Hi Lexie! So Hybrid Babyverse: so well written and well built, I love this version of hybrid a lot, mostly because is so unexpected to see Jalice being parents (and GOOD parents). I've been reading a lot of angst lately thanks to flowerslut and babyverse has been like a cozy day in a warm cabin to me (even if you already said it's not exactly a comfy story). So if you have more of this universe I'd love to read. Also, one of the most interesting things about this fic, for me, is how protective and loving Alice is as a mother. If I'd picture her as a momma, I'd do it exactly the way you did, responsible and put together even when the world is ending above her head (and probably a bit too liberal as well). I just want to emphasize how amazing you are doing with the characterization of Alice and Jasper in a universe we don't see much at all.
Aww, anon, thank you so much. At some point I'm going to have to get into the actual plot of the fic, but I have a very good time just writing little slice-of-life scenes that are low stakes. I'm really glad that you are enjoying it because I know the scenario is really out there, but it's just the right level of dramatic to appeal to me.
And yeah, Alice is super liberal and a teenager, which makes her so much fun to write - she has her convictions, and sometimes she's just trolling everyone for shits and giggles. Some of her nonsense definitely gives Bella a little more confidence not to feel like she has to be as 'perfect' as the Cullens; it's okay to be messy and human.
Alice does clash with some of the Cullens' more old fashioned and conservative beliefs at times. Jasper and Alice definitely discuss a lot of things privately, but when it comes to a lot of the discourse in the household, Jasper's response is something along the lines of 'I was a Confederate soldier in the 1800s, I trust Alice's judgement in this issue.' Or 'As Alice is the one possessing the uterus, I'm pretty sure her thoughts on the matter of abortion are far more relevant than mine.'
(I, for one, am fixating on the idea that the one thing that Jasper puts his foot down about is the family wealth during Oliver's upbringing. No luxury cars or designer clothing, no outrageous toys, no luxury prep schools, and Oliver has to get into college on his own merit. Alice, from a foster care background, hates the idea at first but warms up - a kid doesn't need a battery-powered BMW to drive around the house or a private jet to go to Disneyland, they need loving and supportive parents, and a secure home. And the houses they live in are insanely nice places, and Oliver still has nice stuff. Just very much more of a middle-class image, than a 1% image. Oliver getting into a good college with a partial scholarship is one of Jasper's proudest moments.)
(Is that a dig at the upbringing Renesmee gets? You betcha.)
I could sit here spewing headcanons for Oliver and Alice and Jasper all day, but here's a scene I wrote for purposes that remain mysterious. Still toying with Alice being angrier at Jasper when he returns, and how their reconciliation looks.
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It’s not hard to find Jasper after dark these days. The Brandon house is helpfully tucked away from the road, so no one can see anyone who happens to be sitting on the roof. It takes no effort to join his brother, Emmett landing nearly silently next to him. “Long night? Alice kick you out?” He tries to make it a joke, but he knows that their tentative reunion is a sore spot for Jasper.
“No longer than normal,” Jasper shrugs, ignoring the joke but Emmett knows he’s hit a sore spot.
There’s a book next to Jasper; some heavy thing with the words ‘Child Psychology’ buried in the title, and Emmett nearly feels sorry for Oliver.
“She doing okay?” Jasper hasn’t been home much since they got back. He’s trying to get back into the Brandons’ good graces, and get to know his son. Jasper’s son. Those words are a mind-fuck - of all the Cullens to have an accidental kid, Jasper was bottom of the list; Emmett’s been trying to wrap his mind around the idea for the last few weeks. And counsel Rosalie through a lot of different emotions.
It’s been a weird summer.
“Tired, stressed, frustrated…” Jasper recites emotions like a catalogue, and Emmett can hear the frustration of his own in Jasper’s voice. “We’re talking, she knows I’m staying at night. Her fathers aren’t happy, and Cynthia’s still leaning towards violence but it’s something.”
“How’s Oliver?” Emmett can hear the disappointment in Jasper’s voice, and talking about the baby always cheers him up. If nothing else, he’s watching Jasper change. Kind of reminds him of when Jasper joined the family and was so bewildered and curious about how they all seemed to like and trust each other. The rare times that Jasper has been home lately, Oliver is one topic he will freely talk about - his relationship with Alice is almost entirely off-limits, as was whatever the Brandons had said to him. But he would almost always give this small smile and update them on Oliver.
And like clockwork, Jasper looks over and smiles. “He’s finally doing better in his own room. He took a while to settle, but he's sleeping now.”
Ah, the bedroom project. It had started two weeks ago - a freshly decorated bedroom of Oliver’s own in the Brandon house that everyone had heard about in great detail, mostly because Esme had been hanging on every word.
