alexwilltellyouthings

[alexwilltellyouthings]

✦ DBDA kink zine countdown ✦

✦ Pictured above is a little glimpse of what kinks the members of the zine have chosen in a kink catalogue format - can you guess them all?

The stage is set for our very first DBDA NSFW zine, the squeak of leather and the jingle of chains draws ever nearer, artists and writers alike are polishing off their pieces and double checking their gear!

✦ From April to September we've been busy little bees, only two months left now - get ready because you wont want to miss buying a copy of this zine!

[alexwilltellyouthings]

you met me at a very strange time in my life

(@ahotknife has been talking about a pynch fight club AU and I may have become too obsessed with it)

[alexwilltellyouthings]

This is actually the most insane photo ever taken. The siblings….

[alexwilltellyouthings]

“You can’t laugh. Promise.”

“Charles, it cannot possibly be that bad—”

“Don’t laugh. I know it’s rubbish.”

“It’s not rubbish! You only need more practice, that’s all.”

Charles sighed and lowered the sketchbook to his lap, burying his head in his hands. Edwin tried not to follow the sketchbook with his eyes, but it was hard to look away from what he would have to be very generous to call a portrait of himself.

Edwin’s own rendition of Charles in charcoal stayed forgotten in Edwin’s hands. They’d decided to draw each other in this downtime between cases, since they could no longer catch sight of their reflections in mirrors or windows or still bodies of water. It was Charles’ idea, and Edwin had relished rediscovering the muscle memory of drawing that he had long forgotten in the interminable decades between childhood and the present.

“It’s really not as bad as you think,” Edwin said, sitting down beside Charles on the sofa. He brushed a thumb across what he thought was meant to be his chin, careful that his ghostly fingers didn’t smudge the charcoal. “Look, you’ve done a wonderful job with the brow.”

“Nah, the eyebrows are too thin. You got some real caterpillars up here,” Charles said, finally unearthing that beautiful face Edwin had spent the last forty minutes studying. He poked at Edwin’s eyebrows, Edwin having to duck closer to Charles to dodge it.

“Charles!” Edwin pulled away laughing. “I’ve been told I have a difficult face before,” he admitted. “The portraits my mother would commission of us as children would always vex the painters when it came to my turn to sit.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. ‘Stop scowling if you please, Master Payne,’ and they wouldn’t accept my best attempts to explain that it was simply my neutral expression.” Edwin said it like a joke, but he could still remember how frustrating those sessions were. It left him with an overall distaste, when he could very well have spent those hours reading books or playing dolls with little Evangeline. “I daresay they would find you just as difficult to paint.”

Though Edwin doubted they would ever find an expression that could be called a scowl on Charles Rowland’s face. What had most vexed Edwin was finding a way to capture the delicate beauty his features held, feeling like every rough stroke of charcoal was too heavy and simultaneously not enough. He flipped his paper round to show Charles, who took it and simply stared for several long moments.

“I suppose mine needs improvement as well. Your eyes do shine in a way that doesn’t translate well to paper,” Edwin said nervously, waiting for Charles’ judgement. With every wordless second that passed, Edwin only grew more anxious, though he wasn’t sure what for. Charles would never be cruel, so what was Edwin even worried about?

“Mate, this is amazing,” Charles said, delicately tracing the shell of his own charcoal ear. “I don’t think it needs anything at all. Is this really…” He bit his lip and trailed off. “Is this really what I look like? To you?”

“Yes,” Edwin said hesitantly. “Do you remember what you look like? I do not, of course, but perhaps you…?”

“No,” Charles said, shaking his head. “I mean, general shapes, yeah, but this is…” he trailed off again, seemingly without the words to describe what he felt.

Edwin had the sinking feeling he had tried too hard, put too much of himself into it, when the original reason for the exercise was silly. That unchangeable otherness he’d carried since he was a child, that everyone except him seemed to clock immediately, had shown itself once again, embarrassingly. His fingers itched with the urge to snatch it back and burn it to cinders.

He couldn’t do that without raising questions, and so he talked to distract from it. “I drew inspiration from the style of Fayum mummy portraits. You are of course familiar with them—recall the Case of the Troubled Tabernarius? You have a similar Roman beauty about you.”

