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arcadianambivalence · 5 years ago

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Babylon Berlin, S3E5

This episode has some of my favorite scenes and one of my least favorite scenes of this show. Let’s take the plunge and do the least-favorite part first.

A mutually distrusting Gereon and Bohm arrive at Tristan Rot’s manor to investigate a lead in the film case. Charlotte is rocking the classic movie eyeliner, and as the three enter the manor, it looks like a silent movie. Danger sepia is back!

What follows can only be described as…a séance orgy led by Dr. Schmidt...

Thankfully, Bohm has had enough and interrupts the charade, but Gereon is off chasing Schmidt...who quickly hypnotizes him.

*deep breath*

There are some sentences I never thought I’d write, but here we are…and all before the opening credits.

I promise the rest of the episode makes more sense.

After that bizarre late-night investigation, Gereon meets Katelbach at the Romanische Cafe. Samuel is less than thrilled to see the man who (like Greta) lied in court, but Gereon hopes evidence from Benda’s file will bring him back into Samuel’s good graces.

There’s a funny moment where Samuel teases that Gereon just missed all the great minds of the time—Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, even Marlene Dietrich.

I won’t say all is forgiven, but Katelbach and Rath are one step closer to working together again.

Charlotte is riding the high of last night’s success until she realizes the entire department is laughing at her for how she went undercover as a prostitute dancer. Bohm tries to hand her menial work again, but Charlotte pushes for assignments equal to her status. It does not go well. Henning and Czerwinski do not stand up for her or try to talk to her afterward, despite being right there.

Charlotte and Gereon engage in some playful ribbing about his unkempt appearance in the world’s longest elevator ride. He tells her his “family” is away (still keeping up the married pretense), and Charlotte, having seen Helga at the hotel last episode, does not question him. For now.

But who cares about a romantic subplot when there’s a gangster meeting?

All right, which one of youse wise guys is stepping on our turf?

After four episodes of economic uncertainty, Edgar calls all the crime lords together to get someone to confess. Walter loudly supports him, which leads Edgar to suspect Walter is behind his financial woes.

(Give it a few weeks, and something else will be behind his financial woes…)

Meanwhile, everyone’s least favorite couple is spending time in the world’s pinkest hotel room. (It’s pink because red would be too obvious.)

Nyssen is laying on the charm with Helga, but she has some doubts.

“Why do I risk losing everything?” she asks.

“You want to get to know the unknown. The unknown within you,” he replies, then gives a big speech about reaching your potential that could be inspirational...if it didn’t sound like a pitch for a cult.

But this talk of risk does make me think of Gennat’s lecture on crime and the 7 sins. Why do people gamble or try the stock market? Why would Edgar’s unknown enemy risk angering such a dangerous guy? Why take risks with money or with relationships? Greed for a higher return? Lust for excitement? Buffing up your ego against your wounded pride?

Speaking of wounded pride, Tristan is released from questioning after the police find nothing of use during questioning their lead suspect. He mugs for the cameras, a nice contrast to Nyssen’s arrest in season one. Gereon can’t help but laugh at the sight.

The case may be at a dead end, but at least the killer has a nickname in the press: The Phantom of Babelsberg.

Phantom? So the allusions DO pay off!

While the true identity of the Phantom is still unknown, Lotte uncovers Otto’s real name, Horst Kessler.

(*checks notes* Horst. Fitting.)

Horst has his own subplot now, too. He has a crush on a prostitute, Erna. He hopes his friends in high places can give her a better life. Like Nyssen, he gives a speech to the lady he hopes to woo, and when he turns to face the woman he’s white knighting over...she’s asleep.

That’s not...quite the line.

But someone did accept his offer, Greta, and it is the day of her sentencing. In the middle of the episode, we suddenly get a time stamp: the 16th of September, 1929.

And, as you’d imagine when the rules of the episode are broken, we get the verdict: guilty. Greta refuses any chance of appeal. Only then can she raise her eyes to Irmgard’s.

Charlotte is at a loss for any last-minute scheme to save Greta. Only Hindenburg could call off the execution...or a brilliant lawyer, like Hans Litten. But there’s a rub: he’s a lawyer for Red Aid and a rumored communist supporter.

(The writers have cleverly name dropped this actual person in nearly every episode to build up his significance before his official introduction to the plot).

Even with the faintest of hopes that Greta could get an appeal, Gereon counters Lotte against hoping for too much.

I mentioned earlier that this episode has some of my favorite scenes from this show. The first scene was between Katelbach and Rath in the cafe. This next exchange is the second one.

CHARLOTTE: “But Greta was used. She’s no murderer.”

GEREON: “Yes, she is.”

It is perhaps the most important exchange in this series.

...

And...honestly, I could end the review here for the rest of the episode—for the rest of the show. This is the main theme of Babylon Berlin spoken between the two leads. It’s one of the few times where the dialogue in this show seems to be written expressly for the viewers.

Yes, Greta was used. Yes, Greta was tricked. Yes, Greta bitterly regrets the choices she made. But she still made them.

(This case is the years to come in microcosm. Premeditated murder of a Jewish man and his child set into action by someone who knew better, egged on by people who most definitely wanted him dead because he represented something different from their view of the world? It checks out.)

But Greta’s guilt is too much for Charlotte to accept, so she turns on Gereon and brings up his “wife,” who is not away on holiday at all. It’s a petty response, but it hurts Gereon like Charlotte intends.

Gereon tracks down the hotel where Helga is staying and casually breaks into the suite and goes through her personal effects. He startles Moritz, too.

(Gereon, at this rate, you would make a terrible father).

At the Beneke house, Elisabeth notices that Katelbach is not his usual sarcastic self. She tries to get him to share his burden, they have the old “I can’t endanger you” back-and-forth, and at last he relents.

