#dad boy detectives

[majorlb]

AU where Charles has come to terms with being dead a long time ago. (It's pretty mint, actually. And it brought him to Edwin, the best person in this world or the next.)

That also means that when they meet Crystal, his thought isn't "cute girl", it's "lost amnesiac child".

He argues with Edwin that as the only adults in the vicinity, it's their responsibility to help her.

(Crystal is baffled. Edwin hates that he's right.)

They call her "young lady" and call out things like "Oi Missy! Watch the language!" and tease her about how flustered she looked when Niko showed up.

She hates that she enjoys their encouragement and weird old people humor.

And when she gets her memories back... she's so grateful for their love and support.

Aunt Cindy and Uncle Earl start going to PTA meetings and helping her get her grades back up.

They go to her graduations and offer love and congratulations.

When Aunt Cindy Edwin pats her shoulder and tells her they're proud of her, she does cry, but they don't talk about it.

They don't even tease her when she slips up and calls either of them Dad.

They DO tease her when she catches them kissing and has the same reaction any teenager would have catching their parents kissing.

"EW! GROSS!"

JUST Crystal gains two teenage ghost dads.

And of her real parents find out? So what! If she's forgettable, then they're replaceable.

Also what are they even going to do? Call the cops? Pssh

[soulfulsam42]

I feel so seen by Charles in this moment.

As a grown child of abuse, sometimes I'll tell a story that, to me, is just a story about everyday life as I lived it. They're often stories that I'll even find kind of funny. And then when the reaction I get is something like, "WTF? Are you alright?" I'm like, 'oh no, I've done it again, haven't I?'

Look at Charles' face in the top pane when he's telling his story. To him, it's a funny story: "Oh man, I was so annoying about how much I liked this song that I played it until my dad smashed the tape with a hammer. Hilarious, right?" And then the bottom pane: "Oh man, I've done it again, haven't I?"

This feeling can be so isolating because large portions of your life are basically too disturbing for other people to want to hear. I love that Dead Boy Detectives made this a part of Charles' character and highlighted it here.

[mirellapryce]

Post canon, back in London, I can absolutely see Edwin and Charles haunting Crystal's mom into being a better parent a la "A Christmas Carol". Edwin tries diplomacy first and just gives her the heads up that she can choose to do better herself, or else his partner will use his own methods.

Two weeks later when she fails to call her daughter, Charles shows up at whatever museum she's trying to set up in and is just like "I heard most of the stuff in British Museums was stolen anyway. It would be a shame if the last person the cameras saw in the same room as this stuff was you." She tries to call his bluff until he demonstrates that his backpack CAN in fact hold every item in the room, and he's ready to mirror hop to Greece with it if she doesn't ask Crystal out to dinner for impromptu girl's night.

Oh? You're busy tonight? Oh look, the Chinese exhibit. He hasn't been to China yet. He could drop off some stolen goods there too.

[littlefankingdom]

"World's Greatest Detective" is not a real thing. How would you even determine that? There's no competition putting detectives from all around the world against each others. And, Bruce is not someone that boast about his exploits, he does what he does because it's the right thing to do. He doesn't even see himself as a "good guy", because he thinks what he is doing is what needs to be done. Yes, he is prideful but he isn't this type of guy. He cannot be the one that came up with it.

So, I hc that it's Dick, small young Dick, who flies from roof to roof with Batman, who calls him that first. It's clearly something a child would do, as they will also call their parents "the best dad/mom" or "the most beautiful". It is during a debriefing with some cops, after one of them vocalises how impress they are by what Batman found, that little Robin exclaims "Duh, he's the world's greatest detective!" What are you supposed to do, then? Tell your adorable kid that, no, you aren't the world's greatest detective, that doesn't exist? Tell Batman's kid, in front of Batman, that he is wrong and it doesn’t exist? Do you have a death wish??? The good answer is: "You're right, he's the world's greatest detective.". And when a criminal captures Robin and boasts that Batman will never find him, the lil bird answers: "B will find us, because he's the world's greatest detective!". And, look at him, he isn't wrong, Batman does find them and gets his boy back safe and sound.

Little Robin keeps calling Batman "the world's greatest detective" and people start to do so too. "It should be easy if you really are the world's greatest detective!" taunts the Riddler, "The world's greatest detective is on his way" tells Gordon to his team, "Superman? Pff, we have the world's greatest detective, here!" brag Gothamites...

As Robin grows, he stops doing it, but it stays. As time goes on, people forget who started it. Was it Batman himself? Was it a rogue mocking him? Even Dick forgets, as some memories leave us with time. Only one man remembers: Batman himself, Bruce Wayne.

So, when anyone calls him "world's greatest detective", even to tease or mock him, he doesn't correct it. That's what his baby called him. And when Dick Grayson, now Nightwing, tells him "Man, aren't you supposed to be the world's greatest detective or something?" while they work on a case together, he thinks back to the little Robin who first called him that, and a small smile invites itself on his lips.

[stvlti]

So Esther had a large snake in her basement and a crow named Monty

You could even say she had Monty Python at home

[zinnie-zoloft]

Charles in his old man disguise telling some punk kids about what it was like being part of the scene in the 80s, and for a moment he gets to experience what his life could have been like if he hadn’t died

[jameslongforjimshortforgabriel]

honestly I love that we live in a timeline where beautiful queer media is available in so so many places and so easy to find and even mainstream like that's amazing and we overlook it most of the time

[kugisakiss]

The detective boys being little gremlins and following Tagaki around calling him dad. It starts with Conan going "Alright boys time to enact our plan" Tagaki doesn't know how to handle it but the force start laughing and going along with it. Please.

they'll consider it if Takagi successfully proposes to her

[tma-themed-brain]

As a certified dbda fan, I can suspend my disbelief about a lot of the iffier writing, but y'know what I still can't wrap my head around? The fact that Charles had childhood trauma that heavy and that relevant in his day to day life and somehow Edwin just... didn't know.

Like, you're telling me that in 35 years, Charles never mentioned it? Never alluded to it, never joked about it, never even accidentally implied it? The trauma from his childhood was so bad that it still deeply triggered him 35 years after the fact, to the point he was ready to physically assault the father in the Devlin house, and Edwin had apparently never figured that out?

Had the boys never come across a case with an abusive parent before? An abused child? Any violent man? Are we supposed to believe that this is the first time in 35 years that Charles has had to confront this trauma?

Because listen, I could believe it if in the Devlin house, when Crystal told Edwin about Charles' dad, Edwin had a reaction like "I thought that might be the case but I didn't want to believe it/mention it" but NO! He flat out just,,, didn't know?? How are you going to be a detective and not figure out that your best friend of 35 years has insane childhood trauma??

[flufallo]

Don't you just love red and blue boyfriend where the golden retriever one has daddy issues and the other is/ was controlled by someone

[majorlb]

Crystal: I know we don't always see eye to eye

Edwin, nodding: Because you're short

Crystal:

[viktorpartner]

My roman empire?

Oh mean Charles Rowland opening a mirror portal to make sure his father isn't beating his mum?

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

See, I think Charles’ annoyance and frustration with the Cat King really was just pure protectiveness and not any kind of jealousy - it’s understandable, because Edwin is not telling him what happened even though something clearly did, which is not typical for them. Edwin doesn’t usually hide things like this! Of course he’s worried!

Charles’ reaction to Monty, on the other hand, is difficult to explain in a way that isn’t jealousy. You could say he’s being protective again, but Charles shows no sign of distrust in Monty, and had no idea of who Monty was or that he might betray them - he was actually very chill with him, except in a select few specific scenes. You could say he just doesn’t like him because he got brushed off during their first meeting, but not only does that not seem like Charles at all, it also doesn’t make sense, since, again, in most instances, Charles is genuinely friendly and is happy when Monty compliments him and seems to have come around to liking him (it completely flies over his head that this is a petty jab at Edwin on Monty’s part but oh well hahaha). You could say it changes up their status quo a bit and that bothers Charles. I do think this bothers him a bit, but I think, unlike Edwin, Charles’ fear and frustration here is directed more at situations (the Cat King whisking him away for several hours, as an example) than others. He’s sociable and likes being able to talk to new people. There’s absolutely no way he’d begrudge Edwin doing the same - and he doesn’t… with Niko. Edwin and Niko hit it off and become very close and that never bothers Charles at all. He’s incredibly endeared to her, just like the rest, and for the most part, he’s chill with Monty too, and smiles pretty knowingly when Edwin confesses to him having awakened some feelings. The only exceptions, where he shows definite annoyance, are when Monty first shows up and gets really in Edwin’s personal space to show him the astrology chart he made, and when Edwin is so sucked into the book Monty gave him that he doesn’t hear that Charles is talking to him, to which he annoyedly says that they seem to have been “spending a lot of time together”.

You could say he’s unused to having anyone get in Edwin’s personal space like that, but, again, Niko. She’s very tactile with him and he doesn’t seem to mind all that much; they spend time together watching things. If it was just someone getting close with Edwin in general, not only would that be weirdly possessive for the character, but it would also mean he would show discomfort with anyone getting close, I think. Does Charles see Monty as more of a potential threat than Niko, seeing as he knows her and her personality and doesn’t know Monty? Well, maybe, but again, Charles shows no sign of distrusting Monty at all.

Monty is a boy. Okay. So something about seeing Edwin so close to a boy that is not him, getting lost in thought over something this boy gave him, really rubs Charles the wrong way. Charles appears to catch on just as quickly as anyone else that there is something (or it looks like something) between Edwin and Monty. He is not surprised when Edwin comes out to him in episode 6, and in fact, seems to have just been waiting for him to verbalize it. He smiles and is not bothered at all by Edwin showing (what he thinks is) a romantic interest in Monty - he just doesn’t like it when Monty clearly shows a romantic interest in Edwin. Um. Well. Well.

Charles is jealous. I really don’t know what else to say.

Look, when I first watched this show, I actually didn’t want them to end up together romantically - I love the idea of one having fallen in love with another who does not reciprocate and the two of them still loving each other just as much. That Edwin’s confession made them closer instead of making things awkward is such a beautiful outcome to this build up and I absolutely love it. However. On my two rewatches, I caught a lot more little details, and I think it would be very strange if the show did not follow up on this. That, plus the deliberate quality of these “jealousy” moments where the camera focuses on him, Charles’ Orpheus coding throughout the show, the fact that Edwin’s arc was far more about realizing his feelings for Charles specifically than just coming to terms with his sexuality, and that even the actors admit that Charles’ response to the confession kind of left things open, it really seems to me like the path leads to a romantic endgame for them, or at the very least, that this possibility will be explored in more depth.

**This is just my reading of it. Please do not use this post as a gotcha for anyone who loves them as a platonic duo or people who really love Crystal and Charles together (because let’s face it, they’re super cute too). I’m just doing my rambles. As per usual.

[mirellapryce]

It is time to hurt you all again with one of my first thoughts I had when I joined this fandom. It starts with Charles' parents right after he died. Charles' mum looking through photos of Charles for the funeral, and she finds the classic baby photo of baby Charles sleeping on his sleeping dad's bare chest. She's been barely holding it together, but this is what sets her off. This is what has her screaming at her husband for the first time. THIS is the man she married! THIS is the father to her baby boy! Her baby boy is dead, but where has THAT MAN been for all these years? How could THAT MAN have hurt her son?

She's crying and yelling, and shoving the photo in his face. She's been trying to hold it together for much longer than the week since Charles died, and this is everything coming out at once. Charles' dad would normally snap in anger, but that photo - he takes one look and everything hits him too. His son is dead. His baby boy is dead and not coming back. Before that, he hurt Charles, and over WHAT? He made his son afraid of him, and now he'll never have the chance to make up for it. He's crying too, and this is the worst way it could have happened, but maybe now is the chance for him to change.

[theaceace]

imagining a world in which Simon agreed to go with Edwin and try to escape hell, imagining Simon developing an immediate and very inadvisable crush on the cute guy that just threw a grenade at a demon and Edwin's reaction to that, imagining the reaction of Charles Overprotective Rowland when he finds out that the guy Edwin insists on dragging along with them is one of the guys that sacrificed him to a demon in the first place, imagining the Night Nurse's face when three dead boys pop back through the door instead of two

[zinnie-zoloft]

I find it somewhat hard to believe that Charles, a child of the 70s, never made Edwin watch scooby doo with him