bakerstreet | (no subject)

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the USERNAME meme

Journal names. They're something we all think about, and that we often try to make as fittingly torturous to our characters as possible. Isn't it nice that our characters never have to know they're wandering around with that horrible label attached to them?

...wouldn't it be fun if they did?

RULES

1 Your character is communicating with others through a journal community, just like how we're using them, and they are perfectly aware of that fact. Whether they think that's normal or not is totally up to you.

2 The also know that when they signed on to this community, they were automatically assigned a name that supposedly has something to do with their personality and/or history. They didn't have any say in what that name was going to be, they're just stuck with it.

3 Make a post with your character's reaction to seeing what their own username is. Do they think it fits? Do they hate it with a passion? Are they downright confused?

4 Comment to other people's posts with your character's reactions to everyone else's usernames. If they know the other character, they might have good reason to laugh at them or feel sorry for them. If they don't, this could lead to some pretty interesting first impressions, don't you think?

5 If you want to use a name that's different from your actual journal name, just mark that in your post. No need to create a whole new journal just to make your character's life worse for one meme. ;)

6 PROFIT!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

War's over.

[ it still means something, but what he's reticent to admit. ]

Well, anyway. I appreciate the British spelling.

At least yours isn't an allusion to a nursery rhyme.

Has its advantages, I'd say. No mistaking what your name is.

I already know my name. Other people can ask for it if they wish.

Other people might be wise to stick to 'milady', come to that.

Indeed.

So 'tunnelled' relates to the war?

[ makes sense she'd have to ask. it’s a job civilians rarely heard about.

mary chastised tommy once for bringing up the war when it wasn't appropriate, and she was right to. but now, as an unintended consequence, he thinks it's never appropriate with her. he's gone too far the other way, of not talking about it.

he conveys ‘are you sure you want to hear this?’ with a look, then clears his throat. ]

It’s what I did, when it needed doing.

[ which wasn't the whole time. tunnel warfare had its place in stalemated trenches. the great war changed rapidly, not half an experiment to see what worked and what didn't. ]

The tunnellers, clay-kickers, dug from our trenches, under no man's land, until we were below enemy lines. Set charges to blow them up from underneath. While we did it, the enemy was digging back the other way. There's a lot could go wrong. And when it went wrong, the feeling was we'd dug our own graves.

[ tl;dr got buried. dug himself out. still digging now. ]

[ Christ. Matthew never wanted to talk about the war, and she's not so naive as to have no idea why. She saw the men who convalesced at Downton and saw how Matthew himself had returned. Everybody who went to France suffered.

She nods at his explanation. She's torn sometimes between wanting to know about the war and not. Every story from it is horrible, but she wants to be supportive and help the people she knows who experienced such horrible things. ]

I'm glad you got out.

[ he nods mildly, evincing indifference on the subject. it's very much as though she made some patter about the weather, instead of the more significant remark about being glad he's alive.

he gets up, reciting while he does: ]

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?

[ he's about to put a record on. ]

Let's dance, eh?

[ that's not the proper way to ask. grace probably wouldn't let him get away with that, but lady mary crawley's a very different type of woman. and maybe, under the circumstances, politesse matters less. ]

Edited 2020-07-24 01:10 (UTC)

[ She positively rolls her eyes when he starts reciting the nursery rhyme. Honestly, how often had she heard it as a child? It's annoying to not escape it in adulthood.

His offer to dance cheers her though. The two of them are close enough that he doesn't have to ask her properly. She wouldn't have made Matthew bow and ask for her hand.

Mary smiles at him and moves into dancing position, her stance with him a bit more intimate than the typical dance frame. ]

[ tommy felt as somewhat of a schoolboy even while he did it, teasing a girl because he likes her really. mary was meant to roll her eyes at him, a reaction aimed for and got. he wouldn't want to seriously annoy her, but he doesn't fear annoying her some little. mary has a playful side people don't expect. he does too.

he hints a smile to show he's pleased, although the smile doesn't quite reach his eyes. it takes a toll, talking about things in the distant past that don't always feel so distant or past. dancing will help.

one hand holding hers, the other behind her back, he leads with the music. ]

I doubt your mother and father had the nursery rhyme in mind.

[ that is, he doubts she was really named for it. ]

[ Teasing is much more bearable when it comes from someone you adore. She's not really annoyed at Tommy, and he can surmise as much.

