#✕ rel / esme cullen

[im-a-twilight-fan-i-guess]

My oversimplification of each of the Cullen’s meeting their SO for (basically) the first time.

Carlisle: I’ve turned this poor woman into a monster, she’ll probably be distraught and upset.

Esme: oh sweet, it’s the kind and hot doctor from my youth!

Emmett: I’m dying and this beautiful Angel is taking me to heaven. Nice.

Rosalie: run, run, run! Go, go, go, go!

Jasper: I hate the way it feels when I feed on people. My life is such torture.

Alice: I love you so much! You’re perfect and we’re gonna be super happy together!

Jasper: Heart eyes.

Bella: I guess one of the Cullen’s is my lab partner in bio.

Edward: You torment me girl! You’ve been placed on this earth with the sole purpose of tempting me! And I can feel the monster giving in! I am a wretched creature that should not exist!

Bella: What’s wrong with him? Does he think I smell or something?

[cosplayproblemsposts]

Dysfunctional as always

Summary: Your family was not the greatest by all means, but it doesn't mean there wasn't any form of warmth.

Warning: Angst, comfort, and words of encouragement.

Male characters x Male reader

A/N: Written by phone and not proofread.

"I don't remember you," the man who has embraced his son frowns while he pulls away. The two men stood in a parking lot of a recently closed fast food restaurant with the intention of reconciliation. Nothing came of this due to the much older man false promises and impulsive disappearances.

The Cullens filled the void of the lack of family, your father leaving you with an ill grandmother to care for. Running and cutting you loose for anything that did not include you. Now, here you are dealing with the loss of the only mortal figure who truly cared for you.

Crimson eyes watch the man grow confused with an uneven smile. "I'm your father. Of course you remember me," the man who claims to be your maker stood here before you for one thing inheritance. The leech himself knew his mother in law must have left something behind for her one and only surviving grandchild.

A level-headed vampire out stretched arm prevents his platinum haired coven mate from departing the slimy leech head from his shoulders. "Leave him. We can not reveal ourselves. " A low growl comes from an equally angry vampire.

"You weren't there," your voice low barely a whisper. Your so-called father's staggers back at the somewhat light impact of a shove, a shove you delivered with uncertainty. Uncertain if you could bring yourself to truly turn away from him, the man you known half of your life before he became unbearable.

"What? Of course I was there, " a habit you had developed due to his absence. A habit where you insert the man face, voice, body, and once adrimible smile.

Replacing certain people who were present, Carlisle and Esme were the people who would suffer the swap. Your grandmother was Carlisle patient, always coming and going.

Made sure to answer her calls and never complain. Carlisle took notice of the newfound shoes at the front door. "It seems you have a shadow," the ill womam points out as a little face peeks out from the safety of the stairwell.

Carlisle knew you knew there, your little heart giving you away and your breathing. You were twelve years old, always watching and always imagining your father stood in his place. Your father false figure stood instead of the kind gentle blonde who made sure to leave his wife's homemade meals in the kitchen for you and the sick woman.

"Does he have any distant relatives who could take care of him?". A trip to the hospital turns into a nightmare, a nightmare the woman tried to avoid. "No, they are either far too busy to juggle anymore kids, or they are located across the country." Carlisle nods, striken with sadness at the thought of the boy who stood outside of the room.

Far too scared of the pale doctor and how the said doctor might say or do something to ruin the child's illusion. A lie, a lie where his father is a doctor who studied medicine to aid his mother in law and possibly save her from her fate. "He has been passed from relatives to relative, but he always comes back to me."

Alice has already foresee this at the request of Carlisle. He has already made up his mind. It'll be hard to convince certain individuals, but he is not turning this child down because of his nature.

"No, I don't see why he can't live with his father or mother." Rosalie is about to regret mentioning the boys' parents."What do you mean?," Rosalie undead, heart breaks alongside the many others present. "I agreed to take care of him while his grandmother spends a few weeks in the hospital. Waiting for an answer. " "I didn't know, " Emmet leans into his once unmovable mate.

"It took me by surprise too, the boys mother scummb to birth complications." Esme set a hand upon Carlisles clothed chest "and the infant. " Carlisle shook his head. "She never made it to see her fifth birthday," Alice squeezes Jasper hand.

"All he has is his grandmother and the hope of a foster family or distant relative. I doubt they'll take him in. So I ask each of you to consider a new member. " It didn't take long for the Cullens to adjust to the small boy and his oddities.

"You weren't there when she was born," the overwhelming memories of the Cullens took over your sense. Slowly, stickers peel off, revealing the true people present in your major and minor memories. From the ice rink of your first game of the season to the last.

To the time you fell sick, to your first ever big win to the moment your grandmother passed a few weeks back. To the time you acknowledged Bella as a sister and how you brought Edward back to reality. How you drill both Bella and Edward when they become unbearable and how they don't think before they do.

The man lets out a grunt as a fist breaks his once correct nose. The man falls back as you begin pulling and shaking the man. A struggle of somesort breaks out in the parking lot concert grounds.

"You weren't when she died!" You let out a long, drawn-out groan as you laid a hard blow to the man's face. "Alright, stop it!" But you didn't want to stop. You wanted him to feel the pain you had endured from the funeral arrangements of your fallen grandmother to the funeral of your little sister.

"Where were you!?" You hadn't taken notice of the blood that painted your knuckles. You never took into account how you could have handled this situation. How the sudden phone call made you claw at the skin of your forearm until Bella enclosed you in a hug.

A cold, gloved hand held your wrist in a gentle grip. "That's enough, I believe he understands," Stefan blood eyes meets yours, unaware you began to shed tears. "You have done enough little one." Stefan effortlessly pulls you to your feet.

You didn't protest or deny his embrace. "I'm sorry." Stefan made a tsk sound. "Don't apologize. You have every right to act out, " Vladimir watches as he keeps the third party from escaping. Trapping him underneath the albino boot, "Stefan is right. He should be the one apologizing, not you. "

"Blood, my hands," you pull away from the ancient ruler. "We have self-control, don't we? Vladimir, " the blonde nods with a little smile. "Let him go. Where will he go? Who will he turn to?" Your words shook the two vampires, but they obliged.

"You are lucky you have an understanding, son," Once Vlaimir lifts his foot from the man, he scrambles away. "He may come back?" You said while watching your once present father run away. "A risk a fool like him will take." You shook your head at Vladimir, who can see beyond your vision of the dark.

The texture of a handkerchief took you by surprise, "Don't want the Cullens to believe we are bad a influence." Stefan wasn't the only one who began cleaning your hands.

Vladimir was soft and slow, just like his coven mate, who took your left hand while he coddled your right hand. Once white handkerchiefs grew, Crimson red. You didn't make it easy either you were fidgety and anxious.

The adrenaline washed away from your once flaming body. Warmth seeping away at the thought, your father may report you to the police. A cold kiss to your palm brought you back. "You must remain still," Vladimir spoke against the palm of your skin.

You cast your gaze down "sorry" another pair of cold lips meets your wrist. Stefan freezing lips peppers small, slow, comforting, pecks upon the veins of your wrist. The sound of blood flow and the touch of your warmth engraved a smile on Stefan face "you done well, can't imagine what you will be capable of once you turn."

Vladimir agrees with another lingering kiss to your palm, "Your speed and strength are hard not to imagine." The two vampires will never let you down, nor will they ever leave you despite the Cullens' threats.

[cullen-cannons]

The Cullens On Snow Days ❄️

Because of their shiny skin, the Cullens tend to live more north which means snow days. YAY! Even if high schools* in places that get snow often don't give snow days, there's always the weekend plus the Cullens don't have to sleep. This means epic snow baseball, extreme sledding, snowboarding, and skiing if they are in the mountains at the time.

ALICE: Loves making snow angels with Renesmee. Makes new coats for Ren every winter. She finds a frozen lake hidden away in the woods and ice skates with Jasper, they're both very graceful so it's like on a whole other level. Alice is into jumping and things like that, but Jasper's favourite part is just holding her hand. After they've had their time to themselves they invite everyone else along. 

She usually sits out of Snow fights but if a snowball hits her (and whatever designer coat she's wearing) she will make it her mission for the rest of the day to pelt that person with snowballs continuously. (Spoiler Alert: it's usually Emmet, and no it was definitely not an accident. He loves getting his little sister involved in the game and she enjoys it.) Once she's on to you she's sneaky, fast, and vicious.

BELLA: hasn't completely forgotten her dislike of the cold and wet, but she can't deny the beauty of actually soft snow. (Nothing compared to her Edward, of course) With her new cooler body temperature she is more willing to try it out. Also Ren really wants to make snow angles with her so, how can she say no?

Her balance has improved greatly but she is still hesistant by instinct to try ice skating. She does have an open mind and as soon as she starts, she loves it.

In terms of snow fights it depends she can either be all the way in, matching Emmet's level of silliness or she can be content to sit on the sidelines and girl talk with Esme, Alice and Rosalie.

CARLISLE: and Esme will go on walks through the woods together. They might stop to make snow angels and lie in the cool snow together. He loves ice skating with Esme. And with Rosalie, Alice, and Bella for father-daughter bonding. Ren also likes to skate with him.

Like Bella, he can go either way. He loves playing with his children and is always good for a fun time (within reason). He builds snow people with Renesmee and with Esme. He will occasionally ask Edward to help for nostalgia for when it was just them. 

EDWARD: Makes snow angels with Renesmee and ice skates with Bella. He enjoys sitting with Bella and watching Ren play but can't resist challenging Emmet to a snow fight. He enjoys making snow angels with Carlisle and when Renesmee wants to make one too, he holds her up so she can put the hat on top.

EMMET: Is down for anything, he loves snow angels with his niece, and once added details to make a snow vampire. He and Rosalie usually skate together, but when he's skating alone he goes really fast and always ends up dragging Edward, Jacob, or Jasper into a game of chicken. The girls cheer from the side. Carlisle has to step in before the noise of them crashing into each other raises suspicion among the humans.

He drags Rosalie into whatever games that the boys have going on.

WANTS TO SET THE GUINNESS WORLD RECORD FOR TALLEST SNOWMAN (AND BIGGEST SNOWBALL) IN THE WORLD. Carlisle says no but he's already started and it's 10 feet already.

ESME: Loves making snow angels and Ice skating with Carlisle and her "children" especially Edward and Renesmee. Esme has never cared too much about clothes (though, of course, she loves looking nice and indulging Alice) so she always goes all in with the fights. She's not an S teir fighter, but she can hold her own alright and is The Fun Mom who will go along with Emmet and the boys' shenanigans.

JACOB: is relatively new to the real snow experience having lived on the reservation near the beach all his life so he still has the childish excitement whenever it snows. He is happy to join Emmet and the others tomfoolery and is usually the one who starts the extreme sled races. 

He gives Renesmee rides through the snow on his back in wolf form. Shields her in snowfights and gets called out for cheating but it's okay he knows she can hold her own.

JASPER: Ice skates with Alice and they make snow angels. 

He's fierce in snow fights and loves group snow fights but he usually waits for other people to challenge him one on one. Once he is challenged though he always wins. He can go kind of overboard and he knows it, so he asks Alice to ref.

Alice always cheers for him cheesily "get him, baby!" and stuff like that. He pretends to dislike it slightly more than he does.

He aways goes along when Alice or Renesmee want him to help build a snow people.

RENESMEE: Makes snow angels and takes turns ice skating with everybody. She loves snowfights.

ROSALIE: Doesn't want to ruin her clothes but can't resist the romantic aspect of making snow angels with Emmet. She loves ice skating. Can join the snow fights if she so wishes. She'll often come in the middle and only throw snowballs at Edward. And then she'll say "I'm not playing" when the others try to hit her back.

Other times she gets super into it.

She calls Edward's snow people ugly and stops when she notices Carlisle looking a bit sad because he worked on it too. She praises Ren's snowpeople.

[john-get-the-salt]

Awakening (w/Edward Cullen)

Imagine: Waking up in a strange place and coming to meet a very strange family; the cullens.

Contains: not Bella, cause fuck Bella

Warnings: Mentions of past injury, past assault

The search for a missing local ended last night in tragedy. (Y/N) (Y/L/N), a Forks native, was out celebrating her 25th birthday last weekend when she got separated from her friends. Her body was discovered down by the river just last night, 4 days after her disappearance. A cause of death has not officially been released but police have confirmed that they do believe foul play was involved. Police are asking anyone with any information or tips to call immediately at the number below.

Carlisle turned the news report off, his stomach uneasy. His family sat around him, sharing in his discomfort.

"We don't know for sure it was one of us," Emmett was the first to speak.

"We can’t know for sure it wasn't." Edward countered.

"We'll be extra careful. Go hunting in groups or all together. For all we know it was a human."

