#diverse twilight

[goldeneyedgirl]

Current Hyperfixation...

... deaf Alice/Mary-Alice, with a half-invented version of ASL that only Jasper is fluent in.

Did I spend all day conceptualizing this idea? Absolutely. I blame beautlilies for putting the idea in my head.

[jademonique22]

Could a dead, frozen heart beat again? It felt like mine was about to

Midnight Sun is everything, reading from Edward’s angsty, overdramatic point of view is just so.. effervescent

[queertwilight]

What if instead of the Volturi being based in Europe and being Eurocentric they came from Mesopotamia?

Edit: so I realize this can be appropriation and wanted to clarify that was never my intention. Throughout history there have been variations of what vampires are and early civilizations had their own fascinations with death and immortality. What I meant by creating this post was to examine how diverse vampires are and how much more could be gained in the twilight universe if these multicultural aspects were used to create a vampiric history. We have examples of gods eating humans, civilizations having human sacrifice, drinking blood. Also the Volturi are supposed to be ancient like the Romanians but really other civilizations existed before them and SMeyer could have set it somewhere not in Western Europe

[elvencantation]

twife or death: edythe and bella taking a roadtrip

[goldeneyedgirl]

can i have a snippet of korean alice au please?

How did you know, Anon, that I've been trying to workshop this fic?

It takes her nearly two weeks to get to America. She’s filthy and tired and frightened. She has maybe twenty American dollars left to her name, and the last thing she ate was five days ago - a package of stale crackers. The soles of her shoes are coming away, and she just needs to rest for awhile.

But she made it. Forks. She remembers he told her about it, that they’d be here a few years.

(There’s a little voice in her head that says she should have gone to Singapore. That she is constructing her own disaster. She’s trying to ignore it.)

The relief on her face is probably obvious as they step out of the house, into the snow. For a moment, she wants to fling herself at Jasper and let him fix everything.

Except…

She sees the look on his face. Of unwelcoming suspicion. None of them look friendly, as she moves closer. Jasper does not flinch; she can see the tension in his body, the hard way he stares at her. There is no recognition or compassion or welcome to be found here.

And she finally admits to herself what she’s been trying to pretend this entirely hair-raised journey.

He doesn’t know her. She’s nothing but a stranger to him, and to these people. He has never told them about her, never thought of her because to his mind, it never happened.

Hala made sure of that.

“If you’re here to witness, you’re too late.” The words are hard and unfriendly from a tall, dark-haired human boy clutching the hand of a child with long red hair. She thinks of Dao and wonders what became of him.

“The Volturi recruited from China,” mutters one of the largest vampires she’s seen in-person - the man is pure muscle, and would nearly be equal to Shān from the Chinese coven, and for a moment, she wonders what she’s stumbled into. And then she’s insulted, on so many levels.

“I…” She begins, and she’s embarrassed that her voice wobbles, that all her English seems crude before she even says it, and before she can compose an explanation, the oldest woman (not by much) steps forward.

“Aro has gone and left us in peace. We would appreciate it if you were to do the same.” Her words are firm and, frankly, she feels sick. She’s not sure if there’s anywhere left for her to go. She’s not sure who survived, if anyone is still waiting for her in Singapore, let alone how to get there. She wipes her hands on her skirt and tries again.

“I am…”

“Leave.”

His voice is low, and it’s not a request. It’s an order. It’s a threat and a promise rolled up in one.

She’s no stranger to a beating, to violence. She’s seen and suffered both. But the idea of Jasper’s hands hurting her, intentionally causing her harm - it steals the breath from her body and makes her feel very small and lost.

And she thinks back to him and her in a dozen different beds, different places. To the hundreds of different promises he’s made her and she’s made him. Of good things, safe things.

She looks at them, bewildered, and she wonders if he’ll hit her in the same places he always puts his hands.

And then she bursts into tears.

