MamaBirdSuga's Blog

Day 7 of painlandweek: free day (soulmates)

Edwin does something bold and it pays off spectacularly.

Hiding from Death

-

Fandom: Dead Boy Detectives Rating: Explicit Wordcount: 26.1k. Oneshot Relationships: Edwin/Charles Tags: Musician/Manager AU. Mutual Pining. Friends with Benefits. Developing relationship. Awful family gatherings. Meeting the family. Charles has a praise kink, Edwin has a Charles kink. Referenced Past Child Abuse.

His coat is a deep blue, and there is snow on the tips of his shoes. A thick grey scarf hangs loose over his shoulders, and he is standing in the courtyard, knee aligned with the bench, looking so much like a dream that the cogs in Charles’s brain splutter and spit smoke, unambiguously perplexed. “Oh, I’m having a nervous breakdown,” Charles concludes. Edwin gives him a look. “You aren’t, though. At least I hope not.”

Obviously, the actor couldn't because you can't make someone go through internal bleeding and hypothermia for a TV show, but Charles would have looked a lot worse than shivering in a blanket.

Here are some symptoms of internal bleeding

Vomiting blood

Blood coming out of eyes, ears or nose

Bruises

Ashy skin

Confusion/lethargy

And some symptoms for hypothermia

Confusion/lethargy

Slurred speech

Blue skin

Loss of coordination

Fluid in lungs (because Charles was in the lake) coughing/short breath

I imagine Charles looked like he did in the show at first, but slowly, as time went on, Charles started to ask the same questions that Edwin just answered. Charles stops shivering but starts coughing and gets harder for edwi to understandwhat he is saying.

Once Edwin sees blood trickling out of Charles nose and eventually coughs up a glob of blood, he knows Charles doesn't have long. So he helps Charles make a nest out of old blankets and whatever soft thing they can find in the attic. Edwin has to finish the nest himself because Charles gets too weak to lift the blankets or even stand.

After the nest is made and Charles lays down, confusion has fully set in, and Charles is getting worried about making it to his room before a teacher finds him out of bed or hears something and thinks one of his mates have found him and are going to drag him back to the lake. Edwin soothes him by reading to him, and the exhaustion finally makes Charles close his eyes for the last time.

Because on one hand-- she IS noticing things Edwin let go unspoken, and Charles DOES have some deep seated anger and grief.

But on the other hand, she is ABSOLUTELY projecting her own issues and traumas with violent men onto Charles. Like, he has some anger he hasn't dealt with, for sure, but he doesn't have Anger Issues in the way she claims. We never once see him him angrier than a situation calls for, in my opinion.

In the Devlin house, he's seeing a man brutally murder a woman and children. I ALSO would have tried to intervene.

With the Night Nurse, she had just mentally tortured both Charles and Crystal, and was threatening to essentially send Edwin back to Hell. Again, I for sure would have murdered her.

Charles is a generally fairly emotional guy, and extremely protective. But I truly don't think he has severe rage issues the way Crystal consistently insinuates, I think he has some unresolved issues and they trigger HER issues and she ends up projecting a lot.

Their friendship is fascinating to me because she's in this weird place of being both right and wrong when it comes to him, and giving a weird mixture of helpful and unhelpful advice.

And HE'S in this weird place of pinning a lot of his unresolved issues with being dead so young onto HER. As much as his death is better than his life was in many ways, as much as he's happy with Edwin and wouldn't change it-- he still died way too young and struggles with that in a way Edwin doesn't (Hell has a way of granting perspective, I think). And here's this living girl who can see him and can remind him what it's like to be alive and have a taste of what he might've done-- flirt and date and have a girlfriend.

So here are these two people who are genuinely friends, genuinely care about each other, and are partially right about each other-- while also being kind of hilariously wrong and projecting their own issues without realising.

"Spices" can mean "this has some oregano and black pepper in it" or it can mean "this has cumin cayenne and paprika and if you eat this you will be sick in bed in pain for a week" for me.

Seriously, this is an allergy issue and a huge oversight on the part of corporations.

Black Menswear modelled by Black Men

I've seen some artists interpret the light house crash out scene as Charles missing his old life and probably struggles more with being dead than Edwin. While that is a good interpretation, I don't think Charles's feelings about life and death are that simple.

I think Charles hates how he died and wishes he and Edwin could experience living together.

Because, objectively, dying at 16 from hypothermia and internal bleeding because your racist friends beat you and drove you to a frozen lake is a terrible way to go. No amount of good in Charles after life will change that, so it makes sense he would regret that no matter what.

He grew up in an abusive household and went to school with a bunch of posh rich kids, so he probably wouldn't miss his life, just what life could've been. If he got to be old enough to move out and live on his own terms, old enough to leave his shitty house and shitty school.

Now he's made a good after life with Edwin. He co-founded a successful detective agency, he has a best friend who loves him unconditionally, and he goes on adventures every day. I have no doubt he loves his afterlife with Edwin and wouldn't change that for anything, but you can still love the outcome and hate how it happened.

Obviously, Charles couldn't say all of that because he was reeling from having his worst memories thrown in his face and his friends being scared of him. He makes up for this when he tells Edwin,'I wouldn't want to be dead with anyone else'.

sacrificial lamb Edwin who could never blend in, never shape himself into a dog to run with wolves, who makes himself smaller, smaller, prays to be invisible, and they slaughter him anyways. they laughed while they killed him too.

Sketches, sketches! They’re musicians this time!!!

Inspired by "The Stones I Threw at Your Window" by Lucrow! It showed up on my dashboard this weekend and the mental imprint that poster left was so intense I had to do something about it

I took a lot of creative liberties with the outfits, don’t mind me, I just wanted to see Charles in a crop top and Edwin as Damiano

Niko and I during the entire interview: just kiss already, you idiots!!!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/64879519