Payneland - Blog Posts

No one ever point this out to Charles - something something his parents making love painful and Charles clawing his way out of the cycle

I know we make jokes about Edwin’s harem but it’s deeply tragic how every man who has ever desired Edwin romantically has also hurt him in profound ways. Simon is the reason Edwin was sent to hell. Monty abused his trust and nearly got him and Charles killed. The Cat King manipulated his repressed attraction and leashed him like a pet, keeping him trapped in a town with a murderous witch. All the while, the man Edwin actually loves, the man who has been nothing but kind and gentle and devoted towards him, does not love him back. Not in that way. Something Something Love is a punishment for not having been strong enough to remain alone.

I really want something where Crystal and Charles see all of Edwins memories. Maybe Crystal is trying some new stuff with her powers and accidently drags Charles with her into Edwin's memories.

Some of it flashes by quick. His childhood, the years with Charles before they met Crystal, the cat king, Monty, a majority of Port Townsend.

Some of it drags by. His death, hell, meeting Charles, hell again, Esther, Niko.

She knows Charles kind of has an idea of what to expect but knowing and seeing are two different things.

Crystal can't even watch most of it. Crouching down and covering her eyes, crying and occasionally making a sound like she was going to be sick.

They can't make any changes, of course, and they can't talk to anyone. These things have already happened and they're just watching them but Charles breaks her heart.

He bounces between furious and devastated.

He walks around the boys holding Edwin down to sacrifice him like he's looking for an opening, around and around restlessly. He knows, even better than she does, that he can't do anything.

Hell is even worse. Charles is clearly upset but he's not surprised, a grim determination that has him trailing after Edwin like a shadow. He keeps up with Edwin, running with him through the hallways and making himself watch each time it all starts over. He runs back to find the new Edwin and sticks close again, right beside him or behind him. He doesn't get in the way or try to stop it, he can't do anything so he's trying to provide a comfort that Edwin can't feel.

He sits with Edwin when he finds a place to hide, just watching him. Sometimes he talks. She can't hear what he's saying but she can guess.

Sometimes the demon doesn't kill Edwin right away and he isn't hiding so much as trying to find a place to curl up and die. Charles follows, sometimes circling him like he had when they saw the boys who sacrificed him.

She doesn't understand why he's making himself watch it all. How can he watch it when Crystal can barely tolerate just the sounds?

She's never seen him so focused. She thinks he might have forgotten she's even here.

Ghosts bleed here, they can feel and, the last thing Edwin felt as a living being was hands holding him down and the last thing he truely felt while dead would have been the last time the demon ripped him apart before he escaped hell. No wonder he's less bothered by iron than Charles. Iron is nothing compared to this.

She wants to tell Charles to come over to her. Tell him to stop watching, god why is he watching?

She knows why though, because he needs to know. Usually the mind can conjure up things much worse than reality but she thinks that neither of them could have imagined something like this. She knows Charles saw some of it when he went to get Edwin the second time but it wasn't a lot. He and Edwin were both tight-lipped when it came to hell, other than Edwin mentioning it vaguely here and there, usually in arguments.

He passes her again as he follows Edwin, again and again, and she goes to yell at him but she stops. His jaw is clenched the way he does it when he's truely furious, and his mouth is a thin line.

Charles can be scary when he's angry, especially when he's angry because someone has hurt Edwin. He would never hurt her but there's a cautiousness to how she speaks to him when he gets like this. Forget the cricket bat, he looks like he'd throw himself at the demon with just his nails and teeth if he could.

The memories go on and he's just as restless during Edwin's second trip to hell, only relaxing when he appeared in the memory.

Watching Esther is hard, Charles doesn't move during this one, just stands by the table Edwin is stuck on and stares.

This one is different and she thinks it because Charles was here for this one. She knows he's in the kitchen, kept in place with an iron collar and stuck listening to Edwin scream.

Crystal loses track of them as she sees Niko in the corner and sudden she needs to see it. She can feel Charles look over at them as Niko dies on the floor but he stays where he is until Edwin is up and next to Niko too.

More memories slip by until they're suddenly thrown back into the real world.

It's jarring, like something smacked them on the back of their heads. It takes them a minute for the world to stop spinning and their thoughts to reform. It's been seconds, maybe a minute, since they'd been thrown into the memories. Crystal feels like she's aged 10 years.

She does think she understands Charles a lot more now. She knows she's going to be reluctant to let Edwin off somewhere by himself, not that Charles would let him.

Edwin looks nervous, looking at them then the floor and back up to them again. He straightens the ends of his sleeves the way he does when he needs something to do with his hands and then he starts to press against each other. He must have a good idea of what happened and what they probably saw.

She remembers one of the deaths where he had ended up close to where she's been curled up. The way he laid on his side and just stared at the wall, quiet and accepting, the way tears rolled down his face and he just kept bleeding. Until he didn't anymore and Charles took off without a word to go find the new him again.

Niko is beside him and looks at both Charles and her with big eyes. She wonders what they look like, if they look any different to her and Edwin.

Charles makes a vague stangled noise beside her, makes a move towards Edwin, and she takes a deep breath.