With Elisabeth and Katelbach back to their old routine and Gereon visiting one of his old haunts, it’s starting to feel like season one again. The tap girl from the first season is still there, too. She solemnly tries to imitate his cigarette trick from season one.

(I’m dreading the final appearance of this nameless recurring character, to be honest. I know it’s going to hurt.)

But so much has happened already, and everyone has changed so much. It rings hollow. Dark circles are starting to form under this girl’s eyes, too.

That night, Volcker enters Greta’s cell and sits down with a solemn, almost mournful expression. “I’m your new cell mate.”

Notes:

The Romanische Cafe was a hot spot for the great minds of post-war Berlin (and those hoping to join them). The distinction between “swimmers” and “non-swimmers” was true, too.

Thomas Mann would have won the Nobel Prize for Literature the same year this episode occurs.

Marlene Dietrich would become a household name the following year with The Blue Angel.

#babylon berlin #babylon berlin spoilers #long post

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alias-levi · 5 years ago

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Novel Prep Tag

Big thanks go out to @keen2meecha for the tag! This one took me for ever to fill out but I eventually managed. Also, to save you from scrolling for 30 minutes, I set the cut. I warned you.

First Look

1. Describe your novel in 1-2 sentences

Two hitmen, who learned to keep business and private life separate, happen to meet each other more often than not. Jumping over their own shadows, they get used to each other and things seem to get less work-related.

2. How long do you plan for your novel to be?

That’s hard bc I have no plan right now. I’m trying to push myself to a chapter length of, like, 3k-5k; and aim for a number of 20 chapters maybe. So we’ll end up somewhere between 60k and 100k.

3. What’s your novel’s aesthetic?

A rainy night in a big city. The asphalt is illuminated by traffic lights and neon signs. The air is filled with the sounds of traffic and cars.

But also a quiet house in the middle of nowhere. Two people co-existing, not talking much rather speaking through the music that fills the house.

Additionally, killing. Throwing hands until an arm is wrapped around the target’s neck to suffocate them. Or exhaling, calming the heartbeat as much as possible before gently pulling the trigger. Splattering blood over the walls.

4. What other stories have inspired your novel?

Definitely the John Wick Universe and the Hitman Universe (which I initially got the idea from). My WIP currently takes place in the John Wick Universe but I try to distance it through the second draft/editing phase.

5. Three images that get the feel of your novel

Main Characters

6. Who is your protagonist?

Yrsa Agnarsdóttir. She is from Iceland and in her mid-twenties. Also she works as hitwoman. (For more info check out her OC Intro.)

Alexej Kznetsov. He is from Poland and in his late-twenties. He also works as a hitman. (For more info check out his OC Intro.)

7. Who is their closest ally?

There isn’t really a space for allies in their lives, since both, Yrsa and Alexej, spend most of their time travelling and working (alone).

However, for Yrsa there is still her family and her best friend who have her back. Though, they don’t know about her real profession. In later chapters Alexej joins this list.

Alexej, on the other hand, can’t relie on his (biological) family. Also friends are not really his cup of tea. So, there’s way to go for him.

8. Who is their enemy?

Enemies aren’t really a thing in this story but much rather I’d call it competition/rivals.

If the job offer for a hitman is not exclusive but public, it’s first come forst serve. The first person to show up and get the job done is the one who gets paid. Everyone else to show up after that gets left out in the cold.

9. What do they want more than anything?

Alexej? Probably just for Yrsa to shut up and calm down for once.

Yrsa? I have no idea yet. Maybe Alexej to loosen up a bit.

10. Why can’t they have it?

She doesn’t care. As simple as that. Yrsa doesn’t care about what people (other than her really close friends and family) think about her. But for Alexej? Maybe. Some day.

Alexej is way too reserved. He needs his time to get used to Yrsa, and her lively nature, before he can shake off the stiffness.

11. What do they wrongly believe about themselves?

Alexej feels guilty for his younger brother’s death. He had promised him that he would always protect him. Realizing that he should have been there and save him from the fire, had broken something deep within Alexej.

12. Draw your character

I’m sorry, I won’t make you suffer like that.

13. What is the worst thing that could happen to your protagonist?

For Yrsa it would be a family member dying (natural cause) or getting hurt (due to her job). She keeps them very close and loves them dearly. Also a friend, like Einar, dying because of whatever reason would really throw her off the track.

Alexej is less easy thrown off the track. He is quick to close his heart and shut down feelings. Something as shallow as a friend getting hurt or dying wouldn’t be that much of a deal. Also “friends” is a term that he doesn’t usually use to describe anybody.

Therefore, it must be something that hit really close to home for Alexej. Maybe visiting his parents and realizing that they didn’t change at all in all those years he had been gone. Bonus points if they also blame him for his brother’s death, like he himself already does.

Yes, yes I’m hinting at a chapter throughout the book here. Thanks for noticing lmao

Plot Points

14. What secret will be revealed that changes the course of the story?

Uhh... None, actually? This story is just about watching two people get used to the presence of someone else for the first time in a while. Also about seeing them become closer and, uh, dip into a romantic relationship.

15. Do you know how it ends?

Yes, and I plan on making a second part.

16. What is the theme?

The working title is a quote I read online and I think it’s from the Hitman video games or one of the movies.

“We determine who we are by what we do” obviously states that our destiny is in our own hands. What we do, how we act, is how we are. Everything we do has an impact on our future, and it’s up to us to control this.

But this story is also about the things we are forced to do to survive. Sometimes we can’t chose “what we do” and therefore it has less of an impact on us.

17. What is a recurring symbol?

Fighting, I guess. But also relaxing and coming down from the highs in very particular and private places.

18. Where is the story set?

As for the time We determine […] takes place in the modern world, like ours. Regarding a place it’s set all over the world, since both characters travel a lot. Though, there are recurring locations, like Yrsa’s house in Iceland.

