HELLO okay. I think that post toe incident™ Izzy struggles to sleep, especially in that room, and especially alone.
I think that he starts wandering the deck at night, under the guise of "just making sure everything is okay," but it's actually to distract himself and to get some air.
I think that after the initial shock - on both their parts - Izzy and naked moon-bathing Buttons strike up a weird familiarity, as the only two awake. They don't talk very often, but it becomes a comfortable silence surprisingly quickly.
And once you learn to tolerate Buttons, and then begin to accept and understand his excentricity, well, that's a big step to doing the same for Stede and the rest of his crew...
wow ok so I really read the first line and my squirrel brain immediately grabbed some popcorn and lept into 'YES CAN WE TALK AB THE TOE SCENE TRAUMA PLEASE' so I was not prepared for the rest of your point but YES
I actually started a list the other day of crew members that I think Izzy would actually be able to befriend and like, in what general order and I'm pretty sure Buttons was near top of the list if not at the very top. Like yeah he might be weird as fuck but he's one of the only people on the Revenge with very legit sailing experience and he knwos what he's fucking doing. I think Izzy would really respect that competence from him once he got past the whole. yknow. seagull besties and naked moon bathing thing. Plus I simply don't think Buttons is bothered enough by the petty issues of mortal beings to actually give a shit about Izzy or any of his personality issues, so I can definitely see them having some level of mutual respect! Even if I wouldn't consider them friends per se, but like, they're amicable.
And YESS I LOVE having that as a segway into Izzy learning to respect and appreciate the rest of the crew too!! Genuinely I just think that Izzy needs to befriend some of the crew members that he sees as more 'real pirates' first and then work his way down the line... that's the key there. (and also why I want a Jim Izzy friendship arc so bad please David Jenkins I fucking see you writing s2 I'm begging you please)