Right. Okay, she and Niko need to leave. Like, right now. She has a feeling that the boys need to have a very long talk. And just cling to each other for awhile.

She grabs Niko, who looks at Edwin to see if he wants her to stay but he shakes his head just enough for her to let Crystal get them both out the door and away.

As they're leaving, she wonders what she'd do if someone had shown her Niko's death over and over. She looks at the other girl, who still looks worried but gives Crystal a little smile.

Maybe they need to have a talk too.

🌙🌙🌙🌙🌙

Two side notes:

*Currently living for the idea of Charles and Crystal going feral over Edwin and Niko being hurt. And vice versa.

*You know when dogs/wolves circle something over and over, like they're trying to herd it or just watching from all sides? Idk for some for some reason I just picture that from Charles in certain situations. Especially when he can't do anything. Just circling it over and over like eventually he'll see something, find a way to do something.

This is so true and I fucking love it

i love the idea that part of the reason edwin is such a little bitch (affectionate) is that charles just fucking encourages it. the first time edwin gives him attitude in the attic (“because i wish not to” or something that) charles gives him the biggest heart eyes. and, like, edwin said he wasn’t great with people, so obviously he’s going off of charles’ responses to figure out how to interact with people. and charles very much likes it when edwin is bitchy.

which is why, when we see them in 2023, edwin is so cunty. because charles has spent 34 years fucking encouraging it and giving him heart eyes every time he acts like that.

Hey hey, Tumblr.

Pssst pssst pssst

Charles worshipping Edwin's scars.

I wish there were more fics that focused on them having physical scarring. Because there are so many interesting stuff we can do with it.

The insecurity, the trust you need for showing them.

And we already know Charles adores Edwin's flaws. He doesn't just accept them, he loves Edwin's flaws- him being bitchy and mean is genuinely a flaw and Charles loves that about him.

Charles would've loved kissing all of Edwin's scars👀 maybe scars from hell, or scars from being tied up.

He would've loved staring at him with heart eyes thinking he's the most perfect thing ever.

It doesn't have to be sexual, I just want them adoring each other's form. Loving each other's flaws and everything. Because they would. They would adore each other's flaws.

So. Just saying.

Living this out in the air.

If anyone wants to write that....

Please @ me.

New fic posting!

Fandom: Dead Boy Detectives (TV show)

Pairing: Charles Rowland/Edwin Payne

Characters: Charles Rowland, Edwin Payne, briefly mentioned Crystal Palace.

Other tags: domestic fluff, cuddling & snuggling, boys in love, tooth rotting fluff, established relationship, talking about their relationship and more.

Description:

They adapt into their new relationship astonishingly fast.

They kiss- quite a lot, and hold hands, taking any excuse they can to be close to each other- grossing Crystal out from their lovesick behaviour sometimes, grinning and chuckling when she rolls her eyes in dismay at their open affectionate behaviour.

They are in love, completely and utterly besotted with each other. And while all this is absolutely wonderful, a question wouldn’t leave Edwin’s mind- what are they?

Edwin has questions about their relationship, he wants to find an official word with Charles call their new recent romantic relationship to make the romance part of their relationship official. Charles just seems keen on kissing his partner.

Perhaps they have also always simply been everything always all at once altogether anyway. So can one word truly fit?

I'm slowly starting to publish stuff more and more and I'm proud of me.

Now that I'm finished with my fencing fic, which fic should I write next?

Idk mates I'm mostly going out with a vibe but I'm curious to see Tumblr's preference. I have like 20 fics ideas, this is just what I feel like the most right now.

Wayyyy later than what I expected to finish, I'm finally finished with my Payneland fencing fic! Thank you so much to everybody that offered themselves as my beta, I really appreciate that!

Relationships: Edwin Payne/Charles Rowland, Edwin Payne & Charles Rowland (the fic focus on their friendship specifically, the romance is just an ending bonus).

Rating: gen

Trigger warnings: blades/ fencing, dysfunctional gays, Charles that's so fucking gay you cannot say that to your platonic best friend,

Other stuff: fencer Edwin Payne, touch starved Charles & touch starved Edwin if you squint, love confession, hurt/comfort, eventual cuddling, teens being teens, slight miscommunication the first half of the fic, okay they're really miscommunicating at the start but it gets better don't worry!

Link to the snippet

Edwin and Charles' friendship come first before anything else, before any romantic feelings ever even started. This is why when shortly after Port Townsend when Charles is starting to act off and Edwin feels it's because of his confession affecting them, although Charles is denying the accusation, he confronts Charles to talk with him again the way they do things: He makes him fence with him.

And Charles can never tell Edwin no, is he? Or: Charles tried to isolate himself away from Edwin, Edwin couldn't let that stand. The boys being teenagers and fooling around fencing.

Based on my fencing history so I actually come with knowledge about that! I kinda took advantage of that for creating this fic.

I hope you'll like it! I really enjoyed writing it. Charles is my favourite out of them but damn fencer Edwin is ruining my brain.

Unfortunately I will not be able to finish the payneland fic I wanted on time to publish it on my birthday, however I will publish a snippet for now!

