Thinking About How Cute It Is That We Spend Our Free Time Crafting Collaborative Stories Together With

thinking about how cute it is that we spend our free time crafting collaborative stories together with our favorite characters, sometimes related to their canon  &  sometimes entirely outside of it.  thinking about how pure it is that people all over the world sit down  &  take time out of their lives to write things  for me  &  make little stories up  with me.  thinking about how when i pick up a new muse my friends are always ready to find a way for them to interact with them, no matter who they’re writing at the time or how close their source canons might be.  thinking about how every time i get a little bubble on my activity page, it could be a friend giving me a little gift consisting of a personalized piece of their writing,  &  how they used their creative energy on the cute little made up stories we discussed together.  just thinking about how much i love my rp partners today.

“It’s alright to be scared. It’s what you do when you’re scared that matters.”

🪐 — EDWARD TEACH  for  izzy !

❛  thought you’d be up here.  ❜   he finds izzy in the crow’s nest,  high above deck.  edward is not as fast or graceful as he used to be  (   or young,  for that matter   ),  but he settles beside him just the same.  for a while he just breathes,  slow,  unhurried,  gaze lost to the clouds blanketing the moon from proper view,  simply enjoying the chance to be doing this.  edward feels calmer than he has in months  —  years,  if he has to be honest  —  with izzy at his side and the certainty that he is not going anywhere bestowed upon him like a blessing,  so when he turns and settles a hand just below izzy’s knee the rush of sorrow spearing through his heart is dimmer than it had been a few days ago.  

edward had come back safe and sound from his lone venture like he said he would,  and they had talked,  probably for longer than they ever had.  honesty poured out of each of them in turn,  some hard to hear,  but very much needed.  let’s stop hurting each other,  yeah?  we’ve done enough of that  and  fuck off,  izzy.  twenty years and not a word of this?  he had said that chasing away tears with a startled laugh,  a breath distance away from izzy’s mouth.  which he had kissed soundly,  moments later. 

still,  words now crawl up his throat feeling like pieces of broken glass.   ❛  does it still hurt?  ❜   guilt laden grimace casts the edges of his mouth downwards,  but it’s an important question  (   even if it’s coming in a bit late   )  and edward wants izzy to answer him truthfully.   his hand stays well enough away from his maimed foot,  though it sneaks gently down to his clothed calf,  finally coming to a stop there.

    IT’S A CHALLENGE TO GET UP HERE,  even if you’re uninjured, even if you’re young.  izzy is neither any longer.  but it’s why he knows he likely won’t be disturbed.  &  here, there’s no chance of him running into one of the ship’s many pairs of happy lovers sharing an intimate moment beneath the moonlight.                                  he’s still trying to wrap his head around everything, old dogs  &  new tricks.  edward loves stede, but he loves izzy, too.  &  they have promised each other that things can be different between them.  that they won’t hurt each other any more.  &  even lucius may say that it really is fine with black pete all that had happened between he  &  izzy  — that there was no bad blood between them all, no matter what izzy wanted moving forward.  but regardless of what anyone says, or how kind  &  welcoming they all are, it often just feels that he simply doesn’t fit down there.  no, izzy belongs up here.  sometimes, he fancies himself a black-clad crow, safe  &  solitary in its nest.        but when he feels the rope ladder shift long after bonnet’s absurd bedtime story had fallen into silence, izzy is surprised to see ed climbing toward him. he’s usually retired to the captain’s quarters with bonnet by now, but there he is, pulling himself slow but sure into the nest to sit beside his first mate.  he’s silent for a long moment, but when he speaks, edward’s hand falls onto izzy’s leg.   &  there are at least two layers of black fabric separating their skin, but still he shudders at the point of contact. has to stop himself from leaning into the touch.  &  the wings of the bird tattoo on his throat shifts when he draws a shaky breath. he’s no crow,  &  he cannot pretend to be  —  no, izzy is a swallow,  &  swallows mate for life.                       even still, he has to bite back a lie.  blackbeard would have rewarded him for shrugging it off  &  going about his work while denying the pain.  ut blackbeard is dead,  &  things are meant to be different between he  &  edward now.  &  lucius is forver making him say what he wants, tell the truth. so izzy knows by now how to swallow around the old lump of fear in his throat at  &  unlock his jaw, voice even more hoarse than usual after hours of disuse.  ❝ it hurts, ❞  he admits, tone low as he looks out over the glittering sea.   ❝ but i’ve had worse. it’s only really bad when i stand on it for too long. ❞  &  slowly izzy drags his eyes back to his captain’s face, the moonlight catching in his long hair, gleaming even brighter now than it did in his youth thanks to the streaks of silver that runs through it now.  ❝ &  you, capt  —  ed ?  your knee must be doing fine, for you to climb the ladder like that. ❞

NATASIA DEMETRIOU as NADJA in WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS 4.03: THE GRAND OPENING

🪐 — IZZY HANDS  for  stede​  !

