Dulcie Collins - Tumblr Posts

(BETA FOUND!) ISO language beta for a Deadloch fic! 

EDIT: Dreams really do come true! An amazing beta has gone over the fic and it will be posted in about a week. Thanks to everyone who helped put us in touch -- go team! :-D

I'm looking for a speaker of Australian English to look over a long fic and point out where I've got the dialect wrong. I'd be happy to return the favor for you if you ever want that; I have excellent attention to detail and I speak a very standard/unmarked US English. If you have other feedback to share about my story I'd love that, but I won't expect it.

STORY NOTES:

Fandom: Deadloch

Pairings: Eddie/Dulcie are definitely the main one. Eddie/Cath are shown making out once. There is also one Dulcie/Eddie/Cath sex scene at the end but otherwise no Dulcie/Cath or Eddie/Cath is shown (though both are mentioned).

Length: long! ~83,000 words.

Rating: explicit. The first 1/3 of the story is UST and pining. The sex scenes all come after that, but there are a lot of them.

Canon-compliant. Set after the end of the series proper, starting right after Ray’s death. Includes the canon epilogue scene (in which Eddie and Dulcie visit Holly) and then continues after that.

I didn’t like Cath in canon but I think she could get her shit together and be a better person and a better partner, and I’ve leaned into that very hard, while doing my best to also keep her in character.

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Trigger warning for gender dysphoria. See spoiler warning if that’s you.

One quick memory of intimate partner violence (the time in canon when Ray tried to strangle Eddie).

All sex scenes are enthusiastically consensual but there's a power imbalance around couple privilege. It’s dealt with in-story.  

Expanded trigger warning WITH SPOILER: a character experiences gender dysphoria with triggers around specific sex acts and one specific word. Reference to that character being triggered with past partners, including one brief but pretty painful memory of a sex act that the character wanted at the time but that feels different in hindsight. However, this is a story about trans joy as well; there is a payoff later, and eventually a happy ending for this character.

If you’re interested but on the fence about committing to this, PM me and we can talk about what’s making you hesitate. I will of course credit you when I post my story.

New Deadloch Fic: In Plain Sight

A slow-build romance leading to polyamory. Rated explicit. Long (84,000 words). Eddie POV. Complete.

Eddie/Dulcie are definitely the main pairing. Eddie/Cath are shown making out once. There is also one Dulcie/Eddie/Cath sex scene at the end but otherwise no Dulcie/Cath or Eddie/Cath is shown (though both are mentioned).

Canon-compliant. Set after the end of the series proper, starting right after Ray’s death. Includes the canon epilogue scene (in which Eddie and Dulcie visit Holly) and then continues after that.

I didn’t like Cath in canon but I think she could get her shit together and be a better person and a better partner, and I’ve leaned into that very hard, while doing my best to also keep her in character.

Important note: the first scene is rough but things don’t stay that way. This is a happy fic overall, with a very happy ending.

See Chapter 1 for content warning.

This was an utter delight to write. Please read and enjoy. I'd love to hear in comments how you respond to it -- all feedback is great, including critique. <3

Lastly, thank you SO MUCH to my absolutely amazing beta, @ratherembarrassing, for help with so many important dialect and character notes. This fic would be such a hot mess without you, and I'm so so grateful for your time and your meticulous attention to detail. <3 <3 <3

This way to the fic :-D

Deadloch-specific ask if you’re keen to play! No worries if not.

1. Favourite episode?

2. Favourite scene?

3. Favourite quote?

4. Favourite joke or bit?

5. Favourite character?

💕💕💕

EEEEEEEEE I will gladly squeal about my show. Thanks for the ask! <3

Fave episode:

Hard question! In some ways Deadloch feels more like a movie to me than like a series, I forget where one episode ends and the next begins.

Probably E6. I loved how Abby acts while poisoned, and I loved her breaking up with James. I loved Eddie continuing to care about Dulcie: how protective Eddie gets, how concerned Eddie is when Dulcie is obviously really not okay (during/after the confrontation with Skye, and during their boat ride). I loved Dulcie acting...a bit more casual, with Abby; I loved their dialogue on the island ("James said I was out of my mind." "You are not, Abby, you are entirely in your mind"). I loved Holly Austin's performance as Skye, her anger and hurt when she's being questioned.