It's a fencing fic, because I'm a fencer Edwin truther, and the boys 100% fence as a game between them so my fic is based about that. Edwin tries to suggest fencing to talk about things and resolve the awkwardness that started between them after the love confession. It's not very long after Port Townsend.

I'm going to try to continue working on it to finish it on time but I'm at a bar on the beach that has loud distracting music to celebrate my birthday, I can't make any promises. However I will publish it tomorrow. Here is the snippet for now!

Charles was sitting on the desk, his legs on the chair, staring vacantly out of a window for the past few hours.

Edwin, who was reading a book on the sofa, eventually had enough of this new awkward distance between them and snapped, deciding he was going to do something about it, shake Charles out of it in any way he could.

.......

He tossed Charles his foil- a golden one with a left handed handle. Edwin’s foil was silver, matching Charles’ set. “Pick it up, we are going to fence.” He declared.

“What?” Charles looks up, shaking off from his thoughts and turned to his best friend, blinking surprised.

“I said, pick it up, we are going to fence. Frankly, I've had enough of your distant behaviour recently and I cannot let it pass any second longer. You cannot fool me, Charles Rowland, I know you, and after Port Townsend you have never made the return quite to your senses yet. So we are going to fence, and we are going to talk, in the way we do things. Because clearly something has gone wrong with you recently you refuse to let me in about.”

“Mate, there is nothing wro-” Charles started making himself force out a laugh in defence, but Edwin cut him.

“I have simply confessed to being in love, Charles, I have not been turned into a fool in all that regards you. I have known you for over 30 years, Charles Rowland, and I can tell when things are wrong. Yet you don’t come to me, although you are clearly bothered by me. Sometimes, I have to wonder if you still consider us best friends after all-” his voice break, trailing off.

“What? Mate, of course you are-” Charles rushed to defend against Edwin's words.

“Then talk with me, Charles. Fence with me, like we used to. Because I miss having my best friend around, and I don’t know what to think of you recently. Talk to me, please.” Edwin moves Charles’ foil on the desk closer to him, offering it to him again.

Charles took a few moments of thinking in silence before he responded again. They could fence, he supposes, he did miss them too, but- “Look, Edwin, mate, I don’t want to fight you- You are still pretty banged up from Esther’s house.” Not a lie, they both still had some traces of their iron burns. Esther’s house was still relatively fresh- they tried to bury it but the events of Port Townsend only took place twelve days ago.

Unfortunately, iron burns take an annoying amount of time to heal. Although not as bad now, slight traces of their burns still left.

They have been taking cases slower because of it, working on easy ones to start. Both of them acting more out of concern for the other than actually to themselves.

“Oh, you assume you would be able to get close to me?” Edwin teased arching his brow and Charles bit his lips, cheeks flushing slightly. Bollocks. Okay, his self confidence was hot-

Seeing him announcing it cockily and sure of himself like that ignited a fond and playful spark in Charles- he liked his overconfidence.

“I assure you, even in my lesser state I can still, as I believe they say today, ‘kick your ass’. You, on the other hand, have been shutting off from me for weeks, and I simply will not sit here and allow our friendship to continue suffering any longer. So please, fence with me again. Challenge me, if you will.”

“Edwin-” Charles gruntle sighing pretending to be rolling his eyes in decline, then he quickly picks up his foil going out to a surprise attack, a spark of mischief igniting back in him.

Adrenaline was flooding his ghost veins, in a good way-

He loved this. This was them. It just felt right.

Edit: fic posted! It's the most recent post below the pinned one on my blog!

This is a low shot, but can someone beta my dead boy detectives fic? (Painland fic, it was supposed to be focused on Charles but I also drifted a bit with Edwin's pov on him)

My beta coincidentally can't right now for reason I'm very much amused by, I just really want to post the fic sometimes during tomorrow (the day starts soon in my country) *on my birthday*(!!!!) so I want to finish it fast.

It's not finished right now but it's mostly done and I will love to get some advices, I'll finish it first thing tomorrow probably if I can.

Edit: it's just with 3,951 words now, after I'll finish though it will probably be a few hundreds passed 5,000 so there is that too. It's not an extremely long fic, it's a relatively short one really.

Edit 2/ Update: posted a snippet!

Just jumping it up my blog again.

Finally finished the fic I have been working on for the last few months! (My autistic Edwin fic!) It accidentally took me longer than what I planned.

Listen I don't think you can guess my favourite dead boy detectives character it's really difficult.

I have more ideas but those are the ideas I think I can focus on for now.

I am not sure if the winning result would be what I will actually finish first actually but I am curious to see what is the tumblr demand.

Someone in the fandom gave me this idea and I think it's perfect.

Someone in the fandom gave me this idea and I think it's perfect.

Finally finished the fic I have been working on for the last few months! (My autistic Edwin fic!) It accidentally took me longer than what I planned.

Listen I don't think you can guess my favourite dead boy detectives character it's really difficult.

I have more ideas but those are the ideas I think I can focus on for now.

I am not sure if the winning result would be what I will actually finish first actually but I am curious to see what is the tumblr demand.