19. Do you have images and scenes in mind already?

I’m still plotting and outlining but also started the first draft and make a lot of things up as I go. But I do have the major/key events, drafted and designed to the last detail, in my head already.

20. What excited you about this story?

I guess it was attempting to write something slow, where the characters need to grow before they’re ready to get involved in the relationship. I have never written something like that before so I see this as a bit of a challenge.

Also I haven’t really written anything for a long while. Especially anything longer. That also made me decide to officially pick up on this.

21. What is your usual writing method?

After vaguely making things up in my head while watching movies or series, I write that down slightly more detailed in an app where I can already structure everything and easily change stuff. Then, when I actually start typing things out, the real creative flow starts and I feed everything into a Google Doc or Word Doc.

Uh, I’m just gonna tag a bunch of people. I don’t know whether all of you have a WIP you work on but if you feel like doing it, here you go!

@liz-pooh @yogurt-writing @anxious-bean-writing @aelenko (but I think you got tagged already)

#community gathering #we determine who we are by what we do #novel prep tag #wip: wwa

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twilight-adamo · 5 years ago

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Author’s Notes: Brave New World, Chapter 1: The Parting of the Ways

In April 2018, the same day I posted the epilogue to As Dreams Are Made On, I wrote the first scene of Brave New World, and most of the second. And then I got stuck, for quite a long time. I lost myself in research, tried to build out my plans, tried to focus on other things for a time, particularly These Our Actors, which posed its own challenges - but I’ll cover that in my author’s notes on Rosalie’s installment. I had a difficult year for a number of reasons. For a time I wasn’t writing at all.

I see from the revision history that I only came back to Brave New World in February of this year, spent a couple days on it, and left it alone again until June. June was when I finally realized that there was one particular thing in my life that was destroying my mental health and my ability to create, and that I was carrying on with it out of a sense of obligation, but I’d help no one - least of all myself - if I wore myself down on it. So, reluctantly, I dropped the obligation that was dominating my mental landscape, I took a step back, and I allowed myself to breathe. I’m still not working at a hundred percent, but I am getting better. And over the last few days, I’ve been able to write again.

My original plan for this chapter had been to focus on the wedding of Charlie and Kate, and I threw myself into a ton of wedding research, wanting to get everything just right. I figured Carlisle would officiate, so I researched Anglican marriage services and drew heavily on what I found. I looked at venues and considered colors and organized the wedding party and stopped just short of actually planning an entire wedding. And I got through the ceremony, which felt shorter than it should be, and I was beginning to write what came after, and I was thinking about what I had planned for the reception (notably what probably would have been an even cheesier musical moment than the rendition of “The Best Is Yet To Come” from the epilogue of As Dreams Are Made On), and I realized...none of it was working from me. It was indulgent in a story which is already going to get indulgent in parts, but worse, it was dull. My protagonist didn’t have much to do aside from stand and watch and react.

I also wanted to have a family meeting scene where we got some sense of where everyone was going over the summer, what they were doing, and I had a choice between tacking it onto the end of an overstuffed and boring first chapter or onto the beginning of the second chapter, which I’d planned to set primarily in Jacksonville. So I finally looked at the ten or so pages of wedding stuff I’d already written, considered how much more I would need to get through and how little I would enjoy it, and decided it all had to go. The first chapter would focus entirely on the family meeting, a last goodbye to Forks before I started the grand road trip that would take up the first few chapters of the book. Once I’d figured that out, I finished the first chapter in a day or two. It’s still a little more talking than I’d like and a little less action, but I think it sets up the next chunk of story nicely, at least.

As for the stuff I didn’t cut: as I said, Bella’s nightmare was the very first thing I wrote. I’ve made some minor tweaks here and there, but it’s pretty close to what I originally wrote over a year ago. I wanted to show some of the psychological effect of Bella’s decision to start a fight with the Volturi, I wanted to show that Eleazar’s panicked reaction to whatever he saw had affected her, and I wanted to start things off with a sense of menace hanging over our heroes. The Cullens and their extended network of friends and family may not be in a state of outright war, but there is still danger lurking at the edges of their lives, and unresolved mysteries hiding just below the surface of things. I wanted to spin a vision of something that could yet be, and establish that “happily ever after” is still a long way away, down a dark and twisted road.

It was also just enormous fun to write.

And it was a nice segue into a domestic scene with Alice and Bella, a glimpse of their lives a few weeks on from our last visit with them. We already got such a glimpse in the epilogue of the last volume, but seeing as that chapter was focused largely on prom, I thought they deserved a little alone time.

I spent a great deal of time trying to work out the plan for the summer - where everyone would be going, what they would be doing. I actually nearly forgot to include Eleanor in those plans, up until the last minute. I’m sorry to say that, focused as Brave New World is on Bella’s perspective, we’re not going to see much of the others’ adventures in this text, but they’re certainly fodder for future installments of These Our Actors, and Bella will get updates here and there, particularly once everyone is reunited in Forks. Bella, Alice, Rosalie and Emmett will all have quite enough on their own plates, so hopefully none of you will be bored.

There will be much more of Renée - and Phil - in the next chapter, which will cover the gang’s time in Jacksonville. I confess I’ve never been to Jacksonville (I’ve really only visited Florida for the theme parks) so I’ve got a bit of research to do. “I’ve got a bit of research to do” is likely to be my recurring mantra on this story, as I’m trying to blow out the boundaries of this world, introduce vampires we never met in the Twilight novels from places that were never really touched on, and perhaps bring in stranger things besides. But that’s a way off. For now, I’m a little ways into Chapter 2 (and have even written a bit of Chapter 3), and having great fun writing Bella’s free-spirited mother. I hope you’ll love my take on her as much as I do.

