Friday Storytime- Downton Abbey/Maurice crossover
Apr. 10th, 2026 10:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitarella_imagines___________
A Different Path
~~Downton Abbey/Maurice crossover
~~Mature
~~M/M
~~Thomas Barrow, Alec Scudder, Clive Durham, Maurice Hall, Simcox, random servants, Anne Durham, Mrs Durham
~~Tags: Season 1 of Downton Abbey, Gossiping, Friendship, Internalized Homophobia, Secret Relationship, Romance, Masturbation, Class Differences, Social Commentary, A Happy Ending Was Imperative.
___________
Summary:
Thomas gets frightened by the death of Kemal Pamuk, and decides to make a fresh start away from Downton Abbey and any possible repercussions. He takes a job as footman at Pendersleigh Park, home of the Durham family.
___________
Chapter 1: His Troubles Now Behind Him
Thomas arrives at Pendersleigh Park, and makes a very unlikely new friend.
~~~~
Thomas shivered as he remembered Lady Maryās cold tone when she warned him to never, ever say anything about the death of Mr Pamuk. Sheād heavily implied that it could mean his dismissal, and even that she knew heād propositioned the handsome Turk, which could lead to even worse consequences. So Thomas had searched for another position as footman, even though heād prefer working as a valet, and left Downton as soon as he could. He needed a change of scene, and for men like him it was better to keep moving on before anyone got suspicious.
So heād applied for the post at a country house in Wiltshire, owned by the Durham family. It was a lot smaller than Downton Abbey but the weather was much warmer and near to the picturesque towns of Bristol and Bath. It should suit him nicely.
At last the train drew up at the final station and the exhausted Thomas was relieved to be able to take the small private line to the estate of Pendersleigh. It had been a very long journey from Yorkshire, but he hoped his troubles were now behind him.
It was late when he arrived, so he just met the butler, Simcox, and the housekeeper, Mrs Wilson, then went straight to bed.
***
The next day, he was introduced to the rest of the staff, a much smaller group than at Downton. As well as the butler and housekeeper, there was a mass of women comprising the cook, two kitchen maids and two house maids. Then two other footmanāthe stuck-up sandy haired one appeared to be older than Thomas, the nervous blond one younger. Then two gardeners and two gamekeepers, all unkempt and brawny, one blond and three dark-haired, ranged from mid-twenties to mid-forties, and ranged from attractive to downright plain. Thomas tried not to look as if he was assessing them and arouse their suspicions but he couldnāt help it.
Then that was the introductions done and he went straight into work. As an experienced footman, he took it in his stride, literally. The fetching and carrying, the jumping to the sound of every bellā¦it was so familiar but not as far to walk in the smaller house. It was alright here.
He even found a place to smokeābehind some outbuildings again, he didnāt know or care what they were. When he took a break, he had time to reflect as well. Especially as he no longer had Miss OāBrien to talk to.
Apart from thinking about his new job and colleagues, there was only one subject on Thomasās mind: what had happened at Downton. So Mr Pamuk had died in Lady Maryās bed, theyād moved him back to his own, and somehow Mary had worked out Thomas had propositioned the man. What a mess it was, thank god heād escaped in time before someone else had realised he was kind of an accomplice to moving the body. He shuddered. What if Pamuk had accepted his proposal, heād been in bed with him and died then? Thomas would have woken up with a dead body and no doubt been given his notice on the spot.
āGot a light?ā said a voice, making the footman jump a few inches.
Thomas turned to see the under gamekeeper, the pretty one, standing a few yards away. āDonāt sneak up on me like that! Give a bloke a heart attack.ā
( Read more... )
116 ā witch hat toxin? marriage atelier?
Apr. 8th, 2026 07:21 pmtinkatonIt's sooo beautiful, I'm so happy. Two episodes dropped at once so we got to see a little bit of the other girls in episode 2, I can't wait to watch more... Obviously it will never be quite AS good as Shirahama's masterful work but the animation was so nice, I think they did a really good job with everything. Coco is so cute! And Qifrey my love...
I hate watching ongoing anime ughhh 20 minutes once a week is not enough!!
Also the anime for Marriage Toxin aired this week too which I totally forgot was happening, but I watched the premiere and I think it was pretty good. We'll see how the next few episodes go, the manga genuinely makes me laugh out loud at times so I hope they get the humor right. Basically the premise is that the heir to a clan of Poison Masters needs to get married and have babies so his gay sister isn't forced to (gay ally Geto canon) but he sucks at interacting with women so he enlists the help of a con artist who commits marriage fraud. It's very silly and very fun.
( minor spoilers for the twist revealed in episode 1 )
Anyway! Assuming both WHA and MT hold up to their manga counterparts, I recommend giving them a go! WHA if you like fantasy worlds with strong worldbuilding and cute characters and themes of like, power and responsibility in society and how regular people/minorities get screwed over. MT if you like romance action comedy shounen lol. This is like a hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby situation lmaooo I promise they're both good at very different things!!
