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An extract from the Cryptozoological Society’s quarterly newsletter, issue 588:
I reached out to Edwin Payne earlier this week in the hope that he might be prevailed upon to share some of his great great great grandfather’s personal diaries, so we could perhaps organise some readings. When I eventually succeeded in making contact, he said, “How in god’s name did you get this number? Bugger off and leave me alone, I’m terribly busy.” Assuming this to be nothing more than the famous Payne family sense of humour in action, I naturally called back, but haven’t yet managed to get hold of him again. Nevertheless, I have no doubt that you will all join me in wishing the very best of luck to Edwin and to Charles Rowland, who are currently preparing to mount an expedition to look for evidence of the Lambton Worm early in the new year.
Clarence Pembroke-Wetherby, Society secretary, September 22nd 2024
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 3,195
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 33
- Kudos:
- 108
- Bookmarks:
- 17
- Hits:
- 576
Bookmarked by duckinhell
18 Dec 2025
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“Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield (potion version) by bitterdesert for tragedy_machine
Fandoms: Dead Boy Detectives (TV)
14 Dec 2025
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“Edwin, don’t say it.” Charles groans, keeping his voice low and hushed.
Edwin strains against the rope infused with just enough iron to make them solid, but not enough to hurt beyond a light-sting, and tries to catch a glimpse of whatever this witch is doing around the corner. God, he hates dealing with witches.
“I told you this would happen,” Edwin replies, smug and sing-songy. They may be hopelessly trapped and seconds away from being subjected to some new horror, but at least he was right.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 3,367
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 39
- Kudos:
- 167
- Bookmarks:
- 22
- Hits:
- 759
Bookmarked by duckinhell
18 Dec 2025
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A decennial hunt draws neighboring princes to Camelot to track a dangerous three-headed beast, but things go south when one of them starts pursuing Merlin instead.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 17,440
- Chapters:
- 6/6
- Comments:
- 265
- Kudos:
- 5,240
- Bookmarks:
- 1,046
- Hits:
- 43,546
Bookmarked by duckinhell
28 Oct 2025
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Merlin has a secret. Arthur, it turns out, also has a secret.
It's the same secret.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 11,032
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 356
- Kudos:
- 11,803
- Bookmarks:
- 2,543
- Hits:
- 80,145
Bookmarked by duckinhell
05 Oct 2025
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Most ghosts didn’t celebrate their birthdays.
But Charles Rowland wasn’t ‘most ghosts’.
Indeed, Charles’ birthday was a high point of the year, a guaranteed day of fun for himself and Edwin. The fun always helped to push down the unvoiced emotions below: the loss, the unresolved pain of his death, the feelings of failure and inadequacy. Charles saw no reason why this state of affairs shouldn’t continue forever.
But then he turned fifty.
Or:
How a medieval poem changed Charles’ afterlife forever.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 23,354
- Chapters:
- 2/2
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 84
- Kudos:
- 147
- Bookmarks:
- 45
- Hits:
- 1,258
Bookmarked by duckinhell
29 Sep 2025
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Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne, semi-professional ghosthunters. No haunting too small, too strange, or too dangerous. What could go wrong?
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 11,625
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 30
- Kudos:
- 68
- Bookmarks:
- 10
- Hits:
- 661
Bookmarked by duckinhell
31 Aug 2025
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It’s only when he’s dragged down to Hell because of a foolish clerical error that he comes to appreciate the existence of his soulmate.
The words on his heart aren’t just from an imaginary person anymore; they become a guideline. Because, he realizes one time, when the spider takes a little longer than usual to catch up to him—rip him open, devour him, remake him—he’s supposed to be there to hear his soulmate’s last words. And knowing now there’s a life after death, he understands there’s a chance he could get out of here, even if it takes a thousand years.
So, he memorizes the pathway he’s just run through, the corner of the room he’s hiding in, and raises his head determinedly.
From then on, they’re not just words anymore. They’re a thread out of a maze, and Edwin gladly grabs it with both hands; he knows there is someone out there who is holding on to the other end.
Or, having the last words your soulmate will say before their death written on your skin is given a whole new meaning when you find life after death.