There was too much going through his mind right now. Stede was making too much sense and be fucking hated that. Fucking hated that Stede Fucking Bonnet was right. Hell truly had frozen over hadn’t it? The mutual desire to get Edward back was a problem all in itself. Of course Izzy wanted to find his friend. Of course he wanted him back on ship and to make sure he was alright. Yet Blackbeard had made it very clear to Izzy that he was not to come look for him. Would this flagrant disobedience be met with understanding if Stede was there or would the man make good on his threat? Would he disobey his current captain by not helping Stede? Was there any solution to this where he wasn’t disobeying someone?

Izzy felt stressed and anxious about this whole thing. He was, at a core, a follower and someone who needed to do a good job. Someone who needed to feel needed. There was no neat fix to this situation was there? What he did know is it was worth whatever consequence might befall on him if it meant Edward was found and was okay. And Bonnet was right. Izzy did know Edward more than anyone else. At least he did. The Kraken was — something else. The combined legend they’d created together over the years come to life in all its ferocity.

“You really fucked with his head, you know?” Izzy returned coolly, tugging at his shirt sleeve to pull it down more, cover himself up like he was wearing armor. “He was — he changed after you left. He got — he got low. He wouldn’t leave his room and when he did he was weirdly — he was in denial. Fuck if I know. You broke his fucking heart,” he snapped before swallowing and looking down guiltily. The first mate’s voice got a little quieter.

“But — I — I think I did too…” he admitted for the first time aloud. As much as he thought he wanted Blackbeard back, Izzy had come to understand he had been wrong. Ed had given him exactly what he thought he wanted but it wasn’t the man he’d grown to care for. He was scary. Not in a good way. “I — I told him..” Izzy looked up at Stede across the room, wondering if the man would change his mind. Banish him from the ship. Yell at him. Yeah. That might actually be comforting. He deserved it. “I told him that I should have let the English kill him — that the person he’d become — the depressed cheery sap trying to pretend everything was fine was a fate worse than death. He — He — I fucked up. He’s not either of the Edward’s we know now…” Izzy had dropped his head into his hands in frustration with himself, fingers curling tightly into gray hair. “I really hurt him — and I regret every word I said. You have to believe me, Bonnet. I was wrong. About so much. About you. — I’m scared to see him again. If I go against him like this — I don’t think I’ll make it out it this time,” he admitted nervously.

       THERE IS AN EDGE TO IZZY’S WORDS,  an honestly that cuts every but as sharp as his sword had.  you really fucked with his head. you broke his fucking heart.  &  stede had known as much  — on some level, he had known.  but it’s still painful to hear it spoken so plainly.  &  perhaps once he would recoil from the venom in his words, but stede forces himself to stand tall, unflinching, as a captain should.  &  then izzy’s voice changes as his head falls, tone drops until it is soft  &  uncertain  &  entirely different than it had been only a moment before.                                    &  stede cannot keep the surprise from his face at the first mate actually admitting he had been wrong, his brows flying upward toward his golden hairline in shock.  izzy didn’t seem the type who would be eager to face his own mistakes, but stede realizes as he looks at the man that he barely knows him, in truth.  so perhaps he was wrong about izzy, too.  &  he frowns then, pondering over izzy’s words, his gaze dropping to the man’s mangled foot clad in bandages.           there is a long moment of silence as stede considers the other man with a curious gaze, but when he speaks again his voice is just as steady as it had been before.  ❝ we will both have plenty to apologize for once we find him.  he is owed that much.  from both of us. ❞  something that mary had said to stede echoed in his head suddenly, the image of her with a skewer hovering just above his temple seared into his memory.  we just can’t seem to stop hurting each other,  she had said.  for them, separation had been the only way to stop the pain.  they had both wanted different things.  but the crucial difference between the two relationships was that izzy still wanted his captain, still sought to follow his orders.  that much was achingly obvious  —  his mere continued presence aboard the ship was proof enough of it.  &  stede knew what he wanted now, too, late though his realization might have been.  the only question was whether edward still wanted either of them back.  but they would not know that until they found him.  ❝ whether he chooses to accept or not  —  yours or mine  —  is his decision alone, no matter who he may be.  it’s a risk that i am prepared to take.  if you are not, then you’re free to depart. ❞                                  &  yet, izzy’s final warning does stick, sends a tremor of fear up stede’s spine.  it was true that edward had left the majority of his crew on that tiny spit of land to die.  they only been rescued by sheer chance when he had happened upon them in his stolen rowboat.  &  while jim had been aboard the revenge when they returned, there was still a noticeable absence aboard the ship that stede had been too frightened to ask about until now.  though it occurred to him suddenly that if anyone would know what had happened to the young scribe, it would likely be izzy.  ❝ but if that is what you should decide, there is one more thing i must ask of you before you go :  where is lucius ? ❞

indie, private, selective multimuse dedicated to women and nonbinary characters. loved by honey ( 28, they/them, pst. ) credit.