Downton Abbey Comment Ficathon

[dollsome]

With the new season upon us, and fandom all extra-enthusiastic, I figured now would be a great time for this. Because there can never be enough Downton Abbey fic, and there certainly isn't enough now!



Rules

1. All prompts must be for Downton Abbey. Which ... duh. :)

2. One prompt per comment, and please format your comment along the lines of: "[Pairing or character(s)] - [prompt]." Feel free to submit as many prompt-comments as you'd like. The more the better!

3. If you respond to a prompt, include the pairing/character(s) and a title in the subject line of your comment.

4. If your fic's got an R/NC-17 rating, please indicate as much in the comment subject line as well.

5. No spoilers for upcoming episodes, please!

6. PARTY ON, DOWNTONITES.



If you'd like to spread the word:

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Masterlist of Responses

Mary/Matthew - I wish you'd hold me when I turn my back by oltha_heri - "Tell me not to go through with it."

Cora & Edith - slipping through my fingers all the time by hacash - It shames her to say this, but she’s not looked at her second daughter for some five or six years now.

Lavinia & Mary - Damaged by promisethis - As Lavinia sobbed into her arms, Mary held her gently knowing that this is what Matthew would've wanted.

Thomas/Edward - To A Happier Year by dollsome - "I can arrange it," the Lady Sybil promises, and to her credit, she does.

Thomas, Sybil, & Edward - The Unexpected by espressolast - It’s not what she expects.

Sybil/Branson - Still Here by inafadinglight - She sees the way Mary looks at Matthew when she thinks he isn't looking, with a kind of soft sadness that speaks to a persistent internal ache, and she once thought she'd never understand it.

Sybil/Branson - Don't you worry there, my honey by tr1st3ss3du3r4 - There is a difference between being a nurse in wartime and being a nurse in peacetime.

Carson/Mrs. Hughes - Our love was comfortable, and quite broken in by hacash - You have never addressed her as anything other than ‘Mrs Hughes’; to your knowledge she has never spoken of you as other than ‘Mister Carson’.

Sybil/Branson - I love how it hurts by hacash - When everyone else is bustling over dinner, laying the table and polishing silverware as if it’s England’s last defence, he sneaks into Mister Carson’s study.

Sybil/Branson, Thomas - This fate could have been avoided if she'd had a sassy gay friend by espressolast - Branson held the door open for her as she descended, deferential in the transitional space between daughter of an earl and low-ranking nurse.

Sybil/Branson - Things best left unsaid by frostyblossom - She saw it coming.

Mary & Sybil - Playing Favourites by xx_pinkstar - Sybil is born on a sunny day in the height of August when even the consistently gray England is engulfed in heat and the slightest breeze is seen as sweet relief.

Violet & Isobel - Getting Along (and scaring everyone else in the process) by frostyblossom - “Lady Grantham!” Isobel addressed the Dowager with a happy, almost exuberant grin.

Matthew/Lavinia - Ask the Stars by fleasonparade - He can't move. He absolutely cannot move.

Sybil/Branson - the sky is getting heavy tonight by thewindwarns - Mary teaches her how to flirt and Edith demonstrates when not to; she is charming enough on her own accord and for that, Sybil never worries about her prospects.

Anna & Mary - The Midnight Vigil by hacash - On the third night of her vigil, she finds she has company.

Robert/Cora - Why the Earl of Grantham should never be allowed into his own kitchen by hacash - Robert stood there – rather pathetically, it has to be said, under the circumstances – and attempted to look manly and unafraid under the wilting stare of his wife.

Violet & Kemal Pamuk -- His Night Will End Well by espressolast - “Mr. Pamuk,” said the Dowager Countess of Grantham after dinner, “I wonder if I might have a word,” she turned to her son: “Robert, do excuse us, a moment, I would like to ask after a friend.”

Branson, Bates, William (and Carson) - Boys Night Out by frostyblossom - Carson squeezed at the bridge of his nose and screwed shut his eyes. He was getting far too old for this.

Edith - Wardian Case by thewindwarns - Sybil has causes and Mary, well Mary has (nearly) everything. Edith knows, however, that beauty fades and passion dies out.

Matthew/Mary - As We Forgive Our Debtors by frostyblossom - She will not look at him. She will not cry. He will know her shame, and he will not forgive her.