Bookmarked by duckinhell
23 Aug 2025
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“Edwin,” Crystal says. “You told me once not to treat you like a little fucking baby.”
“I do not believe those were my exact words,” Edwin says.
“Nuance,” she says, and then pulls a piece of paper from her back pocket and smacks it onto the desk. It is an article from a news webbed site, the headline reads: 100-YEAR-OLD MYSTERY SOLVED? BONES FOUND IN ATTIC ON ST. HILARION’S SCHOOL GROUNDS.
“What the actual fuck,” says Charles.
Or, when it comes to Edwin’s afterlife—well, how would Charles put it?—The hits just keep fucking coming.
Series
- Part 2 of Suo Gân & other melodies
Bookmarked by duckinhell
11 Jul 2025
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A smaller thought occurs to him: kiss Edwin. Now that’s much easier for him to sort through; he very much would like to kiss Edwin, again. To dip in and taste what exactly it is he’s left behind.
“Uhhh,” says Crystal, from beside them.
Right, so. Crystal’s here, too.
Or, after kissing—just to break a spell!—Charles and Edwin find themselves physically unable to be apart.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 5,856
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 102
- Kudos:
- 413
- Bookmarks:
- 81
- Hits:
- 2,035
Bookmarked by duckinhell
11 Jul 2025
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Charles could hear the sirens, dopplering closer as the lights painted the night blue. “I have to go,” said the boy, more to himself than to Charles. “If they catch me here—well. It doesn’t matter. You won’t remember this.” He smiled, and it was like the moon appearing shyly from behind a cloud. “Goodbye, Charles.”
Charles Rowland should have died at sixteen, but he didn’t. Three years later—eager to escape call centre purgatory—he joins the Lost and Found Department as a psychopomp, charged with escorting the recently deceased to their afterlives. But why does his new colleague seem so familiar, and what’s that persistent tugging feeling at his wrist?
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 9,401
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 81
- Kudos:
- 222
- Bookmarks:
- 46
- Hits:
- 1,258
Bookmarked by duckinhell
11 Jul 2025
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Edwin's voice comes to him like a whisper on the breeze.
“Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.”He cries then, clinging to the branches of the tree outside Edwin's window, for their lost future, for everything that wasn't and would never be. When his tears finally run dry, he climbs down the tree and strips by the pond.
“You can't just use our pond whenever the fancy takes you,” Edwin says primly, playful indignation in his tone.
“Can't I?” Charles says, and dives in. The water is freezing, a chilling embrace.
Bookmarked by duckinhell
24 May 2025
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“Personally, I think you could stand to be much more selfish.”
Charles blinks. “What?”
“I would like it if you were–if you would be selfish with me.” Edwin clears his throat, fussing with his cuffs, and raises his chin stubbornly. “I would like you to know that you are very well loved. By me. I would like you to be greedy, with my.. with my love. As you permit yourself to be with nothing and no one else.”
Bookmarked by duckinhell
21 May 2025
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you knew very well what was coming next by boysforbugs
Fandoms: Dead Boy Detectives (TV), The Dead Boy Detectives (DC Comics)
29 Apr 2025
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You can't blame Charles for his brain turning to mush— really, you can't. It's not his fault.
If anything, it's Edwin's. Edwin, who is currently stood at case board, hands clasped behind his back. Charles can't focus on much of anything other than his outfit, though.
It's nothing too different from his usual clothes. He dawns a light blue sweater, the collar of his stark white shirt peeking out. His knickerbockers are a light brown with matching brown socks up to his calves. Edwin is wearing his usual boots, and his hair seems all prim and proper like usual but Charles can't focus on that.
All he can focus on is the outfit.
This would be insignificant to Charles, if it were anyone but Edwin. Hell, Crystal and Niko changed their clothes every day and he didn't go around ogling them. He'd get a proper smack upside the head if he did that, but that's besides the point.
It's because this is Edwin. Edwin, who doesn't like change. Edwin, who had only ever changed his look because of—
No.
No, wait.
Not because of Monty, Charles reminds himself.
Edwin hadn't dressed up for Monty, had he?
