Charles has OPINIONS about music and is used to full dominion over whatever plays in the office while he and Edwin work. Work is, of course, Charles packing and repacking his bag while Edwin meticulously files casenotes.

But now Crystal's here, idly searching the internet for interesting cases.

Charles is playing The Specials or The Beat or something on an old cassette player hooked up to speakers. Crystal keeps sneakily using the power of bluetooth to change it to whatever the kids are listening to these days. Not because she doesn't like ska or particularly cares about music, but because it's hilarious to watch him wave his arms about music like an old man shooing kids off his lawn.

This has been going on for a while when the music suddenly changes again. Charles turns, ready to yell at Crystal, but she looks confused. And then he sees Edwin, standing by the desk, grinning from ear to ear, holding Niko's phone.

And Charles cannot even be mad, cause his best mate just figured out how to blast Kpop.

i love all the acting in dead boy detectives so much, but the scene in ep8 where crystal is calling out to lilith and screams, "this witch, she took your gift and then she killed hundreds of little girls to stay young! who gets justice for them?" literal chills.

The Case of the Memento Mori (7726 words) by Asidian Chapters: 4/4 Fandom: Dead Boy Detectives (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne/Charles Rowland Characters: Edwin Paine | Edwin Payne, Charles Rowland (DCU) Additional Tags: Case Fic, Injury, Protectiveness, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, Idiots in Love, Caretaking, First Aid, First Kiss Series: Part 2 of A Detective’s Work is Never Done Summary:

It takes Charles what seems an eternity to draw back enough to offer Edwin a wan sort a smile. His face is off-color, tight with the hurt. “Sorry, mate,” he says. “Give me a tick. Don’t know if I can get up just yet.”

A yawning pit of dread settles itself somewhere in the vicinity of Edwin’s chest. He has thought of just this situation more times than he cares to count: Charles pressed against him, Charles’ weight and warmth, Charles’ arms around him. It feels a cruel twist of fate, all told, that this is how he finally gets it.

Absolutely love the way Edwin never bothers to move an inch when someone threatens him.

100% damsel in distress waiting for her knight vibe.

How does it feel, having such faith in someone, I wonder?

Reminder to the Doctor and Ruby that Ricky September has TWO hands!!!!

Maybe if Orpheus had thrown a grenade at Hades, grabbed Eurydice and legged it then they would have made it.

i think a lot of white queer/trans people need to hear that "breaking gender norms" isnt just wearing a dress while masc or dying your hair. its also unlearning the beauty standards that impose ideals of white beauty and attractiveness on non-white folks. yes you have a nose ring but i just heard you tell your black friend with meticulously cared for natural hair "you'd just look so nice with straight hair is all im saying..." why does your blog fetishizing i mean uh. appreciating trans women only feature skinny white women who pass. when societal gender norms are so inextricably tied to whiteness and emulating whiteness it is not enough to simply change your aesthetic. you need to defy the gender norms in your own head too.

can we stop pretending the bats all live in the same house together i swear those people do not communicate nor see each other regularly

i know that some people are going to look at ruby and the doctor crying at the end of the episode and think that that was the show having them mourn over these teenagers going off to die, but i truly believe that those tears were from anger— ruby’s from the frustration of seeing your best friend be treated with such disrespect and disgust, and the doctor’s from the sheer indignation of it all, being so close to helping people, saving them, only to see that those people would rather stay in their own prejudices. and it seems there’s nothing you can do to change it. the rage and grief that comes with that

DOCTOR WHO | DOT AND BUBBLE + TUMBLR & REDDIT REACTIONS

What always gets me the most is like staff doesn’t seem to ever give a warning like. Hey this thing you’re doing or this content you’re posting is worthy of termination. Stop doing that and delete those posts or we’ll terminate your blog. They just decide when someone deserves to get erased from the internet and immediately do so

Love it when the kinda half-formed observations you make about an episode finally come to the forefront.

