Home of the Codependency World Cup

Gnat, grown up person and fanfic writer. Ask me about the Dead Boy Detectives.

[roseganymede95]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Finally posted to tumblr, my Dead Boy Detectives prequel series. In which the boys love each other a whole lot and possess not one single iota of chill.

[roseganymede95]

Hello. I'm going around and asking the cool kids the following. 1) Who is your favourite DBDA character? 2) What is your most insane headcanon about them?

Lol, thank you for thinking I am cool by any metric. I’m touched .

Charles is certainly my favorite to write, so I will deliver my least popular opinion about him: I think Charles is kind of a rich poser in the ska scene.

I DO NOT MEAN that he isn’t actually cool, or that he doesn’t belong there, but let’s be serious. The most salient fact we know about Charles Rowland’s life is that he went to a historic boy’s boarding school in the late 1980s. That is rich kid shit. They don’t do sport scholarships at places like that. (This is also why I write his dad as a doctor—to ground the family in a class status that would be notably out of place among Rich rich kids with old money, but still be able to afford St. Hil’s.)

Charles is an upper-middle-class teenager who goes to a posh boarding school. The third wave ska scene in the UK was a subculture with very working class roots. I am a million percent sure that Charles meandered his way in as a clueless kid one day and immediately made it his whole identity with no deeper understanding, as clueless kids are wont to do.

And that’s beautiful! I love that for him. Teenagers deserve spaces where they can safely grow and experiment with their identities away from their family. I just feel like some people in the fandom give him waaaaay too much street cred 😅

[conversationaltreestump]

Edwin waiting for his (business) partner to return from war (pick him up from school.)

Scene from chapter 2 of The Case of the Antisocial Anime Aficionodos

[roseganymede95]

Everyone look at my son

[roseganymede95]

Hi, I drew a scene from chapter 2 of your fic 'The Case of the Antisocial Anime Aficionodos' - https://www.tumblr.com/conversationaltreestump/795951041461075968/edwin-waiting-for-his-business-partner-to-return?source=share

I hope you like it (and that the link works!)

YES I LOVE IT YESSSSSSSSS

You drew Alan pretty much exactly how I pictured him. Just a babby 🥲

[roseganymede95]

What songs remind you of the different dbda characters (or the show as a whole)

Great question. I have literally never thought about it before but let me riff for a second.

Obviously we have Kesha’s "Die Young," which became the title for Like We’re Gonna Die Young (Again). I for one certainly can't hear it anymore without thinking about the boys.

I also had a line in that fic where I mentioned Chalres liking "Mr. Brightside," and the more I think about it the more I'll stand by it. Charles' personal theme song is absolutely the Disaster Bi anthem about declaring yourself to be an optimist while you pine yourself into madness.

I simply can't associate Edwin with any popular contemporary music. That kid's soudrack is like, O Fortuna performed at top volume. Mozart's requiem. Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain." You get it.

Niko, just off the cuff, I'd say "What's Going On" by Madilyn Mei. It's a fun, offbeat song about feeling like an alien, and I feel like it would work for her. That or like, "Kiss Kiss Fall in Love," which presumably was written and performed by a real band but we all know it's the theme song for Ouran High School Host Club.

...it's definitely Kiss Kiss Fall in Love, actually. That's her theme song to me now.

Crystal's kind of tricky because she's so multifaceted, but I basically think she deserves to be associated with the height of emo rock. The melodrama, the terrible romantic decision making, the EARNESTNESS of it all, I think it fits her very well. Throw a dart at My Chemical Romance's discography and you'll find something that could totally fit Crystal's vibes.

The Cat King must only ever be associated with the sountrack from Cats. I don't make the rules. He's Rum Tum Tugger, end of story.

[alacryty]

If you’re taking art requests, I recommend anything with The Cat Queen from RoseGanymede95’s RIP to Orpheus But I’m Different

Hiiiii thank you for your request! <3 Did it really take me like half a year to make this? Yes. I have been working on it in my spare time lol.

I love the Cat Queen in the RGCU!! (RoseGanymede95 Cinematic Universe) but alas drawing her would entail doing some character design and uuuuuuuh I gave up so I drew part of the scene where they're trying to get an appointment with the Cat Queen instead! Close enough, right?

If you haven't yet read @roseganymede95's RIP to Orpheus But I'm Different you should definitely check it out! Everyone's so normal about each other in it. It's great.

“At your service, madam,” Charles assures her. “As soon as you say the magic words.” “Ska is—” Princess starts, then stops when she realizes she’s speaking alone. “Come on, guys! Magic words!” The other cats clustered around the bin pause and turn their faces toward Charles. “Ska is going to make a comeback,” they all chorus in unison.

