Thrilled to announce DEADBOYWEEN will be returning for spooky season 2025!! A vaguely Halloween-themed Dead Boy Detectives Fan Event that will run from Oct 20th - Nov 2nd!!
Once again featuring 14 prompts, one for each day of the event, that can be interpreted however you wish, with any characters from the show and through any medium! Fics, art, gifs, it's entirely up to you! Get creative!!
Prompts will be up soon!!
(apologies for this being a couple of weeks later than last year, I'm starting uni soon so preparing for that has been Stressful and I haven't had much time - but it will be happening!!)
Charles thinks he should maybe have a harder time believing Edwin, when he tells him.
Only, he looks the part, doesn’t he? Pale skin, pale eyes, dark hair; sharp, angular features. Properly regal, he is. Like something off the cover of those raunchy supernatural romance novels Charles sees in the storefronts when he’s out on the town with his mates.
Not for the first time, Charles sees those pale eyes dart down to his neck, and an odd little shiver goes down his spine.
—
Or: a different version of Charles and Edwin's first meeting, where Edwin is a vampire instead of a ghost. Some things go very differently, while others don't change much at all.
crystal, to be frank, is horrified when talk of his death makes charles smile. not one of his mask-smiles, either, but a warm, excited thing that lights up his face from the inside out.
"it was lovely," he says, almost dreamily. "edwin told me all about ghost rules and read me detective stories. just sort of drifted off, didn't i, mate?"
crystal's no-doubt wide eyes slide over to where edwin is looking at charles with his lips pressed into a tight line. she doesn't need to reach out and touch him to know that he vehemently disagrees.
"was it really that gentle?" she asks him later, when charles is busy sorting through his bag. edwin's fingers clench around his elbow.
"no," he says, voice tight. "no it was not." she watches him fight with himself, before he sighs. "late-stage hypothermia is anything but gentle. it was frightening."
crystal would chalk it up to charles's perpetual need to make any negative emotion something small and dismissable, if only he hadn't seemed so genuinely wistful. "does he remember?"
"i am not surprised that he doesn't seem to. he was not at all aware towards the end." edwin's face is pained.
"you don't have to tell me," crystal says, despite the desperate itch of curiosity. edwin visibly relaxes, sending her a tight smile.
"i believe this is best left in the past, truth be told. i doubt that charles would be happy for me to remember him as i do that night, so i shan't betray his confidence, unknowing or not."
when crystal googles hypothermia symptoms that night, all she can wonder is just how bad it had really been, and then be strangely glad that charles only remembers the kindness of it all.
Day 20 of Promptober and day 1 of Deadboyween are complete! While I am still working on Day 5 of Promptober because it has taken on a mind of its own, I am still writing other things as well :)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
and my time I fear is nearly over
when the night is done, you'll vanish in the sun
will I hold you when the night is over?
Lord Huron, "When the Night Is Over"
(inspired by G H O S T by @idliketobeatree and this art by @tragedy-machine)
» @deadboyween Day 2: HAUNTED
1 MONTH TO GO UNTIL THE FIRST DAY OF DEADBOYWEEN!!
30 days left to get creating!! (But don't stress if you want to participate but can't in the time frame! The AO3 collection will always be there and open to add to, and this blog will always be there to reblog your works no matter when they're uploaded!! <3)
Text version prompt list and inspiration below the cut!
Oct 20th: Day 1 - Nightmare
Perhaps one of the characters has a nightmare that seems just a little too real. Perhaps they all go through something that IS a living (or dead) nightmare. Maybe it's both and the nightmare comes true!
Oct 21st: Day 2 - Haunted
Another case similar to the Devlin house? The gang trapped in a haunted place and need to figure out how to get out? Or maybe a person is being haunted, or the boys are doing some haunting themselves!
Oct 22nd: Day 3 - Mythology
One of last year's prompts that was so good I had to bring it back for a second time. Perhaps this prompt takes a deep dive into the parallels between Charles & Edwin and Orpheus & Eurydice, or perhaps it takes inspiration from another one of the many many mythological stories from around the world!
Oct 23rd: Day 4 - Past
As always, we included a few vaguer prompts for more creativity! Past can mean whatever you want it to mean, whether it be the past of the characters, or an AU set in the past, or include some time travel! Go crazy with this one!
Oct 24th: Day 5 - Demon
There are a few demons we meet within the show - David, the baby doll spider.... maybe the characters have yet another run-in with one of them, or maybe they meet an entirely new demon, with different terrifying abilities.
Oct 25th: Day 6 - Casefic
Another one from last year's list that's just a classic for DBDA events. The gang are on a case! Works could be a retelling of one of the cases from the show of the comics, or entirely original! It could be a simple haunting or perhaps there's something more sinister going on that will lead the characters on an emotional rollercoaster.
Oct 26th: Day 7 - Endless
We meet Death and Despair in the show, but there's so much to work with with the characters we love meeting the Siblings from the Sandman. Perhaps they'd have a run-in with Desire, or end up in the Dreaming, or maybe you could write the Sandman season 2 cameo we never had.
Or, this prompt could easily be interpreted more literally, and your works could revolve around something that never ends, whether it be the love between the two boys or something entirely different!
Oct 27th: Day 8 - Free Day
No specific prompt for this day! Go wild! Works can be anything you like, unconnected to any of the suggested themes!!
Oct 28th: Day 9 - Afterlife
This could mean so many things in the context of this show. It could be about Charles and Edwin's afterlife in the agency, or connected to Heaven or Hell. Works could explore the horrors of Edwin's experience in Hell, or even the very different but equally terrifying horrors of being forced into Heaven when you know your personal Heaven is still on Earth.
Oct 29th: Day 10 - Death
A core theme of the show as a whole, you could explore more details of one or both of the boys' deaths, or what happened to Niko after episode 8. Or, the boys could meet Death herself! Another fairly vague prompt that I cannot wait to see what people come up with for!
Oct 30th: Day 11 - Mirror
Mirrors are significant throughout the show, since the ghosts use them to travel. Maybe they get stuck in whatever the dimension is between mirrors that allows them to travel. Maybe the word takes on a looser meaning, and the works include narrative or mental mirrors and parallels!
Oct 31st: Day 12 - Halloween
The main event!! Since it's such a spooky show, there's so much potential and inspiration for Halloween-themed shenanigans. What do ghosts even do on Halloween? Do they dress up? Party? Haunt the living? It's entirely up to you!
Nov 1st: Day 13 - Post-Canon
Since the show tragically ended after the 8 episodes we love, there's so much to work with after the events of the final episode. What happened to Niko? How will Charles and Edwin's relationship progress, if at all? Will they meet the Cat King again, or Monty? How does the Night Nurse fit into the Agency now she's overseeing their work?
Nov 2nd: Day 14 - AU
The only rule is: put those characters somewhere else. Or make them make different choices. It could be a different time period, or characters could be different in some way. What if the Alive Girls were the Dead Girls? Or Charles and Edwin grew up in the same time period and met at school? The possibilities are endless. I'm so excited to see everyone's ideas for every prompt but this one always gets me the most excited, this fandom is so creative when it comes to AUs!!
It's been just over a month now since the final prompt day of deadboyween and I just wanted to say thank you all so much for taking part!!
I haven't read all your fics yet since I've been pretty busy but the ones I did read are all absolutely brilliant and I cannot wait to read more of them over the holidays when I've got a little less stuff on
It was so fun to run this event!! This fandom is so special and all of you are so creative and talented and it made me so happy every single time I got a notification!!
ALSO I am planning on running the event next year too so be sure to stick around for that!! ❤️❤️
