horrid fic idea day! One of those classic steddyhands izzy-gets-kidnapped fics and they realize how much they need him, you get the drift. But what if, -shocker- we fucked it up??
Ed and stede are mad at izzy when it happens. Maybe it's set, like, in the early stages of Ed and Stede getting back togethe, and they decide it's just easier to take their feelings out on izzy. Or if it's afterward, and they're upset because he's ruining the mood in his love for them and he's a fucking tragedy and they're not.
izzy gets kidnapped by the navy and puts up a big fight, you know him. In the process, he goes full on feral mode and ends up biting someone in the throat because his weapons are gone. They contact Ed (and stede, who's just kinda there) for ransom or as bait. when they do show up, the officer tells Ed to keep his dog on a leash next time. Izzy's right there, blood still on his chin, hanging in between two officers.
we as the audience are all set up to believe that this is the moment izzy realizes how much he actually means to Ed (and stede)- he's taking his weapons out, visibly angry, etc. but when the tension builds and he gets in the officers face, he just. Stops. Straightens up. And snaps his fingers.
He gives Izzy his gun. Ed doesn't kill, remember? And Izzy's fucking exhausted. He's in pain. But he does whatever they want him to. He takes the gun and starts fighting like hell. Ed and Stede sit back and watch. There are so many near misses, times that he's genuinely struggling, but they do nothing.
When all the officers are dead, Izzy is the one who apologizes. For the blood everywhere, for the inconvenience, for the fact that he ever dared to think they'd help him.
Bonus points if they treat it like such, a minor inconvenience. Bonus points if they walk out without looking behind them to help Izzy, who still follows. Bonus points if his reward is a brush of the hand and a murmured, slightly sarcastic, "good dog".
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horrid little brainworm
Frenchie is still green at the start of the Kraken era.
He isn't, by the end.
But back then, when it all begins - when he isn't used to the sting of kohl-mixed sweat dripping into his eyes - he makes mistakes. Lots of them. Simple little things - fluffing a knot in the rigging that has their sail unfurling midway through the dogwatch, goods left unstowed to roll with the list of their ship.
Most of the time, Izzy yells himself hoarse for five minutes, then shows Frenchie how to fix it, interspersing his lecture with expletives. Whatever. That's fine. Let the little man scream - he's not the scariest thing aboard anymore.
Never was, really.
But then Blackbeard (Ed? The Kraken?) stomps out of his cabin, hair a black thundercloud, and snarls 'which one of you men is responsible for that fucking mop', pointing to some cleaning equipment Frenchie forgot to pack away.
And everything goes still, as if they're becalmed.
[CW: whipping, abuse, non-explicit mentions of Frenchie's past locked-box traumas]
No one says Frenchie's name - not even Izzy. He just ducks his chin and refuses to look his captain in the eye. But the eyes of every other crewmember jump guiltily to Frenchie, at least once - and Blackbeard is too smart to miss such a tell.
"A ship needs discipline," he says. "Isn't that what you always tell me, Iz?"
"I'll attend to it," says Izzy, voice scratchier than ever. Frenchie knows this is a bad fucking situation - memories battering against the inside of his locked box, trying to get out - but somehow he can't feel fear. Can't really feel anything.
"With the cat," says Blackbeard. "Give the culprit fifteen. Really make the lesson stick."
Ah. There's the fear.
Frenchie's breath stifles itself halfway up his throat, as screams sneak through the keyhole of his box, along with the crack of a whip -
No. No, no, no. He can't. Not again, he can't -
Izzy glances up. Frenchie expects him to grin, all vindictive sadism - but whatever he sees on Frenchie's face has his mouth pulling into a tight line.
"Yes, sir," he says, though Frenchie barely hears over the dull roar of his heart.
He casts his gaze about, looking for an escape. Over the side? They're too far from land, but fuck, if it isn't tempting -
Jim fondles their knives, glaring mutinously at Blackbeard's back as he returns to his cabin. They don't spring after him (though Frenchie selfishly wishes they would). They're well aware - as is everyone - that right now, with Blackbeard black-eyed and bloodthirsty, they'd lose.
Izzy swallows. Shuts his eyes. Then calls for Fang to fetch the cat.
Frenchie loses time then. Scarcely a blink passes before Fang reappears above the deck, the strings of the knotted whip scraping the floor like the tentacles of a shrunken sea-monster.
They're flaky with rusty residue. Old, dried blood.
Frenchie's fingers twitch in the chords of the first song his Ma taught him. No rituals or superstitions will save him. Nothing will. Because his old crew are marooned, almost certainly dead, and his new crew are - with the exception of Fang and Jim and Ivan - fucking monsters.
He's going to be whipped (again). He's going to shred open all those old scars. The box is going to open, and -
Oh, God. Oh God. Fifteen lashes is survivable (Frenchie knows, he knows) but he's still not sure if anything of himself will emerge from the other side.
He's still frozen, staring at the whip held in Fang's big hands, flat out like he's presenting it to Izzy. Only... Izzy doesn't take it.