[goldeneyedgirl]

hey! i just wanted to let you know that i adore your jess content :) you've done a great job characterising her, she's so fun to read about! of course also in conjunction with alice (and jasper!) eagerly awaiting more content if you decide to spoil us- until then i'll be rereading <3

Thank you so much anon <3 I love writing Jess so much, and I try really hard to make her distinctive from Jasper. The next fics I have planned that involve Jess are some scenes from the Eclipse battle training - I'm still kind of deciding how to post my Jess/Alice series because I don't want to rewrite the entire series because I'd get bored really fast (and we've heard it so. many. times) but some kind of linked scenes that show them throughout the series. I don't know. I'll probably post to tumblr as I go; I need to write more human Jess/vampire Alice because that one is just fun (Jess is honestly not sure what is more traumatic: coming out to her family, or Alice being a blood-sucking immortal.)

For 3some verse, there's the Five Fights fic, and the follow-up to Watching Not Seeing where Bella is awkward and Jasper is protective. And there’s the beginning of one where Edward makes his protest of Alice being friends with any of her classmates aside from Bella known. That verse has spun off into its own thing where the Cullens (with a focus on Alice, Jess, and Rose) actually make friends with their classmates.

And so I bring you another chunk of the OG Jess/Alice fic that will hopefully see the light of day at some point. I don’t *think* I’ve posted this before - I checked and couldn’t see it, but hit me with the link if I have, and I’ll find something else.

Since 1953, they have been formally expelled (or, as the fancier schools say, ‘requested to withdraw’) from six schools. That does not include the schools where they simply gave up out of frustration and rage; or the places they have had to leave behind because of an ‘incident’ (and not just Jess’s; Emmett has a rotten track record too. Alice’s isn’t clean, either, but she cannot really find it in her heart to feel shame about that hate-filled man in Minnesota), and does not include the places that barely tolerated them.

Not the entire family, just Alice and Jess. The rest of them are acceptable. And in a lot of those places, it is only respect for Carlisle that keep them in school, and fear of Emmett that keep the worst of hate away.

Up to a point, people assume they are close. Two girls, closer than sisters, in a patchwork family. Alice’s arm looped around Jess’s waist, fingers entwined in the hallways. They are permanently entangled; even when Jess is Rose’s fraternal twin and in a different set of classes, they are only apart as long as they are forced to. They simply return to each other, the gentlest and most persistent of magnets.

They are two sides of the same shield, really. Jess will rip anyone who makes Alice feel wrong, feel dirty or indecent to bloody ribbons (this is not an exaggeration. No one speaks of their time in Maine; the house was quietly sold once they left) and Alice will wrap herself around Jess before allowing any of the vicious accusations seep into her skin and turn into guilt. It is Jess that draws more attention, too – at six feet, she towers over almost everyone in the high school hallways (except for Emmett) and makes Alice appear even daintier, younger.

Jess is the obvious target for terrible things yelled across streets, from bars, and muttered across a locker room. Jess prefers to pretend not to hear those slurs, but Alice will not. She will meet the accusers’ gaze, and demand to know why, why they wanted to put so much hate and cruelty into the world. She wouldn’t deny anything, and it would be up to Jess to drag Alice away, trying to calm her down.

//

They aren’t married. This is something that is very loudly never mentioned by the rest of the family.

The truth is, marriage is a human institution. No one expects vampires to be married; the Cullens are an exception.

And for a good portion of their life together, it’s not possible. Human laws do not permit it, not in America. Oh, Carlisle can officiate or something, but Alice likens it to cotton candy – pretty to look at, sweet in the moment, but devoid of any sort of substance. And as much as she would adore the party, adore everything about it, it’s truly not necessary. Rose and Emmett get married every decade, and she lives vicariously through that.

And Jess hates being the center of attention.

Since she took Jess’s hand in that diner and Jess followed her out, they have been unbreakable. Of course, Jess gave Alice the only thing she had from her human life, the dented locket with the initials JMW still visible on the front, and that is more valuable to her than any diamond ring.

