#jocelyn thurrough

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

did a reread of thus always, jocelyn HOT

Jocelyn is SO hot

Capital H Hottie

I’m glad someone sees that!!

So glad Downey fucks that old man

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

When I was perhaps five and twenty, give or take a few years, I had the misfortune of being caught in a compromising situation with another man. It was late, we were a bit in the cups, and found ourselves upstairs in a molly house that no longer exists. One thing led to another and we were in the midst of the moment, shall we say, when the Watch made their odious presence known. We managed to get clothes on and I shoved my friend out the window, so he was not caught, but I did not manage to follow after him in time. As I was being rather unceremoniously hauled out, along with others, your father happened upon the scene and being a good deal more hot-headed and prone to over-reactions at five and twenty than he was when you knew him, he threw a punch at a Watch officer while hurling abusive language at all and sundry.   Amos was never a gentle nor sweet man, but this was his approximation of it.

Downey eventually will find out what is in Jocelyn's File and Jocelyn's recounting of things is hilarious

also Amos and Downey at 25 were *exactly* the same.

Jocelyn: I was in the process of being arrested when your father happened to show up, saw some watch officers arresting me and thought "oh good, I've always wanted to beat them up"

Downey: so glad my father and I have the exact same reaction upon seeing a cop mistreating a friend.

Amos: Entirely justified. Every word I uttered.

Jocelyn: You called the Watch officer, and I quote, "a shameless urinal piss cake who fucks his mother's dog".

Amos: Justified.

Downey: and you grounded me once for saying our neighbour was a prick!

Amos: he was a prick but a thirteen year old shouldn't say as much.

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

Downey points, ‘I can see your machinations a mile off, Jocelyn. I never understood your attempts at family reconciliation.’ ‘Amos is my friend; I wish for him to have some peace on the matter. You are—I trust I may call you a friend, or would you prefer friendly acquaintance?’ ‘Friend is fine.’ ‘There, you are my friend as well, and I wish you to have some peace on the matter. I have heard both sides of the issue, at great length, and think it’s gone on for far too long.’ Downey studiously eats his peanuts. Jocelyn takes his gaze from half-out the window to study Downey with that intensity Downey remembers so well. It is not unlike being pinned to a dissection table. Or, perhaps, he has become one of his butterflies and has been stuck to a board, labelled, assessed, catalogued, become known. ‘Well,’ Jocelyn sighs. ‘You have long known my views. I am sorry your father said what he said, it wasn’t warranted.’ ‘You needn’t apologise on his behalf. He would hate that you had, you know, because he certainly isn’t sorry he said it.’ ‘Naturally. But he can’t hear me so cannot anger over it. Well, we have spread enough canvas on that subject for the moment. Shall we discuss something else? Tell me what you’re up to with this case of your sister’s. Do you think she murdered her husband?’

Did I make a Jocelyn/Downey moodboard? Yes. Yes I did.

Is Jocelyn just as much of a Menace as Downey? Yes. Yes he is.

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

‘And you?’ Jocelyn asks. ‘I trust you are well, for a given value of being well. Naturally I’ve kept the occasional eye on your career—hard not to, really, when someone goes and becomes master of the most powerful guild in the city.’

the most Jocelyn Sentence ever.

Downey has a Type. It is Chilly, Emotionally Reserved Men Who Can Be Described As Predatory Flamingoes With The Patience Of A Rock.

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

<3 <3 <3 thank you!!

I am particularly pleased with the final appendix and Joss' letter to Downey. I think it adds a fun spanner to the works that is Amos Downey. Amos out here like, "look, my friend may be a dirty queer but like HELL do you get to arrest him for it. I'm going to punch someone bad over this."

Jocelyn: thank you Amos, though you really didn't need to break the officer's nose so badly it'll never not be crooked for the remainder of his life.

Amos: should have curb stomped him.

Jocelyn:

Jocelyn: uh huh. you do know that you're slightly terrifying, right?

Too bad Amos couldn't extend the same weird, messed up approach to the whole thing to his son. It would have helped oodles.

As mentioned in another post, I have an alt-ending in my head where Amos and Downey do sort-of reconcile and Amos hears about Downey and Sicily's recent run-ins with the Watch and is ready to fight someone. Except he's over 80 and not doing great in the lungs department. Downey finds this endearing, Sicily finds it patronizing and annoying, and Vetinari gets a thousand heart palpitations from it.

Vimes just staring at Amos then he swivels his head to Downey then back to Amos, "This explains so much while, at the same time, leaving me with a hundred new questions."

Vimes: ahh, so that is why you are Like That, your lordship.

Downey: what do you mean by that, commander? Hey-hey-you need to tell me. What do you mean by that??