No, Izzy moves to stand in front of the mast. Walking stiff, with a bit of a limp. While Frenchie's reeling, struggling to process what's happening, he yanks off his shirt. And - fuck, his back is almost as ugly a sight as Frenchie knows his own would be, if he could bear to study it in a mirror.
A few of the crew draw shocked inhales. Most don't look surprised.
Frenchie is one of the latter group. Sound travels, on a ship.
"Um," says Fang, cat dangling limp. "Boss?"
Izzy grabs the hawsers wrapped around the mainmast. Heaves a deep breath. Rests his forehead against the wood.
"You heard the captain," he croaks. "Fifteen lashes."
Fang's eyes are moist - though they are more often than not, nowadays. "Boss - "
"The captain wants the culprit disciplined," Izzy says. His muscles flex beneath their coating of scars. Bracing himself, Frenchie's mind supplies. For the oncoming pain. Not that any amount of tensing is ever enough. "First mate's responsible for maintaining a tidy deck."
This turn of events finally settles into Frenchie's bones. The whip's not for him, thank everything. His key slides gratefully into the lock of his box and turns, ensuring it's shut tight.
Still, sickness churns in his guts. Last week, sleep eluded him. He'd intended to skulk above decks and breathe the sea air to clear his head. He never made it - because who should stagger out of the captain's cabin, so dead-eyed he didn't even notice Frenchie lurking in the shadows of the galley door, but the Revenge's thrice-cursed angry gremlin of a first mate?
Izzy hadn't looked much like a gremlin then, though. Doesn't now, either. Just looks. Tired. And old. And bruised to shit beneath his shirt, and not all of those lash marks are old, weathered scars, and -
Frenchie's fingers twitch more rapidly, pressing through their imaginary chord sequence.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit -
"Fifteen lashes," Izzy reminds Fang. "If you can't do it, anyone else is free to step up. I'm sure there'll be fucking volunteers."
Frenchie eyes Jim. They and Izzy aren't exactly friends - not when Frenchie has heard them mumble a word that sounds horrifically close to 'Oluwande' in their sleep.
But Jim stays right where they are. Hand on the hilt of a knife. Ivan emulates, and, well, Frenchie's feet have damn near put down roots. He couldn't move from this spot if he was ordered to.
Fang's tears well over, and his hand shakes on the whip handle to the point where Frenchie thinks he might drop it.
A clash from the great cabin has them all jumping - all but Izzy, who rests his cheek on the mast like it's a particularly splintery pillow, eyes drifting shut. Blackbeard barges back out, sousing the air with body odour and smoke and self-hatred and whatever the fuck else he's been marinating in.
"What's the fucking wait?" he demands. "I expected way more screams by now." He halts, frowning at the sight of Izzy, stood where Frenchie ought to be (because fuck, he shouldn't have left that mop and bucket out; how many times has Izzy told him - ). For a moment, the harsh line of his brows crumples on itself in something that could be mistaken for regret. But then that dark sneer crawls onto his lips, the one with which the whole crew is becoming familiar. "Can't pick who gets the privilege, eh? Well, lucky for the lot of you, that's what a captain's for."
He stalks forwards, feline-graceful. Frenchie scuttles from his path. When Blackbeard snatches the whip from Fang (not seeming to notice his whimper, his flinch) Frenchie fully anticipates that he'll turn on Izzy, not him.
He certainly doesn't expect Blackbeard to smile, cold and white as a toenail moon, and thrust the whip towards him, hilt first.
"Oh, no." Frenchie raises both hands in surrender. "No, no, no. I couldn't. Awful with a whip, me. Wouldn't, um..." There's the noise of it again, slithering out through the keyhole of his box. The swish. The crack. The scream. "Wouldn't be able to strike hard enough," he stutters. "No upper body strength, yeah."
Blackbeard doesn't approach Frenchie. Just keeps the whip held out towards him, like the accusative finger of a god.
"You give him fifteen," he says, gently. "And make each one count. Or I give him fifty."
Against the mast, Izzy makes a sound - not quite a whimper. Worse; it's far too much like relief. His hands don't shake, but only because they grip the hawser tight as rigor mortis.
Fifty can kill. Has killed before. Frenchie's seen it.
But Blackbeard doesn't want Izzy dead, right? Who would he torture then?
Blackbeard's blank, lifeless eyes pour into Frenchie's.
Who indeed?
Fuck. Frenchie swallows dry. He tells himself it's for self-preservation that he unsticks his boots from the deck and shuffles forth to take the whip. Not for Izzy. Not like he likes the angry little prick. Man's vicious as a cat and thrice as cursed.
Maybe, if Frenchie tells himself that, it'll make this memory easier to lock away with all the rest.
"Ready?" he asks Izzy, softer than he intends. Izzy twists over his scarred shoulder. He looks at Frenchie - really looks at him - for what feels like the first time. Not even glancing to his left, where the Kraken lurks.
Frenchie can't decipher his expression. Pity, for whatever made him offer himself up in Frenchie's place? Frustration, that Frenchie prevented Blackbeard from whipping him into the grave? Misery and fear - no, that's far too sane for a guy like Izzy.
Izzy turns back to the mast.
"Give me your worst," he says.
Frenchie breathes in, breathes out, and obeys.
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