(Our calico friend is saying the magic words too, he just doesn't want you to notice. 😺)

More ramblings below ↴

I kind of got lost in the sauce experimenting with colors and making effects in Resolve so I ended up with a poster look (did you know you can put a torn paper effect on anything using the paid version of Davinki Resolve? It's addictive. I just bought the paid version for work and I intend on getting my money's worth lol). I feel like this style doesn't fully fit the vibe of the original story but uhhhhh I think it looks kinda cool so it just looks like this now I guess.

I love putting a bunch of junk textures and blur on top of my gifs that destroys their quality. :D It just adds a certain je ne sais quoi, non? It's not the same without it...

This was animated in Opentoonz then composited (and let's face it -- completely recolored because it's so much easier for me to change colors until they look good rather than pick out good colors to start with) in Davinci Resolve. The paper cut-out speech bubble was made using Krita with fonts from kind strangers on Dafont. Huge shoutout to Ezgif.com for making the files postable to Tumblr. I love you Ezgif.com. #ezgif.com.

Btw this was the only art request I got and my requests are still open lol. So if anyone wants to help me decide what to animate and in return receive a possibility of art from me appearing on Tumblr unpredictably in the next year or so that may or may not be directly connected to your request or potentially might not get finished at all, your chances are pretty good rn so hmu :3 ok bye

[roseganymede95]

Oh my GOD WHAT THE HELL HOW DID YOU DO THIS

LOOK AT PRINCESS! SHE’S PERFECT 💕💕💕

I will ride into battle for you at a moment’s notice. My blade is yours. I cannot believe how cool and charming this looks. Wowzers.

[roseganymede95]

this is a bit silly and a bit funny but i wanted you to know that it's happened multiple times now that i said to my friend 'i miss charlie row' (charlie row having become a shorthand and synonym for your codependency series ever since die young) and a couple of days later you postet a new chapter. funny coincidence or am i actually psychic? (this only works when i'm verbalising it obviously, since i miss charlie row all the fucking time)

anyways, i love your writing and i'm glad i get to follow along in real time <3

This is adorable actually. If you’re psychic, this is not necessarily the most useful application of your gifts, but I for one approve anyway.

Quick question though, would you be mad if I hypothetically had gotten distracted and started writing kind of a cozy one shot to get a persistent idea out of my head? Just a cozy little casefic with the boys being out of touch old men who don’t know anything about anime?

You are very sweet and I am so glad that my silly hobby brings you joy 💕

[roseganymede95]

I'm handing out flowers in the fandom today!

💐

I love flowers 🥺 thank you!

[roseganymede95]

I think in one of the notes for "we're gonna die young" you mentioned you might write an epilogue in which Edwin haunts Mark (at least I think that's his name) although i might be mixing it up with something else and i was wondering if that's likely to happen and if it does will it be like an additional chapter?? Or like a separate one shot?

Oy, yeah, originally I had intended for the Mark haunting epilogue to be a thirteenth chapter on Die Young, but then Mark’s character became relevant to the plot of Orpheus and now he’s kind of been folded into that whole mess. The haunting chapter will probably be a separate one shot, which will likely come out later to correspond to his relevant bits in the current story.

[roseganymede95]

Throwback Tag

I have been tagged by @williamvapespeare to share a snippet of something old that seems worth revisiting. I'm going with this little gem from Like Fool's Gold that has become extremely relevent in my current longfic, RIP to Orpheus but I'm Different.

Here it is, the original Holmes and Watson discussion, lifted from the first chapter of the the first fic I ever wrote for Dead Boy Detectives:

“You’re getting pretty good at this, you know,” said Charles. “Like dead Sherlock Holmes.”

“Nonsense,” Edwin scoffed. “The Sherlock Holmes books only have one detective. That would make you Watson, which is ridiculous.”

“I’d make a great Watson!” Charles protested.

“Watson is meant to be an audience surrogate,” said Edwin firmly. “He’s there to follow Homes around and tell the reader how brilliant Holmes is. If Arthur Conan Dyle were writing about us, he would include a third person to tell the reader how remarkable both of us are. It would be unwieldy.”

He didn’t notice until he stopped speaking that Charles had stopped following him. Edwin stopped too, now, to look back at Charle’s face across the few yards of distance. Charles wore a strange expression, head cocked to one side with all the usual humor gone from around his mouth and eyes.

At once, Edwin felt terribly nervous. Had he said something wrong? Charles didn’t really want to be Watson, did he? What if Watson was his favorite character and Edwin had just insulted him? 

“Charles?” Edwin asked carefully.

“That might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” said Charles, something like wonder in his voice.

“Oh.” It was a good thing Edwin couldn’t blush. He would most certainly be blushing right now if he could. 

Charles grinned and picked up his gait again to resume their walk home. “You’re something, you know that?” 

For what it's worth, I don't think Edwin's assessment of Watson is accurate. The character is a lot more complex and competent that Edwin's giving him credit for, here. But I think it's also true that Edwin objects pretty strongly to any implication that Charles is his sidekick.