And I LOVED Cath and Dulcie's fight, and how it feels like we finally see both of them clearly, we finally understand why they each are the way they are at this point in their lives. We see how deeply miserable and frustrated Dulcie is in this town and in her marriage, and why she's been trying so hard to make it work anyway. We see how Cath has been in an anxious spiral for so long -- on some level, since the affair -- and we start to understand that this is how she got to this point, where she really is completely disconnected from the reality of Dulcie's job.

Also this is a bit weird but I actually loved the final scene in E6, when Dulcie finds the bobbing bodies in the lake, because the music was so beautiful and the way it was shot was weirdly so pretty and dreamlike. It's a scene about discovering corpses and it's...gorgeous? Oops?

I also just loved E8 so much because it gives us the payoff of Eddie, Dulcie and Abby truly working together, the way it always seemed they could. And because I SO DEEPLY LOVE the happy ending where Eddie and Dulcie and Cath end up together in Darwin, and I LOVE the subtext that they're in some kind of triad or throuple or vee or whatever else they might call it.

2. Fave scene:

I loved the end of E5, where we see Abby and Dulcie and Eddie each thinking alone about the murders and trying alone to solve the mystery: Abby with her arsine, Dulcie spotting the newspaper photo of Jimmy on the cross, Eddie noticing the speeding ticket Mike gave to Skye (and then the Doorbell bathroom stall graffiti). We see that each one of them is smart and is working on solving it, but that they're working separately still: Abby goes alone to the high school, to test her theory. Dulcie hasn't yet told Eddie that she suspects Skye, even though the clues are really piling up in her mind. The three of them aren't yet communicating well enough to really be a team.

I loved the way this was shown because it really had me rooting for them to realize that they'd be smarter together, that they needed to lean on each other more and communicate better and brainstorm together. This montage made me really invested in that arc, in them learning to work together.

I also loved Eddie confronting Dulcie about that, really taking her to task for it -- but then also having so much compassion and understanding about why this is hard for Dulcie, to consider one of her closest friends as a suspect. I love that Eddie really gets what a terrible situation Dulcie's in with this, and hates to see her in pain, even though Eddie's still committed to doing what's right and pursuing Skye as the most likely suspect.

3. Fave quote:

"Do you not know my name?"

4. Fave joke or bit:

How Eddie and Cath are both so nonchalant about mentioning sex, and how uncomfortable/flustered this makes Dulcie, and how Eddie immediately clocks this and leans into it harder. My favorite moment is when Cath texts Dulcie a pic of her boobs and Dulcie accidentally opens the image while at work and can't figure out how to close it again and is super flustered...and Eddie obviously sees the pic, is totally unperturbed and seems, if anything, mildly amused by Dulcie's reaction.

5. Fave character:

I can't choose between Dulcie and Eddie.

I'm most similar to Dulcie; I relate to her the most. I love her secretiveness, her shame. I love how ethical she is and I love how it shows up at work as a willingness to let minor/harmless crimes slide where possible. I love that she wants to be gentle with people, even when they're behaving badly. I love her shyness, her hesitation to be herself with people. I love the person we start to see emerging in the last few episodes and in the epilogue. I love her bravery and I love her fear.

I admire Eddie the most. Not as much during the first 3 episodes; I see them as someone who, at that time, was in too much pain to notice much else. But after that: I love their anger, how they're not too afraid to stick up for other people, and for themself. I love how loyal they are, and how protective of the people they care about. I love their rudeness and how selectively they deploy it; even though they don't seem to be taking much care with that, they really are. I love their frankness and I love how perceptive they are about people. I love their honesty and I love how ethical they are -- they break the rules sometimes but they really care about doing the right thing. And I love the way they look at Dulcie, particularly in episodes 6-8: it's so intimate. I see Eddie as someone who's extremely warm and loving, when they feel close to someone.