And now, as a bonus, I present the raw text cut from Chapter 1 of Brave New World. I’ve held onto it for reference, in case I decide to draw on it for flashbacks or a future installment of These Our Actors, and it’s possible the details may change, but since I don’t have any plans for it now, I thought I’d share what I came up with before I changed directions. It’s under the cut. I’m afraid not all my formatting carried over into Tumblr’s interface, but you should get the gist.

(Picking up from the end of the scene with Bella and Alice in bed at the cottage.)

I’d been pretty scarce around Forks the last few weeks, since school let out - I’d completely missed late spring giving way to high summer. Officially, I had been busy helping my dad and his new bride with wedding preparations. In actuality, I’d spent most of that time dropping into comas, recovering from them, and moving on to the next. I’d had a limited window of opportunity to turn a few select vampires human, and no time to waste. Edward had been the first to volunteer - he’d told Angela the truth, and she’d eventually decided she wanted to be with him regardless, but he still wanted to lose his bloodlust for the time being, and needed a bit of a break from everyone else’s thoughts after the past few months. I had carefully packed his powers away for safekeeping, then taken his vampirism from him. At his request, we were leaving him human until he reached his long-delayed eighteenth birthday.

Rosalie, Eleanor and Emmett had decided to turn human, too, and I had requested that they stay that way until Carlisle had finished identifying effective birth control techniques for hybrids, or at least until the summer ended. Kate hadn’t become pregnant just yet - and I really didn’t want to consider just how miraculous that was - but I didn’t want to push our luck with another extremely sexual and potentially fertile couple. Or thruple, as the case seemed to be - they had become much more open in their mutual affections toward Eleanor since she and Jessamine had moved to Forks.

Jasper and his sister - now going by Mina to avoid confusion - had decided to stay vampires for the time being, as had Carlisle, Esme, Tanya and Irina, though I had made my tweaks to the new arrivals so they and the shifters would no longer find one another offensive, assuming the vampires all stuck to non-human blood. It was just as well. With a five day coma after each de-vamping exercise and a day for recovery, I’d been cutting things awfully close to the rehearsal and the wedding itself. And no matter what dad said, I still felt a little guilty about that, even if he and Kate had plenty of help from everyone else. Especially since I was in the wedding party, if not precisely in the role I’d expected. At least I wasn’t maid of honor or best man, so to speak - those particular honors had gone to Irina and to Harry Clearwater, respectively. But I was still expected to stand at the altar.

After a luxurious spell in bed, followed by a relaxed breakfast and a shower, Alice “helped” me dress in the tuxedo she’d made for me, complete with high-collared blouse, fitted waistcoat, and a navy blue bow tie and cummerbund, all of it tailored perfectly to my frame. In all honesty, it was a blatant excuse to get her hands all over me and take me in one last time before the ceremony, but I can’t say I minded. At last, she finished, tying my hair back with a navy ribbon and kissing me softly, leaving me to finish my makeup while she hurried to meet Kate, Irina and the other bridesmaids.

Once I’d finished preparing, there wasn’t much left to do but head for the Cullens’ house, where dad and the rest of his party would be waiting until the time came to head for the venue. A mixed crowd of humans, hybrids, werewolves and most importantly vampires meant we were taking no chances with an outdoor wedding, and we were probably one of the few wedding parties this summer hoping for rain, or at least overcast skies. Fortunately, we’d gotten the latter, at least long enough to get the vampires into the hall, and by the time the reception was over with, it would be well past sunset.

It didn’t take too long to walk to the main house from the love nest Alice and I had made of Pine Cottage, and I arrived to find the others gathered around a table in the den, in the middle of a game of poker. There were two other groomsmen after Harry and myself: Emmett, and dad’s Deputy Chief, Joe Miller. From the pile of chips in front of him and the enormous frat boy grin on his face, it looked like Emmett was taking the others for all they were worth.

“Hey Bella!” he called out, waving as I came in and gesturing at the empty seat beside my father. “Want us to deal you in?”

I chuckled, taking the seat but shaking my head. “Thanks, but Alice already warned me about you. Hey, dad. Please tell me you didn’t put your honeymoon fund on the line.”

I nudged him with my shoulder, and he slung his arm around me, giving me a brief hug. “Hi, kiddo. The honeymoon fund’s safe. Kate would kill me. You girls didn’t think to warn me?”

“Well, you know, I’ve been busy. Distracted. And I figured Emmett would be too much of a gentleman to take advantage of a man on his wedding day,” I added, shooting a mock glare at the ex-vampire in question.

“Your first mistake was assuming I’m any kind of gentleman,” Emmett returned, with a broad smirk. “Besides, I respect Charlie too much to just let him win.”

Dad gave him a deadpan look. “I’m touched. Really. You can respect me a little less, though.”

“Can’t do it, sir.” Emmett drew himself up, looking impossibly earnest, save for the twinkle in his eye. “Did I ever tell you you’re my hero? You’re everything I wish I could be.”

“He’s been like this for the last hour. I’m starting to think he’s just always on,” Deputy Chief Miller remarked, glancing my way. “How’s your summer been, Bella?”

“Trust me, this is just the tip of the iceberg with him,” I replied, gesturing at Emmett, who chuckled. “Oh, you know, good. Busy with wedding stuff, getting ready to leave town, all that. Alice and I are heading to Jacksonville with mom and Phil after the wedding, we’ll be back in August.”

“Your, uh, girlfriend’s going on vacation with you?” he said, his eyebrows rising.

“Don’t worry, Rose and me will be chaperoning,” Emmett interjected cheerfully.

Dad cleared his throat. “More importantly, Renée and her husband will be providing adult supervision. And separate guest rooms.”

I bit my lip to hide my smile. I still didn’t really have memories of my mom - or, rather, the mom I had here and now - and I’d only recently gotten to spend any time with her, since she and Phil had come to town for the wedding. It had all been e-mail and phone calls before that. But from my memory of the books, and based on my interactions with her so far, I would not really call Renée Dwyer a responsible adult, and Phil was friendly and level-headed but not really a parent to me. That suited me fine - I didn’t really feel like an actual teenager, even now, and I didn’t need active parenting - but it was apparently important to dad to keep up the convenient fiction.

