mountainsoftreatos

[mountainsoftreatos]

Update: made the Big Brown Cushion. Yes, that one.

[mountainsoftreatos]

Angel with a shotgun cricket bat

something something Charles doesn't want to be violent but he will not hesitate to be the brawn to protect his friends

gif by @crystalpalacesasaki

[mountainsoftreatos]

There is no house like the house of belonging. — David Whyte for @idliketobeatree 💛

[mountainsoftreatos]

[デッドボイ緊急室 / Dead Boy A&E] 検査・examination

[mountainsoftreatos]

what I find/found most compelling about the delivery of Charles's "Crystal. No." line in episode 7 is the way the flat denial of it comes with a sort of assumption of authority in the situation, which easily could be read as chauvinistic, but to me felt far more like... OK. so.

Charles says repeatedly that Crystal's "their age", and the overwhelming majority of the time, he does relate to her on a 16-yo : 16-yo level. but he's not just sixteen, the same way Edwin's not just sixteen - he's also fifty-one. and next to the two of them? Crystal is a child.

and that dynamic, which rarely rarely rarely comes into play, is the one I felt happening here. he doesn't want his attention and worry split, and he doesn't want to know what decision he would end up making if he had to choose, because he cares about Crystal and feels responsible for Crystal in ways that include at least on a subconscious level the bone-deep knowledge of their age gap, but Edwin is Edwin. it's an unthinkable choice, and the mere possibility of it will distract him to the point that it might as well be considered inevitable, in terms of risk.

[mountainsoftreatos]

[mountainsoftreatos]

What if... Dead Boy Doctors?

救急救命室・Accident & Emergency

I loved this prompt so much! Cool doctor Charles with his Figs and Hokas, and buttoned up somehow even after 12 hours Edwin run that A&E like no other doctors can. Someone write them as doctors!?

[mountainsoftreatos]

i always mean it when i say i love you btw

[mountainsoftreatos]

this is specific but i'd love to see something of charles and crystal goofing off and being generally silly together

仲間・mates (buddies)

Hi anon! I don’t know that it’s silly enough but I imagined Crystal is getting her words in after Charles did something silly. Thank you so much for prompting!

[mountainsoftreatos]

Another thought about the confession -

When Edwin initially tries confessing his feelings, he starts with "Monty unearthed some feelings within me," and Charles assumes that those feelings are a romantic interest in Monty AND realizes that the Cat King had been making a pass at him.

When Crystal insists that she should come to Hell to help find Edwin, Charles tells her, "I can't be worried about you when I need to focus on finding Edwin." He is telling her firmly that Edwin is and will be his only concern.

Yes, the confession scene on the stairway in Hell is about Edwin telling Charles he's in love with him. But it is also reaffirming that they are only for each other. You have five/six episodes where Charles is flirting with Crystal and Edwin is having his time monopolized by the Cat King and is tentatively exploring the concept of dating/romance with Monty. After all that, Edwin is saying, in a way, "I am in love with YOU. Not Monty. Not the Cat King. YOU." and Charles responds with, "YOU are my most important person. YOU are the only person I would go to Hell for. Not Crystal. YOU."

When it really comes down to it, it is Edwin and Charles, Charles and Edwin. They are each other's person. They are soul mates. And I just think that came out really beautifully in the confession scene.

[mountainsoftreatos]

The boys taking advantage of their incorporeality to literally share the same space, anyone? Hugging so tightly it’s like they want to merge bodies and then they do.

The sofa doesn’t have room for both of them to lie down (doesn’t really have room for one of them, to be honest) but they just both lie down mostly overlapping, their bodies inside each other in a way no living humans can achieve, their unbeating hearts nestled against each other

Joining space with most of their bodies while their arms are flung about separately so that Edwin can hold a spellbook while Charles holds a magnifying glass and an enchanted candle over it and they can look at the book with their eyes at the exact same angle (the first time Crystal comes in and sees them merged into a “four-armed monster” she screams)

They did it a lot at first because it’s the only way they can feel warmth in any real sense; it’s not quite the same warmth as the living sense of temperature, as human thermoception, but sharing space with the thrumming spectral energy of another ghost is as close as they can get, and it helps, they learn after months of Charles shivering against cold that only he can feel, that isn’t real thermoception, either. They spent quite a lot of winter nights, the first few years, curled up inside each other, curled up against each others’ souls like a cat against warm laundry.

[mountainsoftreatos]

Welcome to the DBDA Comment Festival!

Want to give more love to fanfic authors? Want to create a deeper sense of community by talking to the people sharing their works with you? Well then, welcome to the Dead Boy Detective Agency weekly comment festival, which will run for a year, from the first anniversary of the release of the show until the second!

Every week, starting on the 25th of April, there will be three levels and three chances to drop a comment (though, of course, you're always encouraged to leave as many comments as you're able to on the works you read). This blog will be generally safe for work, but beyond that no tags, headcanons, ships, or characters are excluded from the event, so if a given comment prompt doesn't work for you that week, just skip it! This is a no pressure, no obligation, year-long festival—there will be plenty of chances for you to leave comments on other works!

The comment prompts will be graded by how "easy" it is to find works that fit that prompt and will be one of the following types: fic rating; fic category; character tags; relationship tags; freeform tags; fic status; fic word count; date updated.

Level 1 prompts are (relatively) common for Dead Boy Detectives. These are things as simple as comment on a completed work, to the Edwin/Charles tag, to fics rated T. Level 2 prompts are less common, but still relatively prevalent. Expect things like the Crystal/Charles relationship tag, the Simon character tag, and the F/F category. Finally, level 3 comment prompts are the rarer ones in the fandom. You'll be prompted to comment on things like works that have over a hundred thousand words, or the Esther Finch & Monty relationship tag, or the Mystery tag.