"And if it was? Will we still ignore It?" Edward hated the idea.

"What the humans do is none of our business," Rosalie spit.

"Even if one is going around killing innocents?"

"Please, not this again," Esme begged.

Edward turned away from his family. It wasn't right, but he never won that argument.

—

Cold.

That was the first sense that came back to you.

A startling cold that seeped into your skin and chilled your bones. You felt like you were frozen solid, but a wiggle of your fingers and toes quickly dismissed that idea.

Your eye open–at least you thought they did. You saw nothing but pitch black and wondered if you'd actually opened your eyes at all.

Maybe you were in hell.

You wanted to reach up, to feel for your eyes and make sure you were all still there, but your hand barely raised an inch before hitting something hard. Your knuckles ached something terrible as a clang filled your ears.

Metal?

You raised your hand again, slowly, and let your fingers brush against the surface.

Metal.

The panic began to set in as your hands felt nothing but cold and smooth metal all around you, encompassing you. A swift stomp of your foot found you nothing but another loud bang. It was as if you were laying in a small metal box.

You wracked your brain, desperate for any memories or clues as to how you get there.

And then you remembered.

It was your birthday. Your friends took you out downtown to celebrate. Barhopping, karaoke, way too much food. It was fun. But you also remember losing your friends in a crowded bar, getting hot and overwhelmed and anxious. You remember stepping outside for some fresh air, hearing something behind you and–

You remembered everything now.

You forced yourself to take a deep breath. Falling apart could come later, once you got home and felt safe.

Kicking your feet again you paused at the creaking of metal that seemed to follow.

Bingo.

You kicked again and again and again with both feet, giving it everything you had, until finally the metal gave away and your prison was flooded with din light.

Nearly crying in relief, you stretched out your legs and hooked your feet onto something so you could pull yourself out. Thankfully you rolled out relatively easily, the metal underneath you sliding out without problem.

Once free, you sat up slowly. Your body was stiff and sore, and you rolled your shoulders in an attempt to loosen up. Looking down at yourself you were taken aback. Your skin looked filthy and blood was caked underneath your fingernails. New scars peppered your arms and legs, though they were all faded and appeared to be old. Your hair hung loosely and you were in an itchy white medical gown. You couldn't identify anything that belonged to you.

Swinging your legs around you tested the floor with your feet, slowly standing. As you did so you looked around at the room.

It was large, lined with beds covered in white sheets. You turned to the box from which you escaped and couldn't contain the gasp that left your lips. The wall towered above you with rows upon rows of small metal doors. You had just crawled out of one of these doors, luckily, on the ground level. But they reached up, almost to the ceiling.

You reached out with a a shaky hand, pushing back the tray you just climbed off of. It slid back into the wall and the door closed behind it with a quiet click.

A morgue. You had just climbed out of a morgue.

You needed to get out of there now.

Your bare feet slipped on the clean floor, making you curse. Where were your shoes?

You hurried past the beds, trying not to think about what could be under them. You stopped at a hallway, whipping your head to the left and right. How were you supposed to know which way was out?

You were about to go right when something stopped you. A small whisper, a tug. Left it seemed to murmur, as a breeze blowing past your ear.

You didn't have time to investigate or worry about hearing strange things. You had no clue which way the exit was so left you went. It ended up being the right choice as further down the hall you could see a set of doors leading outside. You took off into a sprint, pushing the doors aside like they were nothing.

You took a deep breath of the fresh air, wincing again at the ache in your throat and pounding in your head. It was nighttime out, the only light coming from the moon and flickering streetlights. You stumbled away from the morgue, disoriented.

Where were you? How did you get home?

Your house. Home. Did you go home? What were you supposed to do? Were you dead? Why were you in a morgue?

Your head pounded as you pushed your feet off of the hard pavement and took off down the street.

Into the woods, a whisper curled around your ear.

You weren't sure you wanted to be seen running down the street covered in blood, and this mysterious new voice had been right once before. So at the first break in buildings you took off towards the woods that surrounded the town.

Scared and alone you entered the forest. Your bare feet tripped on rocks and roots as you ran but you kept going. You just kept going and going, naively hoping you could simply run away from whatever was happening to you.

You weren't sure how long you ran. You weren't even sure if you were still breathing. It didn't feel like it.

You began to cry, wishing you could forget again. Wishing you could forget the feeling of their cold hands all over you, the whispers and sharp smirks and pain. Just constant pain for days. You remember feeling relieved when they finally dumped you down by the river, left you barely clothed and empty inside. You thought you were finally free to die in peace.

You slowed your pace, pushing through bushes and past trees while tears continued to stream down your face. You wanted to stop, wanted to collapse and curl into a ball of the forrest floor. But the new voice inside your head whispered you on, told you to keep going. And you weren't about to stop listening now.

So you continued on fumbling in the darkness. Occasionally there would be a break in the tree line and the moon would shine down upon you, illuminating the woods and shadows at your heels. The moon seemed to guide you somehow, seemed to pull on your shadows and help you move through the underbrush, commanding your feet to just keep going.

You were so tired. But you kept moving, never stopping, never faltering. And the night got darker and darker as you disappeared into the heart of the woods.

—

"Edward."

The young vampire turned to his adoptive mother who stood behind him.

'We're all going hunting tonight. Carlisle thinks it would be best to keep up our strength, just in case."

Just in case we need to take care of an unruly vampire, was the rest of Esme's unspoken sentence.

Edward nodded, standing to join his family. The Cullen's gathered themselves and were nearly out the door when Edward froze, causing Rosalie to nearly run into him.

"What are you-" Rose cut off her annoyed remark at the look on his face. "Edward? What's wrong?"

"There's someone outside."

"Who?"

Alice gasped, eyes going wide and unblinking. Jasper grabbed her hand, holding it softly as she went through her vision.

"Edward, who it is?" Esme was worried, grabbing for Carlisle's hand.

"The girl on the news.....(y/n)."

"The one who was murdered?"

Edward nodded, eyebrows furrowed as he was bombarded with thoughts. "She's confused and scared. She woke up in a morgue-"

He sucked in his breath just as Alice broke from her vision.

"We were right," she confirmed. "It was a group of vampires. They...did terrible things to her."

Alice was on the verge of tears and Rosalies face got stone cold, her fists clenched.

"She's turned?"

Edward nodded at his father figure. "But I don't think she knows. She needs help."

"We'll help her, right?"

Dr. Cullen nodded at his wife. "Of course. We'll help her with whatever she needs. Edward and Alice, you two have the best chance of peacefully and safely bringing her in. Go, and call if you need help."

The two nodded and slipped out of the house quietly.

--

You walked for what felt like hours, the woods never ending.

But finally, finally, you finally saw a bit of light up ahead. You felt a push and you hurried, diving under some brush and finding yourself in front of a large house.

It was mostly made of glass, light pouring out from every clear wall and window. It was like a beacon as you stepped closer. There seemed to be no one home, no one around but you. You took this opportunity to finally rest and sink to your knees in the clearing around the house.

This would all be a lot easier if you had just died like you were supposed to. You didn't want to be here, you wanted to be dead. You wanted to be somewhere you could no longer feel the ghost of hands of all over you, of pain and screams and blood spilling.

You rested your head in your hands, shoulders shaking as you finally unraveled and began to sob.

"Hello?"

You jerked up, feet moving you back towards the woods.

"Wait!"

You froze a few steps away from the cover of the trees. You refused to turn around, terrified of who or what you would find.

"I'm sorry for trespassing, I'm leaving now."

"Are you ok, (Y/N)?" The voice spoke again, sounding like a woman.

You still didn't turn around.

"I-how do you know my name?"

"We can help you."

You shook your head, taking another step towards the safety of the trees. "I don't want any trouble, I'm just going to leave."

"Please don't leave, (y/n)."

You stilled at the new voice. It was a man, but it was...different. It was soft and seemed familiar.

him him him him him, your new voice whispered over and over again, nearly frantic.

You turned, finally looking back at the voices. A young man and woman stood in the clearing, lit up by the house behind them. The woman was short with a dark pixie cut, and the man-

him him him....that's him

You locked eyes with the man and the world seemed to still. He had piercing eyes that you swore looked right through you, eyes you could stare at forever. Everything seemed to get sharper, more in focus, and the light coming from behind him got brighter. His whole self seemed to call you. Your feet itched to push towards him, your soul seemed to sing, which you didn't even know was possible and-

edward

"Edward?" You tested the name on your lips and instantly liked the way it felt to say, the way it rolled off your tongue like it was always meant to.

The man seemed frozen as he looked at you. He looked vulnerable, his eyes wide and lips parted just slightly.

edward cullen, the voice continued to whisker and you found yourself wishing it would say more.

"My name is Alice Cullen."

You tore your gaze away from Edward and to the young woman. As soon as you did the world seemed to get a bit duller, the clearing seemed darker somehow, unfocused again.

"And this is my brother-

"Edward Cullen," you spoke softly, "right?"

Alice nodded slowly, "How did you know?"

"I-I heard it, I think. There's a voice, telling me things."

alice cullen.....she see's things she shouldn't....ask her

You gulped. "Do-do you know what's wrong with me? I thought I was dead. I-I was laying down by the river, it was so cold." You sniffed, desperately trying to keep the tears at bay.

"I prayed for it to be over, I thought I was finally going to die but I woke up and I don't know what happened. I just wanted to die and forget. I just want to die."

Your legs wobbled and gave out under you. You waited for your knees to hit the ground below you but the impact never came.

You looked up and found yourself face to face with that man, Edward. He'd caught you and had an arm wrapped around your waist to keep you upright. You opened your mouth to thank him when you caught a glance at your arm.

Your lips parted in surprise and if you'd been breathing before you definitely stopped now. Your skin, under a patch of moonlight coming through the trees, was glistening. Though glistening hardly did it justice, it looked as if crystals had been ground up and painted onto your skin carefully. Your hands, your arms, your legs. You were....sparkling.

you are different now.....just like them

You swatted at the air by your ear, growing tired of the voice.

"You have a gift," Edward spoke softly.

You met his eyes once again, "A gift?"

"You said you hear things, right? Things you shouldn't?"

vampires.......he's a vampire

Your lips trembled. You wanted him to be wrong, you didn't want to be glowing or hearing voices or be different.

you are just like them...just like him

"No!" You cried at the voice, stumbling away from Edward and falling back to the ground.

“Make this voice be quiet, I don’t want to know!”

once you hear, it cannot be unheard

“When did it start?” Alice asked softly as Edward approached you again slowly, as if you were a frightened doe.

“Right after I woke up. It….led me here.”

Here is where you were meant to be

“I don’t understand!”

You felt a peace flow over you, and another man with shoulder length hair appeared behind the girl, Alice.

As Alice sees, you hear

“Is it still speaking?” She asked.

You nodded and repeated it’s last sentence.

As the girl furrowed her brow and muttered behind her shoulder to the man, you turned and met Edward's eyes. "I feel like I know you. Have we...met before?"

He shook his head, kneeling down to your level. "No, we haven't. But I can help explain everything, we both can. Would you like to come inside?"

Safe. He is safe. The Cullen’s are safe.

You thought for a moment, before nodding. What more could they do when the worst had already happened to you? You allowed Edward to reach for your hand. You took it, standing up with him.

Edward's eyes, you noted, shone like molten gold. You wondered if your eyes would ever shine again or if they would remain dull and lifeless as you felt now.

His grip on your hand tightened as you two walked over to Alice and the nameless stranger.

"I swear that I will do anything and everything within my power to help you."

And looking into his eyes, you believed every word he said.

him.....he is yours and you are his

"I know."

[panlight]

Breaking Dawn has always read like a fanfiction to me. I'm aware this has probably to do with the fact, that Forever Dawn was written before New Moon and Eclipse, and SMeyer just rewrote some pieces of it.

But this made me think - most fans probably have an idea of how they would have liked the story of Bella and Edward to end and those endings might all be a little, or even very different. What would your perfect ending for the Saga look like? You can place it after any point of the story - just after the first book, in the middle of New Moon, around the end of Eclipse, wherever you want.

It really does have a lot of fanfic-y tropes. The big wedding. The over-the-top tropical honeymoon. This is an 18-year-old middle class girl getting married here. Sure the Cullens are rich but she's not an actual princess or something, this always felt hugely over the top to me in a fanfic-y way. And then the baby, of course. It does tick a lot of boxes of the sort of fanfic that imagines what happens after the book/movie/show where the main couple get married and have a kid.

For me, vampirism without consequences is just completely uninteresting. Bella getting to have her cake and eat it too not only undermines all the themes in the earlier books and makes Edward's brooding about being a vampire seem like unnecessary whining, it's also just boring.