Things were … pleasant but cool between Alice and the rest of the family. There was a guest room ready and waiting for Alice and Oliver if - when - they finally stayed over, but Esme was absolutely bursting to get to work on two personalized rooms - a bedroom for Alice (and Jasper) and a nursery for Ollie. But for now, Esme was living vicariously through Simon and Alice’s nursery decorating and trying to gently encourage Alice to spend more time at the Cullens.
But after the bedroom was finished, it had been a struggle to get Oliver to sleep alone in there; he didn’t seem to want or need twelve hours of sleep at night, had disliked being left on his own, and had made that everyone in the house’s problem. Alice had been very short-tempered for the last two weeks.
Jasper was perched in between Alice and Oliver’s bedrooms, with the soft glow of a nightlight filtering through the bedroom on the left. It was nearly certain that both windows were unlocked, and that Jasper had probably timed himself getting in and out of both of them, in case of emergency.
“D’you ever wonder…” Emmett begins before stopping. It’s a dumb question, he knows the answer.
“Wonder what?” Jasper pauses for a second; from his crib, Oliver lets out a grizzle and a gurgle, but resumes sleep quickly.
“…what it would have been like if we’d stayed?”
Jasper lets out a bark of laughter; Emmett can hear the regret.
“I think about that every day,” Jasper says, rubbing his hand over his face.
And he does.
He imagines Alice telling him, nervous and afraid and desperate. He pictures her flat stomach curving. Getting to feel their baby kicking, looking at the sonograms. Planning for this bizarre future they had found themselves in. Getting to see and to hold his son within hours of his birth, and not months.
And being there for all the ugly stuff that the Brandons alluded to - Alice being unable to get out of bed, complaining of aches and pains, unending vomiting and fainting and seizures… he wanted to be there, to comfort her, to make sure she wasn’t alone.
He wanted to be down in that bedroom right now, tucked up beside her with her arm thrown over his chest. Her face pressed against his shoulder. To kiss her cheek and read as she slept.
He wanted it all so badly.
Instead, he had this - sitting on the roof, watching over them in silence.
And he deserved it, for leaving her the way he did. She was being more forgiving than he expected, really - he had prepared himself for Alice to tell him to fuck off and never contact her again, when they returned. But for some insane reason, she had been willing to talk, willing to let him know their baby.
He just had to earn the love and trust back.
“Every fucking day,” he echoes.
“Sorry man,” Emmett shook his head. “It was a stupid question. But… you missed what, less than a year all up? Ollie’s not even one yet. He’s never going to remember a time without you here, being his dad. Alice will forgive you; she’s always been crazy about you, and she’s hardly going to let you sit on the roof if she was planning on kicking you to the curb. In ten years we’re going to turn around and it’ll be crazy that you and Alice weren’t always together.”
“I hope so.” Jasper looks both much older and so very young in that moment. “I… it was stupid to leave.”
Emmett let out a bark of laughter. “Yeah, I think you made that clear. Edward’s still fixing his CDs.”
A light flicked on in the right window, and both of them could hear movement as Alice climbed out of bed and left the room. She returned a few moments later, the light going out.
“It’s gonna be okay, man. I bet you fifty that you’ll be dancing at your wedding before your kid hits middle school,” Emmett stood up, ready to head home to Rose.
“Middle school?” Jasper half-chuckled, half sounded horrified.
“I said before - and Alice didn’t look impressed when Edward and Bella announced their engagement. I think she’s more of the ‘live-in-sin’ kind of girl, myself,” Emmett shrugged.
“Go home before you wake someone up,” Jasper said, picking up his book. “Alice won’t care much unless you wake up the baby, but Cynthia will cuss you out from the bathroom window.”