Accurate, this is what happens

Obsessed with Dulcie canonically being some kind of sex god. I think she’d break Eddie.

One thing that's great about Deadloch is how real everyone looks. Most of the female characters don't seem to wear make-up (sure, the actors probably do because it's TV, but it doesn't look like it) and they're allowed to make weird, real facial expressions instead of looking "perfect", and I think that's what makes them look great.

Main character very much baffled by the fact that, while she's actively doing drama, everybody else in the same show is doing comedy.

I loved this moment because of the way it shows Eddie's and Dulcie's different feelings about the situation. Because it's not exactly that they suspect Mike of being the killer because they suspect he's gay; but on the other hand it sort of is, that's not not happening. It's muddy. And it feels to me like Dulcie's reluctance to suspect Mike isn't only because she knows him and likes him -- it's also because of this. Because Dulcie's deeply uncomfortable with feeling like Mike possibly being gay is what is making them consider him as a suspect.

There's a way that this moment in particular really highlights Eddie's and Dulcie's different relationships to queerness, I feel. Eddie's done stuff. Dulcie OTOH has seen some shit, and her friends have seen some shit, and she knows exactly what kind of cop she doesn't ever want to be (the kind who targets queers).

And at the same time it also highlights their different approaches to detective work, because there's also a way that Eddie can see the situation clearly while Dulcie struggles to. What matters to Eddie is that Mike might have had a reason to be full of rage and bitterness toward the victims. Part of that is definitely that Dulcie lives here and has a personal relationship to Mike and Eddie does not, but I think another part of it is that Eddie has been doing detective work longer.

This show is just so well-written and I love it <3

I love this fucking show

That feeling when both halves of your inner monologue are perfectly cast

I loved everything about this scene. Because Cath is just all the way out there saying out loud that she wants other people to be turned on by her wife. When Eddie says "I don't want to muff-dive your wife," Cath gets so offended.

And I love that Dulcie's first desperate, mortified reaction is to stuff as much food into her face as possible

"I cannot speak, I am too Eating"

when you're actually a very sexual person. you radiate sexuality like a... floodlight, at an airport. they all can feel the sexual energy wafting off you. aleyna and gez have discussed it.

Deadloch fic rec list!

There's some really enjoyable fic out there in this fandom — this is by no means an exhaustive list. In fact, my whole reason for posting it is to encourage people to explore what's out there, if you haven’t yet.

That said, here are my personal favorites. I really love a fic where a character's voice has come through really well, and that's true of all of these.

Eddie, Dulcie and Cath:

north to the ocean, hotter than the sun by halfeatenmoon (explicit)

This is so hot and so funny. I love this Cath: so in-character and so completely excellent. So many of her and Eddie’s lines in this made me die laughing ("domestic"!!). And I really love Dulcie and Eddie’s vibe, here; their interactions made me flail so hard. 

Deadloch, day eight by Despire (teen and up)

One of my favorite things about the show was the way Eddie looks at Dulcie, and how it changes over time as they get closer. This fic...has somehow managed to capture that energy perfectly, and it really got me in my feelings. I love Eddie so much and I love Eddie with Dulcie so much.

Keep On Gruckin’ by kirazi (explicit)

This fic includes a lot of little character notes that feel so absolutely right, to me, particularly for Dulcie and Cath. I love how…sort of shy Dulcie and Eddie are around each other. And I love seeing what Dulcie loves about Cath; I love seeing those two in a really believable, really happy relationship. Searing hot, as well. 

house rules by halfeatenmoon (teen and up)

This has two things I love: Eddie and Cath becoming friends, and Dulcie playing the straight man/stooge who has to deal with their shenanigans. This is so in-character and so cute and fun.

despite all my bad decisions by DeanBean (explicit)

I love this version of Dulcie SO MUCH. She has a lot of overlap with how I see Dulcie, actually. I really buy her — I felt very convinced by this and like I could see the things that were happening while I was reading. Excellent, and also so hot.