So my ideal ending is an actual follow up to Eclipse. Bella and Edward follow through on their compromise plan: wedding, sex, and vampirism in that order. There's no baby; Bella is turned on Isle Esme and spends a few months there on a secluded island with no people (the groundskeepers are given time off FFS Edward can clean the house) eating wildlife and adjusting to vampirism.

But she actually has to like, adjust. It IS has hard as people told her it was. She can still do well at it, but with struggle. I mean, Carlisle never killed anyone either but he did it by banishing himself to the woods and starving to the point that he unthinkingly attacked some deer. I believe it was hard and he struggled and so his triumph feels earned. Bella can still control herself better than average but I wanna see her struggle with it, versus like, one tense afternoon with Charlie and then totally being fine around humans and going to see lawyers in a sexy outfit, no problem. That felt anticlimactic.

Also there should be some fallout with Jake, and she should probably have to cut ties with Charlie and Renee. She MADE this choice to become a vampire knowing she was giving these things up, so for Breaking Dawn to be like "Nevermind! Haha!" about it was deeply unsatisfying. It killed the conflict and tension for Jacob and Charlie to still be part of her life and accepting of the weirdness of it.

For me, the whole point was Bella was sacrificing a lot to be with Edward. That is where the romance and angst lies. Getting to be beautiful and immortal and rich and powerful AND with the person you love AND keep your father and best friend AND get a perfect baby who never cries and sleeps through the night AND conquer the bloodlust in like 2 seconds was just . . . boring. All the stuff I had been interested in seeing how it would resolve was resolved in just the easiest, least interesting way possible. A perfect example: the wedding. We're told that Renee is going to freak out about this early marriage and even THAT relatively unimportant conflict is just instantly resolved with "actually, Renee's totally on board!!!!" Snore!

So yeah. Bella is turned on the honeymoon. It's hard. She cuts off ties with Charlie; maybe she fakes her death, maybe she just disappears. Jacob refuses to talk to her, but Sam is like "whatever she made her choice we're not going to start a war over this." And in this way Bella is actually cut off from her human life and has to start over with the new family and new life she chose. We probably have to resolve the Volturi situation somehow; maybe a trip to Volterra to prove she's been turned and some conflict with the Volturi comes into play.

But ultimately I just want an epilogue where she comes back to Forks with Edward to check in on Charlie and Jacob from a distance. She watches Charlie with Sue (or someone else) playing with step-grandbabies, she sees Jacob, who has stopped phasing and is aging and married with kids of his own, and it's hard. It's sad to see them going on without her. And Edward looks at her like he's about to apologize for the 239470242th time for robbing her of a human life and she's like, "No, the life I have with you is worth it," because THAT's the vibe! That's where the romance is! Her being happy in BD means nothing because it was all so easy for her! Her being happy despite the downsides of vampirism is where the romance lies!

[leth-writes]

Emmett

• Please ask him about his workout routine

• It makes him happy to impress you :)

• he's also obsessed with sports so you should ask about that too

• Emmett knows he's intimidating and attempts to use humor to disarm people

• It doesn't always work

• Feel free to tell him when he's put his foot in his mouth

• he loves hugging you and cuddling

• he practices his strength for hours after he met you, making sure you wouldn't be injured

• he gives really tight, comfy hugs, even if he's quite cold

• He wears a lot of sweaters to compensate, which makes him look softer as well

• he might even start wearing fake glasses to keep up the soft image

• He'll tell you basically immediately

• but you think he's crazy because he forgot to actually... show you?

• so he shows you in the backyard

• he'll turn you shortly after, if you're okay with it

Esme

• I can see Esme working as either an interior designer or an architect. you meet her through that.

• She puts a lot of thought into designing whatever you've contracted her to do, going above and beyond and giving you a steep discount

• she's so kind it's hard to even tell she's flirting

• Until you meet her about a week afterward in the grocery store, and she asks you out

• She cooks an entire multi-course meal, all absolutely delicious of course, based off of your culture. It's her way of prepping and dealing with her anxiety

• Afterwards, you drink some wine (or your preferred beverage) and sit together on the couch, a fluffy blanket thrown over top you both, and she slowly inches closer over the course of the conversation.

• Eventually you're right next to eachother and you kiss

• :)

• after that, she's a very consistent presence in your life, always present and comforting

• She tends to wear cozy shirts and long, loose skirts, suiting her silhouette perfectly

• She loves designing rooms, and she's going to do your whole house bit by bit without you even noticing

• She makes the Cullen's house more welcoming, adding splashes of color and plenty of seating, including a mountain of pillows. She wants you to feel comfortable staying over.

• She turns you a few years into the relationship, with your consent

Carlisle

• You meet him after you bump your head and blurt out "hot" when you first see him in the hospital

• he's pleased you think so!

• You ask him on a date and he says yes

• Your concussed self is very confident, but he doesn't mind

• He moniters your health relatively closely during the relationship, and is often seen reading up on his knowledge just in case you catch something rare

• Loves taking you on vacations to cozy cabins in the mountains to spend some time together, cuddling in front of the campfire and making you some cookies

• he's actually quite the good cook

• loves talking with you about history, even before you know about his past

• You'll think he was secretly a historian with how much he knows

• Afterwards, he loves answering all your questions. He loves your curiosity and endless passion. it's so easy and so common for vampires to lose that sense of wonder, so it amazes him to see it shining so brightly in you

• totally okay with you never turning. Probably turns you after a decade together, or after a major health event.

[sethsclearwater]

requests: can a req a seth fic where reader is bella’s sister and they’re both like on the mountain camping w bella during the eclipse battle and the reader gets hurt? love ur fics btw 💕💕 AND can i get a fic where the reader is a vampire and has the power of making a sonic boom (sry if this doesnt make sense lol) and accidentally uses it on herself because she gets distracted by seth or bella during the eclipse battle and he has to take care of her after?

notes: as usual we’re pretending that reader and seth are both 20+ in this. also pretending that the pack and cullens have a good relationship at this point.

warnings: angst???

you sat in the cullen’s living room, surrounded by both the pack and the entire cullen family as you all prepared for the upcoming battle against victoria’s newborn army.

your sister, bella, and her boyfriend were seemingly the root cause of all of this seeing as they were the reason victoria had lost her mate, james. you had very little interest in the whole thing if you were being honest. you had only recently been turned into a vampire and were still adjusting to that and dating a werewolf who happened to be the one and only seth clearwater. 

seth had his arm wrapped around you, allowing you to curl into his chest while you both listened to carlisle and sam discussing the battle plan.

“i was thinking it would be wise to have y/n down on the field with us in case there are more newborns that alice saw in her vision.” carlisle said, everyone nodding in agreement. 

you gnawed at your lower lip subconsciously, slightly nervous about the idea, “i still can’t control it that well. i don’t want to accidentally hurt anyone.” you said referencing your new powers.

shortly after being turned into a vampire you discovered that you had the ability to create a sonic boom “bubble” of sorts with your hand but were still working on controlling it. 

“not gonna lie i do not want to be the one to get hit with that again and i don’t think paul does either.” emmett teased, referencing your mishap a few months back where you had accidentally used your powers on the two of them. the sonic boom left both men completely disoriented for the rest of the day. 

if you were still human you imagined your cheeks would’ve been a bright pink by now. “it was an accident.” you groaned, burying your face in the crook of seth’s arm and seth chuckled, rubbing your arm with his free hand. 

“it definitely didn’t feel like it.” paul added jokingly, both men laughing at your embarrassment over the whole thing, and you let out another groan, mentally trying to come up with any good excuse for the mishap but sam came to your rescue.

“that’s beside the point,” sam noted, shooting both paul and emmett looks for getting off-topic yet again before continuing, “y/n we can practice with it tomorrow some more before the battle so you’ll be ready. i’m sure paul and emmett would be more than happy to be test subjects for you.” 

both paul and emmett exchanged a look at that and seth chuckled softly, “so seth will be with bella and i and the rest of you will be down on the field?” edward confirmed, adding to sam’s attempt to get everyone back on track.

you shook your head, “absolutely not. i’m not leaving him up there.” your grip on seth’s free hand tightened in a weak show of force.

“i’ll be fine.” seth cooed, pressing a quick kiss to the crown of your head and you looked up at him shaking your head.

“bella why don’t you just stay at home with edward? you’re safer that way and then seth can stay with me.” you turned to your sister who had been relatively quiet this entire time. 

her cheeks heated up and she shook her head, “i’m not leaving him either.” 

“no one is asking you to leave him. edward-” you started and he threw his hands up in defeat, shaking his head. 

“i already tried talking her out of it y/n.” he reasoned and you groaned, turning to seth for assistance who also shrugged.

esme jumped in then, “why don’t we switch out seth with embry then?” she suggested thoughtfully and you nodded while embry let out a loud groan at that suggestion. 

“esme, as much as i appreciate the suggestion, no way.” embry noted, chuckling as you let out another sigh, leaning further into seth.

seth soothingly pressed his lips to your hair again before suggesting to everyone, “why doesn’t she stay with me and edward can send her down if you need her?” 

you nodded, happy to know at least seth was in agreement with you. it was quiet for a moment while everyone pondered the idea before carlisle broke the silence, “i think that would be okay. and you’d stay with edward and bella if she needed to come down?” 

you felt seth nod, “totally.” he noted, squeezing your side comfortingly.

“then i think that’s a fine idea.” carlisle said, everyone nodding in agreement before he smiled and added, “okay so we’ll get packed up to leave tomorrow morning and everyone will meet at the battle site tomorrow afternoon?”

everyone nodded again, happy to have finally come to an agreement. 

… 

the next morning you and seth had met everyone at the battle site. while jacob, edward, and bella sorted out who was going to carry her up the mountain, carlisle and esme helped you practice getting your power under control.

“carlisle there’s no way this is going to be safe.” you groaned, getting frustrated with not being able to get it under control.

carlisle nodded, “i still think it would be useful to have down here. you’ve been able to control the general direction of it which is good. i think as long as you can do that we’ll be fine. just don’t aim it towards any of us.” he noted thoughtfully and you sighed, sitting down next to seth who had been laying on the ground, patiently watching you in his wolf form while you practiced.

seth lifted his head to rest it in your lap and you sighed, running your fingers through his fur in an attempt to soothe your frustrations. “i guess,” you sighed again before adding, “thanks for helping me practice.” you smiled softly at carlisle and esme who both returned the smile. 

“of course sweetheart,” esme cooed, “why don’t we take a break and get the tents set up for tonight? that might help take your mind off things.” 

you nodded, seth and you getting up and following esme and carlisle up the mountain. 

…

by the time that jacob, bella, and edward had gotten up the mountain, you, seth, and the rest of the cullens had finished setting up the campsites for the night. edward and bella had their own tent while the rest of you had set up a larger tent about half a mile away. although it was primarily for the wolves, you and the rest of the cullens (aside from edward) had decided to spend some time in there with them going over last-minute battle plans before getting settled for the night.

while the remaining cullens went out for one last hunt before the battle, the pack got ready to sleep. you had laid down and cuddled up with seth, listening to the pack’s quiet nighttime talks about their theories for how the jacob/bella/edward tent situation was going to go.

seth didn’t seem to be paying much attention, just stroking his fingers through your hair while you soothingly rubbed your hand up and down his chest. “there’s just no way jacob is getting out of that alive. no way.” you heard paul say, everyone, including yourself, laughing softly at the remark.

you pressed a kiss to seth’s chest before peeking up at him, “did i tell you what she told me about their night last night?” you murmured and he smiled down at you, shaking his head. 

“he proposed.” you murmured again and seth’s jaw dropped. 

“he proposed?” he emphasized, slightly louder than you would’ve liked which led to the rest of the pack catching on. 

“edward proposed?” jared nearly screamed and you sat up, loudly shushing him before laughing at the whole ordeal.

“yes he proposed; you can’t tell anyone though!” you emphasized and everyone broke out into laughter, seth pulling you back down to lay on his chest. 

“that makes it so much worse. they’re engaged and edward is watching her cuddle another man?” jared crowed, everyone cracking up over the thought.

paul chimed in then, “there is no way you’re convincing me that man doesn’t have an embarrassment kink. ain’t no other way he’d be letting it slide like that.” 

you were nearly in tears at this point, laughing so hard you had to bury your face into the crook of seth’s arm to muffle your laughter. “alright, alright that’s enough. go to bed before he starts reading your thoughts, idiots.” sam ordered, though you could hear the teasing undertone to his voice. everyone quieted down a few moments later, seth allowing you to curl back up into him before he drifted off a few minutes later.

…

the next morning the wolves had woken up bright and early to find out jacob had, in fact, found out that bella was engaged to edward which led to a very pissed-off jacob, satisfied edward, and stressed out bella. but what else was new?

you thought that was the extent of it so you and seth had made your way over to bella and edward’s campsite to get ready only to see bella kissing jacob about 20 yards away and edward watching. and, although very interesting, you had bigger problems so you and seth got ready for the battle while that trio sorted out their issues.

seth had shifted and you sat with him quietly gossiping about how awful that whole situation was while you waited for the battle to start. 

