Down with COVID so I've been sleeping a lot more than usual. Decided to make some ghostboys (who might be aliveboys here since we all know ghosts don't sleep)....
Some random thoughts:
You know Charles gonna rock those heart boxers
Edwin is definitely a sleeps-with-socks-on-sort-of-guy
Spooning forever - do not separate
I was going to add some bite marks and nailmarks but got lazy. But Edwin's hair is a little more disheveled than usual so ... make of that as you will, haha.
afterlife as in edwin was the first thing charles saw after he died. afterlife as in charles is the first person edwin met after escaping hell. afterlife as in creating the agency and solving cases together again and again and again.
afterlife as in already happening and having forever to figure it out
31 days, 31 prompts you can use for creating anything you want: art, fics, edits, headcanons, poetry, ect...
Anyone is welcome. You can post here on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram or in the AO3 collection tagging @dbdapromptober with the hashtag #dbdapromptober2025. More info coming soon.
More Season 2 angst based on the popular theory about Charles becoming anxious whenever he can't see Edwin after Hell. I'm picturing his anxiety getting worse and worse until it eventually culminates into actual panic attacks. Only, Charles is a Gen Xer. So he has no clue why he periodically feels like he's dying all over again. Actually he'd argue that dying didn't even feel this bad, and that shit SUCKED.
Other than feeling better when Edwin's around, Edwin isn't much help either. Both boys assume that Charles must have been cursed at some point, but they can't figure it out, or what triggers the attacks when they happen. It doesn't help Edwin to research them that they never happen when he's around.
Eventually Crystal is with Charles when one hits and she's able to bring him down faster than he's been able to on his own. He doesn't even have the breath yet to ask if she used her powers to fix it before she's demanding, "What the hell man? Why didn't you tell me you have panic attacks?"
As angsty and sad as this, I also think it’s so funny that the boys first reaction would be thinking Charles was cursed, gotta love the misinformed ghosts
just thinking about how edwin is demonstrably the more physically resilient of the two but charles is the brawn.
edwin can take a hit, he can get burned by iron, he can be literally tortured and keep on ticking, he barely notices it, but charles is the one who steps in front of him and takes the hard knocks instead.
charles knows edwin’s tough, he’s seen it himself. but he’s decided edwin won’t suffer ever again, not if charles can help it
WHUMPTOBER is a month-long, prompt-based creation CHALLENGE (think: Inktober, but whumpier). There are four prompts for each day of the month, giving 124 for you to play with! There is also a list of 18 alternative prompts that can be subbed in for any day to give participants as much creative freedom as possible.
All prompts are meant to serve as inspiration without being taken literally (e.g. you don’t have to include the exact wording of prompts into your work). Feel free to run rampant on interpretation. For example, if the prompt is “flame", you could create something with reference to a candle/campfire, your character could have suffered a burn, or the flame could be a reference to an ‘old flame’ - an old relationship. It’s truly down to you!
You can produce work in any media you choose, including but not limited to: writing, visual artwork, photo/video/audio edits, paper crafts and elaborate recommendation lists (not just a list of links). You can participate as much or as little as you want (i.e. you don’t have to do ALL the prompts if you don’t want to) and prompts can be used in any order. They are also free to use even after the event ends.
Please make sure to read the Event Info and FAQ carefully, as most of your questions will be answered there already. For everything else, you are welcome to come to our ask box or ask questions in our Discord server here.
Information on how to TAG is here.
This year’s AO3 Collection can be found here.
This year’s playlist can be found here.
The ‘Anatomy of a Whumptober Prompt’ post can be found here.
And our 'Resources for Writing Sensitive Topics’ post is here.
We’re very excited to see the community come together for yet another year of Whumptober! Go ham with the prompts, and support your fellow creators - we wish you all the best of luck, but most importantly: HAVE FUN!
Happy whumping,
Mods Vanne, Yenn, Kitty and Surro
Text versions of the prompts, including a google doc format, are posted below the cut!