Watching the start of "Dot and Bubble": Hmm, everyone in this episode is very... white.

Halfway through: The Doctor certainly continues to stand out, especially in that bright red sweater amongst all the pastels

Lindy freaking out about the Doctor and Ruby being in the same room together: I suppose that could be due to some cultural taboo about interacting in-person when everyone is supposed to communicate via bubble, but that doesn't track with what we've seen of her work day...

The "twist" that the chronically online, all white, super rich, entitled to the point of satire, willing to sacrifice others without hesitation, oh so eager to colonize people living in a literal bubble (TWO bubbles) are *gasp!* actually, devastatingly racist...

Yeah, that's not a twist. That's all deliberately interconnected. The episode didn't suddenly move from an argument about social media use to an argument about racism; the two historically go hand-in-hand.

Thinking about the bitter concept of "dying alone" and how Charles Rowland did not die alone.

From the moment he started dying to 30 years later, he has not once had to spend an unwanted moment alone.

rewatching the scene of charles and edwin meeting for the first time… edwin doesn’t even clarify that he was in hell bc of a clerical error, he just said he escaped. and charles doesn’t think for a second that edwin might have gone there for being a bad person, he just blinks, says that sounds hard, nice job, and attaches himself to edwin’s side forever. he knew edwin didn’t belong in hell without having to be told about the mistake.

Okay absolutely off the wall Doctor Who theory time.

They are trapped inside a television show. An outrageous claim I know buuuut I do have a fair bit of evidence. First something kinda unsubstantial, the sonic screwdriver literally looks like a TV remote, and in the episode the Doctor hit the Mute button.

Second: the key art for the penultimate episode "The Legend of Ruby Sunday" features a TV set

Third: The sheer amount of fourth wall breaks in the past four episodes trumps what we've seen in the whole of the revival.

Fourth: At the end of "The Devil's Cord" a music number saying there's "Always a twist", and an actress that has been popping up all over this new era is 'Susan Twist'. She keeps popping up, because 'There's Always a Twist'.

Fifth: The Doctor mentions that he thought the music was "Non-diegetic", meaning he could hear the music in the scene and assumed it was just part of the show, until Ruby mentioned she could hear it. Implying that whenever we hear the Non-diegetic music in the show so can the Doctor.

Thank you for listening to my absolute crackpot theory.

payneland human au set in a boarding school where edwin is the librarian's assistant (& student) and charles is a student who keeps asking him for books to read but really he's into him.

I'm so emotional about how Niko reacted to Charles forbidding them to come with him to hell

Because like... well, Crystal goes and actively seeks out her asshole ex who she only just got out of her head. Which says so much about how kind and caring and brave she is at heart and I love her for it but it doesn't ultimately end up being all that helpful to the situation at hand.

But Niko... it seems like Niko just passively accepts it. She knows she can't help with literal actual hell so she just stays behind and waits. And no one questions that. Everyone has always respected her ability to tap out of the scary adventures and that's lovely and if that was it that would be perfectly fine storytelling.

But it gets better. When Edwin and Charles return, we realize that she hasn't just been sitting and waiting. She realized that she couldn't help with Hell, so she looked ahead to what the next obstacle would be for her friends, and she looked at the Night Nurse and she realized there was a way she could help. So she sat with this woman who wanted to take away her friends and she played the fool and asked questions and convinced the night nurse to let her see the rules and regulations just to stop her chattering - knowing that if she could just find a loophole, she could buy them some time. So she dove into this book of regulations, and she found a loophole. She probably found a few, just in case the first didn't work.

And no one - not even the audience - realizes what she's done until it's done. It's brilliant and she makes it look easy. It's something only she can do, and it works with Charles' plan, even if he isn't trying to work with her.

Edwin might be book smart but Niko is the one who is willing to ask questions and listen to the answers. And the information she finds this way is always so critical.

I love her so much.