This year long event is geared toward commenting on fics on AO3, but it's not restricted to that. Obviously, some things will be specific to AO3 tags and the way the archive is set up, but if you want to leave a comment on a F/F gifset, or fanart about Simon, here on tumblr, please do so, and feel free to count it as part of this challenge! Also, feel free to use the comment prompts at any time, don't feel the need to be restricted to the current week's prompts (and if you want to use the comment prompts as a writing/art prompt, go ahead!).

Once you've left your comment, feel free to share what work you commented on with this blog to be further shared with the community, either by tagging @dbdaweeklycomments, using the #DBDA Comment Festival tag, replying to the weekly challenge post, dropping it in submissions, direct messaging, etc.

That's a long intro, but hopefully it answers most questions! Now, enjoy the fandom, enjoy the community, and get out there and talk to people, even if you're just leaving a 💖 on those fics!

[mountainsoftreatos]

The Case of Crystal's foreshadowed arc

In episode 6, I always took Iris' warning of "-It's bad for the tree." as foreshadowing for Crystal's arc in season 2. David isn't actually gone, he's just been buried deeper in Crystal's mind and she's the one in control now. But what does it mean for the tree? The one that represents Crystal herself?

Taking some inspiration from this post by edwin-paynes-bowtie. Go check it out, it's a really cool idea.

The fact of David being "bad for the tree" is of course a subtle way of leaving that door open story-wise. David isn't really gone, he's just tucked away somewhere. They can bring him back if they want to later in the story. But, as Iris says, "[She] can't leave this demon buried here forever."

He's bad for the tree, there's a demon in the roots, a demon poisoning the tree: poisoning Crystal, and poisoning the place where her ancestors reside.

The tree in her head represents where she comes from, where her powers come from, because it represents her. A demon being in the roots of it is probably a little worse than bad.

There are two ways (I think) this arc would come across:

1. Crystal slowly delves back into being the Crystal of before: a neglected child with too much freedom and too much money lashing out in response.

David poisons her in a much more literal way than he did in pre-season 1. He's destroying the tree and he's destroying her, enforcing the same toxic thoughts and actions that he encouraged Crystal to do in season 1. Except this time he isn't in the form of some fedora-wearing boyfriend, he's a demon, in her mind, deep in the roots of what - technically - is really her.

When Crystal sees her memories, she describes herself as being "toxic". And now, that toxicity is being set right in the source of Crystal; right into the tree's roots.

Crystal simultaneously trying to rectify her actions pre-season 1 while still finding herself acting the same way she used to would cause obvious mental conflict. And it would bring up the questions she was only beginning to ask: is she actually a bad person, deep down? Is her only method of survival to make others more miserable? Is she really as bad as David showed her to be?

However, as brought up in the linked post, we've already done this. That arc has already occurred. But there is another interesting version.

2. Her powers slowly start to fade as the tree is damaged.

Crystal places so much importance of herself and her worth on her powers, and rightly so. She was targeted by David because she's a psychic, half the reason Charles can convince Edwin to let Crystal stay is by emphasisng that she is a psychic. Her powers help find cases, fix cases, save Becky, save Niko. Figure out what Maren did. Call Lilith to get Esther. And so on and so on.

So much of what Crystal does is based off her powers, so she perceives herself as mostly her powers. In ep 6, she loses these powers. She doesn't really know what she is anymore. She doesn't tell the boys because they keep coming to her for the help her powers provide, and now those are gone so what is she to them? (she's their friend but they're all teenagers with low self-esteem so).

She doesn't want to elaborate on it - the same as she doesn't with anything related to David - she's ashamed; she even says to Iris "Now I'm nothing". Without her powers, Crystal really isn't sure who she is.

In episode 6, she makes peace that the powers have always been a part of her, but that was all in regards to having lost her powers for less than 24 hours. What if they were slowly fading? What if she couldn't get them at all? And for no reason she can recognise.

Furthermore, this season 2 Crystal would be the complete opposite of herself in season 1. Going from having no memories but having her powers, to having her memories and no powers. This would cause Crystal to have to address her sense of herself, and what truly makes her her.

What makes Crystal Palace? Is it her memories? Is it her powers? Is it her "collective past" from her ancestors? This got philosophical, but it is exactly what would make a prevalent season 2 arc for Crystal.

This touches on Crystal's avoidance of discussing David with any emotion other than anger. Now they think David is gone but he might not be. Would a season 2 Crystal be willing to expand on how David affected her and still affects her to the boys? Or would she be attempting it on her own? There's no Niko to sneak off to magic shops anymore. What could she do?

Either way Crystal's season 2 arc would've been incredible and I WANT IT NETFLIX WHERE IS IT

[mountainsoftreatos]

oooh would you ever draw edwin and niko together?? 💙

なかよし・good friends

Thank you so much for the prompt, anon! It was my first time trying to draw Niko in this style. I wonder what she and Edwin are talking about………..

[mountainsoftreatos]

Miss Lasagna herself is finally here!!!

This took me 30 hours, which is insane, but I'm so happy with how she came out! I feel like I say this with every piece, but I really learned a lot with this one, and I think I'm finally getting comfortable with color!

[mountainsoftreatos]

fic planning be like:

[mountainsoftreatos]

Does anyone have any fic rec for dbda fics cos I've just recently got obsessed and I need to fill the void of no season 2?