his crew.
"After all, he is a gentleman," Ed continued, smirking and bringing his pipe back up to his lips. "We want to make a good impression."
First impressions. Who needs first impressions?
Stede's mood was already soured by his spectacularly disastrous entrance—and drinking nose jar juice certainly didn't help—so when the short man clad in all black approached him, his patience was already wearing rather thin.
And besides, he and the strange little man—Iggy, he was pretty sure—had already made their impressions on each other when they first met, and Stede didn't care to learn any more about him.
However, his words caught Stede's attention for a moment. "—But for some inexplicable reason, my boss would like a word with you, Bonnet," Iggy said.
Of course he would, Stede thought, who wouldn't?
"Yes, well, everyone wants a piece of the Gentleman Pirate," he said. "Get in line."
In theory, burning one of the first bridges he came across would be terribly unwise, but Stede was in no mood to be trifled with any further. And if Iggy's boss was anything like Iggy himself, then Stede couldn't care less who he was anyway.
"But does he know who I am?"
Ed wouldn't be particularly surprised if such an eccentric and inexperienced man had never heard the legends of Blackbeard. But still, he would've thought the tales hard to avoid, as exaggerated as many of them were.
"Seemed to, yeah," said Izzy.
"And still, he said no?" Edward furrowed his brow. He wondered, was it out of fear? Must be—his damned reputation was enough to drive anyone away these days, as if Blackbeard would strike them down if they so much as looked him in the eye.
But then Izzy slowly said, "You can 'go suck eggs in hell' was his response, I believe."
So, apparently Bonnet wasn't afraid, then. But all of the air in Ed's lungs froze solid for an entirely different reason.
He wasn't expecting it right then, but serendipity was a fickle beast. Granted, he likely wouldn't have expected it ever— it just didn't seem like the sort of thing that could ever come true for someone like him. But there it was, clear as day. The words he'd known his entire life.
He's got terrible taste in flunkies and he can go suck eggs in hell.
Ed smiled. "Fascinating."