#quenthom

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

The way Thomas and Guy are both more open than they’re supposed to be and more concealed?? The way it’s different on each of them and the way it’s similar???

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

~**•HE’S SPENT ENOUGH TIME STANDING~*•*

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

Thomas and Guy don’t set out to get a cat: Thomas gets Guy a dog and this manky little stray cat falls in love with their dog and starts following it around.

Thomas is not reminded of the cat who used to hang out in the yard at Downton who he befriended - Smoke was a nice lass with a good job, not to mention dignity and poise. Soot is a completely unrelated name and any thematic similarity is a coincidence.

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

thinking more of Thomas and boyfriends and nail polish…

Guy probably knows how to do his own and that’s how he knows how to do Thomas’s. He invites Thomas to practice on him because it’s easier to learn on someone else. It becomes a thing they each occasionally do for each other or for themselves and don’t always do at the same time, but they definitely enjoy doing each other’s.

I don’t think Chris would want his toenails painted but he might go for the fingernails on occasion? (Obviously this is modern or some special circumstance where he can get away with it.) I just don’t think he’d enjoy the whole Hidden Secret Decoration that’s so much of the deal with toenails. He’d want to try doing it for himself and it would come out messy and he’d show it off anyway.

Painted nails fits right into my “Jimmy scared to try makeup so Thomas tries it with him” happy place of course. I think he’d also sometimes want to do it when Thomas does it just because Thomas is doing it and it’s exciting to have that like. Same secret under their clothes together. I also think, don’t ask me why, if they’re both doing their nails it’s the same one of them doing it to both of them? Like, it’s not usually “Jimmy does Thomas’s nails and then Thomas does Jimmy’s” it’s more often “Thomas does Jimmy’s nails and then his own” and “Jimmy does Thomas’s nails and then his own”. (Or one of them does their own and then the other says “do mine too”.)

Counterintuitive one: I could see Thomas painting Edward’s toenails, because Edward finds something meditative and intimate about the process and about the idea that Thomas is putting this thing on Edward that he Thomas is the only one who can see.

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

Some slightly rambly thoughts about contrasting (but both extremely cool in my opinion) things that Thomas's most popular movie love interests offer him:

Richard as someone who has a lot of trouble letting the mask slip, who offers hints at what's behind the curtain but has trouble pulling it back entirely, and how, while that will presumably present its challenges between him and Thomas, it’s also something where I think... Thomas being able to help with that, Thomas being the person who’s more able to let the mask slip and leading by example, can offer Thomas a way of seeing and appreciating parts of himself that he hasn’t before. Both in that I think in many situations he views his mask slipping as a Weakness that he wishes he could get rid of, and that on the other hand he’s always been told he’s too cold, not sincere enough, and I expect part of him believes it. So to both see and value his own ability to take the mask off (and see, when he’s looking at Richard, even more clearly that oh of course it’s hard to take the mask off sometimes, like he knew had good reasons but looking at them on someone else drives it home even more), I think can be something really special.

And then there's Guy, who also wears a mask but a looser fitting one, who comes along and after one conversation with Thomas just decides “This is a man I want to make myself vulnerable to” and then does it? The way he instantly sees Thomas as someone who it’s a good idea to open up to, after all these years of Thomas being mistrusted at every corner including when he is doing his best to be kind? ;asldkjdkls;fOH MY GOD.

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

Guy is interesting in terms of like… even though he’s very bold and unafraid and open with Thomas, and so one can think that he’s probably someone who puts himself out there in general, I get the feelingheadcanon based on vibes that romance has actually been somewhat hard for him. I just have this idea that most of his relationships have struggled to reach the level of deep intimacy that he hopes for. That he’s had relationships with perfectly lovely men whom he’s really liked and who have liked him back but it just always ended up missing something. (Until ~now~~)

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

I never think this much or this stereotypically about topping vs bottoming I swear (lie), but I think Thomas usually tops with Guy but Guy usually leads when they dance. That’s what I think.

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

My dad, for whom I minutes before had had to straighten out Tom Branson vs Thomas Barrow’s names, responded to Thomas and Guy’s second conversation (the how did you become a butler one) with “Hm, sparks?”

💖 Yes. Sparks.