Charles’ eyes were wet. “Careful. Anyone would think you’ll be writing love letters next,” he joked. “I’m not all that. Ugliest one on the cricket team, I was.”

“Your inability to accept a compliment has no bearing on the truth. And besides, I’ll thank you not to speak so poorly of my best friend,” Edwin sniffed.

“Yeah? Well I know your best friend,” Charles laughed. “He’s a bit of a knob, isn’t he?”

“Only when he insists on being stubborn.” Edwin stayed very still as Charles carefully set the drawing to the side, then turned and pulled him into a hug.

“I love it, Edwin. And I swear, I’m gonna keep drawing you until I can do it properly,” Charles promised.

“There’s no need—”

“’Course there is. You gave me this, now let me show you what you look like to me, alright?”

“Very well,” Edwin agreed, if only because it would give him the chance to stare greedily at Charles’ face some more. Charles pulled back, and Edwin immediately missed his embrace. “I shall procure more charcoal tomorrow, and perhaps the implements to experiment with other media as well. You would look good in oil pastels, I should think.”

“Flatterer.” Charles gathered up both drawings, pinning them carefully by their corners to the top of their case board, taking care not to fold or puncture them. “There. Almost as good as magnets on a fridge, yeah?”

“Better,” Edwin said decisively.

[alexwilltellyouthings]

a belated birthday gift for my dearest, loveliest @tumblerislovetumblerislife you're a star and you deserve the world!!! <3

AND A CHARLES IN A SKIRT!!

[alexwilltellyouthings]

who ordered guard dog?

This is a messy painting because i’m trying to get the hang of clip studio paint lol. Hyperfixation so bad it pulled you out of both art block and writer’s block.

Totally didn’t base the idea on these two posts:

and ofc the scene where Charles was covered in blood

[alexwilltellyouthings]

dead boy detective flyer drafts hehe (that my art teacher fucking hated, hence why i never finished them)

[alexwilltellyouthings]

endless gifs of Charles Rowland (8/-)

[alexwilltellyouthings]

SOME KIND OF MADNESS

Desire and Despair play a game with their favorite ghosts.

What do they want the most? What do they fear? What will they do after facing it?

Sounds like so much fun to make them find out!

Fic by @alexwilltellyouthings Made for the @deadbangdetectives mini bang.

[alexwilltellyouthings]

A little floating ghostly Edwin! I kinda wish they floated a bit in the show, that would’ve been kind of cool.

[alexwilltellyouthings]

Not to bring angst into it but

I'm not sure if that's something Esther could control, but I'm sure she doesn't care at all. Whatever Monty is, he had a job and she probably didn't care how he got it done (although she probably took one look at all parties involved and guessed what would happen).

Which can mean Monty was the one who decided on who to approach. Maybe he went for Edwin because he seemed like an "easy" target, someone who would be off guard with any amount of flirting.

Or, maybe, he had kind of a crush already, at the very least thought Edwin was cute, so hey, why not go there?

chat do we think Monty is bisexual to maximize his chances of infiltrating the agency via seduction or do we think Esther CLOCKED Edwin & made Monty gay because she knew he wouldn't need to be anything else

[alexwilltellyouthings]

The full canvas of this Payneland WIP from early this year! Based off of/traced from the sculpture Abandon by Camille Claudel. It’s been long enough since I worked on this that I’m not sure I’m gonna finish it, but I’m extremely proud of what I’ve done so far :3

[alexwilltellyouthings]

Handing out flowers in the DBDA fandom today 👻 🔎

🌷

THANK YOU FOR THE FLOWERS

As a humble offering in return, I’m dropping some funny fandom images for whoever wants to use them 😌

(The first one was locked and loaded in case they showed up in Sandman, and the second one... is YOU 🫵🏻 Payneland fan)

[alexwilltellyouthings]

[alexwilltellyouthings]

Late Day 1 ApocalAugust - Aliens | Invasion :)

wasn’t 100% sure what to do for the first day so I hit ‘em with the tried and true explode big ben.

expect everything else to also be…late…

i have my other prompts planned but uh…they might be a bit more spread out through august through work and school and my family being here.

[alexwilltellyouthings]

forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit