Edwin Payne (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thesameleft) wrote2025-10-08 05:11 pm
thesameleft) wrote2025-10-08 05:11 pm
Entry tags:
folkmore: application
❥ Character Information
Character Name: Edwin Payne
Character Age: He died in 1916, so technically by the modern day he's 100+, but physically he's sixteen
Character Species: Human ghost
Current Health: Dead
Outfit: Ref here
Character Canon: Dead Boy Detectives (Netflix)
Link to History: here
Canon Point: Post-series
Canon Iteration: Canon
❥ Folkmore Roles & Attributes
Skills:
✎ INVESTIGATION
Edwin has been interested in mysteries and detective stories since he was very young, and because of this he's developed quite a Sherlock Holmes-ian skill for intuitive investigation. He's often capable of picking up on things others might miss, can sniff out a lie or falsification like a blood hound, and is quite devoted to fishing out the truth, especially if it rights a moral injustice.
✎ BIG BRAIN
Edwin has always been incredibly bright, and spent both his life and his death learning as much as he can about as many things as he can. He has a particular affinity and interest in the occult and focuses much of his study on supernatural subjects, but he also has a range of more mundane interests such as fungi and plant life, horse riding, and various other topics he would have picked up at home or in the school library. Mention something in passing, and Edwin has more than likely read something about it.
✎ OCCULTISM
As mentioned above, Edwin has an avid interest in the supernatural, which was the case even before his death. He could often be found reading scary stories or fantasies about magic and the like while at school and at home. He didn't interact much with spell craft and occultism until his death, as there was a real fear of sin being tied to the practice, but once in Hell there wasn't much of a worse place he could be, so he spent what time he could learning what he could. This interest increased tenfold by the time he made it out of Hell, to the point where a good 80% of his bookshelf is made up of magical compendiums and reference books.
✎ EMOTIONS
Edwin is a product of his era, and can quite easily bottle up negative/volatile emotions for a time, to allow him to focus on more pressing matters such as a case he's working.Canon Abilities:
✎ INTANGIBILITY
Edwin has the ability to become incorporeal at will, passing through any object he desires with ease, including doors/walls and even the floor. The only caveat to this rule comes when the thing he's trying to pass through is made of iron, or if it has ghost-specific wardings placed upon it.
✎ INVISIBILITY
Edwin cannot be seen by most living beings unless they are inherently supernatural, or if they have come close to/have seen death before. this means he can sneak into places unseen, and can eavesdrop without being spotted.
✎ CATOPTRIC TELEPORTATION
Edwin can teleport via the use of mirrors - he raises a hand to the surface and seeks out a mirror in the place he wishes to go to, then steps into the mirror itself in order to step out in his intended location. He is very good at this particular skill, and can travel great distances with a little time to sort through the labyrinth of mirror connections. However, this ability can be completely thwarted by placing the mirror face down or covering it with a sheet.
✎ SHAPE ALTERING
Edwin does not change his clothes like a regular person - instead he wills his clothing off/on, and can even opt to change certain items (eg, wear a jumper instead of a sweater-vest, go without his coat, change his bowtie colour, etc). He can technically 'undress', in that he can remove his gloves/coat and hang them up on a rack nearby, but once he leaves the room/gets far enough away, they will disappear with him.
✎ DISGUISES
Edwin and Charles have perfected a number of enchanted accessories that grant them the ability to be in 'human' disguise - dressed as cops, well meaning citizens, etc - and in these forms they can be seen by the living and can interact with them. The disguises are fool proof and difficult to identify as such, but a powerful magician could probably see through it without too much trouble.
✎ POSSESSION
Ghosts are capable of possessing humans and forcibly moving their body/speaking for them for a short amount of time. This is proven to be difficult and dangerous for ghosts, however, so they very rarely do it.
✎ MAGIC
Ghosts are capable of casting magic spells from any book that explains the craft (ie. words in Latin etc) and Edwin is capable of casting a number of spells including ones he's created/edited himself using what he's learned from his research. (There's no clear limit in the show or what magic is available to them, so I opt to play Edwin with a limited amount of magical ability, only able to use a few spells a day or one/two larger ones before he feels exhaustion from them.)
Role: Familiar.
Role Qualities/Attributes: Edwin will have small pin feathers at the joints of his wrists, outer elbows, shoulder blades, ankles, hips and down his spine. These will be easy for him to hide and ignore at first, but as they start to grow in and develop into pennaceous feathers, Edwin will find it more difficult to disguise them due to the discomfort of keeping them hidden so strictly.
My intention is for this to somewhat mirror Edwin's habit of suffocating uncomfortable feelings, and his more recent realisation that some topics are impossible to ignore no matter how hard you try to hide them. He's also very recently learned that being your authentic self is okay, so I think this physical change and the complications of it will give him some good subject matter to chew on.
Role Reasoning: Edwin is morally grey - while he co-runs a Detective Agency designed to ensure the dead receive the same justice as the living, his motivations are both selfish and selfless as he confesses to doing so partially so that he can argue for leniency from Hell. He likes to be leader, protecting people with his wit and doing so fiercely, but is emotionally stunted and closed off, hiding his true feelings or leaning into them too quickly and lashing out. However, both of these traits come from a place of fear and uncertainty; Edwin craves being leader because it's a position of control, enabling him to keep an eye on everything and everyone, and not be caught unawares.
The role of Familiar will encourage Edwin to confront his reactive need for control and his instinctual distrust that he has the social skills to hold his own weight, and open his eyes to the idea that he can release his hold on it, but still achieve what he wants to achieve through guidance rather than authority. He and Charles will want to continue their 'services', and Edwin's newfound position as Familiar will enable him to approach detective work from a perspective he never has before.
❥ Personality
❥ What was the most traumatic experience your character endured? How did this change them?
At sixteen, was the victim of a prank; boys performed a "fake" ritual with Edwin as the sacrifice, during which they called him "Mary-Ann" (an archaic term for an effeminate boy) and opted to give him a scare to teach him a lesson. The prank backfired when it summoned a real demon who killed the surrounding boys, and took Edwin's soul back with it to Hell.The most traumatizing part of this murder is that, despite being an innocent in the ritual, Edwin was trapped in Hell for over seventy years, knowing that he didn't belong there. Or, at least, he tried to make himself believe that - but Hell is the type of place that creeps under your skin and brings your darkest sins and fears into the light… and for a gay Edwardian boy, there's a lot of fear of sin built into him as a rule.
Edwin experienced enough in those years to be able to draw a detailed map of Hell's layers and the things in them, which enabled him to eventually escape after multiple attempts. This has made Edwin distrusting of liars/tricksters in particular, and has given him a deeper awareness for his own loneliness and desire to be someone who can be considered as 'good', even if only so that - on the off chance he's dragged back to that place again some day - he can argue his case and be pardoned. After escaping, Edwin has a large sense of accomplishment, as he knows full well what a feat it is to be able to successfully claw one's way out of Hell unaided, and uses the memory or the reminder of it as a way to bolster his own confidence, repeatedly stating that things can't be as bad as all that, because at least it's not seventy years in Hell, etc.
❥ What is the most important and defining relationship(s) in your character's life and why?
There isn't a soul in the world that has had more of an effect on Edwin than Charles Rowland, his best friend.Edwin met Charles just before he died. Edwin decided to stay with him in order to keep him company and during this time realised that Charles' nature was the complete antithesis to his own; where Edwin is acerbic, brisk and reserved, Charles is loud and warm and impetuous, and he found it incredibly charming and easy to be around him, which is no small revelation for Edwin has he spent sixteen years with no friends, and seventy years completely isolated in Hell. Charles then refuses the chance of a peaceful afterlife in order to stay by his side, and though Edwin chides him for making decisions based on what he's feeling in the moment, he doesn't argue the point any further.
Thirty years later, these boys have only ever known the company of each other, and don't seem likely to part any time soon. They started the Dead Boy Detectives agency together, and have fallen into a symbiotic relationship where they can interpret each others meaning and intention without the need for words.
Charles is everything to Edwin; he is what keeps Edwin from feeling alone, the brawn to his brain, an endless font of understanding and safety for a boy who has felt true friendship so very rarely… and, eventually, even a source of love for him. Edwin has come to understand that the elements in Charles that he idolizes - the bravery, the defence of justice, the love and the warmth - are all things that Edwin wants for himself, and given a small amount of pushing, Edwin realises he has feelings for Charles that run deeper than just friendship alone.
❥ What does your character feel like they struggle with still? Where could they improve? This could be physically, mentally, emotionally, or otherwise.
Edwin's biggest struggle has always been his ability to talk to people. It held him back in life, was arguably the reason he was killed, and has structured the way he interacts with the world now that he is a ghost walking on the Earth. It is a little easier with Charles at his side, to act as the mouth piece, to disarm his sharpness with his softness when his words cut a little deep, but Edwin always has the idea in the back of his mind that he is not good with other people, and that efforts he might spend to make friends or otherwise be friendly will either be misconstrued or will go badly for him despite his intention. However, after the events of his canon, Edwin has successfully made a number of friends and has experienced various moments of enlightenment about the way he carries himself and the way he feels. A close friend of his told him about the importance of courage, and opened his eyes to the idea that sometimes the best thing to do is simply to not think; while another told him that lying to himself doesn't make things any easier and only brings about more isolation.And then, of course, there is Charles, who is the day to Edwin's night, who has taught him so many things about how the world has adapted and how people can and should be close to each other, that it makes Edwin want to try.
So while his reservations still remain, he's a little less hard on himself about them and a little more open to changing his perspective.
❥ Is your character capable of forgiveness or will they hold a grudge until they die? Would anything ever make them change their mind?
The thing Edwin thought himself incapable of forgiving was the action that caused him to be sent to Hell; the sacrifice & the boy who planned it. Edwin returned to Hell and met Simon experiencing his own version where he spent a century tearing pages with the promise that once he was finished he could leave, only for the book to refresh as he got close to the end, as it tore at the flesh of hands.Though he Simon only meant to scare him, Edwin is enraged by the difference in their torment; that Simon need only rip out pages while Edwin's soul was traded and finally ended up with a monster who enjoyed letting him run away only to chase him down and rip him apart over and over for decades. However, Edwin soon realises that Simon is ripping out the pages of his own textbook, where in life he had scribbled their initials in the corner, revealing that Simon actually had romantic feelings for Edwin when they were alive. Edwin realises (after an interaction with Despair where Edwin is horrified by the idea that he might be inadvertently adding to the despair already in Hell) that he doesn't wish to let Simon torment himself forever, and tells him that "If you punish yourself, everywhere becomes Hell", forgiving him because Edwin now understands how difficult it must have been to process homosexual feelings, and the part he played in being dismissive of them because he was just as frightened.
Through this experience, Edwin realises that his rigid way of seeing the world (and always feeling justified/correct in his interpretation) is not always the case, especially where his social skills are concerned, becoming more willing to see both perspectives of a situation before determining whether someone deserves forgiveness.
❥ If your character could change one thing about their past, what would it be and why? Or why not?
It would make the most sense for a ghost to want to change the fact that they died in the first place, especially if that ghost is the victim of a murder and a subsequent error in filing paperwork. But Edwin does not regret his death, nor his time in Hell, traumatizing though it was.A fan of sci-fi in general, Edwin is under the impression that any tampering with the past will affect the future, and is so protective of the current present he's carved out for himself that he wouldn't undo any of the terrible things he's experienced, on the small chance that it might upset what he has now. If he never died, he would never meet Charles; if he never went to Hell, he might have never been in the attic in time to find him dying; if he wasn't trapped in Hell and forced to escape, then he wouldn't have the journal that enabled Charles to eventually rescue him. He wouldn't have met any of his current friends, more than likely wouldn't have been as successful in his Detective Agency as he has been (because Charles is the face, and performs it admirably to make up for Edwin's rather poor people skills), and he wouldn't have realised a whole host of things about himself that make existence a little easier to bear.
Ultimately, Edwin's death in a time that didn't accept him allowed him to find a partner and a place where they could be themselves, in whatever shape or form that took, and to make their own way in the world not held back by social cues or the pesky reality of being alive. Edwin has so much more opportunity to live now that he's dead, so he wouldn't change it for the world.
❥ Permissions
OOC opt-outs: I can handle discussion of zombies/food decay but I can't handle detailed descriptions of the actual rotting/mould taking place, and I'd prefer a CW if it can't be avoided
IC opt-outs: N/A - I can figure out a reason for him to do most things. He's got some squicks but I'm fine with him dealing with them/keep-calm-and-carry-on'ing them.
Content warnings related to the character:
Despite being a YA show, Dead Boy Detectives contains themes of: violence, death, murder, dismemberment, self-harm, suicide (mentioned), mind control, possession, abuse (physical and emotional), drowning, ritualistic sacrifice, kidnapping, domestic violence, drug abuse, racism, homophobia, sexism, horror elements (spiders, dolls, monsters), supernatural/demonic horror, depictions of vomiting/food gore, implied group sex imagery, sexual assault (mentioned), body horror, enforced amnesia, impending doom, attempted sexual coercion, themes of dubious consent, torture.
Edwin is a ghost and therefore all genre-specific warnings apply, but he may mention the following in particular:
- homophobia and light sexism bourne of an Edwardian upbringing (he is gay himself, his two new besties are girls, and Charles has done a very good job of telling him exactly how messed up society was in his day, so if this is mentioned it will be framed by an understanding that he no longer feels this way himself)
- the fact he was trapped in Hell for 70 years, where he was traded down from demon to demon until he ended up in the lair of a monster made up of baby doll heads and limbs in the shape of a gigantic spider. Said monster would chase Edwin for fun, eventually capturing him and tearing him limb from limb while a regenerated Edwin would watch on from the sidelines, until he summoned the courage to run again, and the whole thing would start over. Edwin has a slight fear of dolls and spiders because of this experience, and an understandable reluctance to being eaten or torn apart.
- death, as he has a rather morbid view of the balance between it and life, and often would rather talk to the dead rather than the living, claiming that the living are "messy".
- possession, as one of his ghostly abilities, but Edwin is reluctant to do this as it is difficult/tiring for a ghost. OOC, I would also not have Edwin attempt this without permission.
Sensitive subjects related to the character (What actions, content, or subjects would cause a negative reaction from your character?): Being forced to go somewhere and be entirely alone (no NPCs, no strangers; complete solitude), time-loops (ex: running away from something, getting so far and being transported back where he began), anything involving baby dolls/porcelain dolls, Hell/demon themes, satanic rituals, gratuitous violence.
❥ Player Information
Player Name: Miro
Pronouns: They/Them
Are you over 18?: Very much so
Contact(s): Plurk or PM
Link to invitation: Link
Permissions: Here
Writing Samples: TDM 1, TDM 2
✎ inventory
no subject
✎ spell casting
no subject