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It starts like this: Izzy and Edward get into a huge row at the republic of pirates and don’t talk for the entire next day as they set out to sea. And that night Izzy sort of talks to Ed in the evening about how he doesn’t have a place aboard the Revenge and he’s been dragging Ed down because he doesn’t know how to move on past the whole Blackbeard legend. Basically talking about his feelings, which is just really odd behaviour for Izzy but Ed lets it go because it’s a peaceful night and Stede is telling stories in the background and they’re watching the sunset over the taffrail and all is well.
Then the next morning Stede stumbles out of bed and goes to the kitchen to steal himself some of roach’s tea pastries for breakfast (fuck it, he’s the captain, he’ll eat what he wants) and boom! Some fucking kid is behind him holding a knife to his throat and demanding to know how long they’ve had him unconscious for and how far from port they are.
And Stede is obviously a father (no matter how shitty of one he is) so he’s just like. ‘Child please put down the sharp object before you hurt yourself. Do you want some marmalade danishes? You look hungry…’
Just like. Endearingly Stede. Meanwhile mini Izzy has him at fucking knifepoint and is getting more pissed off by the second.
Important to note that mini Izzy is like 16 with a baby face, and he looks like he could be blown over by a sudden gust of wind
So they throw the murderous baby in the brig (additional shenanigans include the crew trying to figure out what do do with a kid and trying to entertain him in different ways)
He’s also wearing older Izzy’s clothes and holding his knife, which is part of the reason that they figure out he’s a de aged version of Izzy. That and of course older Izzy is very much nowhere to be found…
Eventually Izzy is allowed out as soon as he has the situation explained to him. He doesn’t really believe that they’re telling him the truth because *obviously* magic doesn’t exist, but after the crew shenanigans he’s confident that he’s at least safe because everyone aboard the ship is an absolute idiot, and he’s certain he could outsmart them all in a fight if he had to.
Anyway so they resign to life with little Izzy for now, and set out to figure out what curse was put on him and how to reverse it. Meanwhile, they have to put up with a 16 year old boy aboard their ship with the worst case of anger issues anyone has ever seen. He pretty much takes everything as a personal attack. He’s also super intense and walks around portraying himself as untouchable. Which is very much regular Izzy Hands behaviour, even though he did lighten up a little after he got to know everyone, but it’s definitely a lot funnier (and a lot more unnerving) coming from a straight up child.
(He’s also weird about people knowing his first name and calling him Izzy/Iz/Israel because at this point in his life, he’s going almost exclusively as Basilica)
Anyway, it turns out he’s on a Jim style revenge quest but he like. Never met an Oluwande to show him the meaning of love or enjoying life despite trauma rather than centring your life around his trauma? So he’s just like training day in and day out and waiting for his shot at vengeance. (I personally think this is hilarious, because it’s such a take on the traditional ‘Izzy is in a pirate dark adventure show and everyone else is in a muppets movie. Like him being on a dark and gritty revenge quest after a tragic backstory is so on brand. The cliche will be acknowledged by the characters, in a similar way that villains monologuing is acknowledged by the characters but still holds narrative weight)
Anyway, the crew gets back to the republic where Edward asks Jackie what she knows about Izzy’s teenage years. And she looks at him like he’s an idiot because literally *everyone* has heard at least some variation of Izzy’s tragic backstory. It’s the stuff of legend. And Izzy is his best friend and first mate, so it’s like, what do you *mean* you don’t know Edward?!
The basic gist of it is that Izzy’s widowed mother - who was married to a well respected pirate at the time, who had semi ‘retired’ and was splitting his time between the sea and back home - rejected a Navy Admiral. About a week later him and some other higher ups in the English Navy showed up at their family home, raped Izzy and his mum, and killed his mum and baby sister. They also made Izzy’s older brother watch, then left the ‘women’ in the house while they dragged him out and pressed him into service. They didn’t check to make sure everyone was dead for sure, though, and Izzy barely escaped with his life and some bad burns on his hand hidden by a glove. But instead of giving up and resigning to life as a orphan he decided to “disguise” himself as man - although he later transitioned because it just felt right - in order to set off to sea, find his brother - his last remaining family - and slaughter the Navy higher ups that ruined his childhood/life. All while becoming the most feared sword for hire/mercenary/pirate the seas have ever seen.