In Plain Sight by applesforthis (explicit)

I feel awkward reccing my own fic. But, well — I posted it on April first, and afterward a couple people pointed out that tumblr was full of boops that day and that many people may have missed it for that reason. If you want a very character-driven, slow-build Eddie/Dulcie(/Cath) story leading to polyamory, with lots of personal growth and relationship-building and a very happy ending, then this is for you.

Abby-focused:

The difference is kissing someone you actually like by Lenore (teen and up)

This Abby is so absolutely in-character. And so is Deadloch. Can a place be said to be in-character? I don’t know but this fic has nailed it. I love seeing Abby’s ups and downs as she works on doing something daunting without the support that she’s used to. I love how much she loves her job, and I love the happy ending.

Everything Good Happens After Midnight by skyvillage (teen and up)

This is so sweet. I really liked Abby and Sharelle being friends in canon, and this feels like such a natural extension of that. 

My favorite thing in this fandom is how everyone drools over this look. Because it's the most boring outfit imaginable, and yet she's just glowing. Compared with how she was the entire rest of the series, the difference is night and day.

I also love that they kept her looking kind of windblown -- her hair's messy, her clothes are a little rumpled, something about her belt is just slightly off-kilter/cattywompus. And I love that she's still a bit shy or something, that even though she's happier and more alive now she's still recognizable as the same gorgeous awkward weirdo she always was.

Ugh. This was just really well done and I love it.

watched the finale of Deadloch and my main takeaway is this look™️

Every once in a while I remember that this photo happened and my day gets a little bit better.

Not sure if this counts as fanfiction exactly, given that it's the actors from canon who created it. Apocrypha, maybe?

(Via N.O.'s instagram. x)

I love that Cath is even in character X-D

It’s no mystery that we’re stoked about this news! #Deadloch is coming back for a second season on Prime Video

I do feel it was a fair-play mystery, but only just. Behind the cut is the one clue I spotted, along with some hints. (I didn’t solve it before the reveal, so all of this is stuff I only figured out on rewatch.) Also apparently I wanted to talk about the killer's reasons for outing themself.

In episodes 1-3, it was definitely meant to be a secret that Sam was their main suspect.* You can tell that it was a secret because around the beginning of S1E3 we see Eddie and Dulcie at the station, grilling all the other cops and demanding to know who among them leaked this info. For me this was the biggest clue that Ray was the killer: Ray was the only civilian* who knew that Sam was their main suspect, and and immediately after Ray learns this, Sam’s boat is set on fire, and Sam’s body is left out in plain sight.

*EDITED TO ADD: just kidding! @dodger-chan has pointed out that Ray wasn't the only civilian who knew. In fact, on reflection, Eddie also shared the Sam-is-the-killer theory with both Vic and Skye on the night of Skye's restaurant launch. I still think it's a clue that Sam's boat is burned and his body is left out in plain sight immediately after Ray learns Sam is the prime suspect, but @dodger-chan is correct that this wasn't a strict secret, more controlled information. In light of this, I think I actually agree with @dodger-chan that Deadloch only barely qualifies as a fair-play mystery, because this makes it more plausible that someone else could have learned that Sam was their prime suspect. Good call.

The other hints that I noticed are far subtler:

I do think the swimming thing is a hint. For one thing, it's true that not all people who sail can swim. But most can, and I think this was Ray's way of deflecting suspicion -- of making himself seem less like the sort of person who would own a boat (the kill room).

Also, if you watch Ray during the scene when he tells Eddie that Lou is dead, his crying is fake. Eddie’s too distraught about Bushy to notice, but it’s very obvious if you look. And when Eddie walks away to go and get in the passenger side of the truck, Ray’s face instantly changes, because he was never upset.

Also, serial killers (most famously Ted Bundy) sometimes fake an injury or other signs of weakness in order to make themselves seem nonthreatening to their victims and to onlookers. Ray does this in a general way, both with the swimming thing and in other scenes via body language. In E4 while he’s helping to carry the paella he makes a little “ouch” noise and grabs his back as if it hurt him to lift something heavy. And when Eddie's interviewing him after Jimmy’s body is found, Ray has let them give him oxygen, and has a very smol-and-weak way of huddling under his mylar blanket. (Weirdly, this pretending-to-be-smol-and-weak thing was the one thing that jumped out at me on my first watch, I think because of Eddie's "you're a meaty, meaty lad" line. He is! Ray's a meaty, sturdy person, and that line made me start to notice that he was pretending not to be.)

