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"The... other captain, sir."
"Yeah?" Ed doesn't know what this guy's driving at, but he waited to approach until Stede wasn't on deck, which makes him suspicious. Ed will put down a mutiny if he has to, but that shit's so tiresome. Messy, and failure's always bad for morale. (A keelhauling, though, they haven't done one of those in a while. Stede's probably never seen one. Could be fun.)
Come to think of it he doesn't really know who this guy even is. Not one of Stede's, for sure. Crew had sort of... ebbed and flowed, during the Dark Time. Maybe he's one of those. Got an eyepatch. Was he on the Queen Anne?
Ed realizes he's missed almost all of what the man said. "Sorry, what?"
Eyepatch Larry visibly holds back a sigh. "The other captain, his name's Thomas Edwards?"
That's the name Stede had picked, because -- fuck, it makes Ed blush -- Stede had blushed, when he explained, "you told me to pick out cool new names, and -- I don't really care about sounding cool, just so long as I'm yours, Edward." Ed hadn't known what to say, and then there hadn't been much talking for a while, and it was -- nice. Really nice.
Ed clears his throat. "Yeah, so?"
"So... Captain..." Eyepatch Tim has gone really awkward, for some reason. "Why do you keep calling him 'Stede'?"
Oh.
Well... fuck. He has done that.
Most of the crew fucking knows, so he hadn't thought -- but someone new, someone who joined in the Dark Time --
Stede Bonnet's dead, is the thing. Has to be dead, for the sake of his family, and the English, and --
"Well," Ed blusters. "It's. You know. Fucking nickname, isn't it." He scoffs, like it's obvious.
Eyepatch Dave's brows wrinkle. "For Thomas?"
"For --" Fuck. "For -- fucking, him, for--" Fuck. "You know. Stede. Like." Inspiration strikes like lightning. "Like a horse, right."
Eyepatch Jenny looks confused. "A horse?"
"Yeah." Desperation gives his voice a strength that feels like confidence, sort of. "'Cause his dick's so fucking huge."
Silence, besides the creak of rigging, rings across deck. Ed thinks maybe he was a little louder than he needed to be.
"I see," Eyepatch Sam nods, face carefully blank, not making eye contact. Behind him, Izzy quietly climbs up and over the railing in an attempt to drown himself.