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Things I've seen tumblr memeing about James Somerton doing à la "How did no one see how bigoted he was!" as if those things haven't been a significant part of tumblr culture for over a decade :
Presenting untrue and bordering on conspiratorial versions of (queer or otherwise marginalised) history without any sources
Completely disregarding and disrespecting any expertise on socio-cultural topics/humanities and distrusting academics and historians (incl. acting as if no academics or historians could be queer or marginalised)
Downplaying the role misogyny played in the historical oppression of queer women and concluding that queer men must have been more oppressed than queer women
Bi women are, at best, not as queer as "real" queer ppl, and at worst, simply equivalent to straight women
Despite nominal trans inclusivity, transmasculine ppl are functionally women when convenient (combined with the above, bi transmascs are functionally straight women)
Despite nominal trans inclusivity (bis), shamelessly attacking, threatening and actively endangering any trans woman who questions them or smth they find important (often by unfairly presenting her as violent or as a threat)
Having absolutely fucking wild and reductive takes about ace ppl, the oppression they face and their place in the queer community
Stating that marriage equality is an assimilationist fight while completely ignoring its direct roots in the horrifying consequences of the AIDS crisis for partners of ppl who died of AIDS
Praising western media creators from the past for queer coding even under censure and in the same breath condemning current non western media creators for being homophobic bc their representation isn't explicit enough
Blaming China for all existing homophobic censoring in western media
Assuming all queer media would be better told by western creators and by western standards
Only out queer ppl get to tell queer stories
Heavily criticising almost all queer media created by women or ppl they see as such (see above points about trans ppl) or involving/starring a significant amount of women for any perceived or real amount of "problematicness", but fawning over and praising and negating criticism of queer media created by and starring mostly or even functionally exclusively men (even when it could be argued that, you know, not involving/seriously sidelining women is a pretty clear example of misogyny which should probably be considered "problematic")
And I'm probably forgetting stuff or there's stuff I have internalised myself and don't recognise as an issue
Like idk but I feel like the takeaway from Hbomberguy and Toddintheshadow's videos should maybe be "be aware of such patterns in your communities bc they definitely exist" and not "this guy is uniquely awful" and I feel like a lot of the discussion I've seen surrounding this has been severely failing at that. Most ppl who've spent any significant amount of time on tumblr prob either have internalised at least one of those thought patterns, have had to de-internalise them, or have had to be extremely vigilant to not internalise them (which is done by, you know, seeking out other sources, which also seemed like an important takeaway from the videos)
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endless love!
[ID Two drawing collage pages of Vash and Wolfwood from Trigun Maximum. In the first collage, top corner, Wolfwood looks upwards disgruntled with a flushed expression, lying against a pillow, as his hair is being pet by Vash's hand. Next shows Vash and Wolfwood from behind, Wolfwood with his top bare and hickies covers around his nape area. Vash lifts hair away from his nape and asks, "More?" Wolfwood nervously says, "No." Next is a side profile of Vash, his arms around Wolfwood from behind while Wolfwood rests his hands against Vash's arms. Next to this are two smaller drawings; Vash turns to Wolfwood and says repetitively, "Wolfwood, Wolfwood..." Wolfwood, not looking at him, says "What?" He finally turns his head and looks shocked as he exclaims, "So close!" Vash says plainly, "You just noticed?" Below these is a drawing of Vash and Wolfwood sitting together as Vash kisses and hugs him from behind with his right arm around Wolfwood's neck and his left hand around his side. He also has his right leg propped against Wolfwood's knee. Bottom of the page has a comic. Wolfwood looks annoyed, speaking to himself, "Where is that idiot?! Need to get out of town before--" A chat bubble exclaims, "Wolfwood!" The next panel shows Vash running from the townspeople, small text saying "Get him! Vash the stampede!". Wolfwood, mad and about to pull the Punisher off his shoulder, says, "Argh, you fucking dumbass!" Vash exclaims, "Ah, don't!" before pulling Wolfwood into a quick kiss. He then tugs on Wolfwood's collar and says, "There's no need to shoot, just run!" Wolfwood stammers, "R-right..." with a flushed, dumbstruck expression.
Second collage; Top left, Wolfwood spoons Vash in bed, his arms around his chest and the other beneath Vash's head. Vash has his hand on top of Wolfwood's as he sleeps while Wolfwood lies awake. Behind this drawing is faint sketches of Vash's face. In a small panel, Wolfwood hides in Vash's neck as he mumbles to himself "Stop. Stop thinking embarrassing things, Wolfwood..." Beneath this drawing is another of them in bed, Vash now turned to Wolfwood and a hand on his cheek as he kisses him good morning. In a simpler style, Vash wraps an arm tightly around wolfwood with the text "snork mimimi" next to him while Wolfwood says, "We need to get up. Spikey! HEY!" In this corner, there are faint sketches of Vash and Wolfwood; one of them looking at each other; Vash kissing Wolfwood's forehead; Wolfwood saying, "Hand" with an outstretch hand and Vash says "ok" behind a drawing of them holding hands, both turned away from each other shyly. Next is a 4 panel comic. First shows Wolfwood's face getting squished by Vash's hands with the text "squish" around his face. Next, his cheeks are stretched with the text "Chee--" Wolfwood then hits Vash's face with his palm, exclaimining "That hurts!" The last shows Vash on Wolfwood's lap, smiling to himself as he continues to have Wolfwood's face in his hands. Next to this is another comic; A close up of their hands, Vash holding Wolfwood's with both of his. He then kisses the palm of Wolfwood's palm and says, "They're soft!" Wolfwood looks at him with flushed cheeks, "There's no way that's true..." END ID]
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