Jess gets irritated that every mention of gay marriage and gay rights in school means they are looked at pointedly as if they should stand up and profusely thank everyone for allowing them the basic rights of humanity. Jess doesn’t want to be called gay or lesbian or whatever terminology people are using. She just wants to be left alone. The only one allowed to comment or joke is Emmett, and only about Jess – Emmett has learned the lesson that any jokes at Alice’s expense will end with him missing an extremity.

Alice doesn’t care much for the labels either, but she gets it – the classmates, the neighbours, Carlisle’s co-workers, everybody they come in contact with, they use Alice and Jess to humanize the highs and the lows. They need poster children in their small towns, and no one is more photogenic than Jessamine Hale and Alice Cullen. They actually think about the concept, contemplate it, and that’s all Alice really wants. For people to think.

Rosalie asks, out of nowhere one day, if she ever liked boys.

Alice shrugs. “I don’t remember.”

And she doesn’t. There has never been someone who makes her stomach flutter like Jess, who makes everything okay just by being there. There had been one friend of Carlisle’s who had eyed her off, had made a rather vulgar offer to her on the quiet.

She’d never told Jess about that, mostly because it would be very antisocial to set fire to one of Carlisle’s friends. She had just stared at him, all wide-eyed, innocent and confused until he gave up trying to explain what he wanted.

She knows Edward’s poor little mind and Victorian sensibilities have been absolutely blown wide-open, having them in the house. There were two weeks in Vermont where he couldn’t look them in the eye, the time in Colorado when he fled to Denali for a month. He should be thanking them – unless he turns out to be gay (and Jess has fifty dollars on that), his future bride will be much, much happier thanks to his unwitting education.

But eventually, Rosalie – and Alice too, she supposes – get their answer. She likes watching movies and swooning over the actors with Rosalie, giggling and joking around. Jess scowls at her, and she grins and pounces on her, curling into Jess’s side. Emmett makes several comments about the actresses, and Rosalie throws the remote at him, and Alice joins in. Maybe it’s the fact that she remembers nothing of being human. Maybe it’s something to do with her gift. Or maybe she is exactly as she was back then – gender is irrelevant when it comes to Alice.

Or, more truthfully, everybody is irrelevant. They are not Jess.

And when Rose looks at Emmett, contemplates everything they are to each other, she understands a little.

//

The day Bella Swan arrives at Forks, Jess is having a bad day, and Alice is trying to distract her. That distraction turns into Jess putting her hand up Alice’s skirt – well, Alice twisted around to face her and Jess’s hand happened to be on Alice’s leg and slipped underneath her skirt, Alice had squealed in surprise, Jess had started to laugh, and Edward stormed off, sick of the pair of them.

She was wearing tights, anyway.

And that’s how Bella Swan is introduced to the Cullens. It’s not how Alice saw it happen originally, but at least they’re memorable, even if Edward was being a drama queen.

What Alice hadn’t seen was how uncomfortable her and Jess would make Bella. And that’s soul-crushing – they were meant to be best friends, but now they just aren’t.

They can’t be.

Rosalie might be all prickly, and prefer to old-fashioned euphemisms for Jess and Alice’s relationship, but she accepts them. She goes lingerie shopping with Alice, knowing full-well that it’s going to be Jess who rips them off with dark eyes, and willing hands. She watches Jess win play-fights with Emmett, and Alice teasingly calling out, ‘my hero’, and reminds herself that in this story, the princess slays the dragon for love of the other princess; there are no knights or princes in Jess and Alice’s story. And Rosalie took her time, but she understands that it is okay, now.

That neither of them ever went looking for a prince, or a knight.

Bella doesn’t ask outright, and Alice doesn’t offer any information. Jess is simply a shadow; albeit one who is trying to resist exsanguinating Bella.

It is the other students who whisper things to Bella, and Edward who confirms in with an air of superior despair. And so, Bella looks away from Alice; at a point just beyond her face, at her scuffed sneakers, or her school books.

//