While looking through Edd’s desk for a new eraser that he could borrow, Future Edd accidentally finds a very mini note pad, in which his curiosity absolutely got the best of him….. it was full of random notes that Edd took, all about FE’s likes, dislikes, and even the things that enrage him.
FE isn’t sure of how to feel about this. At all.
Likes: Cola, playing with Ringo, watching myself draw, sleeping together, sticky toffee pudding, grilled cheese, gardening, days with light rain, his beloved trench coat, Me?
Dislikes: No cola, wintertime, drawing anything for himself, sleeping alone, skipping dinner or forgetting to eat, his scars, days with heavy thunder and lighting, not wearing his trench coat or being fully bare, Himself?
HATES: The color red. ANY suggestion of Tord. Why?
For two years now, I've been a hard shipper of Future Edd and Edd, enjoying it in all sorts of ways, especially with its depictions in DisplacEdd (written by RejectClone) or my own attempt at a silly fic, Stuck In The Past.
To be honest though, the way I actually got into this ship (and by extension the dynamic I enjoy for it the most) is tied to a passion project of mine that's been in the works for said two years.
I'm writing this post to explain a concept I came up with, the 'Future Edd Nexus' (or F.E.N. for short), and how it led to one of my favorite ever takes on Future Edd x Edd.
(THERE'S A LOT OF RAMBLING BEFORE IT GETS TO THE EDDCEST BUT IT'S IMPORTANT CONTEXT, I PROMISE--)
Back in 2024, I came up with the idea of a comic where the entire concept is that I rewrote Eddsworld, but I inserted my, to put it bluntly, Mary Sue OC into it. (I say that lovingly, of course!)
As I rewrote WTFuture, I had the idea that Future Edd's motivation to go back in the past isn't fuelled by a ban of cola, but rather, the disappearance of the OC.
Much more specifically, Future Edd believes that the OC is dead and it was all his fault.
At first, when he goes back in time, his attempts are NOT to kill himself-- but rather, to try and see if he could change the past so in the present, the OC would still be with him. Nothing he does works, though.
Frustrated with nothing bringing them back, is when he decides he's better off killing himself as he'd rather die than deal with the loss of this OC.
And unlike canon, he actually succeeds, blowing his past self's head off with one extremely sharp shot! To his horror, though, nothing happens.
So he does it again. And again. And again. And again, until he's lost count of how many times he's "gone back in time" to kill himself.
At some point, out of frustration, he kills the very OC he wanted to protect; the guilt eating him up immediately. He takes their signature hairpin, putting it onto himself as a grim reminder of what he's done.
Absentmindedly, Future Edd fiddles with his time device, noticing that the numbers on it changed to one he recognizes from before. Hesitantly, he smacks his machine and gets transported in time once more.
To his shock, he's back at one of his "attempts to fix things", the scene left as gruesome as he left it, which is when realization hits him.
He hasn't been traveling back in time, he's been traveling between timelines, and he wasn't killing his own past self over and over but randomly killing Edds from all sorts of universes.
As Future Edd basically suffocates with horror, he gets fed up and resets the time device, unsure what it would do. He smacks it, finding himself in a pure white void, breaking down as realization sets in.
He doesn't know where his original timeline is, if he'll ever make it back, and he can't even begin to comprehend how much damage he must have done in his attempts to fix things.
It's not until a noticeably older Future Edd appears in the same void that he snaps out of it a bit.
They talk for a bit before coming to the realization that this Older Future Edd (who we will now call 'OFE' for short) is someone who lost HIS version of the OC thanks to one of Future Edd's attempts to "fix" things, which ends up in near bloody murder at first.
It doesn't take too long for other Future Edds to start cropping up too-- all sorts of variants between "I'm here to fix things" and "I'm here because some OTHER Future Edd fucked things up and I want to fix that".
OFE persuades Future Edd to establish partnership and for them to start working together on a new goal: Round up any stray Future Edds so they don't cause any trouble, and to continue trying to prevent versions of the OC from dying or going missing-- be it because of the timeline's natural events or because of a Future Edd's meddling.
Future Edd's life then kind of turns into a cycle, his primary goals being what they agreed upon, keeping a journal of all the timelines they've already visited and done work at; as well as picking up supplies and things, seeing that a lot of them end up making themselves at home, as they call it, at the Future Edd Nexus.