A Google Doc of the prompts can be found here for easy copy-and-pasting!
Whumptober 2025 Prompt List
No. 1: “Please don’t cry”
Lamb to Slaughter | Ceremony | Beg for Forgiveness
No. 2: “You’ve got a lot of nerve to dredge up all my fears.”
Prophecy | Sewer | Taking Accountability
No. 3: “I look in people’s windows, transfixed by rose golden glows.”
Isolation | Candlelight | Found Family
No. 4: “Don’t be scared, I’ve done this before.”
Non-Human Whumper | Iron Rod | Loss of Powers
No. 5: “My panic’s at the ceiling, but I’m face down on the carpet.”
Quivering | Dream Journal | Phobia
No. 6: “No grave can hold my body down.”
Caught in a Net | Medical Restraints | Pinned to the Wall
No. 7: “Tell me that you’re okay, and I’m fine.”
Trapped with the Enemy | Elevator | Pushed Beyond Breaking Point
No. 8: “Oh horror, oh horror, what did you see?”
Self-Inflicted Injury | Held at Gunpoint | Dissociation
No. 9: “We’ll make it alright to come undone.”
Touch | Flashbacks | Scalding
No. 10: “There’s nothing you can ever say, nothing you can ever do.”
Without Consent | Secrets | Lips Sewn Shut
No. 11: “Can you get through all the pain inside you?”
Hidden Injury | Laceration | Forced Reveal
No. 12: “It’ll be for nothing.”
Cardiac Arrest | Sacred Place | Withholding Medical Treatment
No. 13: “How dull is it to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished.”
Never Enough | Insignia | Forced Retirement
No. 14: “In the end, it’s worthwhile.”
Ignoring an Illness | Body Bag | Wounded Caretaker
No. 15: “You can take a break, if you just tell me that it hurts.”
Failed Rescue Attempt | Body Part in the Mail | Live-Streamed Torture
No. 16: “I’ve had the rug pulled beneath my feet.”
Repressed Trauma | Permanent Marker | Disorientation
No. 17: “Tell me there’s a hope for me.”
Internal Bleeding | Coma | Redemption
No. 18: “As the world caves in.”
Dystopia | Ruins | Environmental Whump
No. 19: “You’re on your own, lost in the wild.”
Dehumanisation | Living Weapon | On Patrol
Also, hear me out on a headcanon really quick for the Dead Boy Detectives: Edwin Payne does not have a good memory at all.
And he swears up and down that before Hell, he had a damn near perfect memory but 70 years in Hell will screw something up about you, if not everything.
Why do you think they document every case with time cards and why he carries a journal around? It’s because without it, he’d genuinely would not remember a lot of shit. If it isn’t written down, to Edwin, it’s almost like it never happened. And not to mention how I think he’s terrible with names too. He confused Charles’s name with so many things for years, and only just recently got better at remembering them. And Charles never really got pissed off or faulted Edwin for it, because at the end of the day, Edwin is REMEMBERING.
He genuinely panics about the passage of time too. Quickest way to get him in a dissociative shutdown? Manipulate the clocks around him to have passed faster than they should, you will have him actually having a panic attack over it. His concept of time was so fucked in Hell, he prefers to have a clock or some kind of watch with him to keep track of time. Because he knows if he didn’t, after he finished a book or solved a case, he wouldn’t know if 20 minutes or 20 years had passed.
The memories were fuzzy for the longest that when Edwin finally felt safe, felt adored and appreciated and loved and cared for, THAT’S when the memories starting becoming clearer. And trust, it was not pretty in the slightest. Like Charles could do something or say something so small and it’d make Edwin freeze up for a good ten minutes. Like not blinking, an entirely unresponsive demeanor and it’d make Charles panic and when Edwin snapped out of it, he wouldn’t have a single clue what actually caused it. It could’ve been a smell, it could’ve been a doll head, it could’ve been a certain screech from a monster, he wouldn’t know. He never really knows.
