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So I hear there's been some fandom drama? Guess it's time for another fic rec list! This fandom is so lovely, so let's focus on the positive and give all the love to our writers and artists. You guys are so talented. ♥️

Work It Harder, Make it Better by dear_monday, two_ravens

Olympics AU! And kind of Sk8er Boi? Charles is an Olympic skateboarder at the end of his competitive career and Edwin is a rising star in the world of dressage. They fall in love at Paris 2024. Amazing writing, as always, and I also enjoyed Niko and Crystal as members of the skateboarding and equestrian teams having their own Olympics Romance and Jenny as Charles' world-weary coach.

Twin Flame by Leandra

Another "He was a punk, he did ballet" romance! This time, everyone is alive and the boys meet when Charles watches Edwin perform at his little sister's ballet recital. The romance and Charles as a big brother are very sweet, which is great as this fic also covers some heavy themes. It's set in the 90s so there's discussion of homophobia, the AIDs crisis and Charles' canon child abuse. Suffice to say, his bisexual awakening is quite fraught. Recommended!

Love for Hire by lucrow

Edwin hires Charles to freak out his parents with his obnoxious fake boyfriend. What could possible haaappeeen? And yes, it's a ballet/punk romance too. 😅 Anyway, it's giving fantastic banter, lots of emotions and great use of trope! I also enjoyed Edwin's relationship with his mum in this fic, excellent parental feels.

so I try to talk refined by shadowquill17

Charles finds out about the Cat King taking on his appearance and (somehow) arrives at the conclusion that Edwin isn't attracted to him. Charles having body image as well as chronic self-esteem issues was interesting but kind of heartbreaking. Read it for Edwin's agonised attempts to verbalise his sexual attraction to Charles without exploding. That's love right there.

A Royal Pain(e) (series) by handwrittenhello

Royalty AU! I love a bodyguard romance from time to time and this one is lovely. Lots of yearning.

Turnabout's Fair Play by Like MmmCookies

Edwin enlists Niko and Crystal to teach him how to flirt with Charles. It starts off cute and awkward and ends up Master Of All He Surveys, which is very Edwin.

I will love you (I really love you) by ghostinthelibrary

Charles has a feelings realization and tries to confess to Edwin. Repeatedly. From a cock-blocking enchanted statue to a Hellhound, it's farcical and fun. This fic has been living in my head rent free for months.

seasons of mists by laiqualaurelote

Edwin hires Charles to be the barista in his book shop's cafe. Two cosy AUs in one! And it even comes (appropriately) with its own reading list and fanart! Very cute, excellent autumnal vibes and a superb imaginary book shop. I'm genuinely so devastated it's not a real place. 😭

Ariadne's Thread by hobbitsdoitbetter

In which Edwin is demisexual and trying to make it work with Charles. Love to see some ace spectrum representation!

you know the problem with history (it keeps coming back like weeds) by aletterinthenameofsanity

Amnesia AU! And kind of Secret Relationship? Edwin has Not So Temporary Amnesia that made him forget a whole romantic relationship with Charles early in their partnership. And Charles never told him... Surely this will have no impact on the events of canon?? 😬 I loved this twist on the trope!

scraped to the marrow by Anonymous

Edwin learned black magic in Hell and kind of went to the Dark Side. I love the trope of "Everyone thinks Character avoids violence because they're scared/weak/nice/bad at it, but actually they're a bit too good at it" and this fic does it well. I love regular Edwin, but Lord Bone was also pretty cool.

To Walk Back Into Hell by Asidian

Charles goes to Hell in Edwin's place, so naturally Edwin needs to find a way to rescue him! Interesting Hell lore and I loved all the Charles love in this.

It does not stop by williamvapespeare

Now he's safe from Hell, Edwin finally works through his PTSD. Emotional, but peak Emotional Support Charles for the win!

signed, sealed, delivered by sulfuric

Outsider PoV of the boys and the agency through the years from the perspective of the Ghost Postman. He's kind of underrated as a side character, but there are so many Implications about the Dead Letter Office, so I enjoyed the worldbuilding. And the supernatural community of London gossiping about/shipping the boys (they're just like us, for real). Love that trope.

not so secret by lola_prongs

Social Media/Celebrity AU! In which they're both actors and Charles relentlessly thirsts after Edwin on Twitter. Great use of social media/epistolary storytelling.