What he wasn’t saying, of course, was that Jacksonville was only part of our trip. That just about everyone except Edward was leaving Forks for the summer, and that in fact he had no honeymoon fund to worry about, because Alice had arranged everything.

“Huh. Well, uh...have fun down in Florida. Is Jacksonville anywhere near the theme parks?” Miller asked, clearly ready to change the subject.

“It’s not - not any of the big ones, anyway - but Carlisle and Esme are going to join us down in Orlando for a few days before we head back,” I lied - another little fiction, this one mainly for my mom’s sake, but we were all keeping to a consistent narrative. “So we’ll be going to Disney World, anyway. The Cullens have never been, and they’ve been nice enough to invite me along.”

The deputy chief’s eyebrows shot up, and he glanced at Emmett, the lone Cullen in the room. “Seriously? What with this house and all, I sort of figured you’d be going every year.”

“Oh, we don’t travel much once we put down roots. It’s mainly just camping trips,” Emmett said. “Can’t wait to ride Space Mountain, though.”

“Gentlemen, I think we have a hand to finish?” Harry interjected at last, a little smirk on his face. “And then maybe we can find something to do that doesn’t give Emmett a chance to shake us down.”

“We have a pool table,” Emmett suggested innocently.

“We are not falling for that twice, kid,” dad said firmly. “Joe, I think it was your bet.”

“God help me,” Miller said, shaking his head as he pushed in his chips.

*****

After the game came to its merciful conclusion, we had just enough time for a movie before it was time to head for the venue. Neither dad nor Kate had been especially invested in the idea of a church wedding, so they’d picked out a lodge in the nearby woods, and asked Carlisle to officiate. I’d only seen the venue in photos. Seeing it in person, nestled among the towering pines, decorated in fairy lights and banners of blue and silver and lavender, the whole scene accompanied by the sounds of the wind in the trees and the river flowing nearby...I was simply awestruck by everything that lay before me.

“Well then. Guess this is our cue to go around back and get in position,” Harry said, clapping my dad on the shoulder. “You ready for this, Charlie?”

I looked over at dad. He, too, seemed briefly stunned and frozen. But when Harry spoke, he started to break into a grin. “Yeah,” he agreed quietly. “Yeah, I think I am.”

“You’ve got this, dad.” I turned to him and gave him a loose hug. “I’ll see you soon. Love you.”

“I love you, too, Bells,” he said, hugging me back and kissing the top of my head. “Go on, then, I know you’re eager to see Alice.”

“God, you make it sound like we’re codependent,” I complained, lightly, pulling back. Not that he was entirely wrong: I could definitely feel a tingle of excitement running through me as I headed inside with Emmett and the deputy chief.

The rest of the wedding party was gathered in the lodge’s tiny lobby, preparing for their grand entrance to the great room. We didn’t have a ring bearer or a flower girl - Harry had the rings - but everyone else was prepared to play their role. I wasted no time making my way to Alice’s side, slipping my arm around her waist, while Emmett followed me at a more sedate pace, chuckling softly as he joined Rosalie.

“We were never that bad,” he remarked to Rose, looking at the two of us.

“Oh, you were worse,” she returned, smirking up at him. He made a scandalized noise in response.

“Is that how we’re going to play it, Rose? ‘Cause I seem to recall a particularly insatiable little -”

“How did the wedding prep go?” I asked Alice, tuning the two of them out as I turned to kiss her cheek. “You look gorgeous.”

“Mmm, I’d hope so, after all that. It was nice to be pampered. The makeup artist was a bit of a perfectionist, but Kate got the worst of it,” she replied, looking up at me through her lush, dark eyelashes, a smile curving her red lips. Her hair framed her face in messy waves, and of course she looked amazing in her bridesmaid’s dress - lavender, strapless, accented in silver, tailored to fit the individual figures of each woman in Kate’s wedding party. “It’s possible the poor woman suffered a static shock or two.”

“I told Kate to use her powers for good,” I joked, my eyes sweeping over the room. Eleanor and Deputy Chief Miller, who’d be escorting her up the aisle, had joined Emmett and Rose, and the deputy chief seemed a little lost and perhaps slightly scandalized by the increasingly shameless flirting among the trio. And Kate, as might be expected, was sandwiched between her maid of honor, Irina, and Tanya, who’d be giving Kate away in the place of their mother.

Kate, naturally, looked absolutely incredible. Her normally straight blonde hair had been curled and bound up in an elaborate updo, and dangling silver and sapphire earrings glittered at her earlobes. A brass pendant, formed in a sort of hammer shape and decorated with elaborate, curling lines, hung from a chain about her neck. Her wedding dress was also strapless, all white and silver, the bodice clinging tightly to her figure as it swept down to the full skirts that frothed about her legs, interrupted only by a lavender sash tied about her waist. She looked radiantly happy, her joy outshining her natural hybrid glow.

Alice and I made our way over to her, and I offered a slightly hesitant one-armed hug. “You look amazing, Kate. I just wanted to wish you and dad all the best, one more time, before we get started.”

“Thank you, Bella,” she replied, returning the hug, awkwardly at first, but we both relaxed into a genuine embrace after a moment. “I’m...well I’m glad you’ve accepted all this so easily. And that your mother has been so welcoming. I wasn’t sure…”

“Please, don’t worry about it,” I told her softly, though I could feel that slight, uneasy shift in the pit of my stomach, even now. I tried to quiet it: I’d seen how happy dad and Kate were, how good they were for each other. They were the same people they’d always been, or at least dad was, but happier. Still...the mating bond hadn’t given either of them much choice. I worried about that, as I still, sometimes, worried about Alice. As fast as I’d fallen for her, I’d still been able to do so on my own terms. That was something Alice never got to do, and a chance dad and Kate would never have.