I wish we would talk more about how 70 years in Hell would’ve fucked Edwin up so much because ghosts appear to have a subconscious, and if you have a subconscious, you have a psyche. And 70 years in HELL would’ve caused permanent damage to just about ANYONE’S psyche.
Thank you for attending by Ted Talk. Feel free to grab a pamphlet on your way out.
Hiii, in regards of your “drawing requests to get the dbda tag trending” first of all that is really nice of you and thank you, and second I was wondering if you could draw payneland in like a park or some swings, nothing to difficult of course. 🙃
"Turns out I didn't need forever to figure the rest out after all."
Why did I choose to do this on my bumpy water colour paper? I have no idea. Probably the same reason I challenged myself to draw sitting figures. Anyway bench swings are the best swings, so here you go!
At first glance, she seemed almost invisible , hunched, round-shouldered, skin the dull grey of old scars. Her hair hung limp against her face; in the dim light, the iron ring piercing her cheek glinted like a mournful star.
But the room changed around her.
The air thickened, like wet cloth pressed to the mouth. The shadows deepened into pools of something that felt alive, and for a heartbeat Edwin felt the same leaden pull he had felt in Hell; a gravity of despair, slow and relentless.
His throat closed. His pen dropped, spattering ink across the statement.
“You...” he rasped, voice cracking like dry parchment.
Despair of the Endless watched him. Her gaze wasn’t cruel; it wasn’t anything. It was like looking into a still, black pond that reflected only your worst thoughts.
“I was…” Her voice was soft, toneless as falling ash. “Thinking of a friend.”
A little sneak peek at what I've been working on recently; "Despair's Friend".
I absolutely loved the confession scene in Dead Boy Detectives. For so, so many reasons.
Edwin was just killed, probably a couple of times. He just found out that the guy, who doomed him to Hell actually had a crush on him. He lost his notes, he was alone in this again, so scared, hiding, but not having enough powers to run away again.
And then Charles barged in, this idiot barged into Hell, threw a bomb at Edwin’s torturer, grabbed him and ran. No doubts. No fear. Pure determination. The force that has been pushing Edwin for thirty years.
And they are on the stairs, so close, so close, but Edwin doesn’t know what will happen when they’re back. He knows that Crystal and Niko will be there, maybe the Nurse, and he looks up at this ridiculous boy and decides then and there, that Charles needs to know. On this damned staircase. Because it doesn’t matter, who will catch them, if anyone - he just went down to hell, has seen Edwin shaking from fear and did exactly what he knew Edwin needed him to do - got them out. Together.
And what I loved more than Edwin’s confession? The reaction.
That careful, gentle, gut-wrenchingly honest reaction. “You’re my best mate”. “We have all the time in the world to figure out the rest”. Pure love in this statement, oh my god. Not necessarily romantic, maybe platonic, it doesn’t matter, it really doesn’t. Charles didn’t freeze, he didn’t stutter, he knew immediately, that these words make him feel something, but he doesn’t know what yer. And he knew that he doesn’t care if Edwin is in love with him, because that is the same boy that read him bedtime stories, so he would pass away without fear. The same boy who created a detective agency with him. The same boy who argued with him other books. The same boy. Edwin. Whatever the hell Charles feels? They will figure it out. Together.
It's approximately ten years after I finished making them, but I crocheted a Charles and an Edwin!
I can't draw worth anything and I'm not clever enough for memes or textposts, but I can crochet. Mostly. Ignore the mistakes that are glaringly obvious to me but are probably unnoticeable to everyone else.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dead Boy Detectives (TV)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne/Charles Rowland
Characters: Charles Rowland (DCU), Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne
Additional Tags: Apocalypse, Near Death Experiences, Near Drowning, Hurt/Comfort, Brief mention of Edwin’s parents, Anxiety
Summary:
After a heavy rain threatens to flood London, Edwin goes looking for Charles
Hello, this is the first fic I’ve written ever and of course it’s of our favorite dead boys, so if you wanna check it out and leave a nice comment I’d really appreciate it.