Post-Deadline Pinch Hits
Apr. 8th, 2026 10:39 pmextrapenguin posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
space_swapDue date negotiable. To claim, comment on this post with your AO3 username and the pinch hit you want to claim.
PDPH #1: Claimed!
PDPH #3: Claimed!
PDPH #5: Claimed!
PDPH #6: Claimed!
Happy birthday, .com.
Apr. 8th, 2026 08:27 pmalisxA brief .
Man. Remember back when domain names where like a buck or two a year? Back before the deregulation and the monopolization and the rentier ratchet? Good times, good times.
Interest check
Apr. 8th, 2026 11:27 amgoodbyebird posting in 3weeks4dreamwidthWe're in April already! I figured I'd check to see if there's interest in running 3 Weeks For Dreamwidth again this year, and also ask if anybody would like to host some activities in their journals or communities.
Also a good time to start thinking of posts you might want to make, for your hobbies or fandoms or those book reviews you've been meaning to write. After all, the whole point of the fest is to get more activity on DW.
Feel free to sound off and idea storm in the comments :)
Bad vibe.
Apr. 8th, 2026 02:27 amalisxItās the most visible rejection of care in software: People proudly saying how much the software they work on is āvibe codedā or āwritten by Claudeā underlining how there is no pride in or responsibility for the work one not only put out but actually forces on people. Itās like a chef loudly stating that they didnāt even taste the menu they now want you to pay 200 EUR for. Like a doctor saying that they just describe you whatever medicine the computer tells them to without even looking at your test results. Itās a statement making clear that you do not give a shit. That you do not care.
tante on the .
If you don’t care about your shit then how can you expect anyone else to?
Sadly, this stuff is getting so fucking ubiquitous because the tech industry has no solidarity, humanity, or morality beyond the drive to power and never, ever has . . .
Two weeks left till premieres deadline, schedule now live, and more
Apr. 6th, 2026 08:59 pmcondnsdmlk posting in vidukon_cardiffRegistration open
Registration is open for VidUKon 2026, taking place 5-7 June both in Birmingham and online. You can sign up HERE or find out more about pricing, this year's extras and available sponsorships HERE. The deadline to register for in-person attendance is on 30 April. Registration for online attendance closes 4 June.
Submissions for Vidder's Choice open
Submissions for Vidder's Choice are now open (deadline is on 19 April). Find out more about how to submit your vids HERE. VJs and panelists, the deadline to submit programming is 30 April.
Upcoming submission deadlines
The submission deadline for Premieres and the Themed Vidshow (Unfinished Business) are about 2 weeks away on 19 April. For everyone planning to submit, good luck getting those vids over the line. And enjoy yourselves! We'll let everyone know as soon as submissions open – should be soon.
Register for the Group Vidding Workshop & Quiz
Signups for the pre-con Group Vidding Workshop are open and will close on 20 April. Assignments go out by 27 April and the submission deadline is 10 May. Find out more and sign up here. You can also register for Friday night's fiendishly difficult/fun Quiz by signing in at vidukon.org and going to your Dashboard. The questions and stream will be open to all attendees so if you want to follow along without officially signing up and joining a team, you can do that too!
Schedule now available
The schedule for this year's con is now available on the VidUKon platform HERE (you need to be logged in to view it). As always, we're really excited about this year's programming! Big breaks in the schedule (1pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm UK time) indicate lunch and dinner breaks.
Chaos Hour is back
The informal Chaos Hour chat is back to break up the long dinnertime slot on Saturday night BST. This year it follows the Then & Now vidshow and panel, so if people want to keep the discussion going, we'll have the time! Chaos Hour is a casual Zoom chat for online attendees to just hang out, so pop in to tell us about why all vidders should watch this one new (or old) show, talk about your favourite new effects trick, or anything else vid-related!
Thursday programming
There will again be some online-only programming on Thursday evening. An All-Virtual Vidder's Choice show will start at 20:00 UK time. The con will officially kick off on Friday afternoon around 15:00 UK time
Birmingham registration
If you're planning to join us in person, you need to register by Thursday 30 April if you haven't already. Find out more about the con hotel and find a roommate HERE.
Con Discord server
As in previous years, most of the weekend's online socialising will take place in the VidUKon Discord server, including chats during each vidshow and panel. You will receive an invitation to join the server on Thursday, 4 June. If you do not already have a Discord account, you will need to create one ahead of time to get the most out of the (virtual) con experience.
With more updates to come, make sure to keep an eye on our social media – you'll always find the latest info here on Dreamwidth, plus you can keep tabs on us via Tumblr and Bluesky.