I forced a smile nonetheless as I continued, practiced enough now to make it genuine - which it was, really, mostly, despite my doubts. “Both of us just want dad to be happy. And you make him so happy - I’ve seen it, and now mom’s seen it, and she’s already remarried. She loves my dad but...they didn’t work. You two do. You just...fit.”

Maybe Kate caught something in my body language or my tone, despite all my best efforts, because she looked at me with faintly troubled eyes. But just as she was opening her mouth to say something more, we all heard the music starting in the other room, and Irina clapped her hands.

“Positions, everyone! Bridesmaids and groomsmen, go,” she announced, loud and clear. There was no more time to chat.

Alice and I were last in the procession of groomsmen and bridesmaids, and she nudged me gently as we swept into the room, murmuring softly. “You all right? You just seem…”

“I’m fine,” I whispered, through my smile, as we walked down the aisle under Carlisle’s benevolent gaze, surrounded by our family, friends and loved ones, going to meet dad and Harry at the altar. “Just getting in my own head a little.”

“Mmmm. Stop it,” she said, squeezing my arm as our moment came to part. “We’ll talk later.”

I nodded, very slightly, and we took our positions on either side of the aisle, watching Irina walk up last of all. The music changed, shifting to a classic bridal march, and everyone’s eyes were on Kate as Tanya walked her slowly and gracefully up the aisle. She was smiling brightly enough to transform her face into something even more beautiful, and broadly enough that it seemed like her face might crack in two, and I knew without looking that dad’s gaze was locked on her, his smile just as bright. Love and passion just radiated off the two of them, a palpable force filling the room from wall to wall. The room fell to a reverent hush, and for a moment I would have sworn I could hear their two hearts beating as one.

At last, the moment was broken by Carlisle’s voice, deceptively soft and yet resonant enough to fill the room. “Cherished friends, we come together today to witness the joining of Charles Geoffrey Swan and Katrina Sashova in holy matrimony, to ask for God’s blessing upon their union, to share in their joy, and to celebrate their love. For of all the gifts bestowed upon us by our Creator, love is the most precious, the most fragile, and the most important. As it is written in First Corinthians, love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

“We are taught that marriage is a gift of love, for God is love. It is a gift of God in creation and a means of God’s grace, for through this holy mystery, two become as one. Marriage is given that each partner might help the other, living faithfully in need and in plenty, in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy. It is given that with delight and with tenderness those so joined might know each other in love, and that through the joy of spiritual and of bodily union, they may strengthen the connection between their hearts and minds. Marriage is a grace visited not only upon those joined in matrimony but upon all their loved ones - not only upon any children that may arise from the union but also upon their beloved community.

“In marriage, those so joined belong to one another, and embark upon a new life within their community. It is not a gift to be taken lightly, carelessly, or selfishly, but reverently, responsibly, and after serious thought. This is the way of life that Charles and Katrina are now to begin. I have been privileged to know them, and privileged to witness their love for one another. I believe with all my heart that these two are meant to be one. And now I must ask: if anyone here knows of any reason why these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

Silence followed. I wasn’t expecting anything else, but even so, it felt like the world had let out a breath it didn’t know it had been holding. Dad and Kate beamed at one another once again.

“Very well,” Carlisle said, breaking into a warm smile of his own. “Charles and Katrina, I now invite you to join hands and to deliver your vows in the presence of God and of all assembled here. May you speak honestly and without reservation, from the bottom of your hearts.”

Dad and Kate stepped forward, closer to one another, joining hands, and for a moment dad seemed at a loss for words, until his perfect hybrid memory kicked in and he found his place once more. He cleared his throat and chuckled nervously under his breath. “I, Charles Swan, take you, Katrina Sashova, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward: for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. I swear to love, cherish, and honor you each day, from now until my last day on this Earth, in God’s name and by God’s grace.”

“I, Katrina Sashova, take you, Charles Swan, to be my lawfully wedded husband,” Kate returned, her eyes shining just slightly, her face aglow with more than the usual hybrid radiance. “To have and to hold from this day forward: for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. I swear to love, cherish, and honor you each day, from now until my last day on this Earth, in God’s name and by God’s grace.”

“I believe the best man has the rings?” Carlisle said, taking them gently as Harry offered them, and cradling one in each hand. “God, by your blessing, let these rings to be to Charles and Katrina be a symbol of unending love and faithfulness, to remind them of the vow and the covenant which they have made this day in your holy presence. Amen.”

With that, he handed the rings off, and I could see dad’s fingers tremble just a little, almost imperceptibly, as he slipped Kate’s ring on her finger. “With this ring, I pledge myself to you, giving you all that I am, and sharing with you all that I have.”

Kate echoed his words softly, slipping his ring onto his finger in turn, and Carlisle joined their hands together, covering them loosely with his own.

“What God has seen fit to join, let no man put asunder,” he pronounced solemnly. “And by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Charlie, you may kiss your bride.”

They were moving before he was done talking, and somehow mustered enough restraint to move slow enough for the human eye to follow, though I heard more than a little laughter at their eagerness nonetheless. Charlie swept Kate readily into his arms, tilting her back just a little as they kissed fiercely, her bouquet dropping to the ground as her hands reached up to cup his cheek.

The room broke into wild applause, with a few hoots and whistles mixed in, and my eyes caught Alice’s as we clapped. For one wild, breathless moment, I wanted to throw caution to the wind, speed to her side and take her in my arms as well, hell, maybe even tell Carlisle to marry us here and there. But just a split second later, I felt a sort of coolness rushing through me, like a cold shower inside my mind, and my gaze swept into the audience, where Jasper raised one eyebrow at me expressively and inclined his head. I gave him a sheepish grin, then looked back at Alice, who winked and blew me a kiss before turning her attention back to the matter at hand. A triumphant march played as the wedding party swept back outside for photos and drinks and all the rest while the lodge staff moved everything around again for the reception.

