#The Dead Men

[nicstylus]

Wanna know how I color your silly little guys? Behold! My brand new pallete that I made instead of completing the errands I need to run!

Included within this package deal:

A doodle of the character of my default hairstyle and outfit for them (Easy use of the eyedropper!)

The main pallete that never changes: Hair, Eyes and Skin

The clothing pallete with different options depending on outfits I've drawn them in and how often I draw the character (Sorry Crystal)

a Flat of the Merryn Sigil

+ the Sceptre, Tanith's sword and Skulduggery's gun, but who cares about those

The font I use for each characters dialogue

The color of their crosshatched square for my backgrounds

PwF, LSODM and DoA Spoilers!

[tictactotallyokay]

I can’t help but wonder how sorcerers navigate the “mundane” or mortal aspects of life.

How do sanctuary workers get paid? Do sorcerers pay taxes? How do they navigate healthcare? Do they pay for it? Are there insurance companies?

Do people like Ghastly or Frightening meal plan and batch cook? Do sorcerers have skin care routines? I’m trying to imagine different Elders doing their laundry.

No matter if it’s a sorcerer that hates the mortal world they’ll use some form of technology. Do they keep up with latest releases? Have some Roarhaven minded sorcerers created their own company out of spite?

When sorcerers buy houses or go on holidays how do they sort it all? Same with buying anything really. Every time he gets an outrageous car does Skulduggery use a mortal car dealership? I like to think that he goes to the same one Desmond did when he bought the Oompa Loompa.

I have so many questions and want them answered but that won’t happen

[thefandomlifechoseme]

lmao an AU where Skulduggery stayed as Vile, but thanks to Plot Convenience™ works with the Sanctuary these days would be so fucking funny

Skulduggery Pleasant: *turns up to Gordon's funeral making an insane number of quips*

Skulduggery Pleasant: *drops right back off the face of the earth immediately afterwards*

Meanwhile:

Vile: *a mute rat bastard. It's not that the guy can't talk, it's that he won't talk. Ghastly's heard him laugh when he thinks he can't hear!* *the rest of the Dead Men are also his handler when they deign to show up.*

Baby Stephanie: *really wants to learn how to set shadows on fire like Mr Lord Vile did, please*

[griffinskullz]

do you ever think that after the war the dead men all just went on holiday together

[whimsylueur]

Tone study with my HUSBANDS 🩶

I’m a WIP queen, absolutely 0 artworks completed to their fullest potential. That’s what I get for being a part time student, full time cog in the machine, we only get crumbs of time for hobbies 👀 This is proof, though, that I’m working on that lacklustre colouring x

[silverior968]

Who in the dead men do you think is the "your inability to learn complicated handshakes is tearing this gang apart" post

The most obvious answer is Larrikin or Dexter but I think Anton also has the potential

[logansdogmotif]

ANTON SHUDDER HEADCANONS 🦇

requested by the lovely @griffinskullz!! and yes i did use phantom manor as my building claim for the midnight hotel… tf you gonna do about it

🦇 is native american/has native heritage, (lots of my cousins/aunts and uncles my mum’s side of the family are cherokee (a generation up from me i think?) and when i read the books when i was younger she would always headcanon anton as native, so that’s always stuck with me). p.s. my fancast for him (pictured above) is eddie spears.

🦇 is autistic! i always see this one as quite widespread, and it’s completely canon to me. i think he specifically has problems with certain sounds/levels of noise so i hc that the midnight hotel™️ is a top donor to loop earplugs.

🦇 has a bunch of sisters, think one doesn't have particular root in anything i just get ‘large family of sisters’ vibe from him. and in that vein, in my modern au he has two mums <3 so i think he’s always had quite a strong feminine influence, which in turn provides him lots of security in his masculinity.

🦇 has been approached multiple times for modelling gigs (but obviously never took them), and tbh?? has the lethal-est facecard out of the dead men. like if you lined them up and said “oh the really hot, like, beautiful one” everyone would automatically assume anton.

🦇 GAY!! i don’t care what derek says i think he needs to go on a 12-step program for making all of his characters bisexual to be honest. not that i have anything against that obviously i think most of derek’s character are bi but anton? not one of them. he has had girlfriends though but only when he was very young and always got broken up with for not being ‘engaged enough’ in the relationship.

🦇 canon specific: goes full loras tyrell about larrikin’s death. i’m a big shudderkin shipper here and i think larrikin’s death would’ve completely broke anton. and whilst i liked him leaving the midnight hotel to his (ex?)boyfriend after his death as a plot device to confirm his queerness, i honestly don’t think he would’ve had any serious relationships after larrikin. which is totally not what larrikin would’ve wanted but hey ho.

🦇 big music nerd. has a whole record library in the hotel and can tell you the artist, release date, producers, influences and interpolation of most songs in the last few centuries. he specifically likes classical songs that are minimum 10 minutes long, ballad americana (lana del rey, ethel cain, etc), and 80s folk.