“y/n the battle just started.” edward alerted you and seth, both of you nodding and getting up, “victoria and riley are nearby - get ready.” 

you pressed a quick kiss to seth’s head before allowing him to duck behind one of the snow-covered hills to hide while you waited for victoria and riley to appear. you stepped over to stand next to your sister while edward stepped forward in a protective manner.

the snow crunching about 20 feet away alerted you to both riley and victoria’s presence. “riley… riley biers right?” edward asked, both of you watching the two of them wearily.

“your parents have been looking for you everywhere.” edward said softly, a stark contrast to his defensive stance he currently held.

riley shook his head, “no they haven’t. my parents are dead. victoria -” riley looked up to her while she remained crouched in the tree above him and she smiled softly down at him.

“they’re dead riley.” she cooed as edward shook his head.

“riley she’s lying to you. they’ve been looking for you everywhere. you haven’t seen the posters? they’re all over forks.” he added before victoria let out a low hiss, looking back down at riley.

she frowned, “i told you, they play mind tricks on you.” you couldn’t tell if she was angry, sad, or what but she was definitely putting you on edge. you put your arm in front of bella protectively.

“if he moves, get back and stay low.” you murmured to her and she nodded, looking from you to riley nervously.

suddenly riley jumped towards you, nearly catching you before seth jumped out from his spot behind the snow hill, biting into riley’s shoulder and dragging him to the side. “you’re never going to get another chance like this, victoria!” edward shouted over riley’s screams.

you pushed bella back, mentally cursing edward for enticing her like that and ran forward to help edward deal with victoria.

unfortunately for the two of you, she was a much better fighter than the two of you anticipated and she had quickly managed to get edward into a headlock.

you could hardly focus with how fast everything was moving. between bella’s and riley’s screams, you weren’t sure where to help out. “just do it y/n!” edward screamed and you knew what he meant.

you needed to use your power. 

you backed up, putting your hands in front of you just as you had practiced, and aimed for victoria’s head. you focused on victoria’s head, the smell of blood overcoming your senses forcing you to turn just as you released. 

instead of hitting victoria, you had hit yourself.

in an instant all your senses were overtaken by the sound of the sonic boom. you couldn’t see, feel, smell, or taste anything other than the sonic boom and fuck, it was painful.

for the first time since becoming a vampire you felt real pain. despite your inability to see anything, everything felt like it was spinning. your ears were ringing loudly, your stomach churned, and you had completely collapsed onto the ground.

“y/n!” you could hear faintly seth yelling but you weren’t sure where his voice was coming from.

“call carlisle.” you could hear edward’s voice too but also couldn’t get a grasp on where it was coming from. 

from seth’s perspective, you were collapsed onto the ground, seemingly unconscious after hitting yourself with your own sonic boom.

despite the fact that you did not need air, you started gasping in air, coughing as you rolled onto your side. you could feel seth’s hand rubbing up and down your side, at least you could feel him.

“you’re okay. you’re okay.” he murmured, continuing to rub your side as you heaved. 

“everything is spinning.” you gasped out, finally able to at least communicate with him. 

“i know, i know. carlisle is coming.” seth cooed as you attempted to push yourself up onto your hands and knees, failing miserably as you collapsed back into seth, still unable to feel much other than the impact of the sonic boom. “shhhh…lay down y/n. you need to calm down.”

you groaned as another wave of nausea washed through you causing you to dry heave and cough again. “i don’t know where you are.” you whimpered, still disoriented, attempting to roll over again but you felt seth’s hand grab your hip, holding you in place.

“‘m right here y/n. promise i‘m right here.” he sounded like he was about 30 feet away from you but the way his hand was rubbing your hip said otherwise. you quite literally had no way to ground yourself.

“just stay still y/n. you’re going to make it worse if you keep moving.” he cooed again, attempting to calm you down and at least try and bring you back to your senses. 

you grabbed onto something, you weren’t sure if it was seth or the ground, squeezing your eyes shut as you attempted to reorient yourself.

you weren’t sure how long it had been, but when you attempted to reopen your eyes, everything was still spinning profusely but you could at least kind of see now. “shhh… there you go. can you see me now?” you could hear seth asking.

you rolled over, getting onto your hands and knees, trying to figure out where he was. you felt his hands cup at your jaw and suddenly he was in front of you. very blurry and spinning, but you knew it was him. 

“not really.” you murmured and you could faintly see him nodding before turning and saying something to someone, you assumed it was edward. 

seth released his grip on your jaw and allowed you to drop your head, attempting to ground yourself by taking deep breaths despite the fact that vampires can’t breathe. you felt his hand gently running up and down your spine as you heaved, centering yourself on the feeling of his touch while you waited to regain your senses.

you closed your eyes again.

when you reopened your eyes, seth was still spinning, blurry, and crouched in front of you but this time carlisle was with him too. the two of them were talking about something but, to be completely honest, it hurt whenever you tried to focus on anything but seth’s touch.

you looked up at seth who mouthed something to you that you couldn’t hear, the ringing in your ears still painfully loud. he allowed you to take a moment before trying again, “there you go babe. are you feeling better?” he asked softly, using the hand that wasn’t rubbing your back to cup your jaw gently. 

you shook your head, whimpering and he nodded, “everything is spinning and it’s ringing.” you murmured and he nodded again.

you focused on his lips, still having a hard time hearing him, “carlisle wants you to lay down, can you do that for me?” he asked softly and you nodded, hoping you heard him correctly. he then helped you lay down and bury your face in his lap while you prayed this would go away quickly.

in between the spinning and ringing, you suddenly made out a loud cracking sound followed by a scream that sounded like one of the wolves. and, in your disoriented state, you had convinced yourself it was seth, despite the fact that he was currently holding you. you immediately rolled off of him, screaming for him and attempting to get up and failing miserably, collapsing back into seth’s arms.

you weakly fought against his grip, still disoriented, before he used the hand that wasn’t holding you up to grip your jaw and force you to look at him, “hey, hey i’m right here. i’m right here. that’s not me, okay?” you whimpered, pressing your hands to his chest, squeezing at the soft fabric of his t-shirt in another futile attempt to ground yourself. 

“i don’t know what’s going on,” you sobbed into his t-shirt, “and i can’t see you.” you sobbed out again. and, although you could still tell it was him despite the spinning around you, you were by no means comfortable.

“i know, i know. i promise i’m right here, we’re gonna get you home in a minute, okay? you just need to lay down right now. you’re making it worse every time you get up.” he cooed, holding you tightly against his chest, waiting for you to nod before he helped you back onto the ground, letting you rest your head in his lap.

you weren’t sure how much time had gone by but soon enough you could hear carlisle talking with seth about how to get you home, “hey,” seth cooed, gently squeezing your hip so you’d open your eyes and look at him. unfortunately for you, the spinning and ringing were still pretty bad but at least he didn’t sound like he was 30 feet away from you. “do you think you can stand?” seth asked softly, hand still stroking your side soothingly.

you nodded, determined to get up despite the spinning in your head. you rolled off of seth’s lap, pushing yourself up to your hands and knees before attempting to stand and almost immediately collapsing into his waiting arms, “you’re okay, you’re okay.” you could hear him murmur soothingly. he held you up, allowing you to lean against his chest, squeezing his shirt tightly as his rubbed his free hand up and down your back.

“there you go,” he cooed softly after he felt you standing a bit more on your own and starting to support some of your weight. “you’re doing great.” he murmured and you felt him press his lips to your hair. 

“do you want to try walking to the car? it’s about 20 feet away.” he asked softly and you looked up, trying to figure out where the car was. although you still were dizzy, it definitely wasn’t as bad as before as you could faintly make out emmett’s black jeep. 

you nodded, slowly releasing your fists’ grip on seth’s t-shirt and leaning into his side before attempting to walk. it took a few seconds but soon enough you were sort of walking. seth had his arm wrapped around you, holding most of your weight up as you attempted to make your way to the jeep.

“hey, hey, wrong way,” seth cooed his grip on your waist tightening as he reoriented you towards the jeep, “it’s this way.” the spinning must’ve been worse than you thought.

after what felt like 10 minutes, you reached the jeep and seth helped you into the back seat and allowed you to lay down in his lap when you got in. “good job.” he murmured, leaning down and pressing his lips to your temple for a soft kiss. 

suddenly you felt a cold hand sliding on your thigh, gently rubbing at your hip, “how are you feeling?” it was rosalie. you opened your eyes, blinking a few times to try and orient yourself again before you made out her figure sitting in the passenger seat and looking back at you. 

“not good.” you murmured before emmett’s booming laugh filled the car followed by the sound of a loud smack as roaslie hit his head. 

“hey!” he almost shouted and you groaned, burying your face in seth’s lap, he quieted down before continuing, “it’s definitely karma for her doing it to me a few months ago.” 

you huffed knowing you couldn’t argue with him, and instead opted to grab at seth’s thigh before you found his hand, lacing your fingers together and squeezing tightly. “we’ll be home in a little bit. just keep your eyes closed. it helps.” emmett said from his spot in the driver’s seat and you nodded, allowing yourself to close your eyes and relax into seth’s lap.

after the seemingly never-ending ride was over, you pulled into the cullen’s driveway and seth helped you out of the car, allowing you to lean into him for support. “good job babe.” he cooed, arm wrapped around your waist as he helped you up the stairs and into the cullen’s house.

“emmett said hot water helped. maybe we should run a bath?” rosalie suggested from her place behind you and you whined, leaning more into seth as he helped support you weight more. 

“that sounds good.” you could hear seth’s soft smile in his voice and you looked up at him to protest but he shook his head, “i’ll come in with you.” he reassured, pressing a kiss to your forehead before helping you up the stairs and into the master bathroom where rosalie had already started running a hot bath for you. 

she smiled when she saw you and you whimpered, leaning off of seth and into her arms, hugging her. although she wasn’t one to show much affection, she did seem to have a soft spot for you from what you could tell. she returned the favor, wrapping her arms around you and helping support your weight, “you’re alright, seth’s gonna help you with the bath, yea?” she asked softly and you nodded, looking up at her. 

“he’s gonna take good care of you, always does.” she reassured, tightening her grip on you momentarily before letting go and allowing seth to take you back into his arms. “i’m gonna get the bedroom set up with emmett for when you’re done. you just let me know if you need me and seth will get me, okay?” she asked softly and you nodded, smiling softly at her before she walked out, closing the door on her way out.

you could feel seth press another kiss to the top of your head, “see? you’re doing great.” seth murmured softly against your hair and you nodded, allowing him to help you sit at the edge of the tub so he could help you get undressed. 

you allowed him to help you out of your clothes before helping you into the tub, the hot water instantly calming you down a bit. you whimpered when you realized he wasn’t with you, looking over at him anxiously, “‘m coming. just gotta get undressed.” he cooed, cupping your jaw and pressing a quick kiss to your lips before stepping back to pull his shirt off. 

once he was undressed, he stepped in so he could sit behind you, allowing you to relax into him. “you’re doing so good babe.” he cooed after a moment, pressing his lips to the crown of your head soothingly.

you nodded, taking in another deep breath, deciding to keep your eyes shut while you relaxed against him. “what happened?” you asked softly, head rested against his bare chest as you intertwined your fingers with his.

“i didn’t see it but edward said bella tried to cut her arm with a rock and that must’ve distracted you. he said you turned and hit yourself instead of victoria on accident.” he cooed, taking your hands and pressing a kiss to them, “you scared me.” he murmured.

“‘m sorry.” you murmured, curling further into him and allowing him to wrap his arms around you and hold you to him. 

“nothing to be sorry for. ‘s not your fault. ‘m just glad you’re okay.” he reassured softly, pressing another kiss to the crown of your head.

you nodded, “what did i hear?” you asked softly, pausing before adding, “afterward i mean. i thought someone hurt you.” you murmured, drawing mindless shapes on his chest with your fingers.

seth nodded, “it was jacob. apparently they didn’t get all the newborns and one came out afterward. leah had it but jacob tried to help her out and the newborn got his arms around him. carlisle is with him now so i don’t know what happened but it didn’t look good.” he explained, giving you a soft squeeze. 

“is he gonna be okay?” you murmured, opening your eyes to peek up at him and he nodded.