Those important dates one more time:
19 April – deadline to submit to Vidder’s Choice, Premieres and the themed submissions show (Unfinished Business)
30 April – deadline to register for in-person attendance
15 May – deadline to register for online attendance + add-ons (conbook; coasters)
4 June – deadline to register for online attendance only
5-7 June – VidUKon \o/
Human eyes.
Apr. 7th, 2026 08:18 amSubmissions for Vidder's Choice now open!
Apr. 5th, 2026 09:07 pmcondnsdmlk posting in vidukon_cardiffSubmissions for Vidder's Choice are now open (Premieres and Themed Premieres coming soon are open now too)! Before we get into how to submit a vid, just a quick note to say that while we still recommend Firefox as your go-to browser, at this point you should be okay using most other browsers. However, we recommend iPhone users not use Safari Mobile to submit vids.
tl;dr
The name you enter in the vid submission form must match your username.
We don't support 4K vids.
When adding new sources/audio, fine to just add the title. Clicking "Submit" will take you to a page where you will add more complete info.
Maximum of 25 sources/songs when submitting. You can add more later once the vid has been submitted successfully.
Eligibility
You must be registered for VidUKon to submit a vid. If you haven’t yet registered, you can do so at vidukon.org.
There are three submission-based vidshows: Vidder’s Choice, Premieres, and the Themed Premieres show. You will see the option to submit to all three on your Dashboard. As the names imply, Premieres and Themed Premieres must be new vids that have never been posted publicly or shown at a con or similar event. Conversely, Vidder’s Choice vids cannot be premieres. Additionally, Vidder’s Choice submissions must be no longer than four minutes and thirty seconds in length.
Technical specifications
Please follow these if possible, as it makes it easier for us to set up the virtual vidshows. However, we do not want these specs to be a barrier to submission for anyone – if you’re having trouble, please contact us.
File format: MP4
Video codec: H264
Max video bitrate: 7-8 Mbps
Max resolution: 1080p
Audio codec: AAC
Max audio bitrate: 256 kbps
If you don't know how to follow these guidelines: If your vid is roughly under 350 MB and definitely not 4K, go ahead and upload it. If it’s not 4K but well over 350 MB in size and you don’t know how to reduce the file size, please contact us.
Please do not upload 4K vids. We don't support 4K on the platform, so your vid will be converted to 1080p and will likely end up with bleached colors, since that tends to happen with automated conversions from 4K to 1080p.
How to submit your vid
Please note that the name you enter in the vid submission form must match your username. If you chose a different username when you registered than the name you vid under, you can change it by going to your Profile and clicking on "Manage".
To submit a vid, go to your Dashboard, which will display all vidshows you can upload to. This is also where you will manage existing submissions. Click on “Submit”. This takes you to the page where you will enter your vid's details. You will see options to either select a vid from the database (any vids shown at last year's con), or to add a new vid. If you're adding something new, fill in all fields and hit "Submit".
If any sources, audio or vidders don't appear in the drop down, you can add your own. It's fine to just add the title of the source/song, as once you click on "Submit" you will be taken to a new page where you can fill in more details, such as media type (eg Movie, TV/Streaming, Commercial), full title in its original language, media year, etc. If you added a new vidder, you'll get to check that the details are correct here too. You'll also have the option to remove any entry in case you added it in error.
If you're uploading a multifandom vid, you can add a maximum of 25 new things per field at this stage. If your vid contains more than 25 sources, don't worry! You can add the extra sources once the vid has been submitted by using the "Manage" functionality.
In the description field, please enter a brief description of your vid. This doesn’t have to be comprehensive; for example a common approach is to choose a lyric from the vidsong that is particularly evocative of the vid, but it is also fine to write something like, “A Dylan G. character study” or “All the f/f ships in Xena”. Be as creative or straightforward as you like, but please keep this brief as every vid description has to fit in our printed conbook!
Please tick any of the mandatory content notes that apply to your vid. For custom content notes, you may provide additional detail about any of the mandatory notes as well as add any non-mandatory notes, e.g. warnings for spiders or snakes.
At this point you can hit "Submit", which will take you to a page where you can check and add more details to any new sources or audio and remove entries if needed. Make sure to hit "Save Sources & Continue" as well as "Save Audio & Continue" before clicking on "Submit All", which will take you to the page where you'll upload your file.
Here you can upload your vid and you also now have the option to upload subtitles (VTT or SRT format). You will also need to enter your password, so keep that on hand if it's not saved to your browser.
Once you've selected your files, click on "Upload". This might take a few minutes so don't navigate away from the page. Once complete you'll be redirected to your Dashboard, with a message to say you've successfully submitted your vid. You will now have the option to update your submission, either uploading a new file or updating info, including adding/removing sources/audio or updating the description or warnings.