Charles, meanwhile, wants to be Edwin's sidekick more than he's ever wanted anything.

I'm tagging @the-wine-dark-sea and @babyseraphim to do either this or whatever else they would like!

[roseganymede95]

I think that Crystal is bi, but it's cruicially important to me that she sucks at it. She has absolutely no idea what to do with her feelings towards anyone, ever, for any reason, but pretty girls break her brain in a special way.

She genuinely cannot disinguish between attraction and envy when there's a pretty girl in her orbit, and it doesn't really matter, because she hates both of those feelings. She's not about to let some beautiful girl with huge doe eyes break her heart, or steal all the boys' attention, OR distract her to throw her off her game, no siree, absolutely not. All pretty girls activate Crystal's Mortal Kombat mode. It's kill or be killed out there.

That's why Niko is so special; she comes into Crystal's life during the one moment when Crystal is in a space to regard a girl of her own age as a friend, not a threat or a rival or a future heartbreak. It's probably the first time in years Crystal has had a real friendship with another girl.

I don't even really ship them, I'm just so sure that they're important to each other. I think Niko offer Crystal almost the exact same thing she offers Edwin. It's a chance at sometime soft and gentle and sweet, something they've never had before.

[uhhhhhwhatthefuck]

Payneland Week Day 4: Forced Proximity/Bound Together

("I will pay you a shocking amount if you promise not to tell anyone about this")

kinda late for this one, but the thing is that it's very hard to draw their faces. like, really hard.

basically what happened was i was reading Professional Networking by @roseganymede95 again and was like "wow this is so good i wish someone would draw that. oh wait." and now we have this

@painlandweek

[roseganymede95]

YOOOOO!!!!

[roseganymede95]

hi!

have you watched the new season of sandman? if you have, what are your thoughts on it?

Ehhhhhh listen. Under no circumstances do I want other people to model their media viewing habits based on my comfort. My comfort is not your comfort, make your own choices, yadda yadda.

I'm not comfortable watching the Sandman series since the allegations against G@iman came out. It's not like DBD, which is loosely adapted from couple of spinoff comics by a different writer and showrunner. The Sandman is his flagship property, his baby, and Dream is widely acknowledged to be kind of a self-insert for G@iman himself. It just doesn't spark any joy for me anymore, and I don't want to give that media property any more clicks.

My series interacts with the Endless in a way that I'm trying to be deliberately subversive about, and it doesn't adhere to comic or show canon at all. I think of my fic as more of a response to the Sandman than an adaptation, because the way I'm writing those characters is pretty different from and pretty critical of how they're portrayed in the original comics. Without spoiling too much, as the plot progresses and we interact with the Endless more, my basic intent is to deconstruct G@iman's vision of the laws of reality and reject most of it.

Sorry that's kind of a bummer answer. I want to be clear that I'm not interested in judging anyone who does want to watch that series. The world is a shitshow right now, I'm not here to scold anyone for finding joy where they can. Live long and prosper.

[roseganymede95]

There's obviously a lot of angst and h/c potential in how ghosts can be disintigrated by pain, and while Edwin's pain tolerance is insurmountable, Charles' presumably isn't.

But have we considered the comedy potential in there?

Picture it: early days Edwin, fresh out of Hell, armed with the knowledge that pain can destroy them but also completely clueless about how normal ghosts experience pain. He knows that he barely registers anything that's not a bloody dismemberment, but what about Charles??? Is a catch scratch a minor nuisance or an existence-threatening emergency? What about an iron burn? A lot of spells can hurt them, but how much? The only logical path forward is to err on the side of caution until he has more data. Obviously, he should treat every new instance of pain as if it might annihilate Charles right before his eyes.

Ergo-

Charles: hey do you think this has iron in it? Ope, yep, it does. Ow my finger :(

Edwin:

[dionysiaproductions]

[roseganymede95]

Amen, sister (gender neutral).

[ghostofnuggetspast]

HEAR YE, HEAR YE

For my second Fandom Trumps Hate project this year, I had a request for a Dead Boy Detectives podfic! The DBDA Haunt Group Bid folks and @gracefulpinecone asked me to do this one, written by @roseganymede95. It was a stretch out from my usual Sherlock mindset, but I consider myself a DBD fan as well. If only there'd been more seasons ... a common issue amongst my fandoms. Ahem. Anyway, please have a listen, and I hope you enjoy it. I certainly did.

You can find it here on Ao3!

The gorgeous title art up there is by the amazing @helloliriels , on whom I cannot shower enough praises.

@totallysilvergirl @friday411 @naefelldaurk @khorazir @iwantthatbelstaffanditsoccupant @emerald-hobbit @chriscalledmesweetie @fandomtrumpshate @fth2025fanworks

[roseganymede95]

Yaaaay thank you!!

[roseganymede95]

You ever write something so fucked up you have to stop and stare at a wall for a while?