For all your polyamorous shipping content

Izzy Hands (right): a man who needs a multi-party introduction to hugging.


I talked about the Feral Five (Archie/Fang/Frenchie/Izzy/Jim) in the previous post about favourite poly ships, but for this manifesto I'd like to expand that further to All Deck on Hands—the inarguably perfect ship name for Izzy Hands and the entire crew of the Revenge.

(And how much do I love being in a fandom where a polycule straying into the double digits has a name and a fanbase?)

Exact numbers on this polycule vary based on who's aboard the Revenge when the story's set, but for me, I'm most often adding Lucius Spriggs, Black Pete, Roach, Wee John Feeney, and Oluwande Boodhari to the previous fivesome in a post-canon setting.

But let's rewind.


The Show, Izzy Hands, and the Crew of the Revenge

Our Flag Means Death is a comedy (in parts quite a dark one) that focuses on the romance between 18th century pirates Stede Bonnet and Ed Teach but also on the crew who find themselves dragged along in the wake of their stormy courtship. One such crew member is Izzy Hands, Ed's first mate and partner in a decades-long ill-defined situationship, who starts the series as an antagonist to the crew of the Revenge who sail under Stede. Already a man accustomed to hiding any vulnerability behind the self-protection of violence, volume, and the enforcement of hierarchy and rules, Izzy at first only makes himself a ridiculous little bully as he lashes out in anger, fear, and confusion when his depressed and erratically behaving captain disrupts their already strained life together by falling in love with someone else.

Then things take a dark turn. Without going into the spoilery details, we have a chance to see who everyone really is at their lowest and who they are or aren't willing to become when they have a chance to change.

Here, a hand is extended and Izzy is brought into the fold. Crew members from the Revenge show him kindness, intervening in his toxic relationship with Ed, and he responds by standing up for them. He saves their lives and they save his. And when he spirals after losing his leg and what he believes to be his identity, the crew offer him replacements for both, making him a prosthesis from the ship's destroyed unicorn figurehead and dubbing him their new unicorn—something he's driven to tears over and accepts with pride.

When I first started thinking about shipping characters in s1, I initially thought that Izzy would need a single partner who matched the intensity with which he was trying to hold on to Ed. It's not like there was a lack of options there either, because I could write individual manifestos for each of these crew mates with Izzy: there's old friends, enemies to comrades, hurt and comfort, scripted/filmed kisses and affairs that didn't make it to air, yearning, and so much sexual chemistry. But while a lot of canon poly content was ultimately cut from the show, Our Flag Means Death nonetheless has a deeply poly sensibility when it comes to characters outside of its main couple ("We don't own each other" and "It's a non-stop knocking shop" being two prominent quotes from crew), and by the time s2 was underway, I quickly found myself latching on to the idea that what really fulfills Izzy is belonging to something bigger than himself and being of service.

From there, it was a short trip through the other interpretations of "ship's unicorn" into scenarios where he belongs to his crew and shares some type of love and intimacy with all of them, whether that's one-on-one company or getting pulled into another couple or trio's bedroll on select nights to round out the numbers. Someone who holds them together, both in terms of what he has to offer (which with Izzy is basically everything he knows how to give) and the way his weaknesses can bring the best out in them.

Sure enough, after receiving his new leg and moniker, the connection between Izzy and the rest of the crew only deepens, even through some continued struggles. He's seen physically leaning on them and looking out for them in turn. He opens up in his own way, baring himself and offering comfort the only way he knows how, and then trying to move forward into better ways. He tries dressing up in drag for the first time and—amidst some swaggering flirtation and hand-kissing—ends the night on a 'balcony' singing down a love song to them as they gaze up at him with clear affection.

Our Flag Means Death does not end happily, at least not for Izzy. But I'm here for the fandom more than the show, and for me, the OFMD universe can so easily be a kinder one where the little people matter just as much as larger-than-life figures, where communities can last if people are willing to put in the work, where monogamous love is not the only thing that can save you and the nuclear model of a family is not the only shape of a home, where growth doesn't have to mean going it alone, and where there can be all the happy endings in the world—where somewhere out there, a ship is still sailing, and where Izzy Hands belongs to the ship and to his crew. Still a dick of course, but their dick.


Popular Tropes

Post-Series: In fic following the series finale, we most often find AU futures where Izzy has sailed off with the crew. Sometimes he's the first mate, occasionally he's the captain, and often he's just a general mentor and consultant. Whatever his professional position, his combination of dedication to this particular crew and his past view of casual sex between crew mates as the norm usually sees him pretty naturally slipping into multiple deepening relationships among the ship-wide polycule.

Later Series: By far, the most popular trope launched by the latter half of s2 has to do with Calypso's Birthday. This is the impromptu party thrown by the crew at which Izzy—at that point still struggling with questions about his future and identity—begins working past some of his internalized issues and, with some liquid courage, attempts a drag performance. The episode leaves the rest of that night to the imagination, and what several people have imagined is Izzy getting drawn into a crew orgy or loving gangbang after he finishes singing.

Mid-Series: Prior to s2, common All Deck on Hands scenarios involved Izzy ending up in sexual servitude to the crew, either as dub-con or non-con retaliation for his earlier ways or as part of a 24/7 BDSM power exchange with a dom. It also featured in hurt/comfort fic where Izzy was escaping a bad relationship, particularly in Omegaverse AUs.


Visuals

A gifset sampler of Izzy with the crew by userarmand:
https://userarmand.tumblr.com/post/736265400421056512/izzy-the-crew

The crew make a new prosthesis for Izzy (clip):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHaI0H6Z4sE

Izzy's drag debut at the crew's celebration for Calypso's Birthday (clip):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g48k6UpYZE