You can add new uploads, and edit all other details of the vid, up until the submission deadline
stepford.ai
Apr. 6th, 2026 04:27 amalisxThe robot wife is the final solution to the problem of female humanity. She has the appearance of a person. She performs all the functions of a person. But she has no self that might conflict with her role.
What made this horror rather than fantasy was the recognition. This is what we’re already supposed to be.The robot wife was just the completion of what society already demanded.
Abi Awomosu on .
It’s neither a mistake or an accident that, firstly, most computer assistants use female voices and, secondly, that women’s adoption of these technologies isĀ much lower than men’s . . .
Post-Deadline Pinch Hits
Apr. 5th, 2026 04:58 pmextrapenguin posting in space_swapDue Wed 8 Apr 17:00 CEST (in your timezone | countdown) negotiable. To claim, comment on this post with your AO3 username and the pinch hit you want to claim.
PDPH #1: ( Imperial Radch, Murderbot - Wells, Alliance-Union, Chanur, Machineries of Empire, Teixcalaan )
PDPH #2: Claimed!
PDPH #3: ( Phantasy Star, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Live a Live, Infinite Space, Legend of the Galactic Heroes )
PDPH #5: ( The Lost Fleet, Sins of a Solar Empire, FTL, Mass Effect, Hyperion Cantos, SG-1, Babylon 5 )
PDPH #6: ( SWOT, ST:AOS, DCU )
Spring is Here!
Apr. 6th, 2026 10:16 amkitarella_imaginesAt last the trees are showing little buds and flowers! The grey and brown of winter is blurring into the greenery of spring and summer.
What a relief. We got through another winter. I was never too keen on winter but the covid pandemic winters really made me afraid of winters and relieved when we got through them. Like humans have done for millions of years, I guess. Struggling through winters full of illness and hardship to reach spring.
And every year it makes me think of the poem my mum recited every spring. I am very aware that this might be her last spring (she is 87), I'm not sure what I'll think of this poem after she passes on.
To Continue a One Shot or Not?
Apr. 7th, 2026 12:02 pmkitarella_imaginesI've done that a couple of times and It. Hasn't. Gone. Well.
So I decided: to make these bossy characters happy I would leave the one shot as it is and start a new story, probably connected to the one shot/ part of the series. Then they can keep on talking in the new story, and the one shot will remain intact.
e.g. I wrote Izzy and Roach Have Lunch. Or Something, it was a great one shot but they wouldn't shut up so it became a longer story. And I've never liked that fic, it's just 'not right' somehow.
Although Just Wanted To See What It Was Like went pretty well after the initial one shot. The endlessly talking characters insisted on a continuation, I was dubious but it finally settled in my head as A. Good.Thing.
(if anyone knows a way to split up stories into two on AO3 I'd be really grateful i.e. separate chapter 1 from the following chapters to make two stories. I doubt it's possible though, I'd probably just have to change the titles of the chapters)
I just wrote another lovely one shot and was hmming and hahing over whether to continue it but No. Just No. Leave it as a one shot and put the further adventures of the characters in a new fic, if they won't shut up.
I don't know if this is helpful for anyone but just thought I'd say it.
When the books aren't the whole story
Apr. 4th, 2026 08:07 pmolivermoss posting in booknookThere are also snippets in the Memento Mori series by C S Poe mostly posted on insta, like like this one here.
K J Charles has some addition epilogues and POVs on her website
I know other authors also do this, but don't remember which offhand. I'm also looking around for a good links list to the Poe ones since they are on insta and fussy to grab. (I meant this to be more a coherent resource post, oops, but maybe we can crowdsource one)
Anyone know of other authors who also post side stories for free? Anyone surprised to hear this happens?
Sunday @ 8:58 am
Apr. 5th, 2026 08:58 amalisxOh yeah! A friend from Write Club is making a comic and it’s gonna be so rad and y’all should totally check it out.
If you like late-2000s punk and small-town Australian Gothic ā and you should ā it will be exactly up your alley.
24 hours left!
Apr. 4th, 2026 05:00 pmextrapenguin posting in space_swapFighting the machine.
Apr. 5th, 2026 12:54 amalisxIt probably shouldn’t be surprising just how exploitative MMA is. After all, the main promotion also owns WWE, another notoriously exploitative company. Still. Just because something’s not surprising doesn’t mean it’s .
human.creative
Apr. 4th, 2026 06:45 amalisxSo. Yeah, I like techy stuff and science fiction.
But I’m a creative first. A human creative first. That likes to learn and use my brain to solve problemsā or ask other people in community to help me. That no matter how frustrating it gets, even if I change mediums or technique I’ll never stop creating.
And if expressing yourself through creativity is just . . . for whatever reason, not a priority for you . . . you just won’t get it, I suppose[.]
albi on the most creatives get over algogen slop.