Mary & Lavinia - Love and Life Ever After by emstapole - You stand there, in one of the front rows, watching Lavinia in white, walking slowly down towards the front, and you know she wishes she was elsewhere, that it was someone else to whom she was walking.

Sybil & Thomas - Newfound lonesome by duckface666 - After getting Carson settled, but before her Mother could instruct someone to lock the door for the night and prevent any of her children from scattering, Sybil slipped out of the house and walked back down to the hospital.

Thomas & O'Brien - after Lt. Courtenay's suicide by duckface666 - She comes out for a cigarette when he calls and he knew she would because her nicotine habit is more pronounced than even his – which they tell themselves – and she’s always been there to help him, like the phantom of the big sister he never had.

O'Brien & Vera - First Meeting by duckface666 - When Mr Bates burst out of Mrs Hughes sitting room, looking frankly rather alarming and she would have been scared had she been some daft girl like Daisy and not Sarah O’Brien, she can’t help but wonder what happy circumstance has led to this.

Mary/Branson - I want you, I need you, but there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you by tr1st3ss3du3r4 - It isn't that he could be anyone - she has great difficulty forgetting who he is, his position, his obvious attachment to her sister - but there are times when she is just glad to be enveloped in someone's arms.

Thomas/Edward, Dr. Clarkson - their spirits must be lifted by thewindwarns - There are ghosts that follow men back from the front: allies and enemies and innocents, names and faces to haunt you, waking and dreaming.

Mary & Edith - Things We Cannot Change by inafadinglight - War changes things.

Sybil/Branson - Branson has a cold by tr1st3ss3du3r4 - He would have expected more sympathy from a nurse.

Downton Abbey from Pharoah's POV by tr1st3ss3du3r4 - All of these people. All of them.

Branson - Malevole by dizzy_whore - Sometimes he was unsure as to whether he wanted to destroy the world or celebrate it- to follow Coleridge or Collins.

Tom Branson and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week (Part 1, Part 2) by frostyblossom - The idea came in a flash of brilliance (or rather a glob of oil) that struck like lightening in his mind (or rather splattered ignobly onto his nose).

Comments

Thomas/Edward, Dr. Clarkson -- their spirits must be lifted

[thewindwarns.livejournal.com]

(Ahhhhh.... finished writing this and no longer know whether it fits the prompt.)

There are ghosts that follow men back from the front: allies and enemies and innocents, names and faces to haunt you, waking and dreaming. There are things that keep the living fighting: a mother's words, a girl back home, a love for God and king and country.

Companionship and camaraderie, Dr. Clarkson thinks, are just as necessary to keep you alive, to keep you trying during the After (the wound, the injury, the amputation and the operation, the shell shock, the anger, the numbness and the melancholy). He once believed he could recreate that sense of brotherhood within these walls, resigns himself now to hoping for some mere semblance of that armor in his hospital. (There is enough of a battle with -- between -- his patrons as it is.)

-----

Corporal Barrow is a changed man -- Dr. Clarkson does not know of one that would not be -- a reasonably steady worker struggling to maintain a calm face in the midst of battles he himself is reliving. He thinks, after initial inspection, that it will do Thomas some good to see others heal, to help them in that healing. It is different, so different, from praying for your own safety while patching another man's guts in the trenches, never knowing whether the blood flowing freely is your own.

He does not reflect on the boy's initial motivations to enlist, to the manner in which he has returned. It was years ago, and there are far too many pressing issues at hand. (Dr. Clarkson has long learned that there will never be enough time to dwell on one soldier; he owes that to all his patients.)

-----

Nurse Crawley alerts him as to the progress of Edward Courtenay, and while the blindness is still hesitantly referred to as temporary, there is a remarkable change in disposition. Dr. Clarkson makes his rounds, watches as his patients laugh, a smile forming on both their lips as they converse quietly with one another. Though no mention was made of the corporal, it is quite apparent, even without an ounce of medical training, that he too looks much better than when he first arrived. Major Clarkson does not need to hear the words to know the catalyst: companionship and camaraderie and brotherhood.

It is his sincere hope that these fonder memories will be carried with him to the convalescent home. No man could ask for a sturdier crutch, one that could be shared so freely with those that needed it and those only learning to begin that they did. He will not -- can not -- admit that he would prefer the recovery process to continue under his care, but he is a doctor and soldier, has duty to too many and resources so few. He will have to inform the lieutenant and his caretakers of this news before the end of the night. (The war will still -- may always -- be there in the morning).