Annnnnyway

Thank you so much!! I'm glad you enjoyed the ride! <3 <3

Chapters: 44/44 Fandom: Discworld - Terry Pratchett Rating: Explicit Relationships: Lord Downey/Havelock Vetinari, Downey/Others Additional Tags: let your dad die energy drink is a direct inspiration for my restarting this story, everything is a poison, it’s the dose that matters, Family Issues, Period-Typical Homophobia, Classism, AM is an early modern city, and so the values/social norms reflect that, Not Beta Read, We Die Like Men, Downey POV, Significant Age Difference, between downey and one of his past Decisions, like. Significant., it’s very very May-December, typical sex acts you’d expect in this sort of thing:, Anal, Fingering, Blow Jobs, etc. - Freeform, some slurs show up in a sibling fight, there’s potential dub-con - depending on where one’s personal line is drawn Series: Part 3 of coveting desperate things Summary:

It is early days of this thing called a ReLaTiOnShIp(?) between Downey and Vetinari–all very new, Vetinari would like to note that emotions are a bug and not feature. Downey is here to smoke a lot of cigarettes and be dramatic about things. However, the untimely murder of Downey’s brother-in-law puts a bit of a wrench in things, made worse by the announcement that his (estranged) father may or may not be dying soon. All deeply inconvenient for everyone involved. There are parallels of past and present because families are a sticky business, always, and things that happened thirty years ago have a strange ability to cycle back through your life.

— 

When Downey enters the soft, dark space of Vetinari’s bedroom the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork looks at him and then stops being the Patrician. Downey watches him stop being Patrician. For this moment of time, at least. It is like watching a man disrobe. There is this strange, ephemeral, fleeting vulnerability and Downey wonders what must his own face be like to prompt such a response from a man as glacial as Vetinari.

Downey says, ‘I don’t do that.’

‘What is it that you don’t do?’

‘I’m alright.’ Downey stands, still, in the doorway of the secret passage he enters through because they cannot be obvious about anything. They’ll never be able to be obvious about anything. Even in death they’ll keep their secrets, this thing between them being a large one. Amos will be buried in the family plot and when Annette dies, she will be buried next to him. Downey will be buried at the Assassins’ Guild. Vetinari will be buried somewhere. Downey doesn’t know what arrangements he has made.

‘Drink?’ Vetinari asks.

‘Please.’

‘What is it that you don’t do?’

‘Whatever you were preparing for,’ Downey accepts the whiskey. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t weep on you. I won’t sully the sheets or anything.’

Vetinari’s mouth thins but he says nothing on that, only motions to the edge of the bed for Downey to sit on since there is only one chair in the room and it is the desk chair, currently occupied by a stack of books. Vetinari had been reading in a dressing gown, sitting atop of the sheets on account of the heat.

‘Well,’ Downey sighs, sinking against a bedpost. ‘He’s dead.’

Well - it is done. Thus, Always (2.0) is completed. 

Thank you all so much for coming on this incredibly long, sometimes slow, ride! It means a lot and I hope everyone had fun along the way. Everything after this are epilogues and appendixes! Including a letter from Joss telling us who was in that file Downey filched for him.

(gotta say, big shout-out to ahufflepuffhobbit who listened to me talk about Jocelyn and Downey non-stop for like ten months straight.)

(also big shout-out to dellevigne who kindly lets me go !!!!!!!!! about Downey at them from time to time.)

(also also big shout-out to squadron-of-damned who is why I restarted Thus Always in the first place.)

thank you all! <3 <3 <3

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

Chapters: 9/44 Fandom: Discworld - Terry Pratchett Rating: Explicit Relationships: Lord Downey/Havelock Vetinari, Downey/Others Additional Tags: let your dad die energy drink is a direct inspiration for my restarting this story, everything is a poison, it's the dose that matters, Family Issues, Period-Typical Homophobia, Classism, AM is an early modern city, and so the values/social norms reflect that, Not Beta Read, We Die Like Men, Downey POV Series: Part 4 of coveting desperate things Summary:

After No More a Desolate Thing Downey and Vetinari are muddling through this thing called a ReLaTiOnShIp. Unfortunate segues into the past which runs parallel to the present occur namely because families are a sticky business, always, and things that happened thirty years ago have a strange ability to cycle back through your life. Oh, and there's been a death.

--

Obligatory Excerpt: 

The front door. William undoes the latches, sticks his head out front and is greeted by the scowling face of their neighbour across the street. Her face a crumpled apple lost in the bottom of a schoolboy’s bag. William is always cheerful: ‘Helloa there Mrs. Fonstad! A good morning to you!’

‘Is it good? I haven’t seen the goodness yet!’

‘It’ll come, Mrs. Fonstad, I’m sure of it.’

‘Go-off. You’re Amos’ brat boy, you and he are full of it.’

‘Thank you, Mrs. Fonstad.’

Three locks on the back door—out of which he, or sometimes Magda, will go and feed the ducks, the geese, the ornery goat named Hilda.

And in this chapter we get to meet Jocelyn, one of Downey’s Decisions. 

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

‘How nice of you to come,’ Mr. Thurrough says. ‘I’m pleased to formally meet you, now that you’re old enough to meet. Jocelyn Thurrough, at your service.’

‘Sir,’ William bows. ‘William Downey, and the pleasure is all mine.’

‘I remember you from when you were this high,’ Jocelyn holds his hand up, demonstrating toddler-hood, ‘but I hardly count that as meeting you since you were more concerned with hauling your family cat around than making conversation with guests.’

I just love the image of three year old Downey hauling this poor, long suffering cat around everywhere he goes. 

Downey: I am taking Inkspot everywhere with me.

Amos: You can’t bring the cat to market. It’s not a dog. 

Downey: I made her a leash and a little harness. 

Amos: gods preserve me.