“i think so. it didn’t look good but he’s a wolf. should heal pretty quickly.” he reassured, pressing his lips to your hair again.

you nodded, letting out a soft sigh and closing your eyes as you relaxed into his chest. you listened to his heartbeat, allowing the steady thumping to ground you while the two of you relaxed in the tub.

after a while, seth asked, “want me to wash your hair? promise i’ll be gentle.” you smiled, opening your eyes again and nodding.

he helped you shift so you were straddling his lap so you could wash his hair too. you held your hands out, allowing him to squirt some shampoo into your hands before you wove your hands into his hair, gently massaging his scalp as he did the same for you. 

despite your raging headache and pain quite literally everywhere, it was intimate. after washing the conditioner out of his hair and allowing him to reciprocate the action for you, he helped you out of the tub, drying you off before doing the same for himself. 

“rosalie brought you some comfy clothes.” he mused, as he helped you step into your underwear before helping you sit down so he could get the rest of your clothes from the neatly folded pile on the counter. “you want to wear a bra?” he asked softly, smiling at you as he held up the bra in question and you shook your head.

“didn’t think so.” he teased, tossing it to the side before helping you into one of his oversized t-shirts and old pair of sweatpants. after helping you sit back down, he got himself changed into a fresh pair of sweatpants and t-shirt. 

once he finished, you reached out for him from your place on the edge of the tub, both of you smiling as he helped you up, allowing you to lean into his side as you made your way into the master bedroom. he pulled back the covers, helping you into the bed, “i’m just gonna get the brush then i’ll be back, okay?” he asked softly, pressing another kiss to your forehead. 

“okay,” you paused before adding, “i love you.” you murmured, sitting up so you could lean against the headboard. 

he smiled, cupping your jaw in his hand before pressing another soft kiss to your lips, “i love you too.” he cooed, “i’ll be right back.” he smiled before heading back into the bathroom for the hair brush. 

as he stepped out, rosalie and esme came in. “oh honey,” esme cooed, stepping over to you and sitting at the edge of the bed, “how are you feeling?” she asked softly, gently squeezing your thigh through the covers. 

“better. everything hurts and the ringing is still there but i can see you all now.” you murmured and rosalie smiled, stepping over and sitting at the edge of the bed as well so she could stroke through your wet hair.

“that’s good, is seth getting the brush?” roaslie asked softly and you nodded, smiling as seth stepped back in holding the object in question.

“you want the honors?” he teased, handing rosalie the brush when she nodded and coming around foot of the bed so he could climb in with you.

you leaned into rosalie’s touch, allowing her to gently brush through your hair, “carlisle should be coming back to check on you soon.” esme cooed, gently stroking her fingers up and down your leg. 

you nodded, smiling as emmett stepped into the doorframe, leaning against the frame and chuckling when he saw your disheveled state, “hurts like a bitch right?” he teased and you giggled softly, nodding.

“sorry i didn’t believe you.” you mumbled, your smile betraying you and he chucked again.

“‘s fine.” he teased before turning his attention to seth, “you want anything to eat? i was gonna order some food but none of these vamps will eat.” he teased and you rolled your eyes. he always ate human food despite knowing he’d just throw it up later. 

seth grinned and nodded causing both you and emmett to laugh, “‘m sorry. i forget you need to eat.” you said softly, stroking your fingers through seth’s wet hair gently and he smiled, pressing his lips to your collarbone for a soft kiss.

“not your fault.” he cooed before turning his attention back to emmett, “what are we getting? i’m starved.” 

you giggled, allowing rosalie to finish brushing your hair while emmett and seth discussed which type of pizza they were going to get.

shortly after they decided on an extra large cheese pizza, esme, rosalie, and emmett left you two to relax for a while. you laid down, allowing seth to pull you into his chest, holding you against him, “i love you,” he murmured, “so much.” he cooed, kissing your forehead.

“i love you too.” you murmured, allowing him to slide his fingers under your shirt and stroke his fingers up and down your back soothingly. it didn’t take long for him to drift off, clearly exhausted from the overwhelming day. you relaxed into him too, allowing yourself to decompress, finally able to calm yourself down in his arms.

[nacricissa]

I have a friend who has recently gotten into Formula 1, and through texting with her I realized that a street racing AU for twilight could be really good.

> Carlisle is still a doctor, but in this case he specializes in plastic surgery.

> Edward comes from a racing family; both he and his brother Peter started racing young.

> Their parents both died of an H1N1 infection (fun fact this is actually a resurgence of the Spanish flu) because of their HIV positive status making them more vulnerable to infection.

> Carlisle had always been interested in racing, and so had met them through charity events organized by Mrs. Mason.

> Upon her death, Mrs. Mason asked that both her sons be adopted by Dr. Cullen, but he was only able to adopt Edward using the argument that he had inherited a genetic predisposition for AIDS from his father.

> Peter instead got sent to their aunt Maria, who was already a foster parent in Mississippi.

> Esme, in a fit of truly unhinged support for her new son, decided to indulge his desire to vent his emotions by joining a local street racing scene. She was, however, concerned about the relative safety of the practice, and pressured Carlisle to start his own scene in a smaller town to allow for a racing outlet with less influence from other illegal activity.

> After a few years in Chicago, Carlisle has successfully built up a scene in a tiny town in Washington, in a place where the two-officer police department for the region can’t do much to stop it.

> Before they move, Carlisle adopts Rosalie, a foster child who had been sneaking out to hone her skills working on the cars. He hopes to set her up with Edward, working on his car, but she ends up preferring to race her own cars, so Edward is still without a personal mechanic.

> The champions of the scene in Forks are called Vampires, because the prize is free plastic surgery from Carlisle, making winners appear ageless.

> Edward had always somewhat disliked racing, only leaning into it in his teens as a form of depressed rebellion. By the time he’s living in Forks he resents his Vampire status, resents that he seems somehow faster than the previous Vampires, resents that he feels he cannot just give it up without disappointing Esme.

> Down in Mississippi, Peter has also ended up street racing. It turns out Maria has been abusing her position in the foster care system to bring in new drivers, make money off the thriving betting scene while they’re still unknowns, then discarding them as they get too old, in collaboration with Jasper, who came back from Iraq with a silver tongue that got him out of many a field mission and gets the kids into racing.

> Little does Maria know, but Jasper has started dating Alice, the bookie who runs the betting on the races. She’s got him convincing Peter to throw races Maria had bet he would win, and so their business relationship is broken and Alice is run out of town.

> Peter tells Jasper about the new scene up in Forks, which he is aware of because he’s been following Edward’s socials, even though Edward fully burned that bridge in the immediate aftermath of their separation.

> After Jasper starts racing, and Alice starts taking bets on the outcomes, the races get more intense, and more and more local teens start to go out to watch and bet and even race.

> Of note are Bella, who was dragged out by Mike Newton, who thinks he is her boyfriend but is not, and Emmett, who took a fancy to Rosalie and has been following the races ever since she arrived.

> Bella takes an interest in Edward, but after she clears up Mike’s misunderstanding, has no way of knowing where the next race is to take place. She ends up enlisting her childhood friend Jacob Black, who has an interest in fixing up cars and so has been doing repairs for any kids on the res who want to race but can’t get a mechanic to help them out cause illegal.

> Jacob tells her about how the racing scene actually predates Carlisle by decades, and that the winners used to be called wolves. However, Carlisle wrested control of much of the scene from the locals who’d been running it by offering better prizes, and so the locals, Quileute and settler alike generally resented the Cullens.

> Emmett and Bella end up feeling the brunt of this, as their new friends grow distant as their relationships to the two Cullen children get more obvious. Edward is angsty about this.

> One particularly close race sees Jasper force Rosalie off the road, hitting Emmett. While she could have continued driving, her car being undamaged, she instead stopped to rush Emmett to the hospital in Seattle, a choice which saved his life according to the doctors there.

> Edward’s goes full New Moon over this, asking Carlisle to shut down the races and fully ghosting Bella.

> This simply causes the preexisting racing scene to resurrect itself on the res, with the Cullens as persona non grata. Jacob helps Bella get started racing (motorcycle races).

> A girl named Victoria from Chicago comes to the area, intent on getting revenge on Edward, who ruined her boyfriend James’ perfect racing record back when he was at his most depressed, coming off of his parents’ deaths.

> She brings in a bunch of new racers and in the significantly more crowded race Bella is wounded, which Edward feels responsible for and so confronts Victoria to an even more unsanctioned race, which he of course wins, even though he hadn’t raced in months because Rosalie was willing to work on his car, in large part for Bella’s sake, because Bella is worried sick about Edward, when Rosalie told Alice told Bella what he was planning to do.

> Finally, in a twist ending, Peter and Maria get into a huge fight, culminating in a high speed chase that kills both of them, leaving Peter’s secret daughter Renesmee, the reason he hadn’t left Maria, to his only living relative, Edward.

If anyone wants to write this, I’ll send it over to @twibunny Optional element to consider is the dynamic between Bella and Charlie as he hates the Cullens but also does not want his daughter doing illegal street racing. I’m sure there’s more I didn’t think of but I think the translation works better than it has any right to.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What if Jacob did kill Esme in A Leech in the Rain?

Leech in the Rain by me and @therealvinelle

Interesting question.

Let's dive in.

The Immediate Aftermath

We'll say Jacob hasn't been grievously injured by Esme in the struggle. He's able to burn Esme's body and does his best to double back and cover the scent trail such that Edward won't notice Jacob and Esme having gone off alone together and only Jacob coming back.

This is likely... poorly done but Edward's a bad tracker so he might be bad enough that it works.

Edward returns and Esme's not there, Bella notes that neither she nor Jacob have seen her all day, they think she went out to hunt.

Edward accepts but becomes increasingly agitated by her absence. She could have been kidnapped by the Volturi as Charlie was. She might even have been murdered by them. They have no way of knowing where she is when she didn't take her phone.

Bella hints that Esme may have run off to them of her own free will as she's been acting mighty suspicious recently. That freaks Edward out and he goes on his search, what Bella didn't account for was that his search radius would be enough to find the remains of the pyre.

It's possible it was another vampire, but doubtful given the Cullens and their recruits are the only ones in the area. Odd though is that Edward isn't catching familiar scents. Something has been sprayed everywhere to try to cover the scents so he can't make out any of the Volturi or even Esme's scent very well.

Bella tells him this must have been the Volturi method but even Edward is confused as to why Aro wouldn't take credit. He's in such a state of grief, though, he doesn't think to question it.

Now his family is that much closer to breaking, Esme is gone and Carlisle will return to nothing. The Cullens can't be the Cullens again when one of their number is dead.

Edward enters a deep depression.

The Army Buildup

Now, Vlad and Stefan get a little more time than they did in the fic and things are going relatively well. In the fic, Esme's flight to Volterra immediately gave the information of where Vlad and Stefan were, the army they'd raised (which mostly being new vampires, Demetri couldn't track at the time), and Caius immediately launched an assault and wiped them out to a man (Vlad and Stefan barely escaping, and Bella, Edward, and Renee escaping for Jacob's funeral).

In fact, if they're careful, they can do quite well. They can avoid spies if they refuse to accept any more vampires/don't let them near the troops and purposefully keep themselves out of the way. This is somewhat easy as they're out of the recruiting phase and can have some of the vampires they created patrol the territory to catch anyone attempting to spy.

However, Aro will look at the uptick in violent death in any given area, and even as Vlad and Stefan have the troops spread out they won't be able to send them far enough safely enough (might run into another vampire) to spread the nubmers enough that Aro wouldn't notice.

Likely, what they do, is in order to distract Aro and make sure at least some of his power houess are out of Volterra in time they set Renee loose in some city. "You go buy your body lotion, Glenn Coco!"

They do this with several newborn vampires in several major cities across the United States.

While it blows their cover, as Aro will know they intend to move, Aro will either have to sacrifice a city and his secret or else divide his forces.

What they don't count on, of course, is Bella.

Bella Fucks Up Vlad and Stefan's Groove

The Renee plan is great, except it is Bella's mother, and while for a while it looks like Bella would be glad to be rid of the woman and is scheming to do it herself, then Vlad and Stefan send her off, bon voyage, and Bella freaks out.

They've sent her mother to be murdered by the Volturi.

"You'll save your daughter though," Vlad and Stefan point out, not realizing this makes it worse as Bella's turned on her daughter completely and it's Jacob that wants Renesmee back.

Bella refuses to go to Volterra until they save her mother and Vlad and Stefan (as in the fic) do not know if Bella can use her gift unconsciously (e.g. if they cut off her head and tote around her body, does she still work).

They end up having to kidnap Edward to get Bella to accompany them, as they're certain Bella will at least choose Edward (which she will) but what they don't count on is Bella's unbelievable ability to flip sides when convenient to her.

Bella goes along with it right up until they're at the gates (Bella having to be there as her radius doesn't extend quite far enough, at least she claims, to not be in the battle herself) at which point she drops the shield and offers her services as the enemy has kidnapped Edward and torn off his head. They uh can keep Renesmee and Carlisle, Bella hates them both.

Unfortunately for Bella, Aro doesn't trust her and has her executed.