// Pausing the story explanation for a second; the Nexus alone I feel has a lot of potential, with there literally being hundreds of Future Edds-- THE Future Edd and OFE themselves could be very interesting to explore, platonically or otherwise.
What really sucked me in and sold me on the ship, however, has to be a specific Edd from a specific timeline that Future Edd finds himself exploring... //
In one of the timelines, which I personally dubbed the 'Apocalypse Timeline', there is an eternal zombie outbreak with eternal consequences.
Most of London is dead-- including Edd's friends; Tom, Matt and even Ringo, all gone. The only survivors are Edd himself, and the OC. They spend their lives doing nothing but trying to survive.
Needless to say when this Edd sees Future Edd, he is NOT happy about it, nor does he trust him. At all.
The two bicker and argue for forever before Future Edd finally convinces Edd and the OC to come with him, and man does he regret it.
For the next few MONTHS, this Edd plays nice in front of OFE, but does his absolute best to spite and sabotage Future Edd, to the point he gets SICK of it.
Of course, it's not like he can do much about it. Not without getting in major trouble anyway, it's just not worth the headache. That, and despite making things worse MOST of the time, there's opportunities where Edd helps out a lot.
And it's during a mission, in the middle of a zombie infected crisis, that Edd learns to appreciate Future Edd a bit more.
He ends up being saved, several times, and it doesn't take long for Edd to develop the butterflies.
Of course he spends a while in denial, after all he insists that Future Edd is a prick and he doesn't NEED saving from him, but eventually he gives up as he realizes he can't stop thinking about him.
The confession doesn't go over well, though.
Future Edd is distressed - perhaps disgusted even - at the idea that a version of his past self would love him, especially that way.
He shoots down Edd immediately, telling him he's imagining things, to stop with this 'sick joke'. After every possible argument was made, he says the thing that finally shuts the conversation up.
For weeks, Future Edd is extremely distant and cold, and Edd doesn't really do much either. He considers leaving the F.E.N and perhaps returning to his original timeline-- that mess would be less painful to deal with than having to be ignored by the man he fell so hard for!
But after a while, things change. Partially out of a sense of guilt, and perhaps by a little push from the OC themselves.
Ignoring Edd turns into asking him to help again, and pushing him away turns into letting him get away with more and more, to the point being hugged is a daily occurrence!
Edd even gets his own nickname eventually-- 'kitten' or 'kitty cat', stemming from the fact he often acts like a clingy cat. That, and he tries so hard to mirror everything Future Edd does he ends up calling him a copy cat sometimes. (The reason Edd has a mullet is because he literally grew it out, just like Future Edd!)
// Meanwhile, Edd calls Future Edd 'old man' a lot; initially as an insult but it quickly turns into an endearing nickname to tease him with instead.
It's not long before, even though he'd often rather die than admit it at first, Future Edd ends up developing his own feelings back for Edd.
Although they don't make it official for a LONG time, given how even post-"we ARE officially together" Future Edd is a constant flustered mess, they start being impossible to separate.
They sleep together (with Edd helping soothe any and all nightmares Future Edd could have), they eat together, they're practically tied together.
They've gone through literally everything possible together, and they both know. When Future Edd finally pushes his embarrassment aside and admits his own feelings to Edd, it's unforgettable for the both of them.
Of course, not all of Future Edd's troubles are gone-- and despite it all, he does try and keep his sight set on finding his way back to his original timeline, to find out what really happened.
But he's not alone, and if those plans don't work out, he has a new life he can cling onto.
... If you read through all of this, THANK YOU.
I know it's silly-- probably very out of character, even! But I've spent such a long time entertaining and creating for this specific scenario between these two, I care way too much about it, and it's been driving me insane not to talk about it.
And I think that's the fun of such a 'what if', anyway. Shipping not only just Future Edd and Edd when they're literally one another from different points in time, but straight up different people from different timelines has so, SO much potential!
I do still like the original pairing and its dynamics too, of course! :D
But now that I've managed to write this up, I certainly look forward to indulging more of my own shenanigans, hehe!
Jimmy made it to Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny! They made reference to Nicktoons Unite in his reveal trailer though it seems they’ve all been hit with amnesia. Oh well won’t let that stop me!
The one of Stephanie looks like my piece of her from the beginning of May because I used my own drawing as a reference lol (mostly because I needed to practice this kind of art style)
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