Question Regarding Earrings

Can't tell if I just got hit with a bug, or an undisclosed effect of a relic, or if there's just something I missed.

Played a run in co-op, we both took Vakuu's earrings, and it behaved as I'd expect.

But also in act 3, every 'choose a card' thing I did also seemed to behave randomly. I do a burning pact, and it doesn't ask, it just exhausts my leftmost card. I try to smith at a rest site, there is no selection screen, it just picks a card. I try to remove at a shop, and there it just picks a curse (better than a rare, at least).

Whatever was causing it, it was also affecting the other player; discard effects with the Silent were also not allowing picks.

It feels like an extension of the Ancient Relic, but this wasn't on the first turn, (nor even in combat, in certain cases), and I didn't see anything that would have caused it otherwise.

It did seem to only take effect after taking the earrings.