The army is subsequently wiped out, Vlad and Stefan fleeing for their lives once again, and murdering Edward in a fit of rage in the aftermath.

[goldeneyedgirl]

AILess Whumptober Day 27: Locked Up/Immortal

The final entry, late but complete! I figured that I put Alice through the ringer all the time, it might be Jasper's turn. I had a very specific image of how this would look in my head that did not want to be translated to the page. I've also looked at this so long that I cannot look at it any longer.

So, enjoy whatever this is! I hope you all enjoyed Whumptober and were suitably depressed after my contributions to this event my loves <3

iron & stone. (day 27: imprisoned/immortal).

twilight, alice/jasper, pg, one-sided vampire alice/demon jasper.

very non-graphic wound description

She finds him in an old church in Tulsita, Texas. It’s a tiny place, one that has less than thirty people.

It’s a grim little town, with worn buildings and cracked roads; the air is thick and hot, even late at night. It’s the perfect place to be forgotten about, to be trapped. It’s a place that feels like it isn’t part of the real world, and like maybe time has frozen.

There’s an edge of dread in the air, and she has to wonder about that.

But mostly, she just feels anticipation.

It’s taken her thirty years to find him, she’s looked everywhere. She’s read everything. She’s recorded all her visions and made all the notes. She’s learned Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin for him. She’s practically a scholar on him and his kind now.

She’s still nervous.

(There are three kinds of demons - the oldest ones who have existed for always, those are the ones that should never been disturbed or called upon. Then there are the ones that are born naturally - very rare but possible. And then there are the ones that are made. Not like vampires - in the demon world vampires are half-breed cockroaches, endemic to humanity, according to the books she’s read. The change isn’t half the pain and suffering that being turned into a demon is - she knows that.)

She walks through forest surrounding the building carefully - it’s unlikely that anyone will see her, but she prefers to err on the side of cautious. Especially since it’s very, very clear that someone does visit regularly (relatively speaking, of course - time moves very differently for immortals.)

The church is thoroughly abandoned, the pews rotten and broken and the floor tiles cracked and scattered - what would have been an expensive point of pride lost to time and neglect. What is left of the prayer books are ruined cardboard covers covered in mould. The altar is pulled right down and destroyed; all but one of the windows is boarded up. Glass crunches underfoot - a mix of the remain window’s panes, and broken beer bottles scattered around.

And as she stands there and looks around, she wonders how anyone set foot in this place, even just to hide and drink, when she can feel his presence right here? That boiling rage, that uneasy feeling in the air - the gift of animal fear, that whatever this place contains is dangerous and they need to run. It’s all around her, yelling at her to leave and never come back.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

Edward and Carlisle would be furious she’s come here by herself. When she’d worked it all out, when she’d told them what her visions had shown her, they’d acted like he was dead and gone and she’d just have to get used to walking the world alone. They expected grief and she’d been confused - Carlisle had insisted that he was as good as dead, and Alice needed to make her peace with that.

Alice could never bring him home. That the Cullen residence, the Cullen name, had no place for monsters and terrors and the things that little children hide from. And she had agreed with them politely, told them that she understood. And she did. They had thought she was mourning, taking her time to adjust to what her life would look like now.

Esme had tried to talk with her, but Alice had refused, and just closed herself up in her bedroom. And they had let her be.

They hadn’t expected her to pack her things in the same satchel she arrived with, to leave behind her locket with a letter thanking them for their hospitality; shedding the Cullen name and creed like an unfashionable winter coat.

If there was no place for monsters amongst the Cullens, then she certainly wasn’t welcome. They forget that she was a nomad, a vampire before she arrived at their house with a smile and golden eyes. They forget that she has a whole story before she ever found them, and that it’s not all pretty and kind.

(No place for monsters, when Carlisle went and changed four innocent people without consent? When suicide is a sin and so is murder? That she loves them fiercely but to be a family is to realize that none of them are perfect and holy and unsullied by their nature? The House of Cullen is so beautifully monstrous, she almost feels sorry for them for not seeing that.)

She had made herself once, exactly how she wanted, and she could do it again. Maybe one day she’ll visit them. See if they forgive her. Esme will. Emmett will. Rose might. But Carlisle and Edward… well, it depends on a lot of things.

Like what lies beneath the church.

It takes her a while to find the little trapdoor down into the earth behind the altar, covered with broken wood and tile, and chained up with a shiny new padlock that crumples like paper in her determined hand. The steps down are mostly rotten - slats of wood wedged roughly into the earth - but she is small and light, and slips down easily, down into a cellar dug too deep and too precisely to be created for anything but a very specific purpose, with the little alcoves in the wall with wells of oil to light the way - only a few of them are still barely burning, throwing bizarre shadows onto the walls.

Everything about this is screaming for her to turn back. Every instinct, every sign is telling her to go home. Except…

She saw him so many times, in hundreds of moments that will weave between them. The laughter and the jokes and the love. She’s seen the way he’ll protect her and change her, and she’ll do the same for him. He’ll look at her with loathing and then tolerance and smug power, and finally, soul-binding love and adoration. The scars she’ll bare will be in the shape of his jaw. She’ll trace his scars with her fingers and her mouth and her tongue; she knows all the little pieces of his story - the boring and the ugly and the difficult, as well as the fragments that are light and precious.

She can’t wait.

But this… this part she’s never seen properly and maybe her brain was protecting her.

The room is small, and little more than dirt and stone held up with rotting beams - buckled and warped, but holding steady for now. It smells rotten down here, almost burnt.

And then there is him.

He lies in the middle, on the stone, his head thrown back like a sacrifice about to be cut open in the name of some ancient god. His eyes are closed and if she didn’t know better, she would think he was asleep. She can see him properly like this, the muscular lines of his torso, the tendons in his neck, the strength in his arms and legs. He looks like a classical Greek sculpture celebrating rapture.

Except… there’s pain. The pain radiates off him like heat; most of the scars are old but the wounds are not. Or maybe they can’t heal. Burns and cuts and bone-deep gouges cover every part of him. There’s a tremor to his body that she doesn’t understand.

And then he hears her shoes on the stone floor and he lunges in one swift move, alert and ready, a snarl echoing in the space.

…Or what should have been one swift move.

Instead, it’s messy and horrific and takes her a moment to process, as she tumbles backwards, losing her footing as he comes at her.

He rips himself from the stone, pieces of skin from his legs sticking to the floor when he moves, leaving open wounds that looks almost like burns on every piece of skin that the stone touched. His legs buckle and shake at the sudden movement, evidence that he has not stood in a very long time.

His eyes are so black they look like empty sockets as he looms over her. Blackness spreads up his hands and arms, spidery black veins stretching from his eyes and throat. For a moment, she thinks she catches a glimpse of the wings; ghost-like and ephemeral in the corner of her eye, tattered void stretched over ancient bone, cracking into place no longer than his arm span.

(He’s magnificent.)

And just as suddenly as he hovers over her, he is ripped backwards and hits the floor with a hiss and the heavy clank of chains pulling tight and recoiling. She gasps at his visible pain, the way he struggles to get up, the demonic visage fading back into the skin of a man. A man in the worst kind of pain she’s ever seen.

“Get out.” His voice is hoarse, the kind that hurts to listen to, and he turns away from her. She can see the chains properly now - ankles, wrists, throat, and thighs, all connecting to a back-brace of iron. The wings have sunk back into his flesh, deep scarring almost outlining them on his back, and she hates to think how painful it was to stretch them imprisoned like this.

How long has he been here, like this? As beautiful as he is, she can see every hour, day, decade he’s spent here in the gaunt shadows of his face, in the decay in his clothing, in the layers upon layers of scars and open wounds. His eyes are hard; there is no hope or trust in them at all.

She always knew it would be difficult, but she never counted on what seeing him in this state would be like. How much it would ache to see this bitter shadow of a man, and the suffering he has lived through.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” she says, sitting up. Her bag has survived the fall, but she prepared for it. Nothing in the bag is breakable, for good reason. He’s liable to get angrier.

“Oh?” He looks at her. “You long for death so badly?” His voice is mocking, but she can hear the strain, the rasp of his agony. He shifts to see her better, and she can almost see ghost of his future self.

“Only of a certain kind,” she murmurs to try and lighten the mood, but it falls flat - he’s giving her the kind of look Edward reserved for fawning classmates, so she feels adequately stupid and regrets being so flippant and crude. “You’re hurt. I want to help you.”

He is so badly hurt. The fresh burns smell like alcohol, raw and weeping blood. It’s oddly matte with no shine, but demon blood isn’t like human blood. There’s also a mottled black mark on his torso that she hopes is some terrible bruise and not broken bone just beneath the skin.

“Go away.” His voice is hard, no trace of the pain or misery he’s experiencing. There is a power and a rage there that makes her skin crawl and every instinct is telling her to run. He glares at her, and his eyes… she’s seen them red and gold and black, but right now they are demonic - a black sclera and pupil with churning red iris. But there is no shine to them, just a void. They scream of danger and she understands a little better why Carlisle warned her so grimly away from him.

“No.” She rummages in her bag. Aro had allowed her to use the library for a whole summer, to learn about demon physiology and healing. He’d been amused by her request - and by the discovery she’d left Carlisle’s family in pursuit of this demon. She knows that he’s already plotting, that nothing he offers is without strings attached, but she’ll worry about that later. She has the knowledge, and that is what is most important. “Let me help you.”

“Why do you want to help me? What do you want?” He’s holding himself oddly, and she realizes he’s trying not to touch the stone again, only the soles of his feet.

“To help you. And to talk.” She checks the bottles have not split in her bag; she’d used old water bottles, and a few of them are warping from the chemicals inside of them. But she’d gone over it a dozen times at least, and these will work. He just needs to let her help. “If you don’t like what I have to say, you can leave. Nothing about this is conditional.”

He stares at her. “You don’t want to be remade?” He asked suspiciously. His breathing is labored. “You don’t want all the secrets of the underworld? Wealth? To live again?”

She shakes her head. “I have money and a home of my own. And I have no memory of ever being anything else but what I am right now. The only thing I want is to help you.”

He lets out a bark of laughter. “You say that. But you’ll expect things. Everyone who comes here does. They always want. Humans are greedy creatures and vampires are parasites. You’ll want something, they all do,” he snaps at her and then he smiles, cruel and sharp. “Not many survive being remade. Maria tried to make a dozen of us. I was the only one of my batch that made it through. You have no idea what pain can be.” He scoffs. “Especially if the change was so overwhelming for you that you blocked it out.”

“I know.” She does. She’s read all the written accounts of being remade into a demon right back to some scraps of information from the Roman Empire; the rituals are mostly anecdotal. There was nothing about how it was done; even Aro didn’t have a full copy of how to remake someone. Several of the leads pointed towards the possibility of the remaining instructions being locked up in the Vatican, but even her visions couldn’t decipher if they were genuine or just a rumor.

The fact Maria of Monterrey had found a record and managed to translate it into a ritual that actually worked was awe-inspiring. It made her one of the most dangerous people on the planet - and one of the most powerful.

But the cost of it… how many people had she killed to create Jasper? To create her army? There were the newborn recruits, the blood for the army, and the ones that she tried to remake… that was thousands, more than Alice could comprehend in the scale of human life.

No, she’s not interested. Perhaps she even fears physical pain a little, because she has no memory of human pain, of the change. She’s never bled, never ached, never really suffered like that. And that unknown void of pain, a universal emotion understood by every living thing on the planet… she doesn’t have that.

But maybe…

“I’ve never been hurt,” she says softly. “Not that I remember. I can’t stand the thought of it. That something can feel like that. If I can stop it, I want to. That’s all.”

His gaze burns into her.

“Do you know how many people have come here and promised me things?” He sounds angry but tired. “They’ll free me, they’ll give me money and food and bandage me up. My own army. Girls. Boys. Anything I goddamn want. Do you know what happens to them?”

She sits cross-legged. “Don’t pretend you killed them.”

“You don’t think I could?” The look on his face is dangerous.

“I know you could. I know that if you really wanted to, I would have been dead before I saw you move. I know that you were the most dangerous man in Texas and Mexico for decades before I was even born - before you were remade.

“But I don’t see any bodies. No bloodstains, no bones, nothing left behind. There’s nothing here. Whatever they offered you, you didn’t kill them for it.”

“When I didn’t give them what they want, they left me here,” he says finally. “All of them.”

“Were there many?” That she is curious about. There are a hundred reasons to seek out a demon, but few people are brave enough, and fewer still with the information to find one.

“More than I expected.” He looks at her, his gaze hard and bitter. “What do you want?”

“To help you,” she says obediently. “To get you out of the chains and upstairs; maybe look at some of those wounds? I’m no doctor, but I think I know what to do.”