Like a record, baby by singtome

Another celebrity/social media AU, but this time Charles and Crystal are budding rock stars and Edwin is their manager. Also Edwin goes viral as the mysterious #HotGuyatUnity after his picture's taken at an event and Charles *tries* to set the record straight. This one's funny, generous with the yearning and UST and is part of a series that also touches on the darker side of the music industry/celebrity, which I appreciated. And it also has this excellent visual representation of the online drama.

@ghostinthelibrarywrites @tumblerislovetumblerislife @shadowquill17 @neurodivergent-fangirling @whatthehorsedoicallthisblog @shazziez @many-gay-magpies @extremely-eager-reader @atariakana @guardianspirits13 @colourmornings @herebehunters @avoiceofnerat @littlepocketuniverse @overlord-of-chaos @fairandfatalasfair @handwrittenhello @every-moment-a-different-sound @williamvapespeare @laiqualaurelote @dear-monday @dear-lucrow @aletterinthenameofsanity @likemmmcookies @bibliomancer7 @c-rowland @nobledragonflying @hobbitsdoitbetter

Surprise! I'm alive!

I'll be completely honest with you, this was supposed to be posted for the 1 year anniversary. It's been in the works for a year! If you pay attention, you can really see how my artstyle changed over time! There's a lot of hidden detail and so much thought put into this one.

Set breakdown time! Next up: the boys' London office.

As before, I've circled the points of interest and numbered them to make them easier to talk about. Cool? Cool. Let's do this!

1: They have matching top hats. This is so charming I just can't even. Did they need them for a case, or were they just being silly? Either way, this is adorable.

2: They have their name properly in glass on the door. It seems to read "Dead Boy Detective Agency," though I'm not 100% sure on the final word.

3: An early/supernatural style of camera? Perhaps a pair of binoculars? Likely some sort of equipment for cases, at any rate.

4: One of these boys is fond of random eye décor, and it is so odd and funny. Love this for them.

5: Someone has a long coat and straw hat. My money's on Edwin, since that style of hat was popular in the Edwardian era.

6: They have matching… whatever these are? They look almost like wine bottles, but neither of them can drink, so I have no idea. If anyone has any thoughts, feel free to share.

7: The mirror they pop in and out of when they need to visit the office.

8: A volleyball, I think? Random sporting equipment of Charles', in any case. This seems to be distinct from the soccer ball he's playing with in the demon prep montage. It lives by the couch; it's also there in the scene when Crystal is napping in their office.

9: A single foosball stick, without the rest of the table, mounted up on the wall. Incredible.

10: Some sort of a framed certificate. I think it has their names on it, but it's very hard to see. If anyone has managed to get a better shot/decipher, please feel free to share.

11: A random ship in a bottle.

12: A taxidermy wolf's head. Boys. Boys, why.

13: So many board games. I can make out at least six editions of Clue, Aggravation, Yahtzee, a Ouija board, and Scotland Yard. The rest are all too blurry for me to read, but again, please do chime in if you're able to identify any of the others.

A comic about that one ouija board they have underneath all their Clue boards.

Charles and Edwin's bodys are burried together.

Someone is investigating Charles' death, eventually it gets enough steam that they get permission to escivate his grave... except there's two bodys there.

No DNA match, but its way older than Charles' body, from around the time another boy disappeared... so they track down the Payne family and see if they can match the DNA.

Of course, it does.

This, of course, spurrs a massive conspiracy that the school snuck the other boys remains in Charles's casket to cover up Edwin's death.

The Payne family pays for a proper burial for Edwin, but Charles, liking that he and his best mate have been together forever literally, moves the body back, much to everyone's confusion and shock.

Que a series of more bizarre ways people try to keep Edwin's bones in place, and the boys (to Niko's amusement , and Crystal's headache) keep moving them back. Sometimes they lay the bones next to eachother, sometimes they're high fiving. Charles likes wrapping his arm around Edwin's shoulder.

On one memorable occasion, Charles was so annoyed they kept being separated, he jumbled their bones around.

Now the bones are in the British museum on display with a few words about each of the boys, (there's an excerpt from one of Edwin's journals from when he was alive. There's a quote from one of the boys who attacked Charles about what a good mate he was.)

Charles and Edwin go and visit the bones sometimes, rearranging them again and again. They eventually leave the bones behind after having them hold hands.