*****

“I’ll be honest, that was way more God than I was expecting,” Callie remarked to me, once I’d been excused from modeling duty and we had a moment alone.

I shrugged. “Dad and Kate believe in a vague something. It was enough to have a vaguely religious ceremony. Besides, Carlisle’s dad was an Anglican pastor.”

Callie downed some of her sparkling cider, her eyes narrowing at me. “Is that a ‘lingering obsession with Twilight factoid’ or an ‘I spend all my time around the Cullens’ factoid?”

“Column A, column B,” I said, with another slight shrug. “I already knew about it, but I mean, we do talk. Anyway, Carlisle’s not nearly as hardcore as his father was, but he’s religious enough and in the know, so…”

“Vaguely religious ceremony. Right. Gotta say it was probably also the shortest wedding I’ve ever been to,” Callie replied, before looking sadly at her half-full glass. “And it’s the most sober wedding I’ve been to in a while. For us, anyway.”

“Yeah, being legally underage definitely has its downside. And please, you saw that kiss - I don’t think we could’ve gotten those two to wait much longer.”

Callie snorted. “True. Hell, you and Alice probably won’t even make it past ‘dearly beloved’.”

Mom chose that moment to come up just behind Callie, her eyebrows rising at the remark, and I immediately started laughing just a little too loudly. “Ha ha! Like we’re about to get married - which we’re not - because I’m seventeen! I am still just...seventeen. And in high school. And not even thinking about getting married. Yep. Good one, Cal, mom, you remember Callie.”

Callie stared at me and shook her head slightly before turning to face my mother. “Nice to see you again, Mrs. Dwyer. Did you enjoy the ceremony?”

“I did, thank you,” mom said, granting me a brief respite as she smiled warmly at Cal. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything over here.”

I shot Callie a pleading glance, and she looked in my direction just long enough to smirk at me before shaking her head. “No, not at all. I should probably go meet up with my parents. You two should catch up. See you later.”

“Of course. We’ll see you around,” mom agreed, and Callie gave a slight wave and moved off. I glared daggers at her retreating back, just for a moment, while mom watched her leave and shook her head. “I still have no idea how you get a nickname like ‘Callie’ out of a name like ‘Tara Chen’.”

“It just suits her,” I mumbled, sighing. “Long story.”

“If you say so. Now, let me look at you.” Mom turned back to me, putting her hands on my shoulders, taking me in. “I still can’t believe how big you’ve gotten, Bella. Or how...oh, what’s the word....dashing, maybe? How dashing you look in that suit.”

#twilight #twilight fanfiction #twilight fanfic #twilight au #the tempest trilogy #the tempestverse #bellice #brave new world

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rahirah · 6 years ago

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The whole "And If the Grave Be Now Thy Bed" counts as a chapter or scene, right? "Splendid news, Mrs. Mears. Bloody Vengeance Inc. is going to take your case." Commentary, please :)))

For reference: https://archiveofourown.org/works/478957

Ok, this one is too long to do a blow-by-blow in a Tumblr post, so I'm gonna talk about it more generally.

For those of you who haven't read the series this story is a part of, it's a long-running AU which branches off of canon after "The Gift." I started writing the first story in it immediately after "The Gift" aired, so Spuffy wasn't even a canon thing yet. At the time, I was pretty certain that Spuffy would never be a canon thing; at most, I thought, there would be a lot of pining and UST, and maybe, in the very last season, Spike would get the crumb he was hoping for.

But I didn't care about that; something doesn't have to be canon for me to ship the hell out of it. And I was fascinated by the concept of an evil demon trying to be good. What would it look like, I wondered, if Spike and Buffy did get together in a working, functional relationship? What changes and compromises would both of them have to make? How would it meet both their needs? What would the pain points be? Of course, the easiest way to do it would be to slap a soul into Spike, but I felt that the show had already thoroughly explored that avenue with Angel, and I wanted to do something different. Plus I have never been one to do things the easy way, and one of the recurring themes in my writing in general is free will and choices. So I set myself the challenge of writing a story about how Buffy and Spike forge a relationship that works for both of them, and doesn't cheat on characterization – that is, Spike, having no human soul, is still "evil" in Buffyverse terms, and his motivations and behavior reflect that; even when he is doing good things, he is not doing them in the same way, or for the same reasons, as a human would. *

ANYWAY. In this AU, Warren Mears and Co. still killed Katrina, but Warren went to jail for it. However, when his inventions came to the attention of Wolfram & Hart, they got him released on a technicality, and brought him into their R&D department. Warren took the opportunity to get his revenge on Buffy and Spike by zapping Buffy into a W&H pocket dimension, where W&H was collecting Buffys from many dimensions for nefarious purposes. Unbeknownst to Warren, Buffy has just discovered that she's pregnant.

This scenario generated four stories: "The Lesser of Two Evils," which details what happens when Willow and Spike confront Warren and try to force him to bring Buffy back; "In A Yellow Wood," which is about Buffy's adventures in the pocket dimension, "If the Grave Be Now Thy Bed," which deals with the fallout of the first two stories, and "To Grandmother's House," which wraps up the arc with Buffy's final decision about the fate of her baby.

I wrote these stories all out of order: "To Grandmother's House" first, "The Lesser of Two Evils" second, "In A Yellow Wood" third, and "If the Grave Be Now Thy Bed" last. I knew the general course of the arc all along, but writing it inside out and backwards, over ten years or more, posed some interesting challenges. "If the Grave Be Now Thy Bed" was not part of the original arc plan – in fact, it grew out of feedback I got for "The Lesser of Two Evils."