“And what is your price?” He sounds testy again, and she’s getting annoyed that he won’t listen.

“I’m a cheap date - maybe you can just not kill me? Once you’re free, maybe we could talk for a little while? I have a house we can go to where you can recover safely, if you want to. Otherwise we part as friends.” That would be a disappointing outcome but one she is prepared for. “As long as you’re okay to be alone. I didn’t go to all this trouble to let you go off on your own and keel over in the street dead.”

The surprise on his face is genuine. “I cannot die from this. That’s the whole point of being down here,” he said slowly. “I can only suffer. It would take much, much more to end me.”

He looks sad and tired when he says that, and she wants to hold him. To reassure him that it will get better. It can be wonderful, if he gives her a chance.

“Good. Then if you want to leave me, you can. Just let me help you, and everything will be okay, I promise.”

They stare at each other for a long time, neither of them flinching before he nods his head once.

“I hold a grudge. If you double-cross me…” he begins but she’s already moving closer.

“I understand.” And she does - she’s had visions of him in battle, and the sheer violence and blood-lust had scared her. He is a dangerous creature. But she’d be more likely to rip off her own arm than intentionally harm him.

“You’ll want to take off your shoes.”

It’s an odd request but she takes off her boots and moves forward.

One foot on the stone and she can feel the warmth inside of it; when she looks down, her stockings are already being to singe from the heat.

“Keep moving, or you’ll stick,” he warns and she’s horrified.

The stains on the stone that she had assumed were age were patches of blackened skin still stuck to the stone - his skin - that had torn away from him every single time that he moved.

And then there was the sudden awareness of that fact that his feet have been resting flat against the stone since they’ve started speaking, and she wants to scream, to pry him off the stone herself. She looks at him in naked horror and his lip quirks in quasi-amusement at her expression.

“It’s consecrated ground - no matter how deep it goes, it will always burn the likes of us - me worse than you, but I wouldn’t linger. And no, your shoes wouldn’t protect you.”

Consecrated ground. Fucking consecrated ground. She’d read about it - Europe was lousy with it, but much of it has faded away forgotten and unsanctified in the last couple of centuries as religion has lost its grip on the population. It’s much rarer in the states - most of it is in New England, allegedly. But this perfectly built little prison, complete with consecrated ground… she wants to ask a million questions about the how and the why, but she knows he won’t answer. Not yet.

Right now, she needs to get him off of the floor and out of this evil little room as soon as possible. And the first step is to break the chains embedded in the wall - where a single panel of rock is placed.

She’ll worry about getting the brace off of him once they’re out of here.

He watches her, almost entertained, as she tries to break the links, inspecting the chain carefully for flaws or weaknesses. But even with all her strength, they don’t even bend. They are stubborn and as cursed as this entire basement.

She can feel it - they cannot be broken. She can’t see a way around it.

But when she looks down at him watching her, at his dead-eyed stare of acceptance that he will not be leaving, she feels the weight of what she’s promised him. That he still believes that she will fail and leave him to his fate.

But she was Emmett Cullen’s sister for nearly three years, and Emmett had never met a law, a riddle, a trap or a rule that he couldn’t find a loophole for.

Which is why she brought a screwdriver. An entire toolkit, actually. Whilst vampire strength and speed could fix so many problems, there were some things that required the precision of a toolkit or a lock pick. And maybe the last gift Emmett ever gave her was a mini pink toolkit, and she’d taken that when she’d left.

If there was one thing that all her research had taught her was that magical laws are rigid and precise. The chains will not and can not be broken - that is clear to both of them. She probably isn’t the first that has tried over the years - she could only imagine that he’s tried to free himself hundreds, probably thousands, of times.

So they cannot break them.

She doubts anyone bothered to stop them from being dismantled.

He stares at her incredulously when she pulls the screwdriver from her bag, like maybe she’s some kind of fool. And maybe she is.

But when the first screw hits the stone, she smiles brightly at the look of shock on his face.

“Pick all of them up, I don’t want anyone knowing how we figured this out,” she says bossily, hopping between her feet - her stockings have burnt through, ragged blacked edges having stretched back up above her ankle. She has more clothing at the house, but she’s mildly annoyed at the architect of this building for ruining them. It’s an uncomfortable heat, an odd sensation, but it doesn’t feel too bad as long as she keeps moving.

He fumbles for the screws as each of them fall - they are smaller than it feels like they should be for the size and weight of the chains, but there are so many of them.

And then…

And then the heavy chains drop free of the wall, and he is free. He stares at them in total bewilderment before he looks back up at her.

“Now you’re free,” she says breathlessly, jamming the screwdriver into her bag, and goes to help him stand. He’s unsteady but takes a deep breath as he begins to peel his feet from the stone. It’s horrific as the skin of his soles tears away, blistered and raw but not yet blackened, thankfully. He lets out a groan of pain, one that makes him sound every single day of his age, every single day of his pain.

She doesn’t say anything, she just supports him until they are finally, finally back on the dirt floor.

“Do you want to sit?” She asks quietly and he shakes his head.

“I want to get out,” he says stiffly, and she nods, as they move towards the exit.

It’s an awkward trip back up the stairs; the staircase is narrow, but he needs her guiding support for now, his legs shaking with each step. It takes twice as long as it should, with him pausing every so many steps, as she half-shoves him onto each step. His movements are made awkward from the brace, and she’s already trying to figure out how she’ll pry that thing off him.

And then…

She shoves open the trap door, the wood splintering. And even the feeble moonlight shining down from the broken window feels like someone has just lit up the room - the darkness of the cellar feels inky and oppressive in comparison; the oil-wells dimmer than they were when she descended.

He lets out a shuddering breath as he climbs out, into the fresh air, his eyes darting around the space.

“It’s okay, it’s only us,” she soothes. “You’re safe.”

He nods, but he doesn’t look at her. He’s staring at the boarded-up windows, at the broken glass and rotting pews and forgotten prayer books.

The look on his face reminds her of herself, when she awoke that first time in the woods alone. She knew nothing, had seen nothing in person… just the appreciation and awe of being there, in that place. A moment of simply being alive and in the world.

She remembers it well.

—

They sit inside the old church in silence for a while.

After a while, she begins to pull out first aid from her bag. “Let me,” she says softly, and he doesn’t protest - though he refuses to let her see the wounds under his threadbare clothing. She hasn’t got anything that will stitch his wounds, but she can clean the wounds and bandage them so that they at least stay sanitized and protected. The chemicals she has to use burn her nose, but they seem to work.

“Now, let’s have a look at the brace,” she says soothingly, the screwdriver back in her hand. He eyes her with suspicion but nods once for her to continue.

It’s not as easy as the chains. The brace is too tight and has bitten tight into his skin. The screws come out slowly, ad she doesn’t care that they roll amongst the glass and the debris.

The brace doesn’t fall away. Instead, she has to peal each piece away, skin and scar tissue tearing, leaving raw open wounds in their wake. But he doesn’t make a sound as each piece hits the floor. He just stares up at the piece of sky he can see.

And then it is gone. The wounds will scar, she knows it. But he has movement back, real movement again. His neck, his arms, his wings… Free again, a little bit more.

“Done,” she says softly.

“I don’t even know your name,” he finally says hoarsely, and looks back down at her, as she packs everything back up.

“Alice Cullen,” she says, and thinks about correcting herself. She’s not sure what surname she should be using honestly. She never had one of her own, and nothing else feels like it would fit. She was supposed to be Cullen for a while and then…

Well, she didn’t want to get ahead of herself. Cullen was fine.

He nods in acknowledgement before looking back up at the sliver of sky visible through the broken window.

“I want to leave this place,” he says in a steady voice.

“Of course.”

She wants to offer to burn it down. To tear it down with her bare hands for him. But he won’t understand, not yet.

“Let’s go.”

—

He finds his strength as soon as his feet hit the grass, enough to stand on his own and move away from her support, onto the grass, shivering as his feet sunk in for the first time… in so very long. His turns in a slow circle, just staring up at the clouds and the trees and the world outside he’s hellish, cursed little dirt prison.

He… to call it a scream is not accurate. It is a scream, a roar, a holler, a flood of grief and rage and resentment. It is pain and loss, swearing revenge against the one that did this to him. It is regret and heartbreak and relief.

He is free.

His wings stretch out reflexively, the black staining his hands and face faintly, and the full horror of what the brace has done to him is revealed beyond the splitting and tearing and stretching of the wounds - his wings only open as long as his arm-span; the humeral and secondaries appear to have been crushed from the brace. And the humerus bone appears to have been snapped and reset so that it cannot extend. Half of his wings are limp and crumpled against his spine, a dead and mottled colour.

He has been crippled, possibly forever.

Except…

She’s never really been in the business of giving up. Of looking at something and accepting a bad roll of the dice. She looks at his wings, slack and broken, and she wants to fix them. She’s already considering it, mentally adding splints and bandages, breaking and resetting bone, stitching back together the thin flesh that stretches over them. It would be painful and miserable and it would take a long, long time. And it might not work.

But she already knows that if it didn’t work, she’d take him to Carlisle. She’d take him to Carlisle and use every single trick in her book to convince him to help. She’d promise that Carlisle would never see her again, that she’d never bother any of them, if Carlisle would just fix him. She’d take him to Carlisle, to Aro, to goddamn Maria, if it meant helping.

Anything he needed. Or wanted. She would get it - she had waited for this for so long.

He’s silent now, and he turns to look at her with confusion on his face.

“I looked for you, you know. For almost forty years.” Her voice is soft, and his gaze turns wary. “I get …visions of the future. Of the path that I’m on. And you have always been in them. I saw you with Maria in the south. I saw you when you left with Peter and Charlotte. I never saw what happened, and how you ended up down there but I tried so hard to find you. I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner.”

And he stares at her, the black receding from his body, the wings folding back into his body.

“What did you see?” He asks, and he sounds exhausted.

“That I love you. All of you, for as long as you’ll have me.”

He shakes his head, and for a second, he looks so young. “Did you see what happened when she remade me? When she worked out how to make her army more powerful?” He asks. “Did you see what it took to become this? Did you see what I became?”

“I did.”

“Ninety days. Of pain and sacrifice and being ripped into pieces and put back together. To feel the rage boil and burn until your skin,” he murmurs, looking back up at the cloudy night. “Of having this fresh, feral monstrosity of yourself fit itself inside of you and this… clarity of the world and how everything fits together. I’m not the man you want, Alice Cullen.”

“Yes, you are. And it’s … not Cullen anymore, not really. I left them because they wouldn’t let me find you.”

He’s silent, staring at her.

“They said I should think of you as good as dead and that wasn’t… you were still here. I just had to find you. I wasn’t going to mourn you just because you weren’t a vampire anymore. What Maria did to you didn’t change our future, so it didn’t matter to me. But it did to them. So I left them.” She shrugs. “I had enough money saved that I have my own home now - our home if you want it. But it’ll just be us.”

He looks at her hard, like he’s trying to look right through her.

“I was going to destroy you, you realize,” he says finally, his knees buckling but he sinks into the soft ground with dignity, leaning against a tree. “I was going to devour you whole.”

“I mean, with a safe word…” she begins and he lets out a chuckle.

“You aren’t what I was expecting,” he says finally, and she moves closer. She can smell rain on the air. “I’ve never met anyone who didn’t want to be remade like me as payment.”

She’s seen it. In a few decades, he’ll offer it as a form of protection. That the only thing more dangerous than a mated vampire and demon would be two mated demons roaming untethered to a master or mistress.

She’s seen futures where she accepts and they are … sublime. Glorious and terrible and so very, very happy. And she’s seen futures where she’s content with herself, and they are just as happy, just as fantastic and beautiful and fatal. It was never about the venom or the magic that flowed in their veins. It was always them.

“If you don’t want to stay with me, I can help you find Peter and Charlotte,” she offers. “You can recover in my home until then, and we can part as friends.”

He looks back up at the sky as the rain begins to fall, a smile stretching across his face as the water hits his face.

How long has it been since he’s seen and felt rain?

“I think I’d like to stay here for a while,” he says finally, and she can feel how tired and confused he is.

He doesn’t trust her yet - it will be a long time until he does, she knows that. Long after his wounds have healed - she’s certainly got some ideas for his wings, but it’ll be a while before he’s willing to hear her out - he’ll still treat her with suspicion. And that’s okay. She didn’t bet everything on him to be scared off so easily.

Sitting down beside him, she’s careful not to touch him. His eyes are glazed and dreamy as he watches the clouds and the rain, the darkness swallowing them up in the woods behind the church.

“You should rest,” she says softly. “We’ll have to leave before dawn, but we have a few hours.”

“I’m fine,” he corrects, but his words are slower and easier, and she doesn’t say anything else as he slowly drifts off, the cool rain on his face.