Bookmarked by duckinhell
30 Apr 2025
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Her daughter is five years old when Ursa realises what she and Ozai have been doing to their children. By each choosing one to bestow with their approval, they’re pitting them against one another. Perhaps Ozai is doing it on purpose, but Ursa isn’t. She resolves to heal the damage she has done.
In which Ursa tries to be a better parent to Azula, and it doesn’t change very much. And then, quite abruptly, it changes everything.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 14,297
- Chapters:
- 6/6
- Collections:
- 39
- Comments:
- 982
- Kudos:
- 18,325
- Bookmarks:
- 5,545
- Hits:
- 133,721
Bookmarked by duckinhell
20 Apr 2025
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When Azula is nine, she becomes an only child. She hears the Fire Lord call for Zuko's life, and in the morning, her mother and brother are gone. Azula may be young, but she isn't naive. She knows what happened to them.
Which makes it all the more surprising when Azula tracks the Avatar down and fights his group of peasant friends, only to find herself staring into an eerily familiar face.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 60,040
- Chapters:
- 9/9
- Collections:
- 100
- Comments:
- 3,050
- Kudos:
- 41,163
- Bookmarks:
- 12,903
- Hits:
- 522,447
Bookmarked by duckinhell
19 Apr 2025
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Go loud: a spycraft term, meaning to deliberately blow one’s cover — usually when there is nothing left to lose.
As Charles passes briefly through Edwin’s orbit, Edwin turns and leans in to kiss his cheek.
Charles feels the sting of the needle in his arm before he sees it.
“I’m terribly sorry about this, Charles,” says Edwin’s voice from the other end of a long, long tunnel, and then the dark rushes up to meet him, and everything goes black.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 7,531
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 88
- Kudos:
- 298
- Bookmarks:
- 52
- Hits:
- 1,370
Bookmarked by duckinhell
30 Mar 2025
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where you go, i’m going (since there is no me without you) by ObsessedWithFandom for Nix_Nihili
Fandoms: Dead Boy Detectives (TV)
29 Mar 2025
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In Edwin’s defence, it had never come up.
Then again, the matter of ghosts’ permanent end was not exactly something you slipped into casual conversation. Most would not know enough to ask in the first place – because surely there was no end more permanent than Death.
Was there?Or: A string of spectral suicides leaves the agency grasping for answers. But there’s something Edwin’s forgot to tell them…
Bookmarked by duckinhell
30 Mar 2025
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Edwin's teeth are worrying at his lower lip. He's staring up at Charles under lashes like he's nervous about looking directly. If he could be less pretty, Charles would almost appreciate it.
Edwin is pressing his fists together.
"Mate, what's got you so worked up?" Charles says, almost snappish with exasperation.
"It does seem a little, permanent, don't you think?"
Charles glances at his rough sketched design of their door sign: Dead Boy Detectives.
"Yeah, I think it bloody does."
Or, 1990, their first year together. They set up a business. Charles navigates his loss. Edwin has a panic attack. Charles falls in love. And they go to the cinema. Not in that order. Follows on from "We Didn't Matter, He and I".
Series
- Part 6 of Not Orpheus and Eurydice
Bookmarked by duckinhell
27 Mar 2025
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I just see You by sixbynine
Fandoms: Dead Boy Detectives (TV), The Dead Boy Detectives (DC Comics)
23 Mar 2025
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Charles can't help himself.
He knows it'll end in heartache when the summer's over and she leaves.
But he couldn't take his eyes off the girl dancing under cheap disco lights for no one but herself.
Series
- Part 1 of You/Me
Bookmarked by duckinhell
25 Mar 2025
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“I want – I want to tear my skin off,” Charles says, strangled. “I can’t – anyone looking at me, Crystal acting like it’s not a big deal, fuck – you.”
“Me?” Edwin asks, almost affronted.
“Well, there’s no way you want me anymore, is there?” Charles blurts. Then he looks mortified.
Or, Edwin has known Charles to be transsexual since '89. It is only when Charles is cursed to experience one of his worst fears that they talk about it.
Series
- Part 12 of Not Orpheus and Eurydice
Bookmarked by duckinhell
25 Mar 2025