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.



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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

Mary & Edith - Things We Cannot Change

[inafadinglight.livejournal.com]

Giving it another try (and hey, the subject line didn't disappear on me this time!), but again, haven't seen any of S2 yet.

Mary & Edith - Things We Cannot Change

War changes things.

Isn't that what everyone says? It does change certain things, she supposes, like the now-unrestricted flow of gossip downstairs, or the sudden shortage of men at dinner parties, or the way her father stomps around with a scowl on his face and fire in his eyes. But in other matters her world hasn't changed at all. There are still gowns to wear, parties to attend, smiles to feign. There is still an emptiness in her chest when she looks at Matthew, an emptiness that spreads and threatens to consume her until she fades away completely, threatens to engulf her with each day that passes, each day that takes him closer to war and further from her.

There are still her sisters. Sybil, blessed Sybil, marches on without missing a step, refusing to let this war wear her down. Always the most socially conscious of the three, she somberly turns it into yet another opportunity to help. Whereas she can't seem to care about more than herself, Sybil is at her best when helping others. She finds her heart swelling when her youngest sister paces the room spouting plans and ideas, or spends an entire week refusing to eat anything but biscuits and water in case a rationing comes. For a woman who can barely love herself, it is remarkably effortless to love Sybil.

And Edith. Poor Edith bumbles along trying to find a place for herself amidst the casualty reports and the propaganda amidst all the repositioning happening as people - upstairs and down - try to right their world that has been tilted off its axis. She doesn't love Edith like she loves Sybil, all warm smiles and sisterly pride and budding hopes. Their rivalry, which had worked so well before, now seems ridiculous and jarring against the backdrop of death.

She thinks of what Matthew would say, and tries to make herself better, tries to take an interest in the middle sister so long forgotten. It's harder though, when he goes to the frontlines, and no one is left to show her how to be the better version of herself. She makes missteps, lots of them, and each one makes it ten times harder to return to the right path. But she always tries. For him.

Fidgeting while Anna puts the final pins in her hair, she looks in the mirror at her sisters flitting around the room. Sybil is subdued, fingering her frock without appearing to actually see it. Edith, though, wears a familiar smile that says she has a secret.

There are no secrets in wartime, no secrets between sisters.

But when she works up the courage to ask, the answer isnot at all what she expected. Edith prattles on, but three words echo in her mind until she cannot hear anything, not even the beat of her own heart.

"And his fiancee . . ."

And everything else - any burgeoning sense of sisterly affection she might be trying to make herself feel - falls away in the face of stunning heartbreak.

Re: Mary & Edith - Things We Cannot Change

[babushka-yojik.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is lovely! You capture the sisters really well, and it's a great look at their relationship. Gorgeous :)