Jasper Whitlock. Major of the Confederate Army, turned by Maria of Monterrey back in 1863. The love of her life, who was supposed to show up at a diner in Philadelphia but never made it. The scourge of the South, a mythological monster forged out of pain and horror that most people couldn’t imagine, let alone survive.

And her reason for everything.

He looks… peaceful as he sleeps, the rain clinging to him and not even disturbing him. All the stress and pain and rage slipped off his face. He looked like a different person.

She doesn’t remember what sleep is like, and it’s strange to think of just not being for a while. To just be so vulnerable.

It’s a strange feeling, waiting for so long, and now being here with him. Watching him sleep in the rain, broken up into little pieces but somehow still standing.

The real thing is so much more than she ever anticipated.

Nothing will hurt him again. No one will imprison him again. He is free. She found him. Anything he wants, anything at all.

“I’ve got you, Jasper. I’ve got you."

[bookreviewcoffee]

No one expected it, but I read it.

Stephenie Morgan Meyer "Twilight"

Finished reading Twilight, what can I say, I didn't like the main character very much. Bella is quite contradictory.She is clumsy to the point of absurdity, but she is a great driver. She is strongly fixated on Edward and his beauty.The relationship between Bella and Edward is understandable, it's their first crush.After reading the book as an adult, I realized how annoying Bella and Edward are with their behavior. And realized how good the other characters were. Bella was annoying with her crush. I realize it's first love and all your thoughts are only about the guy you like, but it was too much. Constant thoughts of how beautiful Edward is, like an angel. It also remains a mystery what those around her actually found in her. After all, initially Bella is described as withdrawn, silent, frowning, with the usual unimpressive appearance and not following fashion, and then one - and almost all the guys try to hit on her. And after reading the book, I still don't understand what Bella was able to hook Edward with. Other than the fact that he couldn't read her mind and that he likes her scent, there's nothing special about her. It's scary to imagine what boring and uninteresting people Edward was surrounded by since Bella had him so hooked. In general, if I used to like the love line, now my opinion has changed. The relationships of the characters, in my opinion, looked maximally dramatized, exaggerated. And if Bella's behavior is still understandable because of her age, why does Edward, a hundred-year-old vampire, behave as if he were seventeen too? Bella literally dissolves into Edward, loses her self. This is especially noticeable in the second and third books. Sometimes it felt like she was uncomfortable in this relationship. I was missing some thinking, some reasoning. Bella is perfectly comfortable accepting Edward's vampire nature, not only that, she wants to become a vampire herself. And that wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for one thing: a complete lack of thought. Bella is ready to give up everything, to reshape her human life, to forget about her friends and relatives for the sake of a guy she's known for only a couple months. And yet not a single thought of what she loses. That kind of love is akin to insanity. What I liked was the easy and atmospheric reading of Forks with its forests, the smells of wet leaves, the meadows with colorful flowers, the beautiful views from the Cullen home. A moment that clarifies for us how Alice became a vampire.One of the best aspects of the novel is Edward's strong family ties. I especially like Carlisle and Alice, although Emmett is also a very interesting character! Jasper is quite mysterious, and Rosalie hates Bella for no apparent reason. Concerned for the well-being of the family? It's possible. Then Rosalie is the most appropriate character in this story. Esme is very sweet and caring!

[queenofglassbeliever]

The Ateara family tree reveals that Bella is distantly related to Quil. Which is interesting and cool. Though the way smeyer emphasizes how Bella feels connected to the Cullens, I'm surprised that she isn't distantly related to one of them, as well.

Some of the Cullens did have relatives that Bella could be descended from....

[taroet]

canon divergencies for my portrayal of isabella swan:

bella isn’t as desperate to become a vampire as canon portrays her. it’s something she wants eventually, but she finds it difficult to say goodbye to her friends and family. this will remain a difficult issue even when she does decide to transition. 

regarding her friends and family: bella cares about them. a lot. she’s a very caring person and i don’t believe she wouldn’t care about her human companions. she considers angela, jessica, mike and eric her friends just as much as she considers alice a friend. she finds saying goodbye to charlie the most difficult part of transitioning though.

aging is a very large fear of bella. this was an issue even before she met edward, but it did become more prominent because of him. this, together with wanting to be with edward forever, is the main reason for her wanting to become a vampire. this means that while she isn’t desperate to turn, she also doesn’t want to wait five years. she gives edward until her twentieth birthday.

bella is perfectly happy to wait with having sex until she has transitioned and doesn’t pressure edward about it in any way, shape or form. 

edward and bella still marry relatively young (at nineteen), but this is more so because she wants to make edward happy and knows he values the notion. it’s still a compromise for him having to turn her into a vampire. the deadline just isn’t as tight as it is in canon.

renesmee doesn’t exist. bella comes back from isle esme as a plant mom and nothing more. esme builds her a greenhouse. it’s honestly very cute.

the volturi is eventually the actual reason for bella to transition. it’s only a few months after the wedding. they ran out of patience and forced the cullens to turn her, with the threat of her life hanging in the balance. bella makes peace with it.

her mother is thai and goes by the name of ratree instead of renée.

they stay in forks for a few years even after her transition. there’s no renesmee, but they still invite charlie into their lives. this remains the same in my specific portrayal. she lets the rest of the town gossip. ratree thinks she went to college and bella creates an abundance of excuses for years to come for why they can’t visit. this hurts bella, but she knows ratree wouldn’t understand.

[bejcwcled]

welcome to london, ALICE CULLEN! did anyone ever tell you that you look just like LANA CONDOR? well, no matter, we hear that you are 25/100+ and working as an EVENT PLANNER. we also hear that you currently HAVE your memories from TWILIGHT and have a tendency to be CARING as well as STUBBORN.

𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙎𝙏𝙄𝘾𝙎

full name : Mary Alice Brandon Cullen

nickname(s): Alice

relatives: unnamed father, mother, and step-mother, Cynthia Brandon (biological sister), Carlisle Cullen (adopted father), Esme Cullen (adopted mother), Edward Cullen (adopted brother), Emmett Cullen (adopted brother), Rosalie Hale (adopted sister), Bella Swan (sister-in-law), Jasper Hale (husband) her family is complicated

age : 122 ish; physically appears 25

dob : May 26, 1901

star sign : gemini

pronouns : she/her

sexuality : pansexual

moral alignment : neutral good

memory status: complete

𝘉𝘈𝘊𝘒𝘎𝘙𝘖𝘜𝘕𝘋

Alice has all of her memories from the events of the twilight books/movies (with the exception of any new details from Midnight Sun because I haven’t gotten around to reading it). Here is her wikia if you are not familiar.

weird sparkly vampire thing with psychic abilities - i.e. can see the future but what she sees is highly influenced by people’s decisions

She’s choosing to view her stay in London as just another time the family has relocated.  She just wandered off on her home this time. She hopes, repeatedly tells herself, she will find them again.  It’s just a matter of time and she has plenty of that.  

She is rather lonely which is why she is working as an event planner.  This way she has to spend time with other people and maybe all the positive energy from the parties she plans will be contagious.  The only problem is she’s very specific about what she wants and when she gets a design in her head she does not want to change it.  She has gotten in trouble with a few clients over this.

wanted connections: friends, co-workers, her family, idk maybe a love interest?

[panlight]

Any possible headcanons about the Cullens' human relatives? Looks, names, personalities, futures, etc. I kinda imagine Rosalie has French-English ancestry (her name is a possible hint at that) while her mother's family came from old money in France instead of that odd social climber backstory we got...

I had always assumed Esme had some French roots at least on one side of her family. 'Esme' just reads as a very French name to me, although more likely spelled Esmée. Maybe she's simplified it over the years? I wondered if maybe one side of her family was French-Canadian and immigrated to Ohio.

I still love the idea that one of Rosalie's little brothers was named Edward. It would just feed into her complicated relationship with 'our' Edward. I imagine he was called maybe Ted or Teddy (which can be a nickname for Edward as well as Theodore) or something but just Rosalie resenting Edward for trying to be her new brother AND having the same name as Teddy, rude! But it also weirdly endears him to her in a way she'd never admit out loud. And the few times she's slipped up and called him 'Teddy' he didn't call her out on it (at least in the moment, possibly later during a fight).

I've also always liked the idea that Rosalie's youngest brother is still alive; as we get further and further away from 1915 that becomes less likely, but if he were several years younger than Rose then he could be 100 or so and still alive. Love the idea that she found out which nursing home he's in and she visits him sometimes and he tells the staff, "she's my sister" and they're all like "sure, Mr. Hale," and think he's senile but he's right.

I feel like Carlisle inherited his height from his father (as well as stubbornness), but otherwise he's much more like his mother, in looks and personality. His height in his time period would be unusual but I can see his father commanding respect with, not only as a pastor but as a literally towering figure in the local community. I think Pastor Cullen was probably always A Lot but after the death of his wife he got Worse. She was a calming, moderating influence on him. And then she died and he was all like "well God saw that she was distracting me for my Work and so He called her home" or whatever.

I think Edward's mom probably had some lowkey latent psychic ability as well and that was part of why she knew to ask Carlisle to do 'what others cannot do,' for Edward. I don't know that she 100% knew/understood, but she had some idea. I also get Irish Catholic vibes from her, but that could be because my grandmother was Irish Catholic.

I don't really have much in the way of headcanons for anyone else's families, other than Emmett's being sort of like the Weasleys in that they were a big family, didn't have a lot of money, but had a lot of love and laughter. And mostly boys. Jasper's family is a big ??? but in the personal correspondence on the Twilight Lexicon SM mentioned he had a younger sister, but she didn't make it into the guide. Alice's family gets the most description in the guide although weirdly no names? They were invented for one of the short films. Found it funny they named Alice's mom "Lillian" when that was Rosalie's middle name. Like if I had to bet, I'd have guessed that was Rose's mom's name rather than Alice's mom.

[floripire]

"when you find yourself the center of attention... it's not that they hate you. it's that... well. we're different."

practical magic › @wastheheart

there is no way she's going to fill the vade mecum of vampires in this lifetime. there are simply too many strains out there, and too many rules and regulations.

(the volturi, for one. those aligned with the night world, for another.)

of course, it won't do for one nosy neonate to reveal this preternatural world of theirs to unsuspecting humans. (certainly there are those who know, but those people often hail from families who've been entangled with this for generations now, like the gilberts.)

there is no way she's going to fill the vade mecum of vampires in this lifetime. but that doesn't mean she won't try. if anything, it's a way to distract herself from the fact that everyone - well, almost everyone - in this coven seems to hate her.

and it's like esme is the mind-reader, instead of edward, because the cullen matriarch - who is, in fact, so much more than a mere matriarch, though she carries the title well, wraps it around her like a cloak of feathers - needs only look at the newest member of the coven once to clock the problem.

"when you find yourself the center of attention..."

esme's voice is soft. sweet. pleasant. like a breeze on a hot summer day. not that forks sees very many of those, what with it's perpetual state of cloudiness. floribeth misses hot summer days.

the younger of the two lets out an almost mirthless chuckle. esme's not wrong. she's different. all of them are different. different strains of the same species, though there are subtle similarities.

"i just---" floribeth's fingers are no longer flying across the keyboard, though her laptop is still open on her lap. "---i've never been good with being the center of attention. and, honestly, i don't want to make things more... difficult for everyone by being here."

she wants a home.

she wants a place where her sire, derek machado, can't reach her.

she wants a place that her ex-boyfriend - a very human hunter, hell-bent on avenging his late sister - doesn't know about. (because if he doesn't know, he can't tell the fellow hunters that he runs with: a witch and another human, respectively.)

she wants a place to be safe from triad industries, because she'll die. she'll simply die before she goes back to their detention facility.

most of all, she wants a mom and a dad, and siblings. floribeth's never had siblings before, ever, what with her being an only child. and certainly, certainly, she's got relatives out there, witch-relatives, but they've not yet came forward to claim her.

perhaps they don't know about her. or perhaps, and this makes more sense in her mind, they simply don't want her.

"'cause the rules, they're set in place for a reason, right? i don't want those crusty italian vampires knocking on your door and i certainly don't want triad industries to catch wind of, well, you all existing and, ah, maintaining a vegan lifestyle." a beat and then: "if it really causes this much tension and strife, i---i can go. i can pack my things right now and i'll be gone by nightfall."

"...it's not that they hate you. it's that... well. we're different."

esme's words finally land, then, and any other day it would've been comical, the way floribeth's gazing up at her, mouth open, like she's just seen fish fly.

(there are actually flying fish out there in the world - parexocoetus brachypterus - but that's neither here nor there.)

"but...but i thought, i mean, all this time." her lower lip quivers. her eyes fill with tears. between one heartbeat and the next, the laptop is placed down onto the coffee table with utmost care and floribeth leans over to give esme a hug.

"thank you."