I do agree that there are some loose ends that just never got wrapped up, like where Ray was storing the bobbing bodies and how he got William’s car. I’m curious about these questions but it feels realistic to me that not everything gets explained.

These aren’t clues but I have thoughts about Ray and his motivations:

1. Ray reveals he is (or was once) religious during his monologue in the barn. Speaking to Skye of their early friendship in Sydney, he says, “You could see I was struggling with my faith, and with my purpose.” 

2. I agree with you that after he met Eddie, Ray was probably mostly leaving clues as a way of showing off to Eddie and keeping Eddie around...but I do think that Ray was toying with Dulcie as well. For a start, Eddie wasn't in Deadloch when Ray very deliberately left Trent's body on the beach. And when he left Gavin's body out, he and Eddie hadn't met yet -- or even seen each other, as far as we see in canon. So I think that at minimum he left those two clues out in plain sight for other reasons, and not because he was interested in Eddie.

I think it was because of Dulcie. Here's why I say so:

Later on in canon (S1E8) we learn that back in Sydney Dulcie was assigned to work a serial killer case that was never solved...because Ray was the killer then, too, and he left town. It's interesting that Ray was friends with Skye, in Sydney, and I have to wonder if maybe he befriended Skye as a way of getting close to Skye's friend Dulcie, the detective who was hunting him. It's not clear if Ray moved to Deadloch before Dulcie or afterward EDITED: Just kidding, Ray moved to Deadloch before Dulcie did -- we know this because he killed Sam before Dulcie arrived. Thanks again for the sharp eye, @dodger-chan. :-) What a hilarious surprise that must have been for Ray, when Dulcie followed him there but still had no idea he was the killer she'd been hunting back in Sydney.

So for the past five years, Ray has been living cheek-by-jowl with the detective who failed to catch him in Sydney. I imagine it would have been something to savor, for him: to know that this woman who had spent so much time and energy hunting him had no idea that he was at it again, right under her nose. And I think he left the first two bodies out because he wanted her to notice at least those two murders, to notice and to start to suspect a connection between them. He wanted her to worry, he wanted to be on her mind, even though she wouldn't know he was the same person she'd been chasing in Sydney. And eventually, he wanted her to know that as well, because it was too tempting not to show off -- hence his using the name of a Sydney victim to book the Airtaskers: he wanted Dulcie specifically to realize that it was him, her old enemy, that she'd been letting him get away with it again. That stabbing was deeply personal, he meant to kill her and honestly I'm surprised she survived. I think Ray was much more interested in Dulcie than he let on, as an enemy, as someone to defeat and dominate.

So, I spent the last week rewatching* Deadloch to determine if it really is a fair play mystery, and my answer is: yes, kinda. Yes, in that you do get all the information the detectives do before the reveal (though sometimes the information will be withheld for a scene or two for dramatic effect). Kinda because the clues given in the first seven episodes** are not enough to point the finger at the murderer without looking at the show as a piece of art, and considering what its themes are and which of the viable suspects would best reflect those themes. Specific spoilers under the cut. Do not read until after you have watched Deadloch, which you should do as it is amazing.

*reading the subtitle files and watching a few key scenes

** I'm not including the 8th episode, where the killer is revealed, because by that point you're not getting clues, you're getting answers.

Every clue I noticed that implicates Ray, with commentary

(episode one) Cath mentions going to treat Ray's pet: Not super useful, as we see Ray with Lou later, and learn that Lou is old and likely to need medical treatment. It doesn't mention the pentobarbital, though presumably Lou is Ray's excuse for getting it from Cath. It also gets his name in the show right away.

(episode two) When Ray takes Eddie to the shack, he mentions Skye O'Dwyer is his best friend. We also know he works for her mom at the bakery, and seems to care for the whole family. So when we start considering who would kill Sam O'Dwyer, he's definitely close enough to the family to be a suspect.

