#specifically I've always been about five years behind my peers when it came to emotional maturity

[sailoreuterpe]

Give me a Breaking Dawn AU where Nessie is still a child prodigy, but she acts like many real child prodigies. So yes, she’s brilliant and multi-talented (and I’ll even let her keep being physically advanced), but otherwise she has the emotional responses of someone her chronological age. So she acts emotionally like an infant when she’s less than a year old, etc.

Because how poignant would it be for this amazing, unique, worldly child to also cry as soon as she’s even a little uncomfortable or scream when she wants something. Nessie has the intelligence to understand that she acts like a baby/child/teen/etc., but she can’t help that she responds as a normal human child would.

Besides which, how much more touching would Nessie’s relationships with the Cullens/Wolves be if she had to rely on them for calm and maturity as she grew? She can quote Tennyson at two months old, but she also has a meltdown if she’s denied anything. So Carlisle has to teach her patience, Esme has to teach her love, etc. Jacob is her second father (the imprint is explicitly familial/platonic in this scenario), Edward is her rock, and Bella actually gets a chance to mother her child beyond buying her gifts.

And as Nessie grows and matures, she will have much more of a tragic disconnect from her human side. She’ll see babies in the store and think “That would be me if I were fully human. If I were normal.” She’ll see tweens gossiping and cry because she won’t get that--she’ll physically be too old to accept before her maturity catches up. She’ll see adults and weep because, even when she finally has an adult’s emotions, she’ll look too young to fit in, forever.

As an added bonus, this gives the Volturi more of an incentive to stamp out the Cullens. Have hybrids be common knowledge. Have the Volturi limit their creation, specifically because they’re so similar to Immortal Children. Even a child that’s maturing at a normal human rate is a danger to everyone for years if they also have the speed and strength of a vampire.

Or, if Edward wouldn’t risk getting Bella pregnant in that scenario, have the Volturi aware of hybrids, but they’re otherwise unknown to larger vampire society. So when the Volturi come, it really is a trial. The Cullens are exonerated by virtue of not breaking the law (or even knowing that hybrids were possible), since the Volturi never announced their knowledge based on the fact that hybrids are so rare. Now they make the law but Aro, intrigued by Nessie’s powers, allows the Cullens to live with the caveat that they’re under surveillance now. If Nessie has a deadly “tantrum,” they’re all going down.

So the Cullens actually have to discipline and mold and teach Nessie. They actually have to keep her grounded. The Cullens actually have to parent their child, which is what many of them want in the canon anyway. Nessie grows up overprotected and spoiled, not just because she’s just that special, but because she’s also a child with vampire abilities. There’s a lot of angst potential as well. Nessie resents her family for constantly watching out for her, but she understands intellectually why they do. She loves them all, fiercely, but until she’s chronologically an adult she won’t truly internalize why she has to be sheltered so strongly.

Basically, give me a Nessie who actually needs to be parented. Give me a Nessie with a child’s wonder at the world, and the emotions to match. Give me a Nessie who matters beyond being a walking plot device.

Give me Nessie, not a perfect little robot who runs on blood and pretension.