TLOTE/IAYW are deliberately morally ambiguous stories. Spike, Willow, and Buffy all do questionable things – perhaps flat out wrong things – under severe emotional stress, and the consequences of those actions echo for a long time through the years to come. While I hope that readers find their motives understandable, and even sympathetic, I didn't necessarily expect that every reader would agree with or approve of their actions. Most people who've sent me feedback seem to enjoy the ambiguity, or at least find it intriguing. Not all of them, however.

One particular reader had...issues. Over the course of several conversations, I found out that while they were a Spuffy shipper, they had very particular requirements for the kind of Spuffy stories they liked. They had to be either A) totally canon-compliant, angst-ridden stories where Buffy hated herself for giving in to Spike's sinister attraction, or B) stories where Spike was a Romance Novel Bad Boy With a Heart of Gold, and there was a tacit agreement between writer and reader that hey, we both know this is totally OOC for both characters, but we're just here for the porn, amirite nudge-nudge wink-wink.

Reader In Question had started in on my work with the assumption that it fell into the latter category, but the more they read, the less comfortable they got, because, as I mentioned above, I was in this for serious. I sweat blood over characterization. And I was starting to convince them that maybe a relationship between Buffy and soulless Spike COULD work. And they didn't WANT to believe that. So they absolutely had to interpret my work as a dystopian take on Buffy's slide into total moral decay, with this particular arc as the nadir of her fall.** They left me some despondent feedback on TLOTE, wondering what Warren's dear mother would think of this turn of events. I'm not sure if they intended to shame me (or Buffy) for our evil ways, but I thought it was an interesting point. And it planted the seed of an idea.

Over the next several years, as I worked on IAYW (and let me say right here, the less-than-enthusiastic feedback Reader In Question sent me on TLOTE made me work my ass off on IAYW. Though I obviously don't agree with their overall interpretation, I thought they had some good points, and I wanted to be sure that IAYW addressed those points) I mulled over the thought: What WOULD happen if Warren's dear old mother confronted Buffy and Spike?

A lot would depend upon what Warren's dear old mother was like. There were two obvious ways I could go with that: she could be an innocent victim, or she could be as much of a monster as Warren was. But I didn't want to do anything obvious with this story. Fic-wise, I always like to take the road less traveled if I can, but in this case, I have to admit that I got a perverse pleasure out of taking Reader In Question's finger-wagging admonition and using it as inspiration for a story that's, well, not exactly what I imagine they were hoping to inspire. I decided that I was going to make Mrs. Mears a little of both.

The next question was, what did I want to have happen when she shows up?Again, the obvious thing would be to have Buffy feel guilty. But I had already dealt extensively with Buffy's feelings, and her reasons for making the decisions she made, in IAYW and TGH. Yes, she feels guilty; she's not sure she did the right thing. She's not even sure there was a right thing to do. But that particular subplot plays out over the long term in this AU, culminating many years later in a completely different story arc, and I couldn't bring it to a premature resolution here. Besides, I knew that Barbverse Buffy would never return to the uncompromising system of morality that Reader In Question wanted her to,*** so there was no point in writing a story where she Learns Her Lesson, Dusts Spike, and Is Very Sorry. ****

So I decided that this story would focus on Spike, and his reaction to Warren's mother and her loss of a son. And that opened up a lot of possibilities. I was to some extent constrained by the fact that I'd already written quite a lot of stories taking place after this one in the timeline, so there were certain things I couldn't do. But I've always found that if you ask yourself, "What would X logically do in this situation?" and follow that through, you can avoid Idiot Plot Syndrome. Let your characters be smart. What would Spike do, confronted with the mother of the man he'd killed? What would Mrs. Mears demand of him in recompense?

What I wanted to do in this story was to answer those questions in a way that people wouldn't expect. I was able to bring Spike's ambivalent feelings about his own mother into play, and provide a way for him to get some character development around coming to terms with her death and his part in it that I might not otherwise have been able to do. And I was able to draw parallels between Warren and his mother, and Spike and Anne Pratt, and come up with some really intriguing takes on how and why Spike can do the right(ish) thing even when his reasons are kinda-sorta wrong(ish). It gives some background, hopefully, on how Buffy can make the ultimate decision she does in "To Grandmother's House," and not feel that she's tobogganing head-first down the slippery slope of Utter Moral Decay. And I got to write Zombie Warren, who was gruesomely, deliciously horrible. And I got to give Mrs. Mears the last word.

By the time I finished the story, Reader In Question had long since left fandom, and they probably wouldn't have read it even if they were still around. But I feel I have to thank them for it anyway. And that's why I always say that even though I don't necessarily like getting critical feedback, it can be the most useful feedback you can get if you look at it in the right way.

__________

* I could write a whole nother essay about the challenges of writing an evil-trying-to-be-good vampire, but that is beyond the scope of the current post.

** Eventually, they practically begged me to tell them that I was deliberately writing Buffy and Spike out of character, and that I didn't really think a relationship between them could work. Alas, I could not oblige them, and they stopped reading my stuff.

*** I don't even believe canon Buffy stuck to that kind of rigid moral code – she tried to, but one of the things that makes her a complex, fully realized character is that canon Buffy is perfectly capable of double standards and hypocrisy where her friends are concerned, not to mention just plain changing her mind about things over the course of the show. For every decision I have Barbverse Buffy [or Spike, for that matter] make, I can point to something in canon and say "This is why I think she could do that."

****Although... I do have an alternate ending to "To Grandmother's House" plotted out in my head, where Buffy [either accidentally or on purpose – just as in the main story, it's ambiguous] doesn't stop Giles in time. I consider the Barbverse to be a low-probability AU, and I watch out for times and ways in which things could go spectacularly wrong, just so I can be sure to avoid them in a believable manner. Or write stories about them going wrong, and the characters dealing with them.

*****

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #writing #fic discussion #asks #barbverse #thenewbuzwuzz

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