bakerstreet | (no subject)

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

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. ]

My middle name, Josephine, is from my mother's side. [ A smile. ] Her side isn't entirely lost. They financed my father's side, after all.

[ Downton probably would have gone under by now if it wasn't for the Levinson money buoying them. It was a good deal for both sides: the Crawleys got much needed cash flow and Cora got to be a Countess. ]