Short fic under the cut
Just when he'd settled down for a good nap, Sans was startled awake by knocking and calls from his door. He'd be more annoyed if he wasn't such a good sport—knock knock jokes are serious business, after all.
"yaaawn...mm...who's there?"
The skeleton sat up with some difficulty, rubbing at his eye socket. Her voice answered, still a little muffled through the layer of thick wood and magic.
"Stopwatch!"
He climbed off his mattress, sleepily kicking his slippers onto the correct feet and shuffling to the door.
"heh heh heh. stopwatch who?"
"Stopwatch you're doing and open the door!"
Sans did as told, still chuckling at the joke. Across from him stood Angel, rocking back and forth on her heels with her hands behind her back. Her expression said it all—she was excited, ready to show him something.
"alright. door is open. what's up, human?"
"Well, "skeleton"," She started, with an edge of amusement in her voice. "You remember how I bled all over the place?"
"sure."
"And I kiiinda stained some clothes?"
"vividly."
"You'll be happy to know that I fixed it!"
A pause. Sans raised a browbone at her before she seemed to suddenly remember what she was trying to do in the first place, fumbling slightly as she pulled her hands away from her back. Both were shoved forward into his face, white fabric held tight in brown fingers.
...His gloves?
"why do you have—"
"I dug 'em out the trash and cleaned them, now take them!"
He did as told, giving them a once over. Perfectly clean—no longer stained reddish brown. No evidence of the fact that he'd had to try and stop a human from bleeding out.
"whoa. how'd you manage that?"
"Trust me, you don't know how much blood I've had to get off of clothes before."
The implications of that statement strained his grin, just a little.
"...meaning what? you, uh, make a habit of hurting other humans?"
Angel looked at him for a long moment, confused by his reaction, before suddenly bursting into giggles. He felt off-kilter. Was she messing with him?
"Do you know anything about the human body?"
"....i sense i've made a mistake of some kind."
She beckoned him to lean forward, which he did after a long moment of deliberation. Five minutes later, he jolted away like he'd been burnt, left hand up to cut her off.
"okay alright i believe you—don't tell me anything else or i'm gonna lose my lunch. which would be impressive, since i don't have a stomach."
"Aww, the skeleton can't handle a biology lesson. And here I thought you liked science!"
Sans refused to confirm or deny that fact, and the human merely laughed and shook her head.
"Men. Oh well, let me know whenever and I'll show you how to get the stain out of the Crossbones jacket, okay?"
Angel giggled all the way through the hall and down the stairs. He shook his head and took a moment to look at them again. Perfectly clean. When he tugged them on to test, they looked fine.
His eternal grin softened a little as he leaned against his doorframe, rubbing at the back of his left hand absently. On the first floor, Angel had set about folding her blanket on the couch, his pupils idly tracking her movements as they grew fuzzy.
"...heh."
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Peacenight-time ("Tock the Gnome" bonus tales!)
In celebration of the holiday season (especially in the face of how challenging Earth-life continues to be), all four Peacenight-time stories are now free to read, for all!
(For those unfamiliar – Peacenight-time is the Gnomes’ winter holiday. Themes similar to Yuletide, and the existing short stories focus on queer characters, found family, seeking love, and cultural differences as well.)
Read here on ao3 🎄💕
Read here on Patreon 🌟❄🌟
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Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!
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dead boy detectives reading list
with the show finally out i figured it was a great time to share my reading list again! check it out below the cut 👻☠️🔎
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⏳ the sandman #25 (1991)
this is their first appearance!
🐇 the children's crusade (1993)/free country: a tale of the children's crusade (2015)
1. the children's crusade #1
(2. black orchid annual #1
4. animal man annual #1
5. swamp thing annual #7
6. doom patrol annual #2
7. arcana annual #1)
8. the children's crusade #2
alternatively you can just read free country. whether or not you read the annuals i recommend reading free country's middle chapter
!!! in place of the annuals there is an additional middle chapter that was created for the book "free country: a tale of the children's crusade" where it is placed between the two children's crusade issues. the boys don't actually appear in most of the annuals (they are in two panels of swamp thing and appear in doom patrol) and reading them isn't necessary but i figured i would include them as they are part of the story.
❄️ winter's edge #3 (2000)
this is an anthology. their part is the 'books of magic: waiting for good dough' story starting on page 19
🐦⬛ the sandman presents: the dead boy detectives (2001, 4 issues)
i believe the tv show's esther finch was partially based on this run's villain.
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(they do have a part in 'death: at death's door' from 2003. it's short and really just a retelling of events from sandman #25 with some minor changes. the entirety of their appearance in death: at death's door is included at the end of the next comic im listing so i am not really adding the death: at death's door book to the list)
☠️ the dead boy detectives (2005, one-shot)
this book was made by jill thompson in a very cute manga-esque style
👻 ghosts (2012), time warp (2013), the witching hour (2013)
these three are anthologies. the story 'the dead boy detectives in: run ragged' runs through all of them. 'run ragged' kicks off the next run.
🔮 from the pages of the sandman: dead boy detectives (2013, 12 issues)
this is the comic where crystal is introduced! a book collecting all 12 issues titled 'dead boy detectives by toby litt & mark buckingham' was released in 2023
🔎the sandman universe: dead boy detectives (2022, 6 issues)
the most recent run, centered around some really interesting thai mythology and featuring multiple edwin moments that i am sure you will love
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and that's everything! i also recommend buying the omnibus if you can. it includes everything minus the 2022 run plus some additional bonus content!
i hope this is helpful! feel free to ask me any questions you may have about the comics. dead boy detectives is my number one interest so i should be able to answer
have fun reading! 👻
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