🦇 the most mental health aware of the dead men, which i partially think is why he is removed from their shenanigans often as he recognises the negative effect they can have on eachother. i think having the gist gave him cause to learn a lot about compartmentalisation and how we process trauma, and i think he would have set up (or at least wanted to set up) some sort of free-of-charge counselling service at the hotel, and would've let the hotel's space be used for things like veteran's support groups or AA.

🦇 closest friends with saracen out of all of the dead men, and (depending on which au) they've known eachother since they were very young/since when saracen was very young (in canon i think anton is one of the eldest of the dead men, the actual eldest i think being hopeless). they at least grew up in the same village (BIG UP CORMACKSTOWN, COUNTY TIPPERARY!!! which i think is where the two of them are from if that wasn't clear).

QUICKFIRE HEADCANONS:

🦇 annoyingly good at card games (specifically uno)

🦇 generally doesn’t drink but gets CRUNK when he does (think ron swanson in the parks and rec snakejuice episode)

🦇 nicest handwriting ever

🦇 goes non-verbal relatively often

🦇 horrible core balance (that’s why his back is so straight all the time bc he’s actively trying not to fall over)

🦇 slow reader

🦇 favourite weather is early morning mist (specifically on the coast)

🦇 makes horrible tea

🦇 pockets full of mints like a grandma

🦇 chronic chest pain bc of the gist

🦇 WILL win any argument you have with him (even if you’re in the right, you will walk away feeling like you’ve lost)

🦇 genius at finding bargains & sales

🦇 teaches people how to shoplift from big corporations

skeleton hatman taglist 🫶: @griffinskullz @mortalcoils

p.s. i met derek landy for the second time yesterday! he signed my copy of hell breaks loose and i thanked him for making saraxter canon 💗 (also my friend gave him a ‘legally binding’ contract to write demon road 4 and he signed it as simon cowell… what a guy)

[talathepeopleeater]

What was in Dexters bag?

This contains spoilers for seasons of war so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

So at the end of SoW Dexter’s bag gets sliced and it was empty apart from something heavy at the bottom and it made me think about what it was. The theory I have come up with is that after Saracen died Dex cremated him but he kept the ashes. I’m sure it’s easy to find a sturdy container even in the Lebiniez universe. It was heavy because A: it’s Saracen’s ashes that we’re talking about or B: Dex really didn’t want it to break. It would be a way of remembering Saracen. Also if there was a memorial for him I want it to be in the shape of a piano. But this is just a theory so let me know what you think!

[begayandstabpeople]

Skullduggery Pleasant is clearly in no way in his right mind so why the fuck did meritorious, a seemingly reasonable man ( to some extent) hire him, and why did he keep getting re hired? Also why the fuck did they decide to hire a thirteen year old? Who’s in charge of hiring people in the sanctuary and why are they hiring some of the most unstable people possible?

[yeehaw-razor-dirt-man]

Gonna say this now because it has been in my head

Either Saracen and Anton are both back

Or Dexter is gonna die

[winter-wise]

One of the highlights of Hell Breaks Loose was the confirmation that the Dead Men, elite squad doing the toughest missions in a magical war, also do that friend group thing of "your ex boyfriend didn't do anything wrong, and if anything, it's your fault that the relationship ended, but he was the one who broke up with you so we've decided that he's terrible and the worst and we hate him"

[nicstylus]

Seasons of War

Side by Side ish

Completed: February 19th 2025

[tictactotallyokay]

A lot (all) of the sorcerers in the SP world are terrible people but something that is really normalised throughout the series is fat phobia and comparing looks. And I’ve been thinking about it a lot.

In society in general there is a relationship between privilege and appearance. People who have more money and time are going to be able to control more factors like diet, exercise, sleep and the various products that society tells us we need to buy to be considered attractive. When the war with Mevolent was happening there is no way this level of control was possible for the sorcerers fighting. It would have been near impossible for people to have access to the amount and types of food needed to maintain physiques. People would have been sleep deprived and gone days if not weeks without showering.

So whilst there is this elitist attitude with appearance what if it’s more than that? What if it’s a reminder that sorcerers didn’t always have the ability to control these things in their life. That people who stray outside of the ideal of beauty are choosing not to and it reminds them of when they didn’t have the choice. Saracen is a great example where his body changed when he was no longer fighting for his life and could eat what he wanted when he wanted. And he’s teased relentlessly for putting on weight despite the fact that he’s no longer a solider and it’s no longer war time. Even from his friends there’s this shame put on him and I think it goes back to control and everyone’s trauma response.

[monstermonsterman]

the moment in LSODM where the dead men are telling a story and are like "Haha Skulduggery doesn't like this one because he isn't in it!" then immediately start the story and it's like "so we're fighting Lord Vile right-" is so funny to me idk

[griffinskullz]

hey guys reminder that if you ship valduggery or valkyrie with any or all of the dead men (or anyone over the age of 100 for that matter) please dni