DEAD BOY DETECTIVES

1x01 // 1x03 // 1x05

Girl Playing Solitaire, Frank Weston Benson. 1909.

George Rexstrew as Edwin Payne

Dead Boy Detectives 1.01 · The Case of Crystal Palace

green is for emotional stability | besties

He's soft , quiet . He's ADMIRING this moment between the two of them && wondering why it had taken so long for them to communicate about this . Maybe it had just been easier to pretend they were normal , that they didn't have these THOUGHTS && fears floating around - that they didn't feel the need to hesitate when somebody asked them what colour their eyes were . G R E E N - he'd relearnt that recently . Did Charles look into that green && like what he saw ?? Lord he wished he would , && there's a tiny little part of him that wishes he'd tell him too . But he's trying to teach himself to WANT things like that less , move past them .

He continues to watch Charles as his gaze drops away . As he always does when he's not being observed , he lets his OWN expression fade into something easy && gentle. No need to perform when the one person that watched your performance was looking the other way .

❝ well that is ... ❞ REASSURING . LOVELY . Actually it felt rather more important && life-changing than it should . ❝ .... hmmm .... ❞ He pulls a slow breath into his lungs && presses his palms into his knees . Something about the way that the other boy is so FOCUSED on his bag that makes him want to panic , to reach out && grab his fingers maybe - check that he's still there .

❝ - Charles ?? ❞ ever so quiet , quieter than is really appropriate . He's studying the side of his face , eyes only shifting to spy just how TIGHTLY he's gripping that bag. ❝ Charles , are you alright - did I say something wrong ?? I do seem to be doing that quite a lot recently , DON'T I ?? ❞

HE WASN'T LYING WHEN HE SAID HE KNEW EDWIN'S FACE BETTER THAN HIS OWN. Sure, there were pictures of him somewhere, but he had yet to go back to his childhood home, something HOLDING himself back from ever stepping foot in there again. Though he watched, every once in a while, checking in on his mum, and dad. In case he needed to go BACK.

He'd had thirty years of looking at Edwin, which was longer than he'd been alive, and years longer than his own brain even REMEMBERED looking at himself. His own hadn't matured, still in the bouts of youth before he died and now it was stuck that way, forever. The other boy's face was... nice.

Familiar.

So he nods, a large grin slowly spreading over cheeks as the other speaks. A surprise in his tone that he has begun to like in the newer ADVENTURES they've had. Who knew all it took was adding another person to the team, to bring on new sides of each other. Besides, they were safe now, they had TIME. Just as he'd promised Edwin, that day where they'd climbed those steps taken each other's hands. Time to figure out the rest.

Eyes dip, finding the bag again, and his own hands now holding tight on the straps. He feels like, in this moment, that his heart would be beating in his chest if it could. ❝ You don't have to be. ❞ A girl. Gentle, there's so much he's not saying here. ❝ I don't want you to be. ❞ You're much more than that.

You really gave up a potentially tranquil eternity for your friend?

DEAD BOY DETECTIVES | THE CASE OF THE VERY LONG STAIRWAY

Edwin Payne who died by school bullies coming back to the same school 70 years later probably thought sth like "boy I sure hope things at this school got better over the years" and the first thing he sees is again a guy student bullied to death.

@deadbrawn // continued from here

If he had been asked when he was alive , when he was a LITTLE boy , asked if he had to see one face for the rest of his existence - for an existence spanning over a century && perhaps further , he would have had an answer. He would have said one of the beautiful faces painted upon the walls of his father's home . But those perfectly constructed features had NOTHING on the face in front of him now .

Edwin could paint him from memory he thinks . Those soft curls bouncing at his forehead , dark eyes sparkling as though they CONSISTENTLY hold a joke . That steady , solid line of his nose ( ... ) jawline that could cut through paper . Even the COLOUR of his skin is perfect - warm && cool at the same time somehow .

GOOD GOD - he was staring . He hadn't noticed that he was staring . At least this time , it appears appropriate as they talk about faces .

❝ My face ?? ❞ eyebrows raise && he's FIGHTING off one of his eyerolls . Mint . That word was a strong one coming from Charles - things were mint when he really admired them . Edwin for just a moment ( ... ) feels MINT . What if -

❝ I know I am not one of those pretty little things with long flowing hair BATTING their eyelashes at you - ❞ I know I'm not a girl . His chin dips downward , regarding Charles with an expression of complete && utter AFFECTION . ❝ but the sentiment is returned - I don't mind thinking up an image of myself && finding you instead . ❞

Dead Boy Detectives 1.01 · The Case of Crystal Palace

OH SHIT

THAT WAS BECAUSE OF TRAUMA. BECAUSE OF THE SPIDER MADE OF DOLLS-

gentle

©

Ada Limón, from "Crush", Sharks in the Rivers

aesthetically pleasing shots from dead boy detectives (episode 1)

will be doing one like this for every episode ♥️

The extreme amount of emotion in these two frames is painfully amazing. Like I cannot tell you what that emotion is, but like it's simultaneously OBVIOUS WHAT IT IS.

wrath was made to be DIVINE

indie goddess oc. original lore. selective. private. as worshipped by doe.