(same scene) We learn Ray isn't from Deadloch, but has been living there for some time. But the line is vague on when specifically he moved. It would have been helpful to know he moved before Sam was killed.

(same scene) Eddie lets Ray know she's leaving as soon as they find Sam and his boat, where she thinks (correctly) the murders happened. It's not a secret, but he's the only non-police character we're shown specifically being told this information.

(episode two) Ray doesn't have any lines after he leaves Eddie at the shack, so I watched the end of the episode and he doesn't rejoin the other main characters at the Bush Wolf. Not suspicious in and of itself, but if you go back and look for alibis, it's clear he doesn't have one for planting Sam's body/setting the boat on fire

(episode three) Sam's body is planted immediately after Eddie keys in on him as a suspect. Amusingly, this seems to be less about Ray wanting to show he's smarter than to cops and more about making sure Eddie stays in town.

(episode three) Eddie again tells Ray she's leaving as soon as they have the DNA match, then leaves him after taking a swab. The next guy in line goes to Ray to get swabbed for the test. This implies it's possible he didn't submit his sample and that's why the blood on the boat didn't match him. It's also possible that the blood was from a previously undiscovered victim. I don't think we ever find out which was the case. My assumption is the latter, because why would he hand over a DNA sample if it might implicate him?

(episode four) Kind of an anti-clue: Ray at the beginner swimmer class. An experienced sailor isn't necessarily a good swimmer, and he used a boat for the first five (discovered) victims. Of course, this turns out to be a lie and Ray's actually an accomplished swimmer, but it doesn't make sense that he'd be pretending to need lessons.

(episode five) Ray is one of the first people to find Jimmy's body and reports it, fits with killer wanting to see other people reacting to his art.

(episode five) Another anti-clue: Ray vomits when he sees the body, and again while telling Eddie about it. The character might have been able to fake it that first time (he was preparing food, he could have snuck a slurry into his mouth like the actor actually did) but I think the character had to be genuinely vomiting the second time.

(episode five) Even with my glasses on I couldn't read the list of names the priest faxed over while it was on the tv. Taking a screenshot and zooming in gave me a better look, but while one of the names looked like it might have been Ray McLintock, it wasn't clear. Given that Eddie didn't know his name (he told her when she took his DNA, but it didn't stick) I think it would have been fine for us to see his name on the list, but not have it ping with her. (Spouse and I were calling him "Ray Pies" when we talked over the episodes, so I doubt the name would have pinged for me, but it would have been nice to have confirmation he knew about the religious stuff).

(episode six) “I’ve made some mistakes with women, and I’ve had some pretty weird interests” okay, it's not much of a clue by itself, but in retrospect, yeah, I think he has.

(episode seven) The six extra bodies surface and it turns out they were frozen and had defrosted over the last forty-eight hours. This means the killer started to defrost them around the time of the DNA testing. Also when Eddie told Ray she'd be leaving soon.

(episode seven) Eddie admits to actually liking Ray. She's a mess with shitty taste, there had to be something wrong about him.

That's pretty much it for clues within the show. It's not a lot, and I'd argue it's not enough to consider the mystery solvable. It's fine when clues don't seem to be relevant before you know who done it, but I think they need to be a little more conclusive when you look back over them. In the first seven episodes we don't know that Ray has access to pentobarbitol, or that his pet is still alive, or about Sam not being his first kill. At no point do we find out where he was storing those frozen corpses for years (sure, Skye has a cool room for her restaurant, but she would be using it) or how he got his hands on William Carruther's old car. And we don't know he moved to Deadloch before the murders began until we find out he was committing them.

Still, if you start with the theme of reinvention, and you eliminate suspects based on definitive alibis and not psychological profiles, Ray is one of the better suspects left, especially if, like me, you'd been assuming Margaret killed her brother from the moment we heard he'd left the country. Ray being the killer wasn't a shock, but I didn't know ahead of the scene in episode eight where Eddie finds Lou, even if I joked about Ray being the killer because Eddie liked him. So in conclusion: fair play, kinda.