Alrighty so the plot continues with Izzy continuing to be Izzy while everyone starts to understand him more. He starts to grow on the crew as like a little brother type figure, although Izzy continues to focus on Vengeance™️ primarily. Everyone is sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop, because the thought in the back of everyone’s minds is ‘well… what happened to the people that Izzy is looking for?’
Then, at around the same chapter, mini Izzy discovers that the people he’s looking for are long dead - most of them by his blade - and that his older brother ended up brainwashed by the Navy, and ended up wholeheartedly siding with them, leading into a final battle where Izzy and his brother fought until Izzy ended up having to kill his brother in self defence. This information obviously devastates mini Izzy.
Meanwhile, Edward finally goes through the inventory and ledgers that Izzy handed him during their final conversation (the one that was suspiciously emotionally vulnerable) and finds a note from his original Izzy. He explains that he loves Edward and has always loved Edward, but he knows he’s dragging him down, and he can’t bring himself to leave his side. So to free them both from Izzy clinging to Edward when Edward clearly never cared about him at all (a thought that has clearly been turning in Izzy’s head for a while, and was just ‘confirmed’ in his mind by the final fight they had), Izzy sought out a way to rid himself of all of his memories of Edward - he didn’t know it would de age him, but he did know that he’s been by Edward’s side every moment since they met in their late teens-early twenties, and therefore would lose decades of memory.
The worst part? It’s irreversible. Izzy never intended to come back from it, and he never will.
So now obviously Edward resents mini Izzy, who is lost without his one purpose and lashing out more and more the way teenagers do. Edward resents mini Izzy for taking his best friend and first mate from him, but mostly he just hates himself for pushing Izzy away and making him feel so unwanted that he literally erased him from his memory.
Meanwhile Stede, who was originally making some kind of headway with mini Izzy, is now being completely shut out like the unwanted stepdad to a brooding teenager, and is not taking it well.
But slowly they start to heal from it. There’s a brief stint where Izzy is pressed into Navy service after running away for a day at port, followed by Stede + Ed and the extended crew of the Revenge to go feral and stop at nothing to get him back.
(This ending is going to be an acquired taste by the way)
So there’s a very climactic scene the Captain of the vessel Izzy’s on holds Izzy by the hair with a knife to his throat, telling ‘Blackbeard’ to surrender, and Ed hesitates for a second before Izzy, clearly terrified, tells Ed not to give himself up anyway - and accidentally calls him dad. To which Ed straight up immediately drops his weapons and gives himself up.
But the opposing captain underestimated Stede Bonnet, the luckiest fucking muppet alive, who despite having -1 experience with a pistol and hating violence, rolls a nat 20 and shoots him in the shoulder (Maybe I’ll even have him get a headshot just because it’s kinda funny) while Edward is busy being an over dramatic martyr, giving Izzy the chance to break free.
Either way Izzy runs towards Stede and absolutely barrels into his arms, shaking. Stede hurriedly pats him down, checking for injuries, as the crew wraps up the fight around them. Ed joins them (after some good old fashioned revenge maiming) and they have a good old group hug/family cry.
Epilogue will probably be a slice of life that features mini Izzy meeting Doug Mary and the little Bonnets during a visit, or (a few years later in his early 20s) him at the docks saying a see you later to his big crazy pirate family, before getting ready to go off on his own and make a name for himself as his own pirate.
and that’s a wrap (I think?) it’s not super fleshed out, mostly just something I’ve been tinkering with. Honestly I put a lot of thought into figuring out whether or not I wanted them to find a way to reverse the spell, but in the end I figured that even though getting there took a huge misunderstanding and a bigger sacrifice, the happiest ending I could give him would be for him to have a second chance at a healthier/happier life full of family and love:)