to this day i cannot BELIEVE aang called up and blew off like nine avatars just because they didnt offer any vegan options to ending the war

I may be forgetting something that suggests otherwise, but - I wonder if Charles was a very different person when he was alive. And I don’t mean that in terms of like, maybe he was a bully and reformed in death. I mean in terms of identity and presentation and relation to others (and especially authority).

Because the thing is, right. We look at Charles and we see a cool punk, right?

But that’s not the clothes he died in. He didn’t die in a battle jacket.

Because, right. He seems to have gone back and forth between living with his father - presumably a high-control environment - and St. Hilarion’s - ie institutionalized. So when was he going to all these alleged concerts? Where was he getting the punk clothes? What authority did he know that he was able to stand up to?

It’s fully possible that he was sneaking out, and earning un-monitored money somehow, and so forth, of course. But… I just keep thinking… we sorta just take Charles’s implied word for it that he was cool, you know? That he was a Rude Boy. (Although, actually, all he really tells us is that he spent his life desperately trying to be “good” enough for his father.)

So what if he was exactly who you’d expect from someone who grew up caught between extreme abuse and institutional control? What if kicking his mates off that boy was the first act of rebellion in his life (and the last)?

In short, what if that whole identity - just like the jacket and the patches and the rest of his look - was posthumous?

What if he died, and the first thing he wanted to do for himself, when he realized no one could stop him anymore, was to go to a concert, because he’d never been and always wanted to? What if Edwin helped him learn to stand up to authority figures like he helped Edwin learn to express himself freely? What if both of them only became themselves after death, together?

I may be forgetting something that suggests otherwise, but - I wonder if Charles was a very different person when he was alive. And I don’t mean that in terms of like, maybe he was a bully and reformed in death. I mean in terms of identity and presentation and relation to others (and especially authority).

Because the thing is, right. We look at Charles and we see a cool punk, right?

But that’s not the clothes he died in. He didn’t die in a battle jacket.

Because, right. He seems to have gone back and forth between living with his father - presumably a high-control environment - and St. Hilarion’s - ie institutionalized. So when was he going to all these alleged concerts? Where was he getting the punk clothes? What authority did he know that he was able to stand up to?

It’s fully possible that he was sneaking out, and earning un-monitored money somehow, and so forth, of course. But… I just keep thinking… we sorta just take Charles’s implied word for it that he was cool, you know? That he was a Rude Boy. (Although, actually, all he really tells us is that he spent his life desperately trying to be “good” enough for his father.)

So what if he was exactly who you’d expect from someone who grew up caught between extreme abuse and institutional control? What if kicking his mates off that boy was the first act of rebellion in his life (and the last)?

In short, what if that whole identity - just like the jacket and the patches and the rest of his look - was posthumous?

What if he died, and the first thing he wanted to do for himself, when he realized no one could stop him anymore, was to go to a concert, because he’d never been and always wanted to? What if Edwin helped him learn to stand up to authority figures like he helped Edwin learn to express himself freely? What if both of them only became themselves after death, together?

Just imagining Charles and Edwin having found that original empty place to call their agency. Getting some old furniture and putting the official “Dead Boy Detectives Agency” title on the door.

It’s just a random old room in some random old building, but it’ll do nicely.

Slowly filling the shelves with magic books and objects from cases they’ve solved. Adding some books they just personally like and may read through together every once in a while, a few knickknacks from some fun adventures the boys have gone on together, maybe even just some things they like end up decorating the room too.

After so many years you can’t look anywhere in the room without being reminded of those many years Charles and Edwin have spent together since that very first day. And at some point the old couch and chairs go from some old furniture they’d found to a place where they can sit down and rest, and the scratches in the wood from their antics or a result of being on a case are proof that this place in truly theirs and not just some place they can stay for the time being.

Suddenly, one day, these two boys who never had a real home while they were alive look around at the life they’ve built around them and realize that without even trying to, they’ve made themselves a home.

Want your own tiny Charles and Edwin?
This charm can also be used as a standee!
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charles never finished orpheus and eurydice, a three page myth. does that not encompass the whole of his character? he strives for distraction after distraction, things to entertain, things to stimulate. the myth was boring so instead he learned kickboxing. he needed to move and you can't move while you read. he never finished the myth. he never finished the story so he chose his own ending. he decided it would be happy because charles is a romantic, and who cares if virtually all greek myths end in tragedy? charles would defy fate a thousand times over for edwin. but they have to keep moving. they can't wait on the stairs, charles knows that, edwin knows that, they all know that. they have to keep going. charles never finished the myth and edwin did and if they don't keep going their story will end too. charles never finished the myth so he was not resigned to the ending and so their story did not end. edwin did finish the myth and he chose to have hope anyway so their story did not end. your story does not have a set ending your story is not over. their story is not over because i did not finish the myth

ALT

epic prank: boyfriend TRICKED into getting a forehead kiss no clickbait (again)

How do you think Edwin feels when cases end with someone being taken to Hell?

I was going to say “in the early years” but I don’t really think he’d feel any better about it as time goes on, based on what we see, actually. There’d probably be less fear mixed in, over time, as they ran away over and over and escaped every time. And I’m sure it was worst the first time. I’d imagine Edwin probably tried to shut down the Agency on the spot, actually, that time.

Partly from fear - he wouldn’t have known yet how far he’d have to run, to keep the whipping tentacles of Hell from yanking at his feet - but just as much, I think, because someone just got taken to Hell and it was because of something he did and he could hear them screaming as they fell. Because he sent someone to Hell and he may not have meant to do it but the boys who sent him didn’t, either.

I imagine he’d get used to it some over the years, but in the way that someone with chronic pain starts to notice it less and work through it more - not because it hurts less, but because it hurts always. Because we know that even after three and a half decades he meets the boy who literally killed him and condemned him to decades of torment, and his response was to try to rescue him from Hell.

Because, the thing is, Edwin knows Hell. And he knows that infinite torture can never be proportionate for finite sin.

And what about the times when they weren’t expecting it? Because there had to be some. They took Brad and Hunter’s case, after all; ghosts do not wear their sin on their sleeves. There had to be times when they’d solved a case, and the client handed them their payment, and they were ready to run from the blue light and they heard the growl of Hell instead.

And they probably wouldn’t ever even know why, wouldn’t know what their client had done to get marked to go Down. All Edwin would know is that he was the one that made it happen. He solved the case, he let the client move on, he tried to help and now he can hear their screams mixed with the howls of the damned.

I’m not saying I think he’s some sort of anti-carceral saint; it did take him a few minutes, after all, to decide to help Simon. I’m sure there were a few times when someone deeply awful had hurt Charles or a client and Edwin saw the red light and found he didn’t mind all that much.

But… not many, I think.