Mary knows that he's seen a lot of things in his life that would make her head spin, things upper class ladies aren't privy to. Sometimes he shares them, because she's stronger than she looks. Sometimes he'd rather keep them to himself. ]

Not at all. My father's grandmother was named Mary.

Your father's grandmother, hm. Sometimes I think your mother's side gets lost in all this. The Americans.

[ subsumed by the earldom and the abbey and all that comes with it. her way of life has done a lot to shape her. occasionally he wonders who mary would be if she weren't who she is.

he suspects similar things happen to anyone who enters into this family from another culture, but he doesn't discuss it behind their backs with tom. ]

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thequitecontrary - 2020-07-30 00:33 (UTC) - Expand

[... ouch.]

Could be worse.

Should I change?

[ casual, as though he's asking whether he should dress for dinner. they could be a matching pair. his could answer hers. if it did, would that hurt more or less? ]

Edited 2020-07-23 16:34 (UTC)

It suits you.

[Which is neither yes or no. She's seen his files. And she doesn't need reminding of the response to what she told him that night.

Tommy Shelby does what he wants, regardless of what she might hope for, so why even ask?]

[ he feels as defined by their love as she is. even if that was never written or intended to be true, it's the truth of his heart. nothing of value would be lost if his username reflected this.

they're both pretending it's solely his decision when, for once, it isn't. they do have typists who have to carry these changes out. tommy is not very good at getting the typist to do his bidding. if he were, grace would be seeing a lot more of him. ]

Does it? Fuck.

[ she's right and he knows she's right. just saying, it'd be nice if it didn't suit him. he looks resigned though.

his files are subtly wrong. that's a fact she might never have accounted for. the army can't know his date of birth if he doesn't. he has no birth certificate. the year she knows is correct, he wasn't one of the boys who had to lie about that, but his birthday's an estimate. ]

But like you said, could be worse.

[The reaction, and that there is one, earns him her open surprise.]

Is that sarcasm, Tommy? Are you ashamed about that?

[The name, not the potential change. She's not sure what honest to God actual shame would be from him, save a quiet drive back to Birmingham or a quiet walk to her flat in the dead of night. And only if she's looking for it.]

[ it is a disappointment, at the very least. he's disappointed at his own failure to meet the standards he's set for himself. he should be able to shut the door on the war. it's not a good thing that some people, like grace and alfie, can still see him as a tunneller. ]

I don't feel any way about it.

[ that's not true at night, but it's true by day and it's how he got through the war in the first place. dissociation, though they don't yet call it what it is. he's probably making himself sound heartless. ]

You know how it is, when you've a job to do.

I do. I also know how it's not always so cut and dry. How the lines become blurred.

[Talking about his job, and what he carried home, of course.]

Yeah... But you still got it done, didn't you?

[ grace set out to recover the guns, which she did. he doesn't think that punishing the wicked was anywhere in her mission briefing when she signed on for it. so, that she saved his life isn't truly the dereliction of duty that her fellows consider it to be.

no one else will see it that way, most likely, but he can. in his time, he's had some suicidal orders handed down to him and he's made them workable. technical compliance, creative interpretation. it's a valuable skill for both soldiers and spies. he even admires it about her, at the very same time as it wounds him to the soul. ]

I did. It's not all that I got.

[A broken heart in the end, hers and his and she doesn't care about Campbell's beyond the thought of maybe that's where she should have aimed the gun.]

[ he steps closer, feeling the need to go to her, even when it's like this between them—or especially when it's like this. he's hurting. it stands to reason she's hurting too. he wants to comfort her and be comforted by her. they can't let that happen now, but standing closer to her, he can at least stand at the precipice of what he wants. better than nothing.

he sighs, shoulders sagging. ]

I know.

[She wishes he wouldn't step closer because it only encourages her to be less careful. She shouldn't have fallen in love, and she shouldn't be reaching out to touch his hand, but there are things she's learned she has no control over, regardless of the danger.]

Better or worse than France?

[She leaves it up to him to interpret the question.]

[ his fingers flex under her touch. it's just reaction, not reciprocation. bold fucking question, as he interprets it. that's grace for you. ]

If you're happy— [ she isn't, so he falters ]

If you live well, better. If you don't, worse.

[ much depends on her and where she goes from here. if grace lives well, then it's like france, which he knows how to manage. if she doesn't live well, then it's like the state he was in when he volunteered. like his mother too. a far less predictable pain. ]