(Edwin defacing museum property bc 'that is embarrassing, Charles. I hardly thought anyone would ever read that.' He also obviously crosses out what Charles's "friend" had to say.)

i understand that most people likely wanted for charles to immediately be in love with edwin back and for him to know it immediately, but i sincerely appreciate that he didn’t.

but i also appreciate that he didn’t immediately write it off either.

payneland is, for most people, absolutely endgame and i totally understand that (because it is for me as well) but charles has never had to look at edwin in a romantic light before. he’s never thought about it and he’s never been forced to think about it.

edwin can only begin to understand his attraction to charles because of the cat king forcing him to face his sexual attraction to men, which is something that he had been repressing for a long time before then.

charles has always known he’s liked girls and that has always been the easiest answer so i can’t imagine he ever thought about men in a romantic sense before his death and i don’t think he ever would’ve thought to see edwin in that light after his death.

to us, it was very clear off the bat that edwin was a raging homosexual. but i’d argue that it was for the characters of the show as well.

crystal immediately clocks edwin’s behaviour and frustration toward her as jealousy. she very quickly calls them a married couple and tells charles that edwin’s jealous. charles had called him jealous before that, but he thought that edwin was just jealous that there was a new person in charles’ life which is not inaccurate, but it goes far deeper than that, and i don’t think that either charles or edwin understand that in this moment. i’m fairly certain crystal does though. she has a much more modern understanding of human sexuality and i truly think she knows how edwin feels about charles off the bat.

niko very quickly caught on the fact that Edwin had something romantic going on with with monty and even the cat king (which i don’t think the other two picked up on, only that he makes edwin flustered and nervous). this is also just another reason that she’s such an amazing friend, especially to edwin, because she doesn’t even bad an eye at this despite the fact that Edwin is likely terrified right now. not only does he make an offhanded statement about how monty is a boy and he’s a boy, but he was also murdered for being a boy who was deemed too feminine, and that was because he was clocked as queer in his life.

the cat king is immediately able to say and do certain things that get edwin feeling hot and bothered because he’s physically attracted to him and he didn’t doubt his ability to do so once.

when esther turns monty into a human, she doesn’t think for a moment that he will have any trouble seducing edwin.

even simon in their 1916 all boys boarding school where homosexuality was quite literally a crime could tell that edwin was queer.

i think charles always kind of knew that edwin likes men, but it’s very much something that is in the back of his head that he knows vaguely. he knows to be jealous of monty and the cat king and not to be jealous of niko, but he doesn’t understand what that really means for edwin. no one has said it out loud, but it doesn’t make any difference to him when he does tell him because of course he is. that was always just kind of a fact about him, but not an important one. not to charles.

regardless, everyone knows him to be queer, and he knew himself to be different, but i think he did always know that he was attracted to men. it was repressed, of course, and im sure there was a lot of self hatred and internalized homophobia there, but i think he sort of always knew.

charles, on the other hand, just went with the label that was most natural, the one that didn’t have any negative connotations to it, and that most people assumed was the norm. it worked for him because he was able to masquerade as that demographic. he’s never had to think twice about his sexuality because all he needs to know is that he’s attracted to women and that’s fine. i think that if he was able to live a full life, he may never have even thought about it and would’ve settled down with a woman, never realizing that he was also attracted to men.

we all know how jealous he was about monty and the cat king, but i don’t think he even began to consider the possibility that this was a romantic sense of jealousy and not just his protectiveness for his friend and for his friendship.

it truly speaks magnitudes to his character that after edwin confesses to him, he stops. he stops and he thinks. he’s an impulsive character and we know that from the beginning. but he stops here.

he has never considered men to be an aspect of his sexual orientation, but he refuses to sit here and give edwin an immediate yes or no. it would be so easy for him to say “i love you and you’re my best friend, but im straight and i don’t like you in that way,” but he doesn’t do that. he says that he can’t say he’s in love with him back, but that there is no one other than him on this plane of existence or on any plane of existence that he would ever go in the hell for and that they have forever to figure out what that means.

he says i love you, and i can’t sit here and say that i mean that romantically right now, but you mean more to me than anybody ever has and ever will.

charles rowland takes this scared young boy’s face in his hands, and he says “we can figure this out together.”

he’s not rejecting him here. he’s saying i don’t know if i love you like that, but i love you in every other way and i need some time to think about it, but i might love you in that way too.

and even if i don’t, nothing will ever change how much i love you.